Diet craze or crazy?

How many times have you bought into a fad diet, remedy or product touted as revolutionary, and later found that it is now discredited?

Remember the Atkins and Scarsdale diets? Today, there is the ‘paleo diet’. We are meant to eat as our Palaeolithic ancestors did: lots of nuts, berries and meat; very little dairy or carbohydrates. Never mind that we don’t know if, in fact, they did eat this way, whether they were healthier as a result or whether we will be healthier for eating like they supposedly did. If it’s ancient, it must be better!

People have gone ‘gluten free’, yet when asked, most couldn’t even tell you what gluten is, or why they are now avoiding it. Carbohydrates have been a big no-no, but now we read that avoiding them can be harmful.

What about the high-tech and athletic running shoes, all with incredible space-age soles, supports and other gimmicks (remember the ‘Pump’ basketball shoe by Reebok?). It seems that today’s incredible shoes aren’t good for us after all! Now, it’s minimalistic, rubber gloves for our feet. No arch supports or spongy soles, just the barest covering so we can run like our ancestors. Of course, our ancestors didn’t have to run on pavement with bits of broken glass or metal rubbish to contend with. Plus, they probably weighed far less than we do and their feet were under less stress. Never mind, if it was good for them it must be good for us. Until now, that is, for the manufacturers of these rubber foot gloves have just settled a class action suit with a few million dollars payout. It seems that the benefits claimed in their ads were not achieved in reality.

Natural cures and therapies have been around for years and continue to be popular, but we have learned recently that they offer no benefit whatsoever. Vitamins, too, have been shown to be of dubious benefit, for we obtain our nutrients best through the foods we eat, yet we keep swallowing them.

Early last century the inventor of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes recommend regular enemas as a way of maintaining intestinal health. Today there are juice cleanses to rid our bodies of ‘toxins’, even though doctors tell us our kidneys, livers and intestines have been doing a fine job of this already for hundreds of thousands of years.

We are told we are an increasingly obese society. How many bizarre exercise machines and programs did we buy which are now gathering dust under our beds? On the other hand, we’re told we should accept ourselves for how we are, and that we can be fat and still fit and healthy. Oh really?

Remember Earth Shoes? They were meant to mimic the way our bare feet walked in wet sand. They worked as well as they looked! Or water beds? I got seasick on one once. Copper bracelets turned my skin green. Then we were told we should drink eight glasses of water per day – despite the evidence that we get most of our fluids in the solid foods we eat, along with the occasional coffee or tea, not to mention that too much water can be harmful.

Of course, our bodies are our own business and we can consume or wear whatever we choose. Many do just that, despite the objective evidence which debunks these alternative, natural, or just cool lifestyle choices. While ours is the generation of ‘If it feels good, do it’, you would think that with the internet we would not be so easily taken in by fads anymore. But the internet is both a blessing and a curse. Once a product would be hyped with ‘As seen on TV!’. Now, any product, diet or therapy can be promoted over the internet, and buying into it, not to mention actually buying it, is but a click or keystroke away.

Many of our generation are sceptical and demand hard evidence, having succumbed to one fad or the other when we were younger. I once bought a 10-dollar green felt-tipped pen (worth no more than a dollar, probably!) and coloured the edges of my CDs. This was meant to improve the sound quality. Guess what?

I am over fads, but now I worry for our grandkids. They will be bombarded with infinitely more claims of this or that in their lives than we ever were, which will do no good for anyone, other than making a buck for whoever is peddling it. Will they be able to tell a fad from fact?

Have you fallen for a fad diet only for it not to deliver on results?

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