[In any field, there are always trends, fads, and followings at different periods of time. The health field has been no exception. Americans spend an estimated $50 billion dollars a year on weight-loss products. Today’s Hot Topic post will feature some of the top diet trends of the past millennium.
- 1930’s to 1940’s: Smoking and The Master Cleanse
Can you believe that Lucky Strike Cigarette ad campaign actually ran an ad that said “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet.”? Horrifying, isn’t it?
- 1950’s: Praying for weight loss
“Pray Your Weight Away,” which was published in 1957 was a best-selling book.
- 1960’s: Cabbage Soup Diet and Support Groups
Overeaters Anonymous was formed in the early 60’s as well as Weight Watchers in 1963. The Cabbage Soup Diet was also the most popular diet fad at that time.
- 1970’s: Atkins Diet Revolution and Diet Pills
Dexatrim was a hugely popular pill of the era. The appetite suppressant contained the drug PPA (phenylpropanolamine), and in 2000 it was pulled from shelves. Dr. Atkins published the Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution in the 70’s and the protein craze began the world’s misguided hatred for carbs. Carbs’ reputation has never quite recovered from this diet fad!
- 1980’s: Scarsdale Diet
This two-week high-protein, low-carb and super-low-calorie diet (1,000 calories or fewer per day!) touted that you could lose up to 20 pounds per week without any long-term deprivation of any vitamins or minerals. The diet was restrictive though: no butter, no salad dressing (except lemon and vinegar) and no alcohol. Your snack choices were either raw carrots or celery! Umm, I think I’ll pass, thanks.
- 1990’s: Low-carb diet
Damn that Dr Atkins! His diet resurfaced with a vengeance in the 1990’s. Suddenly, in every grocery store and in every magazine you saw food that was promoted as low-carb and high in protein. Many people followed this diet consuming massive quantities of protein and very few vegetables and fruits. Dr. Atkin failed to mention that consuming large amounts of protein is actually very harmful for your body.
So what are the top diet trends of today? Well, according to Glamour magazine, here they are:
1. Celebrity-endorsed diets: Stars like Jessica Simpson and Eva Mendes swear by Harley Pasternak’s 5-Factor plan.
2. Portion control: 100-calorie pack, anyone?
3. Organic diets: Followers believe that organic foods, without the preservatives and additives of their nonorganic counterparts, may help the body’s digestive system run more smoothly.
4. Diet delivery: Services like Chefs Diet and NutriSystem deliver either fresh or frozen prepackaged meals right to your door.
5. Sweet and savory diets: Think Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet (which originally began in 1975) —Jennifer Hudson is reportedly a cookie-diet fan — or the eat-croissants-for-breakfast-and-veggies-for-lunch philosophy of “French Women Don’t Get Fat.”
My take:
Diet fads and trends aren’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, the majority of society still believes that a quick fix solution to their weight loss problems is out there! It is much more difficult to ‘sell’ people on the concept of making a lifestyle change for the rest of their life. Many people don’t want to do that. Instead, they want a 30 day diet they can follow, lose the weight, and then resume their lives the way they were. I think that is why so many diets fail- many of them require that you cut out food groups all together and it just isn’t realistic for most people. Your body will not thank you for cutting out fruits and vegetables!
Today’s Hot Topic Questions:
- Do you agree with the diet trends of today? Can you think of any more?
- What do you think about some of the diet trends of past decades?
- Do you think that society will look back at the early 2000’s diet trends and gasp in horror much like we do with the earlier decades?
- What do you think the up and coming diet trends will be of the 2010’s?
- Did you ever follow a diet that worked and you have maintained the weight loss? What was the diet?
Where’s there’s a will. . . there’s a diet. Gack!
I finally found a diet that worked for me. It’s called the no-bake diet (this would *not* work for you, Angela!!!). I used to bake cookies for relaxation. . . but always, at some point, somehow, they were all gone in 1-2 days (into my belly). About a year ago, I basically stopped baking sweets. Now, when I do bake, I usually have a plan for what will happen to the remaining cookies/cake. Amazingly, I’m five pounds healthier, and I don’t miss either baking or the cookies. Somehow, trying new tomato sauce recipes has become my new relaxation.
Another 1990’s fad was definitely the “low fat” one. Everyone was watching the fat content on labels. I remember that one well because I was prey to it for awhile!
I did follow Weight Watchers (and still loosley do) and lost 15lbs which I’ve kept off for 3 years. The prgram opened my eyes to portion control and the fact that I wasn’t eating enough fruits and veggies. If I needed to, I’d follow it again. I’ve never fallen victim to the low carb phase, though….
My husband and I just ordered the P90X Workout DVDs. Overall I think that with the economy the way it is there is a trend for more people to shed the gym memberships and start doing stuff on their own. With this, I think that we will see a trend towards vegetarianism for the sole reason that meat is expensive and people are trying to cut back on their bills.
On a side note–Had a good morning walk/run for 2.5miles and 1 hour with the dogs at a great off-leash dog park in Anchorage. There were so many other dogs that consistent running was difficult. But it was a lot of fun. I also discovered that our hotel has Exercise TV for free, so I did 2 of the 10 minute workouts.
Also at exercisetv.com you can download or watch a bunch of free videos.
Diets are one of my favorite topics. As soon as people find out that I’m going to school for Dietetics, the first thing many will ask is, “what’s the best diet out there in your opinion?”
It’s really hard for people to think long-term about healthy eating when they’re not used to it. Thinking you only have to eat a certain way for the next month is a lot less intimidating. But I totally agree, it’s all about lifestyle changes no matter how small.
I think that most diets are a waste of time and effort. Usually the goal of the [insert fad diet here] is to lose weight quickly. They never seem to focus on long term weight loss or educating people how to eat properly. Once you lose 20 lbs on Atkins and then go back to eating regularly, you’ll most likely gain the weight back. Some diets are so unrealistic (not to mention unhealthy) that there is no way they will have positive long term effects.
I have a strong hatred for the Atkins diet. Any diet that tells you to avoid fruit, but eat all the greasy bacon and red meat you want, is CRAP. I don’t care how much weight you can lose on a low/no carb diet, you’re going to do harm to your body eating that way.
I think a lot of the other fad diets are crazy too. They aren’t necessary either, you don’t need to be on a diet to lose weight or get healthy. People just need to learn about proper nutrition and get more exercise, instead of counting calories.
I never quite understood cutting things out, because it ALWAYS makes you crave them more. Living solely on any one substance can not be goo for an extended period of time, hello nutrients! The of course there’s the standby “once you stop your diet, you gain it all back”. Most of the time this prove to be totally true. Losing weight (and staying healthy) involves a lifestyle change.
Lovely research. It was great to see it all in one place!
Oooooh interesting topic!!
I’ve been doing Weight Watchers since 2006. As a result of following the program I’ve lost 33 lbs and have been keeping it off since April 2007. I’m a big fan of the program and love that it promotes healthy eating and everything in moderation. I’ve been able to make the program work for me as I’ve switched into gluten-free, dairy-free living and continue to maintain my weight. I love the program, which probably explains why I’m a WW leader!
It’s really interesting to me to see the diet trends. I hope that society just continues to get healthier and recognize the need for change in the way most North Americans eat. I think that as more people become more eco-concious, more of society will turn to organic choices and less processed foods.
As for looking back in horror at the 2000 era diet trends, I don’t know! Things are constantly changing and evolving in our world and we can only continue to learn more!!
holy long comments.. I loved the post + am going to have to come back + read the comments after work!!
Hello! I have to say that I absolutely love your blog!!! I love the positive body talk; I don’t see that on many blogs. As for all of the diets? I think it is so sad! There are so many diets out there promising to make you skinny instead of healthy.
This is something I find interesting. I am vegan and some individuals say I am on a diet. I don’t consider vegetarianism or veganism a diet, but I do consider it a lifestyle. I think there is a definite difference!
I find it hilarious that the Atkins diet become so popular. The “Creator” of it needed to lose a bunch of weight quickly (because he was so obese he needed heart surgery) and that was how he did it. It was never meant to be a “life time” weight loss.
I was watching tv the other day and one of those celebrity shows came on (I think it was “50 Hottest Hollywood Bodies” or something like that) and they were talking about the secret to being thin and healthy. I absolutely loved it-Bif Naked (and since I’m a Canadian I already love her) goes, “You want to know the secret to being healthy and losing weight? Eat less and move more”. Now if we can just get these other celebrities to follow….
I love this balanced, sane overview! Thanks, Angela. It sort of fits in with my latest post about fats!
I appreciate your healthy perspective, as always.
Not sure if you’ve read it yet Angela but I highly recommend Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food… it gives you an entirely different perspective on the food industry.
Great post!
The only thing that has worked for me losing weight is journaling my food, counting calories, and working out. It didn’t much seem to matter what I ate, as long as I was burning more than I consumed. Also, there are times when I’m just really good at listening to my body and stopping a bit early compared to my fullness and have lost weight. I have tried some fad type diets, but they are diets, not lifestyles, and that just doesn’t work! But we keep trying :)
I agree with everyone who has mentioned vegetarianism/veganism/even raw foodism as a trend in the coming decades, but I wonder if that will be more of a lifestyle change, since it appears to be better for the environment, than a fad.
Great topic! Honestly, I was just reading that only 1 or 2% of adult men and 3% of adult women get the 3.5 to 5 cups of produce per day they should be eating – if 100% of us did that, we’d probably be a much thinner nation!
Until people want to change their diets for their overall wellness as opposed to wanting to drop a few pounds in order to look as good as the next person, it won’t work.
Almost all diets work for a little while – but until you are making change for the right reasons, I just don’t think it will stick. Well, obviously. You all know that ;)
I have never dieted. Only in the past year or so did I start examining what I ate and started to make changes so that I could be a healthier person. If weight came off, too, great. But it’s more about feeling better about ME as a whole, NOT just my appearance.
The future will be more vegan/vegetarianism/raw, as people have stated…or at least I think so. What else is there? Low carb, low fat, high protein, low sugar have already been tried and failed.
I live in Japan, which I think is the land of stupid diet fads. A few years ago, there was a thing on TV (which later turned out to be completely fake) saying that eating natto, which is fermented soy beans, would help you to lose weight, and within a couple of days, you couldn’t find natto in the shops anywhere because it had completely sold out. Then there was the banana diet, and the beansprout diet etc…
I actually wrote my dissertation at Uni about body image in Japan, and it was quite worrying, especially seeing as lots of Japanese women are actually classed as underweight (about 12%, compared to 2-3% in the UK), but everyone still worries about losing weight, including lots of men (I can remember one of my male friends pinching his stomach, and complaining about how fat he was, and all that he was pinching was the top layer of skin – ridiculous!)
The stupidest thing is that it’s actually very hard to put on weight if you are eating traditional Japanese food, so there shouldn’t be any need for these faddy diets at all.
I think it’s just that people like being told what to do, and if you choose what you’re eating yourself, you only have yourself to blame if you don’t lose any weight.
I STRONGLY dislike diets and the word. They do work because they restrict something which restricts calorie intake. The problem with diets is usually they are not balanced (leading to health problems), but furthermore they play mind games. I think weight watchers is pretty good they emphasize portion control and teach people how to eat, but it’s not a diet in my eyes. I just equate the word diet with disordered eating. It puts a label and a face on your problems. I think people just need to learn how to eat healthy *if weight watchers does that for them then it’s a great tool* and not obsess. Calorie counting maybe necessary for larger people so they have an idea of what a portion is and not some distorted view of it. I just don’t like diets they aren’t healthy. I was on one for years and was miserable I feel great now and NEVER count calories or touch the scale. I eat whatever I want, but I just make good choices most of the time. I am heavier, but I wouldn’t go back to that weight if I could.
To add when I say heavier I’m at a healthy strong weight. My diet weight was under what it should have been… Eating healthy will regulate your body you shouldn’t need to diet if your eating what your supposed to your body will stay where it is happy if your exercising and eating well.
Praying, priceless.
I am following weightwatchers points..
as a recovering (big time) binge/starve-aholic
weight watchers is basically re-teaching me everything I learned when I was a child.
Portions to me = a huge deal..I need to eat sensible portions and learn sensible portions ..which allows me to eat everything in moderation..
I think it is the most sensible plan to follow..it isnt about calorie counting..it’s not about JUST eating protein..cutting out carbs or restricting like crazy…it’s sensible..and works :) (at a slow weight loss that can be maintained in the long run)
What a blast reading all the comments on here, sounds like everyone is on the right (and similar track). I admit that twice I have tried a fadish diet. The first time was over a year ago when I stupidly ordered the Nutrasystem diet. I knew several people personally (inclduing my bf at the time) who had lost significant weight on the program so I thought it was legit. I lost about 5lbs, simply because the food was NASTY and I would throw it out. Not to mention expensive. Live and learn. This past fall I tried to follow the South Beach Diet..which admittly is low carb but seemed resonable and was orginally designed for pedatric cardic patients (that’s me!). I followed it for the first two months-in which you are supposed to lose 10lbs in the first 2 weeks, etc. Didn’t work for me and I got bored with the food pretty quickly.
So, I’m back to what I’ve always known…it’s all about how active I am.
This is getting pretty long, but here are two concepts I like:
-It’s not a diet, it’s a “live-it” (that is from a Judy Blume book actually).
-If you didn’t put in all on in a week (and I’m fairly sure none of us have done that) it’s not all coming off in a week!