Six 2018 Fitness Trends That Need to Die!

Some food and diet trends need to go away, for good. In 2018 we saw a lot of weird stuff, from “fake” ice cream to extreme diets.

These are my top six fitness trends that need to go away, preferably immediately.

Fitness Trends That Need to Go Away

#1 - Halo Top Ice Cream

Why - It is marketed to be "healthy ice cream." With the addition of the prebiotic fiber and sugar alcohol, I question how this affects our gut health over the long term.

One pint of the average halo top has 20 grams of sugar alcohol in it. I have received a lot of feedback from people on how awful they feel after consuming this ice cream alternative.

Instead of reaching for Halo Top I'd rather see people reach for something like Edy's Slow Churned Ice Cream. It has only 30 calories more per serving and does not contain any prebiotic fiber or sugar alcohols.

And the best part is it actually is ice cream and tastes like ice cream. Or even better if someone is truly having an ice cream craving, honor your body and have the real deal!

#2 - Detox Teas

Why - Marketed to detoxify your body and help you lose weight, slim your tummy, etc. A lot of these teas have laxative-type ingredients added to them, which is going to cause an increase in elimination therefore temporarily reducing bloat.

This isn’t true weight loss.

The caution here is depending on the ingredients you might be compromising your body’s ability to naturally eliminate on its own and possibly cause a dependency.

Detoxification starts in your liver. While it’s a complicated process, your liver essentially does this in two phases.

First, it converts toxic substances to highly reactive metabolites and then excretes these toxins. Your kidneys, lungs, and even gut also play a role in detoxification. You do not need to buy a special tea marketed by your favorite fitspo or movie star to lose weight.

#3 - The Ketogenic Diet

Why - As a registered dietitian I am the believer that all foods can fit into a diet, and a big believer in not cutting out any food group unless medically necessary. I do not disagree with all of the people that have said they have lost weight on keto.

Diets work.

They all will help you lose weight as they all have a means of restriction, which works to lower your caloric intake. But this way of eating is not a diet most people can sustain for the rest of their lives.

Once going off keto, many people regain the weight they lost. We also don’t know the long term effects or health implications of this diet for weight loss long term.

Due to the lack of flexibility with making this diet healthier, you risk vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well.

#4 - Bulletproof Coffee

Why - A spin-off food from the keto diet world of hype. Essentially, they add MCT oil and grass-fed butter to your coffee. This is a very fat-heavy coffee typically upwards of 400 plus calories.

My issue here is consuming that many calories from a liquid, even with the high fat content your body does not get the same satisfaction. I don't think liquids regardless of fat content give us the same satiating feeling as chewing our food.

#5 - Food Mash-Ups

Why - Every year we up the ante of crazy food concoctions. A burger with a donut bun, and ice cream, with maple syrup on it... Where does it end?

This is very appealing on social media because the picture is engaging. Because of this more and more restaurants create more and more of these offerings. With obesity rates continuing to rise these offerings are not going to help the fight against obesity.

#6 - Clean Eating

Why - There is no set definition of what clean eating is. Clean eating has the greatest of intentions BUT what it has turned into is people taking it too far.

Almost so it can impact there quality of life where they never want to eat out or attend social gatherings due to a fear of the food not being “clean.” This gives off the connotation that food is clean or it’s dirty, essentially good or bad.

This can really harm your relationship with food. I promote that all foods can fit.