Dangers of Fad Diets

Quick and easy benefits don't often last.

These diet fads appeal to many people because they promise an easy, quick way to lose weight.

The latest weight reducing diets and aids, like hula hoops and other fads… here one day and gone the next.

The problem with most of these diets is that they're not balanced and don't provide the necessary nutrients. If you follow any of them for a long period of time, they may be harmful. Most of these diets don't change dietary habits that produce lasting weight loss.

Low carbohydrate diets

These diets prescribe foods rich in protein and fat with very little carbohydrate. Because little or no carbohydrate is allowed, these diets quickly lose their appeal. The weight loss, especially the large amount at the beginning of these diets, is primarily water.

Low carbohydrate diets also lack essential vitamins and minerals and could cause elevated blood cholesterol levels and ketosis. Ketosis occurs when carbohydrates are not available to the body for energy. Substances called ketones build up in the blood causing it to become acidic. Symptoms of ketones include fatigue, weakness, nausea, dehydration, and bad breath.

Liquid Protein diets

Liquid protein or supplemented fasting is supposed to burn fat while sparing body muscle. Since most of these diets provide only three hundred to five hundred calories per day, they are nutritionally incomplete. Muscle breakdown may occur due to the very low calorie content of the diet. Side effects you may experience from these liquid diets include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, muscle cramps, fatigue, and heart irregularities. Some deaths have been attributed to these diets.

Fasting diets

Fasting is an extreme way to try to lose weight. One of the main problems with fasting is that not only is fat burned, so is lean body tissue, which is muscle. Remember… the heart is a muscle.

Fasting can cause many deficiencies since it lacks all essential nutrients. Because your body has mechanisms to adapt to fasting or starvation, it begins to conserve energy, resulting in the slowing of weight loss.

Diet Pills

Another weight control fad is diet pills. These include appetite suppressants which curb your appetite. The pills usually only work a few weeks at the most, plus there is a potential for side effects and an addiction to these drugs.

Surgery

Intestinal bypass surgery has been surpassed in popularity by the stomach reduction surgery, due to severe health complications associated with intestinal surgery. When the stomach is reduced by surgery, only small amounts of food can be eaten at one time. These are drastic procedures and usually recommended only in life threatening situations.

When you are planning to lose weight, make sure your plan is nutritionally sound, well-balanced with a program of exercise.

For more information about diet and weight control contact your local county extension office.