Topic for Feb.4.( Tue)

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Food Faddism And Faulty Food Habits
-posted by Written and reviewed by Dt. Archna Gupta 90% (874 ratings) PG Diploma in Nutrition & Dietetics, M.Sc.in Food & Nutrition Dietitian/Nutritionist, Vaishali, Ghaziabad • 27 years experience


Knowledge regarding the food habits of man is provided by many disciplines. the social scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and cultural geographers have been concerned with man’s culture, social activities and food habits. a number of factors influence the food habits. these include, among others, educational and economic level of the community, availability and cost of foods and social and cultural practices. once the food habits are established, they are handed down from generation to generation. in the present chapter, the following aspects of the problem have been discussed.
Food faddism is any dietary practice that either eliminates one or more of the essential food groups, or recommends consumption of one type of food in excess at the expense of other foods for extraordinary health benefit. It is of an extreme, exploitive and dubious nature, intended to produce results more quickly.

Food faddism is a term used to describe a particular food or food groups that is exaggerated or eliminated in order to achieve a specific health benefit [1]. There is a strong relationship between diet and health. Hence consumption of inappropriate food or food combination or poor eating habit could be a source of ill health. “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” by Hippocrates gives more insight to this issue [2].

Basically, food faddism gives health claims that are not supported by scientifically valid evidence [3]. Food faddists are therefore, individuals who adopt a diet practice which promises benefits with no scientific proof [1]. Such people have thoughts, and expectations about foods that are in line with their beliefs [4].

A study found that some folks disregard comprehensive health report and involve themselves with foods that may lead to health complications [5]. The apparent role of food has shifted over the past two decades from averting deficiency diseases to delaying aging, preventing and curing chronic health problems [6]. It is a serious source of distraction to nutrition principles.

It was discovered that dissatisfaction of the society with the orthodox health delivery system has led to some people to seek alternative lifestyle and food habits [7]. For instance, there has been an escalating pressure on women to be of particular shapes making them to seek easy solutions. Also, diversity of cultures and the use of natural remedies may lead to a rise in the practice.

Food faddism basically occurs in four major forms. These include special properties of food being exaggerated and said to cure specific diseases, certain foods being eliminated from the diet due to the belief of the presence of harmful constituents, the belief that some foods or a combination of foods have superior health enhancement and emphasis placed on eating ‘health foods’, natural or organic foods [4,8].

The entire concept therefore is highly questionable since a healthy diet is all about adequacy and variety/food diversity and balance [9]. Starvations and extremely low caloric diet coupled with excessive intake of some fruits and herbs as done by food faddists unvaryingly lower the basal metabolic rate as the body struggles to reserve energy.

As soon as the individual recommences usual eating, there is rapid weight gain since most of the weight lost was through fluid loss. Discovering the preval‎ence of food faddism would facilitate nutritionists and dieticians in educating general public on food faddism.

In today’s social media world, it’s easier than ever to find “facts”—and increasingly difficult to figure out which of them are actually true. Reporting based on findings of nutrition research, in particular, is rife with exaggerations, contradictions, and flat-out inaccuracies. Many people end up making food decisions based on this flawed advice, instead of following tried-and-true guidelines.

Bad nutrition advice is nothing new. Food faddism and misinformation go back centuries in the U.S. For decades, nutrition information that gets generated by the scientific community gets translated to the public forum before it’s ready for public consumption.”

Popular interest in nutrition and its role in health promotion has been increasing, particularly since the 1960s, when people started recognizing the strong relationship between diet and the prevention of chronic disease. More recently, the easy platform provided through digital publishing has also caused an uptick in a certain brand of freedom of the press. “Anyone is free to write anything they want and are not necessarily constrained by the truth,” Goldberg said. “And if you’re an effective communicator, you can get people’s attention.”

The way the media work sometimes compounds the problem. Compared to earlier times when many journalists had science backgrounds, in the current media environment, more journalists are generalists. Goldberg pointed out that the New York Times and the Washington Post still tend to have science writers, but smaller newspapers may not have this kind of expertise.

Writers without science backgrounds can oversimplify complex research, and editors may further confuse things. “Always keep in mind that headlines and articles are often written by two different people,” Goldberg said, “and the person who writes the headline doesn’t always understand the content of the article.”

As for consumers, how does the average reader without a science background sort through all the noise?
Any article that claims dramatic health benefits from a single nutrient, food, or practice, is almost always not to be trusted. “Except in extreme cases, if it sounds too good to be true, it’s very, very unlikely that it is true,people are more willing to accept information that is compatible with what they’d really like to do. “People want to hear certain things, and they don’t want to hear other things.