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February/March 2003
March is the Nutrition Month: Evaluating fad diets, tips for sound weight loss, and consumer views of popular diets

The Canadian Sugar Institute, Nutrition Information Service is pleased to once again sponsor the Dietitians of Canada Member Communications’ 2003 National Nutrition Month Campaign. The Nutrition Information Service, staffed by Registered Dietitians and Nutrition Researchers, and guided by its Scientific Advisory Council, is dedicated to providing scientific information about sugars, carbohydrates and health.

Finding Solutions to Women's Nutrition and Healthy Eating Challenges is this year's Nutrition Month theme. Losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight have been identified as top healthy eating issues of interest for women aged 24 - 45 years. In today's fast-paced society, maintaining a healthy weight has become a challenging endeavour for many health conscious women. Consumers are inundated with conflicting nutrition information, and with promotions for fad diets that promise quick and easy weight loss. It is no wonder that consumers are turning to fad diets to lose weight. The most popular fad diets are high in protein and fat, and low in carbohydrate. Almost all fad diets fail to produce permanent weight loss.

As dietitians, it is essential that we educate consumers about healthy eating and the characteristics of a fad diet.

How Can Consumers Spot a Fad Diet?

Weight-loss advice comes in literally hundreds of disguises. Most often the "new" and "revolutionary" diets are really old fad diets making an encore appearance. Examples of fad diets include those that:

Tout or ban a specific food or food group Suggest that food can change body chemistry, or Blame specific hormones for weight problems

Ten Red Flags that Signal Bad Nutrition Advice

1. Recommendations that promise a quick fix
2. Dire warnings of dangers from a single product or regime
3. Claims that sound too good to be true
4. Simplistic conclusions drawn from a complex study
5. Recommendations based on a single study or on anecdotal evidence
6. Dramatic statements that are refuted by reputable scientific organizations
7. Lists of "good" and "bad" foods
8. Recommendations made to help sell a product
9. Recommendations based on studies published without peer review
10. Recommendations from studies that ignore differences among individuals or groups

The above information was adapted from the American Dietetic Association website

Resources

Evidence-Based Evaluation of Popular Weight Loss Diets Developed by Northwestern University's School of Nutrition, this fact sheet provides an evaluation and macronutrient breakdown of popular diet plans.

Fad Diets: Healthy or Hazardous??? This fact sheet, produced by Rutgers State University of New Jersey, provides information about the characteristics of fad diets, facts about high protein diets and tips for sound weight loss.

Setting the Record Straight: The Truth About Fad Diets This complete ready-to-use PowerPoint presentation, adapted from www.eatsmart.org, provides information on how to recognize a fad diet, describes the premise and truth about high protein/low-carbohydrate diets, and evaluates six popular fad diets: Enter the Zone; Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution; Protein Power; Dr. Arnot's Revolutionary Weight Control Program; Sugar Busters; and Eat 4 Your Blood Type.

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