Think about the insanity of the past when you consider one of the diets currently in vogue. Diet fads are rarely sustainable and sometimes dangerous according to this doctor. Plus they don’t work in the long term and fad diets even lead to eating disorders.
Think back on when we thought smoking was a good idea for weight loss. Or when we though ingesting tapeworm eggs was the answer. Thankfully, these have gone to the wayside. But what will we think in the future when we look back at high fat, or low carb diets?
The more scientists study these, though, the more they realize there’s a lot we don’t understand about the long-term effects of eating a certain way. These diets may work to lose weight, but the question of whether they can keep us healthy is still up in the air. Maybe cutting carbs is the way to go, or maybe we’ll look back and recognize that these diets were more marketing than science. Consider the “eat for your blood type” diet, which never had any science behind it to begin with.
Dr. Sydnee McElroy, a family doctor is co-author with her spouse Justin, of the upcoming book Sawbones: The Horrifying, Hilarious Road to Modern Medicine.
A short history of terrible diets | Quartzy
