Quality of diet plans for weight loss featured in women's magazines. A cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Brazil has the fifth largest population of obese individuals in the world. Women's magazines publish a large number of diet plans, and therefore the objective of this study was to assess the quality of these plans. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. METHODS:We included the Brazilian women's magazines of highest circulation published between January and June 2014 that advertised diets for weight loss on their covers. We extracted the quantities of macro and micronutrients from each of these diet plans and compared these quantities with the World Health Organization nutritional guidelines for adult women. We also checked the total energy quantities of these plans, and any recommendations about water intake and physical activity. RESULTS: We identified 136 potentially eligible magazine issues; 41 were excluded and 95 issues of 6 different magazines were included in the study. We found that 83.1% of the plans had carbohydrate and fiber levels below the recommendations. On the other hand, the protein and saturated fatty acid levels were above the recommendations in 97.8% and 95.7% of the plans, respectively; 75.7% of the diets had inadequate calcium levels and 70.5% had low iron levels. Only 30 plans specified the total daily quantity of dietary energy and in 53.3% of these, the information was inconsistent with our estimates; 20% of the plans had no recommendations on daily water intake and 37.5% did not give recommendations regarding physical activity practices. CONCLUSION: The diet plans for weight loss featured in Brazilian women's magazines are of low quality. RESUMO

Energy and nutrient content of weight-loss diets published in high-circulation newspapers

“…When protein content in diets was assessed in the same study, 97.8% were above recommended levels, while 2.1% were at recommended levels. When fat content was investigated, 31.5% were above recommended levels, while 66.3% were at recommended levels 10 . This study, similarly, found the CHO content of 83.3% of diets in newspapers were below recommended levels for both genders.…”

“…In one study, about half (43.4%) of a total of 1448 17 . Research in Brazil investigated magazines and identified that 88.4% of diets in magazines were written by dietitians 10 . In our study, 56.2% of diets were written by dietitians, 39.1% were written by doctors and 4.7% of them had no authors.…”

“…However, the desire for a slim and fit appearance in the society has increased in recent years with the influence of the media and social media 10 , and the interest in popular diets that promise to reach the desired body size as soon as possible has increased 11,12 . In a study conducted on women in our country, the rate of following nutrition news in the media was found to be 58.1% 13 .…”