What is a 'Fad?'

August 23, 2007

As in 'fad' diet?'

Essentially, a fad is:

"A temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., esp. one followed enthusiastically by a group. A fashion thing or idea that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief, temporary period of time; a craze."

The definition of temporary is:

"Lasting, used, serving, or enjoyed for a limited time."

The original low carb diet, invented in a sense by a corpulent undertaker name William Banting (who incidentally lived to be 81 way back then) was put down on paper and distributed freely in the UK back in 1864. I t was called:

Bantingcoverblogsize 
Can you see the date?

This booklet discusses the issue of how he cured his obesity through a low carb diet when all else failed him. After reading this, you'd almost be correct in calling Atkins a plagiarist.

So low carbing, considered by the current medical community today as a fad diet, has been with us for ~143 years - and is still going strong.

The Food Pyramid has been with us since (drum roll please) 1992 and is slowly being rendered inert. Remember, the definition of a fad is:

"A fashion, thing or idea that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief, temporary period of time."

So, what's really the fad Dr. Kildare?

    

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