Of course, if it’s medically necessary for you to stop eating certain foods, then you should absolutely listen to your doctor. If your doctor tells you you’re allergic to dairy, you shouldn’t eat dairy. For most people, though, elimination diets are not a great idea.

If you try to lose weight by entirely cutting out certain foods, you’re not setting yourself up for success in a way that’s sustainable over the long-term. For example, let’s say you absolutely love cheese, but you want to lose weight, so you stop eating dairy until you lose X pounds. As soon as you reach that arbitrary goal of X pounds, what are you going to do? If you’re like most of us, you’re going to hit up Whole Foods and eat cheese like there’s no tomorrow because you’ve been depriving yourself for so long.

When your diet ends and you return to your normal eating patterns, you’re likely going to gain back all the weight you’ve lost, and you might even gain more weight. Then, you’ll be caught in a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting. To avoid this trap, steer clear of diet fads including any diet that involves cutting out an entire food group. Sustainable, successful weight-loss is about making dietary and lifestyle changes that can be sustained over time. For most of us, eliminating entire food groups isn’t a healthy or practical way to lose weight and keep it off. The food groups exist for a reason, and unless you have a medical condition like celiac disease or lactose intolerance, you don’t want to miss out on any essential nutrients.