How to determine fad from reality

alyssamiller77

I've seen so many posts on this forum about "Which is better, diet A or diet B" that I thought it important to point out some simple signs that you can see to determine what is fad and what is fact when considering options for modifying your diet. There are a couple of key indicators that make it clear you should be skeptical or at least do more research.

1. Have you ever noticed how each fad diet leaves no room for any other diet approach to work? How many times have you talked to someone who's following a fad low-carb diet and have them tell you how it's the only way you can truly loose weight because carbs are what make you fat? When you look at diets that claim to be the only right way to lose weight, you have to ask yourselves what are their motivations? This type of marketing of a diet approach is aimed at locking you into their method alone. So look deeper before you buy into it.

2. Fad diets are often based on some supposed scientific revelation that proves all other dieting methods wrong. Usually there's a some book or study by some scientist you've never heard of yet is somehow touted as the authority on the subject. People read their book and their views, get all charged up and think they've found some holy grail of diet and weight loss. The fact is most attempts to lose weight don't fail because the diet approach itself is flawed, they fail because the person fails to stay committed to the dietary approach. So the key is finding an approach that works for you that you can be comfortable with and stick with for the long haul. Indeed, you may even change approaches as your goals change or your progress shifts. This is OK because not one approach is inherently correct or incorrect. It's good to read what new research is saying about weight loss as indeed the scientific community is always learning more about how our bodies work. However, be very skeptical of research, books, etc that claim to "throw out everything you know about X". There are certain facts about our bodies and their metabolism that just are truths that will not change. Wouldn't you be skeptical of a study that claimed to throw-out the laws of gravity? The same should go for certain laws about your body (energy sources, storage and expenditure for instance).

3. Any approach that requires special chemicals, supplements or extreme dietary requirements should also raise your eyebrows. Not saying that diets that tell you to take supplements or make big drastic changes are automatically fads but you should do your research. Understand why those supplements are needed. Understand what the extreme dietary changes are aimed to do. Then research that information further and try to determine the validity of that from an independent source. Don't believe for a minute that doctors or the infamous "they" are trying to hide some mysterious facts about your body that you can only get from the source of this dietary approach. That's a red flag right there that they're completely full of crap. There is no conspiracy to keep/make people fat. Believing that there is doesn't make you enlightened it makes you gullible.

chevy88grl

Great post!

You're absolutely right!

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Don't believe for a minute that doctors or the infamous "they" are trying to hide some mysterious facts about your body that you can only get from the source of this dietary approach. That's a red flag right there that they're completely full of crap. There is no conspiracy to keep/make people fat. Believing that there is doesn't make you enlightened it makes you gullible.

^^ This

agthorn

Great post. Another thing to watch out for is "clinical study" versus "clinical trial". They are not the same thing!! A "clinical trial" must have the study design approved and be registered. A "clinical study" just means "someone with an MD looked at it" and there are no criteria as to the study design, placebo controls, etc.

Another point is that if there really were some great new method for losing weight that actually worked, it would be reported on every news channel and in every newspaper, and the inventor would be a billionaire. They wouldn't have to advertize their "secret" on late night infomercials or in the back pages of magazines.

formersec

Thank you for this post. I found out from personal experience that diets, pills and potions don't work at least not permanently. Just ;makes me sad that so many people fall for these schemes time and again. And these are often well educated people who should know better.

Shock_Wave

There is no conspiracy to keep/make people fat. Believing that there is doesn't make you enlightened it makes you gullible.

You should research MSG and why it always avoids being banned and the documented research is not taken into consideration every time its brought up because it always seems to get shut down because of the massive food companies here in America. Bottom line after I was reading research articles it truly is amazing how far the food companies will go to keep information hushed. With that said there are a lot other nasty chemicals in foods such as BHA and others that are there to enhance flavor and other chemicals to keep you appetite up just to name a few.