Conventional wisdom about diets, including government health recommendations, seems to change all the time.
人们对饮食的普遍看法，包括政府的健康推荐，似乎永远都在发生变化。
And yet, ads routinely come about claiming to have the answer about what we should eat.
然而广告却一如既往地声称，他们能够回答我们应该吃什么这个问题。
So how do we distinguish what's actually healthy from what advertisers just want us to believe is good for us?
所以我们如何才能从广告商们想让我们相信对我们有好处的东西中，辨别出真正健康的食物呢？
Marketing takes advantage of the desire to drop weight fast, and be stronger, slimmer, and brighter.
营销人员利用了我们想要快速减重，变得更强壮、更纤细、气色更好的心愿。
And in the big picture, diet plans promising dramatic results,
大体来看，那些承诺会有显著效果的饮食计划，
known as fad diets, are just what they seem: too good to be true.
即流行饮食法，和它们的外表一模一样：太过美好而不真实。
So where do diet fads even come from?
那么，膳食风尚究竟来自何处？
While the Ancient Greeks and Romans rallied behind large-scale health regimens centuries earlier,
几个世纪之前，在古希腊人和古罗马人一致支持大规模的健康养生法时，
this phenomenon began in earnest in the Victorian Era with crazes like the vinegar diet and the Banting Diet.
这种现象在维多利亚时期正式形成，这期间出现了像喝醋减肥和节食减肥这样的热潮。
Since then, diets have advised us all sorts of things: to excessively chew, to not chew at all,
自那以后，饮食规定给我们提供了各种建议，比如要多咀嚼，不要咀嚼，
to swallow a grapefruit per meal, non-stop cabbage soup, even consumption of arsenic, or tapeworms.
每顿饭吃一个葡萄柚，不停地喝卷心菜汤，甚至食用砒霜或者绦虫。
If the idea of diet crazes has withstood history, could this mean that they work?
如果这些饮食热潮中提出的想法经受住了历史的检验，那这是不是就说明它们是有效的？
In the short term, the answer is often yes.
短期来看，答案往往是肯定的。
Low-carbohydrate plans, like the popular Atkins or South Beach Diets, have an initial diuretic effect.
碳水化合物含量低的植物，比如流行的阿金饮食法或迈阿密饮食法，都有初步的利尿效果。
