Fad diets are extremely popular with America’s weight conscious consumers. Many of them have been around for most of this century, like liquid diets, grapefruit diets, and high protein diets. Nearly one in three American women are dieting at any given time, a fact that is fattening the coffers of the diet industry at the same time consumers are trying to lose excess pounds, “Americans spent more than $30 billion last year on such offerings as diet books, videotapes, appetite suppressants, lite foods, low-calorie beverages and commercial weight-loss programs.” Despite the deaths of people from improper dieting, like new diet pills like Phen-Phen, the lure of fad diets is strong because people want a magic solution that works quickly and fad diets do work in the short term quite well at weight reduction. However, many fad diets result in weight gain once the user returns to regular eating habits after ending the fad diet, “After the quick fix, dieters returning to solid food often regain weight, like Oprah with Optifast and Tommy Lasorda with SlimFast.” This analysis will review the literature on liquid fad diets, both prescription programs and commercial over-the-counter liquid diet shakes and mixes like SlimFast and Nestle Sweet Success. The analysis will also cover the benefits and dangers of liquid diets. A conclusion will address the validity of the claims made by manufacturers of diet drinks and some recent government regulation of the diet industry.
Liquid diets are one of the most popular fad diets because they are one of the most convenient forms, especially with diet drink manufacturers like SlimFast and Nestle Sweet Success offering pre-mixed shakes in six-packs of cans. Liquid diets are popular but not knew. They have been around since the 1930s, when a Chicago doctor began selling one of the first called Dr. Stoll’s Diet-Aid, the Natural Reducing Food. The doctor sold his liquid diet formula throu...