Fad diets, what are fad diets and why do people use them?
A fad is classified as an intense and wide shared enthusiasm for something which is short lived. Or in short a craze. So it’s fair to say that a fad diet is a diet craze. I was going to cover this subject in my Shake diet post but in speaking to my fiancee Becky realised that there are many fad diets and most are really dangerous.
A lot of these diets do the rounds in dancer circles. Becky was a dancer you see and she knew quite a few dancers who have put themselves on a fad diet.
Why are fad diets Popular in the dance industry?
Its the pressure to be thin. She recalls how when she was auditing in Dales Winton’s dance school in Blackpool, one girl had a slimming world book thrown at her and was told to eat no more than 10 points a day!
I’ve also heard from good sources that people in the ballet industry measures girls with cailpers. to see if they have put on weight.
This, obviously has got to stop. Although stopping it is difficult because usually its a sixteen-year-old girl who has spent her whole life dancing and wants to make it as a dancer.
Of course, she is going to go on a crazy diet. The person telling her to go on it is the one that makes the choices of who performs and who doesn’t.
The main reason for not going on a fad diet is that your body needs a variety of vitamins and minerals to function properly. along with amino acids and fatty acids to fun
The following fad diets are ‘real’ diets. They are real in terms of what people actually go on these diets to lose weight. Please don’t use them.
The banana diet
The banana diet fad diet is a diet where you only eat bananas. that’s it! If you type in the banana diet you will find lots of blog posts saying how amazing it is. (it is not) It is also quite different from the morning banana diet.
So why is the banana diet bad? There is no fat in a banana, which you might think is a good thing if you want to shed the fat. However, your brain needs fat to function properly. Denying your brain this fat is going to impair your brain function.
The baby food diet
The baby food fad diet. This diet is where you eat baby food and baby food alone. It was endorsed by a fitness trainer and Jenifer Anniston used. This is exactly how an extreme diet becomes a craze! A jar of baby food contains on average 50 calories. (For a comparison a medium sized apple has approx 95 calories…) It’s also for babies. Babies don’t have teeth and they weight about 6kg. They also don’t do much except for wave arms around and gargle.
You are not going to get anywhere near enough nutrition from these, and all they are is unseasoned pureed vegetables. They also taste horrible, or so I am told!
The grapefruit diet
The grapefruit fad diet is about eating grapefruits and food high in fat with no Carbohydrates. The original fad diet from the 1930s. It is also the Hollywood diet.
People say that grapefruit has fat melting properties. It doesn’t. Your body is going into ketosis, where your body is using your fat stores as fuel.
the cabbage soup diet
This diet says to eat cabbage soup for 7 days along with various other vegetables… There’s a website dedicated to this diet where you can buy their special spice mixes… (don’t). The website states that you might go light headed. This is because you are staving yourself, as there’s no protein in this soup your body will lose the muscle. So don’t expect to be nice and toned after this diet plan.
Down right Dangerous fad diets
The next three diets are not just plain silly as the previous four but they are downright dangerous. They are at the extreme end of the fad diet spectrum. These diets are usually the result of eating disorders. Please do not use these diets and if you know of someone following one of these or something like one of these diets, try to get help for them.
The red bull and cigarette diet
This diet plan is very popular in the ballet dancer circuit. You drink red bull as its high in caffeine which will give you energy. You also take up smoking as well to stop you getting hungry. The Redbull will destroy your liver and in extreme circumstances, if you have underlying conditions it will cause a heart attack as it increases demand on your cardiovascular system.
Cigarettes
The tissue paper diet
This fad diet says that you eat tissue paper. This is so you feel full. There is no nutritional value in tissue paper what so ever. Once your body has used all of its fat and your muscle, it will slowly eat away at your organs. In the model
The cotton wool ball diet
This fad diet is similar to the tissue paper diet, where people eat cotton wool balls to make themselves feel full. Cotton wool balls are full of chemicals and can block your intestines. which can lead to all sorts of problems. Cotton wool is dipped in lemonade or orange juice to help them go down.
In order to lose weight, you need to eat a healthy balanced diet containing lots of fruit and vegetables. Leave out the junk food and cut back on sugary fizzy drinks. If you know someone who is using one of the more extreme fad diets then please try to speak to them.
