The American Heart Association recommends adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing quick diets in hopes of losing unwanted pounds in a few days through fad quick weight loss plans.

What is a fad diet? It’s a well marketed diet with some hair brained scheme to lose weight in an impossible manner, often by eating nothing but one food like a cabbage.

Quick-weight-loss diets generally put far too much focus on one particular food or type of food. They violate the first principle of good nutrition which is to eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods.

If you are able to stay on such a diet for more than a few weeks, you may develop nutritional deficiencies, because no one type of food has all the elements a human being needs for good health. The Cabbage Soup Diet is a good example. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables.

People supposedly lost 10-17 pounds in only a week, eating primarily cabbage soup. Even if the weight loss claim were true, all the damage due to a lack of many essential nutrients would far outweigh (pun intended) the benefits of losing the weight. Pixies, elves and fairies, or even cabbages, can’t provide magical weight loss. Moderation in eating all the major food groups is the best bet.

The second principle of good nutrition is that eating should be enjoyable. You think eating only cabbages every day is enjoyable?. It’s impossible to stay on these diets for a long time because they’re so boring. Imagine eating cabbage soup, nothing but cabbage soup, for even a few days much less for a whole week.

By mid week crawling bugs would look good. If you make it to Sunday you might die of a heart attack before you ever again tasted real food.

Boredom isn’t the only reason fad diets aren’t good ones. Many don’t mention exercise, for example, walking 30 minutes most or all days of the week. While a lifestyle of little physical activity can lead to heart problems, exercise is a major element of maintaining proper weight. When a diet mentions no need for a workout, run the other way.

Quick weight loss is possible. But if a program sounds too good to be true, it is.