How to spot a fad diet
Not all diets are equal so be wary of misleading weight loss claims and pseudoscience. Watch out for diets that;

• Promise that you will lose more than 1 kg of weight a week. Crash diets may make you feel really unwell and unable to function.
• Recommend that you eat a certain type of food as they have special fat-burning effects such as the grapefruit diet or because they fit best with your blood group. There is no evidence to support these types of diets.
• Encourage the avoidance of a whole food group, such as carbohydrates, dairy products or a staple food such as wheat. Variety and balance are important tenets for good health and key to sticking to a weight loss diet.
• Suggest you should substitute foods for large doses of vitamin and mineral supplements. Supplements are expensive and cannot replace the benefits of real food.
• Recommend raw food on the basis that our body can digest it better. Cooking actually helps make some foods easier to digest and your body is well equipped with different enzymes and cellular processes to assist with the digestion and absorption of all foods.
• Are endorsed by celebrities sharing personal success story. Just because someone is famous, it does not mean she/he understands nutritional science. One personal story does not make them an expert in weight loss and often celebrities use touched up photos and have a support team, such as a personal trainer, behind the scenes.
• Suggest your weight is linked with a food allergy/intolerance or a yeast infection and that you must avoid certain foods. Speak to a doctor if you are worried that you have an allergy so you can get appropriate guidance.
• Are fashionable and promoted by a book. Just because the book has been published does not mean it is supported by good research evidence. Authors often pick and choose the information that they want to include so you get a very subjective view.
• Recommend you only drink fluids or juice to detox. Detox diets are based on the idea that toxins build up in the body and can be removed by eating, or not eating, certain things. However, there’s no evidence that toxins build up in our bodies and our liver deals well with the daily process of clearing the body of harmful by products.
• Promote a ‘secret’ or ‘miracle’ ingredient that doctors do not know about yet. Everyone likes the idea of a magic bullet but if one was discovered, we would not be facing a global obesity crisis.
• Suggest a diet will work for everyone. We are all different and there is no ‘one size fits all’ diet solution.
• Are sensationalist. Claims that sound too good to be true, often are. Diets recommended by health care professionals may sound boring but that is because they are obligated by law to only give advice that is based on evidence and cannot make sensationalist claims.