When it comes to fad diets, a little hindsight can go a long way.
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Afraid of looking down, thanks to that prominent shape obscuring the view of your shoes? Yeah, well, most of us could probably eat a little less and move a little more, but beware fashionable diets prescribing rigid combinations of food groups or suggesting things should be eaten in a particular (and usually peculiar) order.
This brief overview of just a few blockbuster diets might help put the concept of the diet in sceptical perspective, reminding us that the history of dieting is a tale of faddish theories, false promises and, you might notice, a few recursive themes.
ATKINS DIET: Eat all the fried eggs, bacon, chops and cheese you want, but lay off the pasta, cereal, bread and other carbohydrates – carbs will only make you hungry. This was big in the early 2000s after the release of Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution, a revised version of the book Robert Atkins first published in the 1970s. Atkins claimed the low-carbohydrate diet produces a “metabolic advantage” because “burning fat takes more calories”. A study published in the Lancet concluded there was no such thing as a “metabolic advantage” and Atkins dieters were consuming fewer calories because they were bored by what they were allowed to eat.
BEVERLY HILLS DIET: Published by Judy Mazel, who argued that “it isn’t what you eat or how much you eat that makes you fat; it is when you eat and what you eat together”. The diet favoured fruit, particularly pineapple, which had to be eaten in a certain order. Other rules included not eating protein with carbs, or carbs with fats. The key was in the enzymes: certain enzymes cancelled each other out, Mazel argued, and some enzymes were better at helping the digestive process than others. “It’s only undigested food that is stuck in your body, for whatever reason, that accumulates and becomes fat.” In 1981 the Journal of the American Medical Association called it “the latest and perhaps the worst entry in the diet-fad derby”.
BLOOD TYPE DIET: Naturopath Peter D’Adamo published Eat Right 4 Your Type in 1996, recommending specific diets for different blood types. The book’s basic premise is that type Os are hunters, genetically required to eat meat; type As are gatherer vegetarians; and type Bs dairy-eating omnivores. Deeply flawed on a number of levels and – as it imposed a bizarre stereotype on the complex physiology of the human body – likened to “blood-type astrology”.
CABBAGE SOUP DIET: Day 1: soup and fruit, except bananas; day 2: soup and vegetables, except peas and corn; day 3: soup plus fruit and vegetables; day 4: soup plus up to eight bananas; day 5: … well, you get the drift. Reportedly, the bland flavour of the soup meant few lasted the seven days, and those who did complained that the scent of the soup had begun to make them feel sick.
FLETCHERISM: “Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate,” according to Horace Fletcher who, between 1895 to 1919, spent most of his time promoting the idea that people could eat anything they wanted as long as they chewed properly. More specifically, to avoid clogging up the digestive system, each mouth had to be chewed 32 times, at which point the “food swallowed itself”.
HAY DIET: Created by William Howard Hay, the originator of “food combining”, in 1911. According to “immutable laws of chemistry”, mixing certain food groups, such as proteins and starches, led to incomplete digestion, the accumulation of toxins and unwanted weight. Critics pointed out that naturally occurring foods already combined starches and protein, and that the diet encouraged weight loss only by reducing calories. Nonetheless, it was so popular in the early 30s that restaurants had Hay-friendly menus.
LAST CHANCE DIET: The invention of Robert Linn, an osteopath who recommended fasting and drinking a concoction called Prolinn, which consisted of animal hooves, hides, tendons, horns and other animal bits. Up to four million people tried it during the 70s and 80s, and 58 people reportedly had heart attacks while doing so. It’s now thought that it wasn’t the drink but the fasting that caused health problems.
SCARSDALE DIET: The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, published in the 1970s by cardiologist Herman Tarnower, is often described as a precursor of the Atkins diet, prescribing 43% protein, 34.5% carbs and 22.5% fat. Also, only three meals a day and no snacking. Oh, and only 1200 calories a day. Tarnower was murdered in 1980 by his long-term lover, Jean Harris, to whom he was consistently unfaithful – after which the diet fell out of vogue.
CHRONIC FATIGUE RETRACTION
Licorice root, photo Getty Images
A paper claiming that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is related to a mouse retrovirus has been retracted by its co-authors in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The seven co-authors, including researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, said although the blood samples they collected from CFS patients weren’t contaminated, subsequent work failed to adequately support the initial findings. This was days after Science retracted a 2009 paper that was the first to suggest the retro-virus has a role in CFS. Both papers have been robustly challenged by retro-virologists.
STEM CELLS AND LONG LIFE
Mice bred to age quickly lived one to two times longer after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine injected them with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscles of young, healthy animals. The researchers argue that these experiments show stem cell dysfunction is a cause of the changes associated with the ageing process, rather than the necessary result.
LICORICE ROOT FOR TEETH
Two compounds found in licorice root have been identified as potent forces against tooth decay. A study, published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Natural Products, isolated 20 known licorice-root compounds and found that licoricidin and licorisoflavan A killed two of the major bacteria responsible for dental cavities and two of the bacteria that promote gum disease. (Don’t try this at home without checking with your GP, as licorice root can interfere with some prescription drugs.)