Avoiding the Fad Diet Trap
Go to the grocery store and you’ll see them. On food labels (usually stuck on as an afterthought), pronounced boldly in the coupon book, and then at the checkout line among the racks and racks of magazines: Miracle Foods. Seemingly ordinary foods (although occasionally an exotic one will crop up), which consumed daily, or sometimes in vast quantities, will improve your health and/or waistline. Recommended by celebrities and celebrity-doctors alike America seems addicted to the miracle food.
Most of us remember the nonsense about the açai berry (pronounced: ah-sah-EE). Doctor Oz sang it’s praises on Oprah and the world hasn’t shut up about them since. High in flavanoids, antioxidants, polyphenols and other things that make your spell-check function go nuts, they were said to unlock the key to a younger, healthier you. These little blue berries that look (and taste) remarkably like…well, blueberries took America by storm, and the food companies toted them as the greatest thing to happen to obesity since the invention of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!’ in a spray bottle.
The truth is that the açai berry is a close relative of the blueberry, which is also high in antioxidants and polyphenols. According to Quackwatch it has less antioxidants than a blueberry or even a concord grape. Medical sites like the Mayo Clinic and Web MD decline to comment on the açai, saying the jury is still out on the fruit’s weight-loss benefits and as to exactly how high its antioxidant levels may be. Oprah got into some minor trouble in fact and had to issue a retraction! Yet, years later, after all this açai backlash the açai-vendors still claim that it can make you look younger, cure cancer, cut diamonds and defeat Chuck Norris in hand-to-hand combat.
We’re going through a similar craze right now with pomegranates. Cereals go out of their way to use pomegranate juices. The fruit juice isle is choked with the stuff. It’s in health-bars, fruit leather, wine, salads, –anything they can cram it into will have pomegranates. I actually like pomegranates but I have to roll my eyes with the cynicism of someone who’s been duped before. It’s all the same song to me. The U.S. has had its similar passionate flings with other foodstuffs? Avocados, carrots, shitake mushrooms, beets, grapes, grapefruits, and tofu: these were all one-night-stands of the diet industry, which ended quickly and with little ceremony. Like all one-night-stands it left us feeling empty, bitter, betrayed, and reaching for the ice cream.
The bottom line is that a healthy diet includes a wide range of fresh fruits and veg. Pomegranates and açai berries are healthy of course, but they should be eaten as a fruit serving along with a well-proportioned meal. It always cracks me up when I see these idiotic headlines like “Apples: Do They Really Keep The Doctor Away?” or “Citrus: Is It Really Good For You?” the big joke being that the answer is always ‘yes!’ What a shock! Healthy foods are good for you!
And of course there are always the consequences from trying all the diet fads, most of which are the stuff of legend, or at least on the lighter half of the evening news. My friend actually destroyed her stomach lining from eating only citrus fruits as part of a healthy lifestyle. The citric acid gave her massive ulcers! Another friend ate only carrots and turned orange from the beta-carotene in her system! I myself almost had a dire close call; as it turns out I’m prone to blood clots and the levels of vitamin K in dark greens and green tea I was eating/drinking religiously could have lead to a pulmonary embolism. Fortunately I found out well in advance and now I only partake rarely.
I do like that more and more exotic and delicious fruits are becoming readily available outside of a hoity-toity, blow-your-whole-paycheck grocery store. I like that we’re encouraging people to try new things. If a person (like me) hates fruits and vegetables and by introducing something new to the market we convince them to adopt a new kind of fresh fruit in their lives, I’d say that’s a boon. But to place miracle foods at the altar of the golden calf known as “the perfect body,” is writing checks no one can cash.
Fad Diets are lies; beautiful, aspertaine-coated lies that people willingly fall for, and pay trillions of dollars for every year. We always fall for them because they sound so easy. No gym memberships, no contracts, no pushing oneself. I can simply lose weight while sitting on the couch, watching ‘Biggest Loser,’ while eating my chocolate-coated açai berries which came in a box saying it’s rich in antioxidants! I feel thinner already!
Of course there’s always the fine print saying that the FDA has not evaluated the statements or claims made by the box, or that one serving is six berries, or that all diets should be accompanied by regular exercise and a low-calorie diet, but why would we read that part? That would imply that it isn’t a miracle, just an ordinary, not-so-bad-for-you food like any other, to be eaten in moderation.
