Diet For Health

Diet Fads
(Danger Zone:
Dieting and Eating Disorders)

A fad diet is kind of a diet plan or aid that aims at losing weight, usually in a relatively short time. The problem with a fad diet is that it's fat-reducing effect is temporary and usually results in regaining the weight. Even so, the fad diet craze has become popular among people who have trouble with their weight. Teens and young adults especially flock to a fad diet for an answer to their weight problem.

Fad diets are likely to be aimed at an increased consumption of fats and/or proteins while cutting back on or, in many instances, completely cutting out carbohydrates. The low intake of carbohydrates is what brings about the quick weight loss. The reality is, this kind of quick weight loss is the loss of water that glycogen has got stored. With the loss of glycogen, all the water stored in it is also lost and you lose weight. The fat is still there and as the fad diet is given up, the body regains the water lost, and the weight is put back on faster than you lost it. Normally, carbohydrates remain the source of energy for work. With fad diets, the carbs are no longer there so the body starts using the stored fat, breaking it down. This may appear beneficial, when in fact it is not. When carbs are not present, the fats are not able to be completely oxidized and put to work. Which, causes the body to feel fatigued and weak. Also, ketone molecules, resulting from the fat-breakdown, accumulate in your blood and are excreted out through the urine, causing you to become dehydrated. Given the harmful health effects of fad diets, it is important for us, especially the weight-conscious people, to recognize and beware of these diet plans. Fad diets may be popular, but they can greatly hurt your body.

Anorexia Nervosa And Bulimia

There are illnesses that may be caused from improper dieting and they are called eating disorders. There are two main types and they are anorexia and bulimia. There are about 2 million people in the United States that are suffering right now from these eating disorders. These illnesses are going to be found more in girls and women than in boys and men. However, there are male patients that are battling these eating disorders as well.

Anorexia is known for its excessive food deprivation, illogical fear of weight gain, and distorted view of their body. Anorexia typically involves an excessive and unhealthy weight loss. The reason behind anorexia has yet to be found; no cure for anorexia exist at this point, but can be managed over time. The excessive loss of weight is not due to a loss of appetite, but is due to the obsession of being thin. No matter how underweight the individual is they will often view themselves as to fat.

Eating Disorders (Understanding Illness)

Bulimia is a common eating disorder where the patient is going to have a tempting urge to eat, followed by purging ones self. They will try laxatives, diuretics, strict fasting, and dieting of any kind. They will also want to do hard physical exercises for their body to prevent the weight gain. Medication may be used to help treat depression and there is counseling that can help as well. Having the support of family is going to help the bulimic patient as well. There are around 7% of the young women seeking heath advice or treatment that suffer from bulimia. Like anorexia, the cause of this disorder is not known. Both anorexia and bulimia are dangerous and life threatening.

Williams' Basic Nutrition & Diet Therapy

There is no greater reason to diet than for your personal health and well being. Whether your eating habits are born of an addiction to certain foods, an emotional need, or years of learned behavior and conditioning things will not change until you completely adjust your eating habits and your lifestyle choices.

With people rapidly flip-flopping or yo-yoing from one diet to another, having little success and a growing despair over a sheer lack of results, dieting for many has become a lifestyle in and of itself. The number one thing most people need to learn is that dieting isn't always a good thing. What a large number of individuals who are overweight need above all else, is to integrate good positive, and constructive lifestyle changes in their every day routines. Many people scoff at the idea associated with using the stairs or even parking further away even though these are totally plausible strategies for working a bit more physical activity into your everyday life. If perhaps these really don't meet your needs exactly, then why not consider learning how to dance? There are beginner dance classes in most communities that will welcome and invite dancers of all ages, sizes, and fitness levels if you are willing to make the effort. What a great way to get fit, learn something new, and have fun without feeling deprived.

Another great thing about an activity such as a dance class (consider ballroom dancing with your significant other) is that you are not eating or tempted to eat during the time that you are dancing in most cases. If dancing isn't you thing, try joining a walking club or finding another hobby. You cannot lose a significant amount of weight by dieting alone. You must incorporate physical fitness into your daily routine in order to achieve those immediate and visually stunning results that many dieters are hoping to achieve.

Another pitfall when it comes to dieting is that people give up far too quickly. One more thing you should remember when it comes to dieting is that the scale can be your best friend or your worst enemy when dieting. You will never achieve the results you are hoping for you if you are going into depressive bouts of Rocky Road or Chunky Monkey every night because you didn't lose 10 pounds overnight.

When it comes to dieting there are very few diets that work. There are however, many lifestyle changes that when practiced consistently and aggressively, will work.

What is a good diet program? Well a good diet program would be one:

• That would be focused on proper nutrition
• That would put your metabolism on "fat burning auto-pilot"
• That would show you how much to eat without counting calories
• That would teach the best carbs and fats to eat for fat loss
• That would use real, delicious food for maximum fat loss results
• And that would have easy "Personalized" meal plans

The Diet Solution is a nutrition based program that focuses on losing weight through proper nutrition. Cutting processed foods, bad fats out of our diets as well as foods that have been touted as healthy but are converted to sugar such as, whole wheat breads, cereals, and health bars. It's not just a good way to lose weight but a way to better heath.

You really want to not only look better but more importantly you want to be healthier, what have you gained if you have lost the weight you wanted but did harm to your body, mental well being, and possibly shortened your life expectancy? Now I do realize that a worst case scenario doesn't happen to everyone who fad diets, but I have had people in my life who started what seemed like harmless diet tactics to lose a couple pounds, wind up fighting for their lives. So, I just really want people who want or even need to lose weight, to do some soul searching as to what they want to achieve and why, and then look at the healthiest options that are available. Again, to repeat myself, I think it is a good idea to talk over your dieting options with a health or nutrition professional before starting any weight loss program.