We’ve all heard about the fads: the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, cleanses, juicing, de-toxing, veganism (other than an ethically-motivated choice), gluten-free diets (that is, those that aren’t due to celiac’s or gluten sensitivities), raw food diets, liquid diets… The list goes on.
Fad diets are marketed so cleverly and pictured so alluringly on Pinterest that it becomes quite easy to get caught up with the crowd. But the fact is that dieting doesn’t work, plain and simple.
Recently, I had the opportunity to write an article for the eating disorder information site Mirror-Mirror.org on this very subject. I wanted to share it here because I know how easy it is to get caught up in diet talk. Before entering treatment, where the myths I espoused were debunked one by one, I usually felt guilty any time I was not on a diet. I thought that if I was eating pasta while the women around me (85% of dieters are women, by the way) were eating undressed salads then it meant I was lazy or lacked self-discipline. I bought into the idea that men could eat anything they wanted without gaining weight, while women had to watch their metabolically-deficient figures and were thus condemned to a life of ellipticals and celery. WRONG. Just… so wrong.
Click here to read the full story on Mirror-Mirror’s site, which breaks down the reasons why dieting doesn’t work. (Spoiler: dieting will not help you to lose weight in the long run but actually can make you gain weight, not to mention it disrupts your body’s natural metabolic functions. Food for thought. Click the link above to learn more.)
© The Middle Ground, 2014 to present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the article’s author and The Middle Ground with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
I'm a writer, a mental health activist, and a 20-something in recovery from an eating disorder. This blog chronicles my journey through the middle ground toward full recovery.
