Dieting is an American pastime. About 45-million of us diet each year, and we spend about 33-billion dollars on weight-loss products. There are more ways to diet than ever and some are pretty extreme.
For the past 3 years, Heidi Templeton has used her 150 dollar juicer every day. Every morning she is religious about her juicing routine. Templeton told Ivanhoe, "I felt sluggish before I started juicing."
Experts say an over-jolt of juicing could be a recipe for trouble [because] fiber and grains could fall to the wayside.
Registered dietician Nancy Maza told Ivanhoe, "The average person should get 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, and if the fiber is being extracted, and you're not getting any fruits and vegetables, you might have trouble getting that 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day."
Maza also tells her patients to stay away from extreme diets that restrict certain foods, like the elimination diet. It excludes coffee, dairy, eggs, sugar, shellfish, wheat, potatoes, corn and artificial ingredients. There is also the "five-bite diet" where you take just five bites of any meal at any one time. The doctor who created it claims to have lost 60 pounds in 40 days.
Maza also told Ivanhoe, "It's another way to sell books. People are looking for quick fixes."
Other extreme methods include the tapeworm diet. Followers consume a tapeworm in a pill and the idea is that the worm digests what you eat.
There's the baby food diet, where you simply substitute 2 to 3 meals a day with jars of pureed baby food.
Maybe most extreme is the feeding tube diet. For 10 days, a tube in your nose delivers a liquid-only mixture of protein, fat and water to your stomach.
But experts say these diet fads aren't leading to long-term weight loss. Despite more than 45-million Americans reporting being on some kind of diet, nearly 70-percent are overweight or obese. So maybe the best diet isn't a diet at all, but a healthy lifestyle that includes a variety of whole foods.
Maza explained, "Usually, it has taken your whole life to get where you are as far as your weight and your health. It's not going to change overnight."
A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that vegans are usually thinner and have a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Another study found that people who followed the Paleo diet — which consists of lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruit had lower blood pressure, cholesterol and improved insulin sensitivity after just 10 days.
BACKGROUND: Almost 30% of the world today is overweight or obese, and in the past 33 years not one country has lowered their obesity rate. About 13% of the world's obese population lives in the United States. Dieting has been a huge fad in the United States throughout history, however now more than ever are diets becoming more extreme and dangerous. About 45 million Americans go on a diet every year, and about 33 billion dollars are spent on weight-loss products every year. There are also more types of dieting than ever before, some much riskier than others. People are willing to try anything in order to get the weight off as quickly and easily as possible.
(Source: http://www.bmc.org/nutritionweight/services/weightmanagement.htm)
TYPES OF UNHEALTHY DIETING: In today's time there are many different diets people are trying. A major one right now is the juice cleanse. Juicing however can cause people not to get the sufficient amount of fiber or grains needed daily. The Elimination Diet is also one that many nutritionists say to stay away from. On this diet you have to give up a variety of foods like, eggs, dairy, coffee, sugar, shellfish, wheat, potatoes, corn, and any artificial ingredients. The Five-Bite Diet allows you to only eat 5 bites of food per meal. Another extreme diet is the Tapeworm Diet which involves swallowing a pill with a tapeworm inside. Once inside your body, the tapeworm is released from the capsule and it eats the food you consume. The Baby Food Diet calls for you to substitute two or three meals each day with baby food that is pureed. The most dangerous diet however is probably the Tube Diet. This diet lasts for 10 days and involves having a tube in your nose that sends a mixture of liquids containing protein, fat, and water into your stomach. These types of crash diets are very harmful to your body because they can often be too much of a sudden change or not allow you to fuel your body as much as it needs.
(Sources: http://www.doctoroz.com/slideshow/6-extreme-diets-6-clicks?gallery=true, and http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/fashion/weddings/readers-respond-to-brides-losing-weight-for-weddings.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
LONG TERM EFFECTS: Experts are saying that these diet crazes are leading to short term weight loss, but overall they aren't leading to weight loss long term. These diets, in most cases, aren't causing people to keep the weight off for good. Out of the 45 million people that take part in dieting each year, 70% of them are overweight. Doctors are therefore saying that diets aren't the best way to lose weight, but to instead live a healthy lifestyle, which means eating a variety of whole foods for a balanced diet. . A good website for healthier recipes is: www.skinnytaste.com.
(Source: http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/4-popular-extreme-diets)
* For More Information, Contact:
Nancy Maza
Registered Dietitian
Morton Plant Mease
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