Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

HUNGRY FOR THE FACTS

Many Australian­s have a complicate­d relationsh­ip with food and learn more about nutrition from sales and slogans, not science. Food and nutrition scientist Dr Emma Beckett tackles the serious health risks from our over-hyped diet culture in a new book

Even if they cause weight loss in the short term, they can have consequenc­es for our health

Telling someone that their fad diet is nonsense is almost impossible. It’s like trying to tell your friend they have a bad boyfriend – they can’t see it when they’re with him, but later on with 20/20 hindsight, they blame you for never telling them. It’s even trickier when your friends join diet factions – it’s like trying to challenge a cult.

Diet factions and fads cause me concern because, at best, they suck so much time, energy and joy, and at worst, they actually harm our health. The challenge for me isn’t so much that people choose extreme diets – your body is your own. What I do object to is the way followers and salespeopl­e push these extreme choices on to others, whether it’s through direct and aggressive or subliminal tactics.

We spend so much time obsessing about over-hyped trends like apple cider vinegar, clean eating, superfoods, protein water, and the latest products that we get distracted from the key core changes we can make, like eating more vegetables.

WHAT ARE FADS?

Fad diets are those trendy diets that make headlines and promise dramatic results – and fast! They generally focus those big result claims on weight loss. Fads often promote:

• Cutting out particular foods, food groups or nutrients (e.g. cutting carbs, no nightshade vegetables or eliminatin­g dairy).

• Only eating one thing (e.g. the potato diet, the banana diet, the carnivore diet).

• Extreme fasting or detoxing.

• DIY versions of medical diets that are normally only recommende­d in specific cases under medical supervisio­n (e.g. the keto diet).

Fads are diets that have clear and rigid rules, and devoted followers who are ready to make exorbitant claims about the diet’s lifeenhanc­ing powers or its weight-reducing properties, and how it can do things like “change body chemistry”.

Some fad diets do result in weight loss. This is likely due to the reduced energy intake that comes from the strict rules, making it hard to eat anything, or boredom from eating one type of food, rather than any special properties of the diet. Fads are rarely based on actual scientific evidence or sustainabl­e in the long term.

In a complex system, the weight loss you see may come with unintended biological, mental and social consequenc­es you don’t see. Bestcase scenario: extreme diets are a waste of time and money. Worst-case scenario: you actually do yourself harm.

The biggest problem with fad diets is that because they are so specific and extreme, they aren’t nutritiona­lly balanced. These diets are often devoid of the nutrients that are necessary for long-term health.

Even if they cause weight loss in the short term, they can have consequenc­es for our health and wellbeing. Remember, we aren’t just eating for the body we have today or tomorrow, we are eating for the body we will have in 20, 30 or 40 years, so any deficienci­es we have now can increase the chances of us being unwell later; for example, developing osteoporos­is from a lack of nutrients like calcium and vitamin D involved in bone health, cancers from a lack of nutrients involved in DNA repair like B vitamins, or cardiovasc­ular diseases from a lack of fibre and bioactive compounds.

Dehydratio­n, weakness, fatigue, nausea, headaches, constipati­on and irritabili­ty are all common side effects of fad diets, which is what happens when you don’t nourish your body.

There are also significan­t social consequenc­es to extreme dieting as the restrictio­ns make it hard to participat­e in social