The American Heart Association recommends adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing quick diets in hopes of losing unwanted pounds in a few days through fad quick weight loss plans. Many of these fad diets, such as the notorious and outright silly Cabbage Soup Diet, will undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, abdominal discomfort and flatulence (gas), and lead to the ping-pong effect of gaining weight soon after losing it. In other words the risks aren't worth the rewards.
1. First, one food or one type of food is generally overemphasized with fad quick weight loss diets. They violate the first principle of good nutrition which is to eat a balanced diet including a variety of foods.
2. Also, because no one food has all the nutrients needed for good health, these diets can result in a lot of health problems. One such diet is the Cabbage Soup Diet. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. The diet supposedly helps heart patients lose 10-17 pounds in seven days before surgery. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of many essential nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. Pixies, elves and fairies, or even cabbages, can't create magical weight loss. That's why you should eat moderate amounts from each of the food groups rather than cutting out everything but a cabbage and water.
3. These crazy diets also ignore another important principle of good nutrition which is that eating should be enjoyable.. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Consider a week on the Cabbage Soup Diet. By mid week crawling bugs would look good. If you make it to Sunday you might die of a heart attack before you ever again tasted real food.
4. Boredom isn't the only reason fad diets aren't good ones. Most don't talk about exercise, such as aerobics for 30 minutes a day every day. While doing nothing can lead to heart problems, exercise is a major element of maintaining proper weight. When a diet includes no need for a workout, run the other way. Quick weight loss is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is.
