TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan, March 4 (PIA) - - The National Nutrition Council (NNC) in region 2 has warned the public of health risks and complications of 'fad diets'.

Maria Gisela Lonzaga, nutrition program coordinator, said fad diet is a trend now, especially promoted over social media, offering food diets claiming dramatic reduction of body weight and slimmer figure that are not supported by evidence.

Lonzaga said fad diet is a dietary regimen or practice promoted for weight loss and improvement of health which does not form part of standard dietetic-led weight management advice.

“Fad diets are not recommended for weight loss as it may pose health risks and dangers. Instead, NNC recommends the adherence to a holistic, sustainable, adequate and nutritionally-balanced diet, complemented by an active lifestyle and lifelong behavior,” Lonzaga added.

She said the negative impacts of fad diet include short term success or long-term failure, nutritionally imbalanced, poor diet adherence and long-term behavior modification.

“It also induces stress and cause disease to certain organs. You may attain the body figure you desire but you don’t know the complications in your health internally,” Lonzaga said.

She further explained that fad diet may result into lack of focus of the person on the importance of health and physical activities, and it may induce psychological implications.

“Weight loss requires an individualized and interdisciplinary approach. We recommend combination of consumption of healthy diet, physical activity and behavior modification,” the NNC official said.

Lonzaga added that efforts to address overweight and obesity must be complemented with population-based interventions, particularly on the promotion of healthier food environments, food systems, and public awareness through behavior-change communications to prevent further increase in overweight and obesity prevalence in the country. (ALM/OTB/PIA-2 Cagayan)