Food Fads: Dieting by Design

Rapid results diet programs are the pillars of the American weight loss industry. Big money makers such as The Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, The Zone, and the Suzanne Sommers Diet each promise instant weight loss in a matter of weeks or even days.

The Cabbage Soup Diet, The Scarsdale Diet and The Grapefruit Diet are only a few among a long list of fad diets requiring followers to eliminate whole food groups from their diets and to eat strange food combinations at meals.

While some call into question the safety and effectiveness of many of these trendy diets, others flock to the idea of a new way to lose weight instantly.

"I'd probably do anything if you told me I'd lose 20 pounds in two weeks," said Kelly Bartkowiak of Tonawanda, who has successfully lost and kept off 32 pounds in three months using a combination of fad diets.

Bartkowiak said she jump-started her weight loss using the Scarsdale diet - where dieters are promised a one-pound-per-day rate of weight loss and encouraged to eat a limited amount of specific foods along with artificial sweeteners and herbal appetite suppressants, according to the Web site of the Weight Loss Institute - causing her to drop 15 pounds in two weeks.

Denise Mills, a resident of Varysburg, said she is attracted to fad diets "to see if they actually do work," even though she believes that a lot of them are probably unsafe.

Mills has kept off 18 pounds over the past year with the healthy portion control dictated by Weight Watchers.

In the past she has tried Atkins, Scarsdale and South Beach - a low-fat, low-carb weight loss combination - among others. She claims most of them either left her with no energy, were difficult to stick with, or that the weight came back on as soon she changed her eating habits.

She says she is still open to trying other fad diets.

"Anything that is new and exciting, I'll try," she said.

In truth, the safety of a fad diet is dependent upon the diet's specific requirements, according to Dr. Frank Carnevale, director of Health Services at UB.

"In general, the advice of most medical providers is to stay away from extremes, such as all carbs, no carbs, etc.," said Carnevale.

Janice Cochran, a nutritionist at Student Health Services agreed. She said safety depends on how extremely the person follows the diet.

Cutting carbohydrates, the main requirement of diets such as Atkins and South Beach, could be dangerous because they are the main source of energy for the body, according to Cochran.

This could account for why Beth LaForme, resident of Lockport, couldn't stick with the Atkins diet.

"It gave me a headache," she said.

Her husband, however, lost 30 pounds on the program, and has kept it off for almost a year.

"There is this myth that carbs are automatically fattening. We tend to take things to an extreme," said Cochran. "The old fashioned idea of a little bit of everything in moderation isn't interesting enough."

Janice Cochran warned of the additional negatives of fad diets.

"They are meant to be temporary, but you haven't learned new eating habits so the weight goes right back on," she said. "There are no long-term studies that I am aware of monitoring these diets."

Any rapid change in weight also tends to be temporary, Cochran added, because the initial weight loss is usually water weight.

Bartkowiak said she thinks fad diets are generally safe and will continue to use them in the future.

"I think anytime you alter your eating habits it works," she said, adding that finances also play a role. "It's expensive to eat healthy."

Bartkowiak said she is careful in choosing fad diets. She avoided what she called an Army Diet, consisting primarily of peanut butter, hot dogs and cheese.

Marsha Johnson, a resident of Gasport, is a skeptic of fad diets. She deems them generally unsafe.

"Too much of one thing isn't good for you. You need variety," she said.

Johnson has, however, tried the South Beach Diet due to the mixture of foods in the program.

"I didn't feel like I was dieting, I didn't feel deprived," she said.

After a month, South Beach left Johnson only three pounds lighter, causing her to stop following it. The program did work for her husband, who lost 15 pounds in six weeks and has kept it off by following the diet less strictly.

Dr. Brett Pelham, a psychologist at UB specializing in self-perception and self-regard, said fad diets provide an easy route for something that is hard to do.

"We have a powerful need to be approved of and needed in our culture," he said. "People have extreme perceptions of what it is to look good."

Dr. Pelham says that overweight persons are often blamed or discriminated against, fueling the desire to be thin created by the media.

Although they are considered risky, Dr. Pelham said individuals will continue to use fad diets because they don't believe the risk applies to them.

"Weight loss is a gradual process. It's best as a lifestyle focus, gaining healthy eating habits instead of eliminating food groups," said Cochran.

Dr. Carnevale agreed.

"Weight loss is all about tipping that balance toward expending more calories than we take in," he said. "This is so easy to say, yet so difficult for us to do."

According to Joanne Cochran, trend diets might be a good idea to jump start weight loss, but not for long-term use.

"There will always be new ones," she said of fad diets, "There will always be something different but you can't get away from healthy eating habits."