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CNN Live Today

The Skinny on Fad Diets

Aired March 28, 2002 - 10:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Spring is here, and that means summer is not too far behind. For a lot of people, that means slimming down for swimsuit season. A lot of people will look for a quick and easy way to shed those unwanted pounds, but that might not be healthy.

Our medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta is here to give us the skinny on fad diets and getting into his bikini.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, I'll tell you, at no time other than spring are people more focused on overweight and obesity and for good reason; 61 percent, according to the surgeon general's office, of people are overweight or obese. So a lot of these manufacturers of fad diets are anxious to possibly prey on people who are desperate to lose a few pounds before the bikini season, as you say, arrives. But we decided to take a closer look at just a few of these fad diets, and here is what we found out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): They are often touted as the fastest way to lose weight. But are fad diets right for you? Well, we took a look at a few of America's top fad diets, this according to "Good Housekeeping" magazine. Most experts agree these quick fixes can restrict the body of adequate amounts of whole food groups that include fats, proteins or carbohydrates. But just how safe are they?

CHRIS ROSENBLOOM, REGISTERED DIETICIAN: Carbohydrates are the enemy right now in most people's minds, and I think it's really misconstrued or misplaced. Carbohydrates are necessary for exercising.

GUPTA: Americans spend over $30 billion a year on diet books, pills and weight loss programs, but many still ignore eating right and exercising regularly. So diets based on little to no science continue to overshadow the more sensible weight loss plans.

Once known as the Hollywood diet in the 1930s, the grapefruit diet works on the premise that you'll drop about 10 pounds in one week. That's if you eat half a grapefruit per meal every day with a small amount of protein and selected vegetables. Many believe that grapefruits contain a special fat-burning enzyme. The problem: there is no proof that grapefruit has a fat burning agent, but rather it's just simply low in calories. Unfortunately, the diet is also low in protein, fiber, calcium and many other key vitamins and mineral. The liquid diet, it might sound familiar to some. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey once revealed that she had lost a large amount of weight on a liquid diet.

OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: What I did was I fasted for -- without cheating for solid six weeks.

GUPTA: This diet requires you to replace two meals and one snack a day with a low-calorie milk shake or candy-like bar. The problem: the weight generally returns when the dieter returns to eating all solid foods again.

And what about those very popular high-protein diets?

DR. JUDITH STERN, NUTRITION EXPERT: I am worried that people on these high-protein diets, low-carb diets are endangering their heart health. You know, it isn't a complete diet. You know, you're not getting everything you need for good health.

GUPTA: Well, here is what we already know. Too much protein, it can tax the kidneys and increase extreme medical conditions like heart disease, high cholesterol and even hypertension.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: So eat less, exercise more. Those are the golden rules. The USDA actually will give a little bit more advice than that. They have actually touted a couple of more interesting diets besides the food pyramid, which we all learned in the fourth grade. One of the diets they sort of found interesting was a diet called the origin diet, which actually relies on these sort of dietary habits of our ancestors, cave people, to sort of eat what you want but just to make sure you stay as active as possible.

Eat fruits, vegetables, even meats, as long as you are active. There are no poor foods, just poor eating habits.

KAGAN: Ah, poor eaters. You just have to go chase down the Saber Tooth Tiger to burn off all those calories. All right. You're coming back...

GUPTA: I am back.

KAGAN: ... next hour. If you want the skinny on fad diets, we're taking your questions, actually Dr. Gupta is. You can go to cnn.com, scroll down to extra info stat box, paging Dr. Gupta, and next hour, he will be here. I will be here, and we'll be joined by nutritionist, Liz Weiss, as we weigh in on your fad diet questions.

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