Fad diet

Fad diets are popular non-standard diets that often promise dramatic weight loss. However, they are usually not supported by scientific evidence, and they sometimes offer dangerous dietary advice.

A fad diet is a diet that is popular, generally only for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard scientific dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements; as such it is often considered a type of pseudoscientific diet.[1][2][3][4][5] Fad diets are usually not supported by clinical research and their health recommendations are not peer-reviewed, thus they often make unsubstantiated statements about health and disease.[3]

Generally, fad diets promise an assortment of desired changes requiring little effort, thus attracting the interest of consumers uneducated about whole-diet, whole-lifestyle changes necessary for sustainable health benefits.[1][2][6] Fad diets are often promoted with exaggerated claims, such as rapid weight loss of more than 1 kg/week, improving health by "detoxification", or even more dangerous claims achieved through highly restrictive and nutritionally unbalanced food choices leading to malnutrition or even eating non-food items such as cotton wool.[2][4][7][8] Highly restrictive fad diets should be avoided.[9][10] At best, fad diets may offer novel and engaging ways to reduce caloric intake, but at worst they may be unsustainable, medically unsuitable to the individual, or even dangerous.[1][2] Dietitian advice should be preferred before attempting any diet.[4]

Celebrity endorsements are frequently used to promote fad diets, which may generate significant revenue for the creators of the diets through the sale of associated products.[4][11] Regardless of their evidence base, or lack thereof, fad diets are extremely popular, with over 1500 books published each year, and many consumers willing to pay into an industry worth $35 billion per year in the United States.[1] About 14–15% Americans declare having used a fad diet for short-term weight loss.[1]

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  2. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Hanky2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Whitney, Eleanor Noss; Rolfes, Sharon Rady; Crowe, Tim; Walsh, Adam. (2019). Understanding Nutrition. Cengage Learning Australia. pp. 321-325. ISBN 9780170424431
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