Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day is celebrated every Tuesday after the third Sunday in January, which starts Healthy Weight Week. This year, it takes place on January 21. It seeks to promote weight management and encourage people to eat healthily and have a balanced diet.
Weight management includes specific techniques and physiological processes that enable one to attain and maintain a certain body weight. Most of these techniques comprise long-term lifestyle strategies that promote healthy eating as well as daily physical activity. It involves developing meaningful ways to monitor one’s weight over time.
History of Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day
By the standards of the early Greeks and Romans, a healthy body was equated with a healthy mind. Being “fat” was not only considered ugly — it was also regarded as a sign of mental imbalance. The Greeks were so obsessed with physical fitness that wealthy people who had free time would spend eight hours a day working out in a gymnasium, usually naked.
Hippocrates, a Greek physician (acknowledged as the father of medicine) who lived around 400 B.C., believed fat people suffered from lack of restful sleep, aches, pains, and a number of other illnesses. He then recommended that overweight individuals follow a strict diet, increase their exercise rate, and — believe it or not — vomit! The ancient Greeks admired ideal bodies, with their ideal look being chunkier and more muscular — a far cry from the “skinny” physique being pushed by the fashion and entertainment industry.
In the mid-1800s, the ideal masculine and feminine beauty gravitated toward thinness. Overweight romantics got the short end of the fashion stick as clothing became form-fitting for both sexes.
From 1850 to 1920, women’s dresses required a tiny laced-in waist. Men wore tights or breeches with tight-fitting jackets until close to the end of the 19th century when the vogue switched to looser pants. Being overweight was such a social handicap at the time that a book published in 1881 even suggested that governments arrest and imprison overweight people.
Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day timeline
Ancient Greek culture is known to celebrate and promote the habit of healthy eating, physical fitness, and the concept of working out.
Pope Gregory I is rumored to call overweight people sinners, owing to the fact that excess weight is associated with gluttony, one of the “seven capital sins.”
St. Catherine of Sienna resorts to extreme fasting to avoid marriage — her refusal to eat and drink leads to her death.
Luigi Cornaro, an overweight Italian nobleman and arts patron, writes a book titled “The Art of Living Long,” which teaches overweight people how to lose weight.
Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day FAQs
What is Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day?
Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day is celebrated on the third Tuesday of January each year in the U.S. to widely promote proper weight management by exercising and eating healthy food.
What is wrong with fad diets?
Fad diets often eliminate foods rich in nutrients the body needs to stay healthy. These diets may cause dehydration, fatigue, nausea, and headaches.
How can we stay away from fad diets and gimmicks?
We may start by having a healthy diet made up of fruits and vegetables, dairy products with low fat, and lean protein sources. We may also follow an exercise plan appropriate to our age and body composition.
Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day Activities
Eat healthy
Eat only food that nourishes the body. There’s no time like the present to start.
Do some exercises
Start exercising to get into shape. Start off with light exercises and build your way up as your strength increases.
Spread awareness online
Spread awareness online about weight management and the perils of excess weight. Use the #RidTheWorldOfFadDiets&GimmicksDay hashtag.
5 Important Facts About Obesity
It increases the risk of illness
Being overweight increases one’s risk of falling ill — your vulnerability to illness in this context varies according to how much excess weight is in question.
A shorter life expectancy
Statistically speaking, obesity may shorten life expectancy.
It can affect one’s mental health
Overweight people may become vulnerable to mood and anxiety disorders.
Healthy eating, longer life
Making it a habit to eat only healthy food may stretch one’s life span.
Diet gimmicks fail
Diet gimmicks are simply a way of conning people out of their money or savings, capitalizing on their desperate attempt to lose weight — the most effective ways to manage one’s weight are eating healthy food and doing structured exercises.
Why We Love Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day
We are encouraged to eat healthy food
This holiday encourages us to eat healthy food. It also encourages us to practice moderation.
Fitness culture is promoted
This holiday fosters the culture of staying physically fit. It does so by encouraging us to work out and make healthy food choices.
Public awareness is generated
The general public is alerted to the futility of fad diets and gimmicks that promise radical weight loss. They’re also made aware of the health problems these fads pose.
Rid the World of Fad Diets & Gimmicks Day dates
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | January 18 | Tuesday |
| 2023 | January 17 | Tuesday |
| 2024 | January 16 | Tuesday |
| 2025 | January 21 | Tuesday |
| 2026 | January 20 | Tuesday |
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