title: Health and fitness series--3. Popular dietary fads: how should health professionals respond?
abstract: Many magazines and health books for lay people extol the virtues of diets that produce weight loss, often rapidly and using unconventional régimes. In this article a dietitian summarises the basic physiology of weight loss and discusses three such types of diet: food-combining; "detox"; and the Atkins or high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, including their physiological flaws and possible adverse side-effects.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001835:Body Weight; D004033:Diet Fads / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000523:psychology; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D012449:Safety; D015431:Weight Loss