What are the most dangerous diets? How do you learn to recognize them? What is the harm they do to health, and how to minimize the risks of losing weight?
A dangerous diet is a rather arbitrary concept. Any style of nutrition that involves a restriction in certain useful substances is potentially dangerous, it is not for nothing that doctors do not tire of repeating the need for a competent approach to the process of losing weight. However, some diets are clearly in the lead in this list: firstly, because of an elementary imbalance in the diet, and secondly, because of their popularity among those who are losing weight. We will talk further about how not to fall for the hook of a fashionable fad and learn how to recognize dangerous diets in time.
What is a Dangerous Diet?
In recent years, the term "fad diet" has become widespread in the West, which can be translated not only as "fancy" or "trendy", but also as "dangerous weight loss diets." With its help, they denote poorly balanced nutrition systems that are potentially harmful to a person's well-being, which, nevertheless, have many followers - primarily due to the active promotion of the diet by stars or eminent doctors.
Each fad diet promises those in need of rapid weight loss, cleansing and rejuvenation of the body, lightness, a surge of energy - in a word, continuous benefits, and without radical changes in lifestyle. The main focus is on a well-designed menu and … that's it. Often, under the sometimes very dubious dietary requirements, a scientific base is fitted, the ordinary reader will hardly undertake to check the postulates of which, especially if the author of the next weight loss system is a doctor, even if he has a very distant relationship to dietetics.
Don't want to risk your health in pursuit of a slim figure? Think three times before trying a diet that:
- guarantees tempting rapid weight loss;
- does not provide for increased physical activity for the sake of calorie loss;
- has an extensive list of forbidden foods that go beyond the standard recommendations not to eat fatty, fried, smoked foods.
Special care should be taken when dealing with nutritional systems, the developers of which supply their dietary products to the market. Alas, we live in the age of marketers, for whom the main goal is to sell branded goods, and not the health of consumers.
TOP 7 most dangerous diets in the world
Excess weight does not paint anyone, does not contribute to health and prevents us from feeling light and active. You can and should get rid of it. However, this should be done thoughtfully, without haste and not hoping for another miracle diet, which in 3 days will turn you from a well-fed pumpkin into a slender lily. Be patient, build friendships with sports, and follow healthy eating habits. Most importantly, stay away from dangerous diets. They won't do you any good anyway.
Low Carb Diet
Food systems built on a dislike for carbohydrate foods multiply like mushrooms after a rain and resemble each other like siblings. True, not those who are "voice to voice and hair to hair", but each with its own peculiarity, but, of course, from the same family. In this group, you can safely record the famous creation of Monsieur Ducan, and the Atkinson weight loss program, and the Kremlin diet, popular during the perestroika era, as well as other methods of losing weight, bearing the proud title of "protein".
All diets in this group impose a prohibition on carbohydrate consumption of varying degrees of severity. There is a certain sense in this: left without the usual source of fuel, our body enters a state of ketosis - that is, it begins to extract everything it needs from fat. The excess deposited in different parts of the body burns out, the weight goes away, the reflection in the mirror pleases with pleasant forms.
The danger of a protein diet is the inability to provide a person with all the nutrients he needs, as well as the rapid loss of fluid, which threatens to turn into dehydration (this, by the way, is one of the reasons for rapid weight loss).
Another fatty drawback is the lack of glucose, which carbohydrates supply to our body. On the one hand, this is good, because the level of insulin in the blood drops, and with it, the risk of getting diabetes decreases. On the other hand, it is bad, since the mental and physical performance of a person largely depends on glucose, and therefore, after some time, weakness, absent-mindedness and a slowdown in reaction will be provided to you.
What is the danger of a carbohydrate-free diet, in addition to the listed "delights"? Excess protein in the diet:
- Overloads the digestive organs, which, together with a lack of fiber, leads to an unpleasant feeling of heaviness in the stomach and constipation;
- Badly affects the liver, gallbladder and kidneys;
- It leads to an increase in blood cholesterol levels, due to which cardiovascular diseases develop.
On a note! The Ducan system was at one time harshly criticized by nutritionist Jean-Michel Cohen, who argued that it could do more harm than good to those who lose weight. And although the author of the technique tried to defend his honor in court, they rejected the nutritionist's claims, admitting: under certain circumstances, the Ducan diet is life-threatening and requires extreme caution in its application. Well, the British Dietetic Association has even declared it one of the worst ways to lose weight.
However, nutritionists advise against completely discounting low-carb diets. All that is required of you is to follow some simple rules:
- Use protein weight loss programs periodically, no more than 2-3 times a year and no longer than 2-3 weeks in a row, in no case turning them into a lifestyle;
- Take vitamin complexes;
- Include in the diet a certain amount of "slow" carbohydrates - cereals, bran, cereals, vegetables, fruits;
- Eat fermented milk products that are good for digestion;
- Leave room on the menu for fats, which are necessary for our body to produce certain hormones, including those that slow down the aging process.
By the way, the keto diet, in many ways similar to the Atkins diet, is very loyal to fats, allowing its followers to eat pork, animal and vegetable oils and other lipid products.
If you have any chronic medical condition, before starting to lose weight "on squirrel" visit your doctor and ask how he feels about this idea. And if you decide at your own risk and peril to prolong weight loss longer than the period recommended by experts, take blood and urine for analysis. Why the keto diet and similar eating styles are dangerous: too high a concentration of ketone bodies in the blood can lead to ketoacidosis, the consequences of which will first be weakness, vomiting and chills, and then, if urgent measures are not taken, fainting and coma.
Mono diets
This type of diet has mutated from fasting days, which are a healthy idea in themselves. The idea is simple: from the whole variety of products, one is chosen, as a rule, low-calorie, and is eaten until the bitter end - until the coveted figure on the scales or a hospital bed looms on the horizon.
Mono-diets on apples, kefir and cereals are especially popular, but sometimes there are more exotic options, such as losing weight on chocolate or dates.
The mono diet is not balanced by definition. When it lasts a day or two, there are no significant disruptions in our body, but it is worth stretching the dubious pleasure for a week, or even two, and the body begins to experience a catastrophic lack of nutrients. Digestion suffers, cells are left without building material, metabolism throws off unpredictable knees - in a word, the body has a hard time.
Moreover, each diet individually adds its own unpleasant note to this cacophony:
- Watermelon leads to swelling;
- Pineapple and citrus fruits cause irritation of the oral mucosa and the walls of the digestive tract, jumps in blood sugar levels, gastritis;
- Curd cheese provokes problems with the liver and kidneys if these organs are not in perfect condition.
In other words, the "mono-nutrition" style deserves its place in the list of the most dangerous diets.
Use short-term options for mono diets, arranging for yourself 1-2 fasting days a week. And of course, choose only those foods that do not threaten you with allergic reactions or deterioration of well-being.
Drinking diet
Having ventured into radical cleansing of the body with the help of the drinking menu, you can safely “put your teeth on the shelf” - you will not need them in the next 2-4 weeks. At this time, your hunger will be quenched by liquids of all sorts and consistencies, from water and juices to pureed soups.
Even with a strong desire, it will be difficult to go over with calories, but in terms of nutrients you will not dig in: if you approach the matter on a grand scale, the body will receive all vitamins and microelements that exist in nature, suitable for nutrition.
What's the catch? Only a baby is capable of eating exclusively liquid food and feeling good. The stomach of an adult requires the presence of not only fiber in food, but also more or less pronounced pieces, without which the digestion processes will not be able to go as they should. In peak cases, a drinking diet can even lead to atrophy of the gastrointestinal mucosa!
In addition, the very process of chewing adjusts the stomach for the upcoming work, signaling the activation of special enzymes. If it will not be - do not expect normal assimilation of the eaten, which means that metabolic disorders are not far off.
Interesting! "Black Panther" Naomi Campbell has repeatedly told reporters that she quickly gets in shape with the help of a detox diet based on lemonade made from fresh citrus fruits, water and cayenne pepper. It is scary to imagine what is going on in the stomach of a dark-skinned beauty at this time and what the "lemonade weight loss" is pouring into for her!
Use a drinking diet as a fasting day. In this case, she will not have time to make trouble, but it will allow her to lose from 0.5 to 2 kilos.
