Healthy Living: What you should know about fad diets

A friend of mine was yearning to lose weight, so she decided to ask around about how to lose weight real fast. Advice came rolling in from different parts of the world and so she was only too happy to have many options to choose from. After choosing what she felt comfortable with she went with it. Truly after a month and a half later we started seeing the difference in her weight. Her attitude changed for the better and she was looking great and feeling good as well. After a little while of travelling and not seeing each other – I went to see my friend and I was surprised to see her having gained so much weight, in fact she now looked twice as overweight. It was a bad sight –I went straight to the point. What happened to you Sheila what’s all this weight again? Are you stressed and over eating I asked her. No! was her reply. After losing some weight I stopped following the fad diet because I was craving for normal food and had become very weak, a visit to my doctor told me that I was missing important nutrients in my daily food intake, so I stopped the fad diet and started eating again-she said. Now a fad diet is a diet regimen that shows results in the shortest time possible when a person aims at reducing their weight. Unfortunately these diets go as they come-very quickly. Fad diets can become difficult to follow, especially when you eat away from home. Short term results can quickly lead to weight regain if you do not adhere to the diet. The most popular fad diets are the cabbage soup diet and the lemonade diet. These types of diets tend to focus on one type of food to the exclusion of others. Although losing weight is beneficial for your health, you may actually increase your health risks by following a fad diet. This is because many fad diets restrict the amount of calories and nutrients one consumes which can lead to energy deprivation and under nutrition. Consuming too few calories from carbohydrates and too much calories from saturated fat could increase the risk for life-threatening conditions, such as diabetic ketosis and cardiovascular disease. According to some source on the internet is that research done by scientists at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria and published in the Journal of Medical Case Reports in 2008 reports a case of a patient on a low carbohydrate, high protein diet who developed diabetic ketosis, a condition of low blood sugar in which your body breaks down fat for energy. Removing certain foods from your diet and not replacing them with other foods that contain similar amounts of vitamins or minerals can lead to nutritional deficiencies and consequent metabolic problems. Most fad diets claim that an individual can lose weight without having to exercise, simply by following the diet’s plan of eating. However, most fad diets are considered unhealthy by physicians. If you want to lose weight, it is best to stay away from fad diets. There is no magic pill or diet that will take your weight off. Talk to your physician about a healthy weight loss plan that is right for your individual needs. kayitesius@yahoo.com

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Healthy Living: What you should know about fad diets