Miracle diets can produce health issues due to rapid weight loss, excessive energy restrictions, and the exclusion of certain foods or nutrients from the diet.

Nutritional epidemiology currently studies the diet-disease relationships. In this review, we analyse the impact of diet on health and the importance of dietary factors in the prevention of non-communicable diseases.

Growing concern for health has fuelled interest in the relationship between diet and disease prevention. But despite the remarkable scientific advances, there are still many unanswered questions, and many evidence-based messages do not reach the population and are lost in a sea of misinformation and half-truths.