It seems old-fashioned healthy eating and exercise is no longer the program of choice when it comes to losing weight and looking our best. Fad diets are not a new phenomenon but it appears everywhere you turn there’s a new ‘diet’ popping up promising to help you tone and drop kilos fast.
“People are always looking for magic bullets and want to undo a lifetime of routine habits within two weeks,” says former Australian ironman surf lifesaving champion and fitness guru, Guy Leech.
“To achieve this they’re attracted to the latest gimmick that promises to improve fitness by exercising for three minutes a day, twice a week or by fasting and living on lemon juice for a week. There’s an old saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”
Leech says fad diets usually provide short-term results but are near impossible to sustain.
“These diets that encourage fast weight loss usually have little effect on body fat,” he says. “The ‘weight’ initially lost is often water and/or lean muscle mass – both of which aren’t the ideal scenario for long term health or weight maintenance.”
He warns against extreme diets that involve juice cleanses or eliminating food groups because they can often result in serious health problems, including vitamin, mineral and fibre deficiencies.
One of the biggest diets to take off in the past two years is the The Paleo Diet. Yet the Dietitians Association of Australia’s CEO Claire Hewat says despite many celebrities singing its praises, the scientific evidence to support eating like our Palaeolithic ancestors just doesn’t stack up.
“Some proponents of Paleo suggest we avoid all grains, legumes, certain dairy products, conventionally-raised meats, non-organic produce, and genetically modified and processed foods. This simply isn’t practical for many Australians,” says Hewat.“A recent search of the published studies looking at Palaeolithic diets revealed no more than 10 studies, all with very few participants over very short timeframes – most less than three months. And many people dropped out of the studies, claiming the diet was difficult to follow.”
Leech says many Paleo supporters themselves can’t accurately define it.
“Ask one Paleo convert what it is and you’ll get a completely different response from another,” he says. “By excluding whole food groups from your diet it becomes difficult to meet nutritional needs which can be dangerous. A healthier approach is to eat a wide variety of healthy, minimally processed foods to meet individual nutritional needs,” he adds.
“As unsexy as it sounds there are no shortcuts when it comes to improving your health from a nutritional perspective. Long term, sustained, healthy lifestyle changes are the only answer, and if you stay physically active, you can’t go far wrong. This outlook is a lot more accurate, truthful and significantly less dangerous than adhering to radical, unproven dietary extremes.”
