The American Heart Association says that adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing crash diets in hopes of losing unwanted pounds in a few days through fad quick weight loss plans.
What is a fad diet? It's a well marketed diet with some outrageous scheme to lose weight in an impossible manner, often by eating nothing but one food like a cabbage.
Quick-weight-loss diets generally put far too much emphasis on one particular food or type of food. They don't include a variety of foods or a healthy balance, a violation of the first principle of good nutrition, eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods. If you are able to stay on such a diet for more than a few weeks, you may develop nutritional deficiencies, because no one type of food has all the elements a human being needs for good health. The Cabbage Soup Diet is a good example. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. The diet supposedly helps heart patients lose 10-17 pounds in seven days prior to surgery. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of a host of important nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. Pixies, elves and fairies, or even cabbages, can't provide magical weight loss. Moderation and consuming all the major food groups is the best bet.
The second principle of good nutrition is that eating should be enjoyable. You think eating only cabbage soup every day is enjoyable?. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Imagine eating cabbage soup, nothing but cabbage soup, for even a few days much less for a whole week. By Wednesday you'd dread meal time, and by Friday you'd never again want to smell a cabbage much less eat the soup. They'd carry you away in a straight jacket by week's end.
There are many other ways fad diets aren't good diets. Most don't talk about exercise, such as aerobics for 30 minutes a day every day. Physical activity helps maintain weight loss, while physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. When a diet includes no need for a workout, run the other way.
Quick weight loss sounds great. It is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is. - 15995
What is a fad diet? It's a well marketed diet with some outrageous scheme to lose weight in an impossible manner, often by eating nothing but one food like a cabbage.
Quick-weight-loss diets generally put far too much emphasis on one particular food or type of food. They don't include a variety of foods or a healthy balance, a violation of the first principle of good nutrition, eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods. If you are able to stay on such a diet for more than a few weeks, you may develop nutritional deficiencies, because no one type of food has all the elements a human being needs for good health. The Cabbage Soup Diet is a good example. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. The diet supposedly helps heart patients lose 10-17 pounds in seven days prior to surgery. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of a host of important nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. Pixies, elves and fairies, or even cabbages, can't provide magical weight loss. Moderation and consuming all the major food groups is the best bet.
The second principle of good nutrition is that eating should be enjoyable. You think eating only cabbage soup every day is enjoyable?. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Imagine eating cabbage soup, nothing but cabbage soup, for even a few days much less for a whole week. By Wednesday you'd dread meal time, and by Friday you'd never again want to smell a cabbage much less eat the soup. They'd carry you away in a straight jacket by week's end.
There are many other ways fad diets aren't good diets. Most don't talk about exercise, such as aerobics for 30 minutes a day every day. Physical activity helps maintain weight loss, while physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. When a diet includes no need for a workout, run the other way.
Quick weight loss sounds great. It is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is. - 15995
About the Author:
Visit popular diet guru Linda Miller's website for completely free South Beach Diet Information, and to see exactly what you can eat on the South Beach Diet
