Crash Diet Research Paper

In America, as obesity in adults and adolescents continually rise, so does the amount of crash diets that hit media. “Lose weight fast!” and “Eating this will make you lose weight!” are both go-to phrases of these advertisements. A lot of them claim to help you lose weight quickly and healthily, but could they actually do more damage than they say? A crash diet is a method to lose a large amount of weight in a short period of time by reducing calorie intake to 700 calories or even less a day. Crash diets include juice cleanses, strict meal plans, and strict calorie restrictions. Crash diets are called so because of the “crash” effect it has on the dieters that take them on, and how little of a time they last. A lot of crash diets are prevalent in summer and spring time, as many people seek a “beach body” look. Many crash diets show up and aren’t researched by the FDA or other organizations before they become the focal point of media and dieters. In the 1970’s, Robert Linn, an osteopath, created a diet plan called “The Last Chance Diet” which many coined the “Liquid Protein” diet. It consisted of intaking a mixture of chemically predigested cowhide, tendon, and artificial flavoring and sweetener everyday as a meal replacement. This limited those who followed it to 300-400 calories a day (the normal …show more content…
As many crash diets can pop up in media, many of them are not that effective and don’t last a long period of time. Many factors can push individuals to start crash dieting, including external influences such as media and celebrities, and internal influences such as self criticism and seeking a certain body image. Individuals seeking change can do so with healthy weight management plans, without using crash diets. We can understand a lot about society as a whole through crash diets, and hopefully individuals can also learn a lot about themselves through them as