From Keto to Fasting: Diet Trends All the Time, But They “Actually Don’t Work”

“There’s still a pervasive notion of beauty: that we should all fit into the same image,” food psychologist Diana van Diegen tells RTL Nieuws. According to her, being overweight is automatically associated with being unhealthy, which is why people are quickly resorting to diets to lose kilos.

This is also evident from figures from Statistics Netherlands. 56% of adults in the Netherlands have done something to lose weight. Dieting is the most common option.

trends over the years

Meanwhile, diets come and go. Over the years we’ve transitioned from the Baking and Sonja Bakker diet to juice cleanses and intermittent fasting. “Obviously, eating healthy isn’t hot and bland,” says dietician Jolande van Teeffelen. “People want a quick fix, a quick fix.”

And that desire to lose a lot of weight as soon as possible, according to her, can take bizarre forms. “There are people who only eat baby food,” says Van Tievelen. Crazy diets are also a thing of the past. Take the sherry diet, for example, where one eats half of the normal diet and consumes one or two cups of sherry with each meal.

According to Van Teeffelen, the problem with diets is essentially one-sided. For example, the “hospital diet” is currently popular. People who follow this diet only eat broccoli, rice, and chicken. And while these are all healthy things, the diet isn’t really good for you. “If you only eat apples, that’s not healthy either.”

negative charge

Ultimately, people who are constantly dieting end up in a vicious circle, says nutritional psychologist Van Dijken. “At first it works like a train,” she explains. However, according to her, the truth is that a large percentage of people who lose weight also gain weight back.

And she knows that this is not conducive to your self-image. “We start from the principle that it is up to us. We did not continue again.” And since the diet works according to others, people quickly doubt themselves.

Diet culture

“As long as health is associated with ideal weight and beauty, you maintain a diet culture,” says Van Dijken. And this, she says, starts at an early age. For example, girls between the ages of 8 and 9 sometimes worry about whether they are too fat, “because the school doctor said so.”

“From childhood you hear that obesity is not a good thing,” she explains. And if society is constantly telling you that you are not healthy, then, according to Van Dieken, it is difficult to accept your body as it is. For example, she has clients who are not obese at all, but are so afraid of becoming that they try all kinds of diets.

As a result, she says, many people also develop a troubled relationship with food and, in extreme cases, an eating disorder. “They are happy with it for years and sometimes for the rest of their lives. And it could have been prevented if they had just heard: You are good the way you are.”

Social media

Social media also plays a role in this. Where in the past magazines were full of “perfect” bodies, nowadays you have them at the click of a button. “It’s full of picture perfect. It’s often photographed,” says Van Dijken. “If you’re fatter or deviate from the norm, it’s really hard to assume you’re okay.”

However, according to a nutrition psychologist, social media can also be used for good. This way you can follow hashtags like #bodypositivity and a variety of people. “Then you get a very different picture of what society looks like.” Van Dijken asserts that if everyone ate the same amount and exercised the same amount, everyone would still be very different.

According to her, losing weight for the sake of health is very shortsighted. “People don’t get healthier just because they lose weight, but because of the whole healthy behavior.” In the end, it is only important to exercise enough and eat a varied diet. “We just don’t look alike.”

It is not always safe

There are many different diets out there, from the keto diet to smoothies. In addition to the fact that each diet works differently for each person, there are also diets to be warned about.

• In 2016, the Nutrition Center warned against the Green Happiness Diet, as it could cause serious nutrient deficiencies and irreversible damage.
• Doctors warned in 2019 about the Gerson Diet. This method will cure cancer, but it has several risks.
• In 2021, there was a warning about life-threatening slimming pills. The Dutch Consumer Product and Food Safety Authority was then concerned about pills containing the dangerous substance DNP, because there is a risk of skin rashes, cataracts and cardiovascular consequences.

The truth is that many diets are not scientifically based. until Collective site select your diet confirms this.