Potential Long-Term Consequences of Fad Diets on Health, Cancer, and Longevity: Lessons Learned from Model Organism Studies

Abstract

While much of the third world starves, many in the first world are undergoing an obesity epidemic, and the related epidemics of type II diabetes, heart disease, and other diseases associated with obesity. The amount of economic wealth being directly related to a decline in health by obesity is ironic because rich countries contribute billions of dollars to improve the health of their citizens. Nevertheless, nutritional experiments in model organisms such as yeast, C. elegans, Drosophila, and mice confirm that "caloric restriction" (CR), which is defined generally as a 30-40% decrease in caloric intake, a famine-like condition for humans seen only in the poorest of countries, promotes good health and increases longevity in model organisms. Because caloric restriction, and dieting in general, requires a great deal of will power to deal with the feelings of deprivation, many fad diets, such as the Atkins, South Beach, and Protein Power, have been developed which allow people to lose weight purportedly without the severe feelings of deprivation. However, the long-term effects of such fad diets are not known and few experiments have been performed in the laboratory to investigate possible side affects and adverse consequences. In this paper, we review studies with fad-like dietary conditions in humans and model organisms, and we propose a "Dietary Ames Test" to rapidly screen fad diets, dietary supplements, and drugs for potential long-term health consequences in model organisms. IntroductionObesity is a major public health problem throughout the developed world, but it is especially troubling in children of the relatively affluent. In the US, the rate of children with obesity has increased from 5% in 1960 to 15% in 2000 (2). Associated with this increase in obesity is an increase in type II diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents, which many researchers believe may be triggered by obesity (3). It is likely that this childhood obesity "epidemic" presages a significant increase in other adult obesity associated maladies, such as blindness, heart disease, renal disorders, and even cancer (4). However, despite the urgent need for more knowledge, the potential long-term effects of childhood obesity on adults are not well understood, nor is it known which of the several dietary regimens are optimal for controlling childhood and adult obesity.

Current Trend of Nutrigenomics of Geriatric Type 2 Diabetes

“…Quantitative traits transcripts (QTT) is the initial step toward customized medication and nutrient [49]. To get a good result, specific samples from many sick persons are collected to conduct quantitative trait transcripts step, and also entire genetic data utterance outlines.…”

Understanding and Preventing Health Concerns About Emerging Mobile Health Technologies (Preprint)

“…It is likely that media coverage can strongly shape individuals' perceptions toward potentially inaccurate (and sometimes risky) misinformation (eg, the antivaccination movement [40] and dangerous diet fads [41]). In recent years, the reporting of EHS in the media has increased public concerns and subsequently reported instances and symptoms, as attributed to electromagnetic frequencies in the environment [42].…”

Personalized nutrigenomics: tailoring the diet to the aging diabesity population

“…In an earlier review, I proposed a "Dietary Ames Test" to validate the efficacy of fad diets. 45 I was concerned that people, mostly without any scientific credentials, were proposing often dangerous and ill-conceived radical changes in a person's diet to control the obesity epidemic. For example, the Atkin's Diet proposes that one eats mostly meats and fats and very few carbohydrates.…”

“…The first method to be used in personalized medicine and personalized nutrigenomics is called quantitative trait transcripts or QTT. 45,[76][77][78][79] In the QTT method, whole genome expression profiles are done for a large number of patients from a particular biospecimen -the more specific the biospecimen, the better. For example, CD4+ blood cells would be better than whole blood, and deep abdominal adipocytes would be better than less-specifically isolated adipocytes.…”