Impact of fad diets on gut health as ‘wine and eggs’ voted most pointless
The 'wine and eggs' diet has been named the most pointless fad diet, as voted by 2,000 Brits.
January is often the time when people think about overhauling their eating habits with many opting to take on a new diet or regime in a bid to kickstart a weight loss journey.
But it seems some of these so-called fad diets aren't quite proving as successful as they may initially appear, with many being labelled "pointless".
Researchers, commissioned by food tracking app, MyFitnessPal, surveyed 2,000 British dieters, of all ages, and found 'the wine and eggs diet' to be worthy of taking the top spot, receiving a 50% rating on the futility scale.
The diet, which was originally published in Vogue magazine, has recently been rediscovered by influencers on social media, and consists of consuming three to five eggs per day, plus a bottle of wine, including wine at breakfast.
In second place was the 'baby food diet', created by Tracy Anderson and followed by a number of celebrities, which involves replacing meals with baby food.
The raw food diet, which restricts followers to raw veg, fruit and meat, became popular with some of the A-list in 2012, and came third, with a 39% rating, while the same number voted for the cabbage soup diet, which became popular in the 1980s and involves eating nothing but cabbage soup for at least one week.
Some more popular diets such as Atkins, juice cleanses and Paleo were also considered to be somewhat pointless because they are simply too difficult to stick to, according to those polled.
According to the vote, dieters will sign up to five restrictive eating regimes in an average year, of which just 7% will be successful. In fact, the average diet lasts just 14 days according to the study.
Overall, 62% said they have signed up to an extreme new eating plan this January, despite 98% of those polled admitting that modern diet and fitness fads are often ridiculous.
The research comes after MyFitnessPal launches its new nutrition plan to help those looking to lose weight avoid the trap of trying to meet unrealistic and unattainable goals.
The 7-day Small Steps, Big Wins plan provides easy-to-implement tips and small daily changes, including daily nutrition tracking, that will not only help Brits to understand both the quantity and quality of what they are eating, but to help them create healthy, long-term habits.
Commenting on the survey results Katie Keil, chief marketing officer at MyFitnessPal says: "It’s clear from the findings that fad diets aren’t an effective, long-term solution for those trying to lose weight or meet their health goals.
"We now see so many new fad fitness and diet trends pop up across social media platforms but at best, many of them don’t work. At worst, some of them can even be harmful.
"We believe the best way to lose weight is not a complete overhaul of your diet and routine through fad fitness and diets, but to instead regularly track your nutrition to bring about awareness of what you’re putting into your body - and incorporate small, healthy changes so you can eventually build up long-term, healthy habits."
The top 10 most pointless diets according to those who have tried them
Wine and eggs diet (50%)
The baby food diet (49%)
Raw Food diet (39%)
The Cabbage soup diet (39%)
The Alkaline diet (31%)
The Military diet (23%)
Atkins (20%)
Juice cleanse diet (25%)
Dubrow diet (16%)
Paleo (14%)
The impact fad diets have on gut health
Although fad diets have historically been discouraged by health professionals, recent research suggests many of us continue to be intrigued and tempted to try them.
A survey by the British Nutrition Foundation found that more than half (56%) of Britons admitted they would likely make changes to what they eat based on diets they’ve seen through platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
These findings prompted experts from the British Nutrition Foundation to issue a warning about such fad diets, explaining that they are nutritionally unbalanced and tend to only be a "quick fix" rather than providing any long term benefits or weight loss results.
Of course, we also need to consider the impact following a fad diet could have on our gut health.
"Fad diets have become popular as a speedy way to shed extra pounds, often by extreme measures such as consumption of only liquid calories or elimination of whole food groups from the diet," explains Joanna Gregg, dietician at MyFitnessPal.
"Radical diet changes like these negatively influences the diversity of the gut microbiota–the group of microorganisms living in the digestive tract.
"These microorganisms live in a delicate balance and are responsible for a large range of important jobs such as regulating immune function, protecting the body against pathogens, and uptake of energy from food."
According to Katherine Pardo, nutrition expert from Nutri Advanced almost all diets which claim to help you lose weight quickly are restrictive in nature, not just in terms of calories, but more importantly in terms of variety.
"The gut microbiome, which is so important not just to the gut but to so many other areas of health, thrives on variety," she explains.
"The bigger the range of whole foods, fruits and vegetables you can cram into your diet the better!"
Pardo says the beneficial bacteria in your gut – the good guys that support proper digestion - need fibre in order to thrive, and without including these foods in your diet in good amounts, and from multiple sources, your gut health will take a hit.
"The longer the diet is restricted the more damage there will be, which could have knock on consequences for other areas of health," Pardo continues.
Instead, Gregg advises eating a balanced diet with an emphasis on foods high in prebiotics/fibre (fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains) and probiotics/fermented foods (kefir, kimchi, yoghurt with live cultures, tempeh).
"This is a great way to promote a healthy gut microbiota and decrease disease risk related to gut health," she adds.
Read more on gut health:
Gut health: Foods to eat and avoid to improve your wellbeing (Yahoo Life UK, 8-min read)
Scientists can predict the onset of colon cancer by looking at your gut bacteria (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
3 yoga poses that can aid digestion and improve gut health (Yahoo Life UK, 4-min read)
