Diet Another Day

Fad regimes will rarely help you to keep off those kilos in the long term

- Smitha Verma

Ritoka Dua’s friends call her “diet queen”. One to be always on a diet, this 28year-old, will tell you everything about the latest diet fads, where to procure diet food and how to manage hunger pangs. And yet, ask her how much weight she has lost by following a diet, she has little to offer. “I jump from one diet to another every few weeks. I look for quick results,” Dua rues.

People in the know may tell her how fad diets leads to more harm than any use. “Our bodies are made in the kitchen and to maintain a healthy living we constantly should aim at eating well and if possible go for farm to table concept,” says fitness expert Sucheta Pal, ambassador and educator of Zumba Fitness.

“Fads are what we call as temporary madness, owing to its short-termed nature of obsession over them. Despite this, these seemingly innocuous acts of enthusiasm may prove to be more deadly than one can imagine,” says Neha Pathania, chief dietictian, Paras Hospital, Gurugram. As for fad diets, their detrimental effects have been extolled by doctors at innumerable instances. And yet, 2019 can also be christened as the year of fad diets as an upsurge of these have been seen on a global scale. “Diets such as Intermittent, Keto, Paleo, Juice Cleanse and Vegan, have been burning through the weight watchers circuit,” she adds.