Metro Pulse/Editor's Corner/Fad Diets

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I'm betting on that in the face of unrealistic fads

by Barry Henderson

First, let's lay out this fundamental principal. Fad diets are a lot of highly touted, widely publicized hooey. They're not only not for everybody, they're not for most people. They are, by and large, as likely to be unhealthy as healthy, regardless of what today's research says to refute yesterday's. Rest assured, tomorrow's research will refute today's.

That's not to say that everyone should not have a healthy diet to follow. But we're pretty close to individualizing those. There'll be a time relatively soon when DNA and family health history and lifestyle information will be used to produce a diet outline of what you really ought to eat.

It will not likely be vegetarian, or raw, or Atkins, or Air Force, or any other diet that has crossed the country in recent years. Those simply harm some of the people who try them out, even though they may become vastly popular among the people for whom they work out well, and who may become virtual evangelists in their behalf.

The Atkins Diet, which should be known as the "Bumblebee Diet," because it won't fly on paper, does wonders for some people who want to lose a lot of weight fast. I know that, because I've done it. Despite the ingestion of lots of fatty foods, along with low-carbohydrate vegetables, my cholesterol count went down, too. That makes no sense on the surface of it, and I won't try to explain the metabolistic reasoning that is the basis of it. But I'm certainly not idealistic about it. I'm still skeptical of its long-term effects, just as I'm skeptical of strict vegan or raw-food diets. And I won't advocate it to others.

On the one hand, I have an acquaintance whose parents lost 60 and 89 pounds respectively over two years of Atkins dieting and believe they are the healthiest they've ever been.

On the other hand, I have an acquaintance whose parents lost 50 pounds apiece in less than a year on the Atkins, before each underwent heart surgery. I'm not saying the Atkins regimen caused the heart problems, and there is the possibility that their survivability was enhanced by the weight loss, but they quit the diet, and I don't blame them.

I could quite likely have lost a similar amount of weight (about 15 pounds in a couple of months) by just cutting out sugar, to which I've been addicted since infancy—I was found draining Coke bottles left on the floor when I was barely crawling. I'm a candy man, a pie guy, and I always have been, but I've never had high blood-sugar readings, so I never had a reason to back off, and I never believed I could quit sugar cold turkey. I had to do that under the Atkins regimen, but I tricked myself. I was quitting almost all carbohydrates, not just sugars. That I was able to do that, sugar and all, astounds me. I found myself craving pasta, but not sugar, or bread, or potatoes, three of my lifelong diet staples. Go figure.

I can't believe that this Atkins thing is altogether good for me in the long run, but I'll keep it up until I've lost 25 pounds and then reassess my diet and health (and composure) needs on a more balanced basis. I expect to conclude that if I am able to eat the way I used to, but reduce the portions of every food I consume, I'll probably be better off, and I'll probably not gain back the extra weight I'd accumulated slowly over the last 35 years or so. I'm not sure, but I suspect that to be true.

I'm looking forward to the day when my recommended healthful diet will be scientifically individualized. I want to know what my body needs, and I'm pretty willing to accept that knowledge and to try to act on it.

When all's said and done, and my nutrition needs are specified by medical computerization, I have a sneaking suspicion of what the outcome is likely to be. It will tell me to eat a little of this and a little of that, something from each of the food groups, every day, just as my grandmother told me to do, and to not make a pig of myself.

If the best diet in the world, individualized and certified, is much different from that, I'll admit that I'll be shocked, and maybe even a little appalled. We shall see.