Junk diets
IREMEMBER Robert Morley as the star of the 1978 movie “Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?” And if you remember him too, you would agree that he wasn’t the type to go on a diet or even if he did, he tried the worst diets. These are the diets that don’t work.
They don’t work. Kathleen M. Zelman MPH, RD, writing in WebMD identified five types of diets that may work initially but frustrates the dieter in the long run. What are they? Single Food or Food Group diet. Restrictive diets focus only on one food item to be taken over and over again (cabbage, gelatin, grapefruit, etc.) until you smell of it a mile away. The trouble with this approach is that we all look for variety in food. So maybe there is encouraging initial weight loss – much of it “water” weight – until the dieter gets sick of the food and there is a backlash. This means uncontrollable craving for foods that had been shunned.
“Detox” diets. According to Pamela Peeke, MD, the chief medical correspondent of Discovery Health channel, diets that trumpet “flushes and cleanses are pure nonsense, unnecessary, and [have no] scientific basis.” And if you ask any medical student, the human body is already equipped with its own means of detoxification – the liver, the kidneys, the skin, and the immune system.
“Miracle Food” diets – anything from supplements to bitter orange, green tea, apple cider vinegar – don’t work too. At this point in diet research, there really isn’t a wonder potion yet that will melt the fat away. That will probably have an impact as great a finding a cure for cancer. Until such time a discovery is made, all of us have to stick to sensible eating (more vegetables and fruits, less meat, less sugar) and regular exercise (30 minutes four to six times a week) to lose weight. Experts recommend just a multivitamin a day with the rest of nutrients from food. Fasting and very low calorie diets. Fasting is fine as a Catholic tradition or Christian duty. But to be used as a weight-loss technique (along with diets less than 1,000 calories a day) is questionable because once the body detects famine – by consciously restricting food intake, it begins to ratchet down metabolism as a way to protect itself. So as a precise, self-regulating instrument, you can’t fool the human body.
Diets that promise astounding
weight loss. In other words, too-goodto-be-true diets, particularly within a short period. Safe weight loss is about one to two pounds a week. Anything more than that can already be suspect. Caveat emptorapplies to diets too.
“If people take the trouble to cook, you should take the trouble to eat.” — Robert Morley (1908-1992), English actor, on why he opposes dieting, WNYW TV 3 Nov 1978