Fad Diets

By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine

It’s another new year. And, like years past, 2006 will find many of us making resolutions to improve our lives. Some will vow to pay off their bills. Others will swear off smoking. Some even resolve to finally follow their dreams – whether it’s starting a new business, buying a house or traveling to distant lands.

But, even though it’s a new year, some things never change. Just like last January and all the ones before, America’s No. 1 resolution is to lose weight. And every year, those of us wanting to lose a few pounds start looking for new and improved ways to diet. Not surprisingly, fad diets seem to appear with regularity about this time of year – and millions of people enthusiastically buy into each new diet “hook.” But if history repeats itself, most of us will have fallen of the weight-loss wagon long before spring – and some won’t even make it to the Super Bowl.

Fads and Failure

Fad diets, like clothes, have “in” periods and “out” periods. In the 1980s and 90s, it was all about low-fat. Encouraged by the USDA’s new food pyramid, Americans were urged to load up on carbs and severely limit their fat intake. The diet worked on the principle that, of the three main macro-nutrients (fat, carbohydrates and protein), fat was the only one which caused weight-gain. The problem was, even though food companies provided us with plenty of low-fat alternatives to cookies, muffins, salad dressings and other typically high-fat foods, the low-fat diet failed as people ended up eating excessive amounts of low-fat foods rich in refined carbohydrates such as sugar. Some low-fat dieters even gained weight due to the calories from the carbohydrates.

The turn of the century found the Atkins diet on everyone's lips. Originally introduced in the 1970s, the Atkins diet claimed that a high-protein, low-carb diet could produce fast, safe and effective weight loss. And dieters embraced low-carb living enthusiastically. At its peak, about nine percent of American adults claimed to be on an Atkins-type diet. Low-carb foods packed supermarket aisles, restaurants and fast food joints offered low-carb menus, and even the typically staid New York Times printed an article so giddily enthusiastic, it could have passed for an infomercial. Yet, in the end, the Atkins diet proved too high in saturated fat and folks got tired of passing on the potatoes and bunless burgers.

More recently, Atkins has been supplanted by the Zone, which targets hormones instead of calories; South Beach which focuses on good carbs like whole grains and good fats like pricy macadamia nut oil; and the Perricone diet, which spotlights heavy salmon consumption. And then there’s the ever-present grapefruit diet and cabbage soup diet that prominently appears in supermarket tabloids with alarming regularity.

The one thing all of these diets have in common is that none of them work – at least on a long-term basis. They do, however, succeed at making the fairly simple act of eating way too complicated. The more theories we hear, the more confusing dieting becomes. Should we eat low-fat or high-protein? If margarine is as bad as butter, should we eat butter? And what about timing? Should we eat every three hours? Never past 7:00 pm? It's enough to make you seek comfort in a bowl of macaroni and cheese or a pint of ice cream.

Calories Count

It doesn't surprise me that diets come and go like fashion. There are endless ways to spin the advice "eat less, burn more" into actionable plans with appealing hooks. What does surprise me is that we unfailingly fall for each new diet as a revolutionary approach that will work where all its predecessors have failed.

The safest way to lose weight – one that avoids rapid metabolic slowdown and possible muscle loss – is to eat a sensible, healthy diet while moderately decreasing caloric intake. A good guideline to follow would be to create a calorie deficit of roughly 20 percent of your normal daily caloric intake. But don’t expect to lose weight quickly. To lose a pound of fat, you need to create a caloric deficit of approximately 3,500 calories. So eating 500 fewer calories a day means that you will lose approximately one pound of fat per week.

Ok, so I’ll be the first to admit that counting calories isn’t very glamorous. But, over the years, it has proven to be the one and only way to effectively lose weight. And, even though it will take a while to dump the excess pounds, you won’t starve to death – and that means you’ll have a better chance sticking to your diet.

One easy way to cut calories is to watch your portion size. Even when you eat foods that are low in fat or relatively low in calories, the amount you eat is the most important factor. Many people underestimate how much they really eat at a typical meal. Like many Americans, most of us have come to expect large portions at restaurants. But instead of eating half the meal and taking the other half home, you eat the whole, gigantic portion. The result: You feel stuffed, sluggish and probably consume more calories in that one meal than you need in an entire day.

Because we’ve become accustomed to super-sized meals when we eat out, we also tend to eat larger portions at home. But if you change that habit and start serving yourself smaller portions, you will eventually perceive this smaller amount as a normal meal. Eating a sensible amount of healthy food can aid in your weight loss efforts and help you maintain your weight once it’s gone. Proper portion size also helps to keep cholesterol and triglycerides in a normal range. Here are some easy ways to keep track of your portion size:

• One serving (4 ounces) of meat, poultry or fish is about the size of a deck of cards.

• One serving (1/2 cup) of fruit, vegetables, pasta or rice is about the size of a small fist.

• One serving (1 ounce) of cheese is about the size of your thumb.

• One serving ( 1 cup) of yogurt or chopped fresh greens is about the size of your fist.

• One serving (1 teaspoon) of oil is about the size of the tip of your thumb.

One Last Thing ...

Of course, counting calories has its pitfalls too. After all, this age-old system doesn’t take the nutritional value of food into account. In other words, if you just base your diet on the number of calories a food contains, you can start your day with black coffee (zero calories) and a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut (200 calories). Sure you’ll lose weight, but you’ll end up looking like death-warmed-over in a size 10 – probably not the look you’re going for.

Making smart food choices – foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients – not only results in weight loss, it also increases your energy level, enhances your vitality and lowers your risk for heart disease, diabetes, even cancer. That means eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains and lean sources of protein. Coincidently, these foods are also low glycemic foods.

New evidence by Tufts University shows that eating a low-glycemic-load diet can enhance weight loss in people who tend to secrete large amounts of insulin. During their six-month study, overweight volunteers were assigned to a low-calorie diet that provided either a low-glycemic-load diet of 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat or a high-glycemic-load diet: 60 percent carbohydrates, 20 percent protein and 20 percent fat. While all of the participants lost some weight, those who lost the most had high baseline levels of insulin secretion and ate the low-glycemic-load diet.

Even though this study focused on people who secreted high amounts of insulin, all of us could benefit from their findings since the body performs best when blood sugar is kept relatively constant. Earlier research by the University of Minnesota found that eating a low glycemic diet full of minimally processed fruits, vegetables, grains, soy, nuts, seeds and healthy omega-3 fats reduces hunger pangs, gives your metabolism a boost and lowers blood sugar and cardiovascular risk factors.

So if your goal this New Years is to lose weight, forget fad diets. Instead, adopt a healthful low calorie, low glycemic diet that helps you stay slim and healthy while keeping hunger at bay.

This Just In ...

Losing weight, by itself, can be good for your heart. But adding fiber to the equation can cut heart risk even more. In a study of nearly 6,000 people, French researchers found that increasing fiber intake lowers blood pressure and cholesterol. It also lowers the risk of being overweight. While these findings aren’t really new, the researchers also discovered that fiber from different sources can have different effects on the body.

Fiber from whole grains, for example, was linked to lower body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and homocysteine levels. Fruit fiber was associated with lower blood pressure and less abdominal fat, while fiber from vegetables appeared to lower the risk of high blood pressure and high homocysteine concentrations. And fiber from nuts, dried fruit and seeds was linked to a lower BMI, less risk of abdominal obesity and lower blood sugar levels.

These findings show how important it is to get nutrients – in this case fiber – from a variety of sources. The results also suggest that adults would do well to get more than the recommended 25 grams of fiber per day. In fact, this study shows that each 5-gram increase above the standard 25 grams significantly lowered the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Best of all, the researchers confirmed that a diet rich in fiber can help prevent weight gain! With all these benefits, you’d think we’d be stocking up of fiber-rich foods. But the truth is, most of us only eat 10 to 15 grams of fiber a day.

If you’re looking for a healthy way to trim down, adding low-glycemic high-fiber foods like apples, berries, broccoli, dried beans, almonds and whole grain cereals to a low-calorie diet may just been the missing link we’ve all been looking for to attain permanent weight loss. While it isn’t a trendy way to lose weight – and it certainly won’t make the diet doctors rich – you’ll be reaping the health and weight loss benefits of eating minimally processed fiber-rich foods long after the latest fad diet has come and gone.

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References:

Lairon D, Arnault N, Bertrais S, et al. “Dietary fiber intake and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in French adults.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2005; 82: 1185-1194.

Pereira MA, Swain J, Goldfine AB, et al. “Effects of a Low–Glycemic Load Diet on Resting Energy Expenditure and Heart Disease Risk Factors During Weight Loss.” Journal of the American Medical Association. 2004; 292: 2482 - 2490.

Pittas AG, Das SK, Hajduk CL, et al. “A Low-Glycemic Load Diet Facilitates Greater Weight Loss in Overweight Adults With High Insulin Secretion but Not in Overweight Adults With Low Insulin Secretion in the CALERIE Trial.” Diabetes Care. 2005;28:2939-2941.