Many fads come and go.
There are two notable ones: one dietary, one a drug. Both of them are dangerous. The drug is ephedra, contained in the Chinese herb ma huang. Ephedra is a potent stimulant that can raise blood pressure; its use has been associated with stroke, heart attack, and death. It is found in many weight-loss products and does promote weight loss. In my opinion, however, it is not worth the risk.
Another Chinese herb, sida cordifolia, contains a different stimulant, synephrine. This substance is newer to the market and less information is available; however, I would view it with extreme caution as well. In the 1960s, the saying “speed kills” was popularized to dramatize the danger of using stimulants.
High-protein diets keep coming back to haunt nutritionists.
The latest versions are trumped up in pseudoscience suggesting that excess carbohydrates cause the body to become resistant to insulin and that this causes obesity and diabetes. The solution is to replace carbohydrates with protein. This theory is not based on scientific evidence and overlooks the fact that practically every society has always gotten most of its calories from carbohydrates.
For example, Asian diets are based on rice. If the carbohydrates-cause-obesity theory is correct, Asian cultures should be rife with obesity and diabetes, but of course they are not. The average Asian rice eater is slender. So much for the theory behind high-protein diets; These diets contradict all the advice given by good professional groups with science to back up their recommendations:’ groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the National Cancer Institute, the American Diabetes Association, and so on.