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Crash weight loss plans and fad diets are an unwise alternative to permanent healthy eating habits, according to the American Heart Association.

What is a fad diet? It’s a well marketed diet with some outrageous scheme to lose weight in an impossible manner, often by eating nothing but one food like a cabbage.

Quick-weight-loss diets generally put far too much emphasis on one particular food or type of food. They violate the first principle of good nutrition which is to eat a balanced diet including a variety of foods. Because no one food has all the nutrients needed for good health, these diets can result in a lot of health problems. One such diet is the Cabbage Soup Diet. The myth of this diet is that cabbage soup is some sort of weight loss potion. People supposedly lost 10-17 pounds in only a week, eating mostly cabbage soup. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of many essential nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. There are no magic beans, or magic cabbages, or miracle foods for weight loss and good nutrition. Moderation and consuming all the major food groups is the best bet.

These crazy diets also ignore a second important principle of good nutrition which is that eating should be enjoyable. These diets are so monotonous and bland that it’s almost impossible to stay on them for long periods. Imagine eating cabbage soup, nothing but cabbage soup, for even a few days much less for a whole week. By Wednesday you’d dread meal time, and by Friday you’d never again want to smell a cabbage much less eat the soup. They’d cart you off in a straight jacket on Sunday.

Boredom isn’t the only reason fad diets aren’t good ones. Most don’t talk about exercise, such as aerobics for 30 minutes a day every day. While a lack of exercise can lead to heart problems, exercise is a major element of maintaining proper weight. When you hear a diet that mentions ‘no need for exercise’ run for the hills, or at least run on a treadmill.

Quick weight loss is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is.

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