How to Tell the Difference Between Sound Nutrition Advice and Harmful Fads
Written by: Daylan Wentland, MS, RD
Have you ever found yourself wondering whether or not nutrition and diet advice you find scrolling through social media or that you see while reading news headlines is accurate? Have you wasted time and money on diets or advice that you feel didn’t work for you or left you feeling worse than before you started? In a world where thinness is prized, there are endless articles and posts with advice for quick weight loss, detox cleanses, and ways to kickstart your health journey through various fad diets. Advice can often feel confusing or contradictory to information you may have heard already. You might find yourself wondering whether you should eat as little fat as possible or increase overall fat intake by following a keto diet, whether you should eat primarily meat or focus only on non-animal products, or if many small meals throughout the day is better than intermittent fasting. The key to decreasing confusion is the ability to spot problematic information and focus instead on sound nutrition advice. The rest of this article will describe eight red flags you can use to spot and steer clear of potentially problematic diet advice. Read on to learn more.
- It sounds too good to be true
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Over decades of research, the basis of nutrition advice has remained fundamentally the same. While our understanding of the human body and its needs are ever evolving, nutrition research findings often assist with fine tuning the details of our understanding rather than uprooting the entire system. Quick fixes and sensationalized messages are likely over blown or reported based on a misunderstanding of evidence.
- You are asked to remove whole food groups or a large number of food types
We need a wide variety of food colors, tastes, textures, and types to meet our overall nutrition needs. Each food group (fruits and vegetables, dairy, protein, carbohydrates, and fat) offer our body a unique blend of vitamins, minerals, and energy to meet our daily needs. When one or multiple groups are missing from the diet, the results can be felt all over the body and could result in nutrient deficiencies and general malnutrition if sustained over a period of time.
- A one size fits all approach is used
Each and every one of us is unique, which means our nutrition needs are unique, too. Nutrition advice that might be helpful for an athlete would likely be less likely for a pregnant person or a toddler. Our nutrition needs shift and change over the course of our lives based on our age, activity level, and our individual genetic makeup. Any advice or diet that applies the same advice to everyone or suggests all people should cut out a particular set of foods is misinformed and likely fails to take into account your individual needs.
- You are promised results in a short period of time
Your body works very hard every day to maintain homeostasis- a state of stability, balance, and harmony between the various body systems that keep us alive. When changes happen in our bodies very quickly (for example losing a lot of weight in a short period of time or drastically increasing fiber intake all at once), they can become stressed as homeostasis is disrupted. Large shifts within your diet and your body can lead to damage throughout the system and could result in malnutrition, dehydration, or GI distress.
- The advice addresses a long list of vague and seemingly unrelated symptoms
Many fad diets attribute a wide variety of vague symptoms (such as fatigue, headaches, brain fog, and irritability) to a single cause (like gluten, dairy, “processed” foods, etc.). These symptoms are often experienced by the vast majority of the population at least some of the time, increasing the likelihood that you will identify with the “problem” and seek the proposed “solution” the diet offers. We can’t find a solution for everyone by applying the same advice to each person who walks through the door. As discussed previously, nutrition advice should be individualized and take into consideration the whole person and their unique circumstances.
- It is not sustainable for you over the long term
Many fad diets provide plans for a week, 30 days, or a few months at a time. Others require you to eat a very limited set of foods or in a strict way that can feel impossible to continue after a period of time. It can be frustrating to throw yourself into a new diet only to see your results fade when the plan ends or the diet no longer feels manageable. Health behaviors should be flexible and sustainable over a period of time to be effective. They should shift and change as you move through various stages of life.
- The advice doesn’t allow flexibility
Many pieces of diet and health advice assume we have the exact same needs and desires day in and day out. In reality, it is very normal for your tastes, hunger/fullness levels, and energy levels to shift from day to day. Any advice that requires a rigid schedule or suggests a limit on energy or macronutrients that you cannot change is likely to be both unsustainable and unhelpful. Nutrition should be accessible to you no matter your schedule and should change and morph with the needs of a changing lifestyle over time.
- It is catchy or headline worthy
As shared in the introduction, sound nutrition advice is often fairly boring. Including fiber in your diet, drinking enough fluids, and eating enough aren’t usually head turning pieces of information. But just as self care often isn’t flashy, neither is basic nutrition. If advice is being shared as “cutting edge” or “the next big thing”, it may be based on preliminary research or incomplete information. News outlets and articles often latch onto new, small research findings that often share preliminary data or are completed on a very small set of participants. To be widely applicable to the general public and to ensure adequate evidence, most research has to be recreated, retested, and expanded over several studies over time.
The good news is, nutrition may seem confusing and complicated, but often, sound nutrition advice is fairly straightforward. Overall, your body needs enough food throughout the day to keep you energized, it needs consistency in timing and amounts of food, and it needs an overall variety of food types, colors, and textures from each food group to ensure you’re getting all the different nutrients. While these concepts might not make headlines, they serve as a simple starting point to overall balanced nutrition.
If you would like additional assistance with sifting through the nutrition noise and finding nutrition habits that are right for yourself or someone you care about, consider making a nutrition appointment with us. Contact our office today to schedule an evaluation and collaborate on the next steps toward improving you or your loved one’s relationship with food and their body.
