Fad Diets
Regina A. Smith
Chamberlain College of Nursing

Fad Diets On a college campus in Holly Wood Heights, roughly one third of the faculty lost their jobs because of ongoing health issues. Reports showed health issues such as heart attacks, strokes, and anemia were major causes for the removal of the faculty members. Those specific health issues that occurred were mainly due to the lack of nutrients the body needs to be strong and functional. The particular faculty members were of the heavier persuasion. Obesity is not an individual issue, it is a national issue which effects healthcare cost at large. This epidemic issue of obesity is financially draining, disease promoting, and critically effecting people of every age and gender. This is a huge contributing factor for people gravitating to the misleading and somewhat deceiving fad diet. Therefore, the public must be educated on the dangers associated with the prolong use of a fad diet. This will allow them to make a well informed decision on whether to try or not try a fad diet.
Problem Analysis
Fad diets can have a detrimental effect to a body long after the diet is complete. Healthy eating and a regular dose of physical activity must be the top agenda not only for the obese person who is trying to lose weight but also for the average person who wants to maintain physical fitness. As a Wellness Nurse, I encounter clients daily. Some bring to me different types of fad diets and enquire about results of the diets, while others come to me, after already starting a fad diet, complaining about different feeling they are experiencing. Fad diets, although resulting in rapid weight loss, robs the body of vital nutrients needed to maintain strength, endurance, and a well-balanced metabolic system. Doctor Steven Dowshen stated, “Sometimes staying on a highly restrictive diet for a long period of time can cause lasting damage to your body, especially to the heart and kidneys” (Knight, 2007, p. 16). Also, the body can become iron deficient from the lack of foods that provide iron (Eatright, 2014).
Understanding the dangers from the use of fad diets is volatilely important because a lot of people are migrating to anything that will help get the weight off without the traditional methods of healthy eating and regular physical activities. There is a microwave mentality in the world today, which means people want results instantaneously. This is one of the largest reasons why fad diets appear to be the quick fix for an ongoing issue of obesity. So as to be clear, fad diets are a good source for losing weight quickly, however; once the diets is complete, the weight that one has lost will return and may cause irreversible damage to the body. To achieve a long term weight loss and a healthier body, a person must simply eat a variety of foods in smaller portions and exercise on a consistent basis. In doing this, the likelihood of maintaining a healthier lifestyle and keeping the pounds off will be in the grasp of every participant (Knight, 2007).
Figure 1: Discouraging the fad diet by counteracting obesity

(Fiore, 2012. May 13)
Obesity is a serious issue stimulated by the convenience of easily obtainable fatty, sugary, salty, high-calorie junk food as well as the rise of a hum drum unhealthy lifestyle. Obesity is a contributing health factor for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis and specific types of cancers. Prolonged problems of weight gain kill nearly three million people each year (as cited in lifescript, 2014 by the U.N. World Health Organization). There are figures that showed rates of being obese or overweight climb to a whopping 28 percent in adults and a staggering 47 percent in children. Within a 33 year time frame, the number of overweight and obese people emerged from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013 and the problem continues to grow