Fad Diets

This diet seems simple on the surface: only eat foods that are uncooked and unprocessed. Meals are heavy on the fresh produce, nuts, seeds and even some meats — all raw of course. However, this diet may wind up doing you more harm than good. In some foods, cooking actually brings out nutrients. Cooking tomatoes, for example, quadruples the availability of the antioxidant lycopene. Food preparation also kills harmful bacteria. While overcooking can also be a problem — boiling the life out of veggies reduces nutrients and charring meats can create cancer-causing chemicals — the solution is not to stop cooking altogether, but rather to steam or lightly sauté your meals. The risk of extreme weight loss and undernourishment is also a concern with the raw food diet.