Be Aware and Beware of Unhealthy Diets and Weight Loss Plans

All media channels seem to be blocked and overloaded with new stories and theories about nutrition, diets and weight loss. The first and most important fact that all of us need to know is that there is only ONE correct, scientific, practical, logical, WEIGHT LOSS PRINCIPLE. This is – if you want to remove or reduce fat from your body then you MUST NOT PUT FATTY FOODS into your body.

What is the correct, scientific, practical, logical, principle to save money? Put the money in a PIGGY BOX or BANK and do not WITHDRAW IT OR SPEND it. Till the world ends, there will never be a new discovery, invention or principle to save money. Similarly till the world ends, there will not be a new or different way to lose weight.

All the so called, amazing DIETS, that are calculating and being propagated may give result, but all of them have harmful side effects. These effects may not be noticed or known in the beginning, but we have seen that they can cause very serious and harmful, long-term damage to various parts and organs of the body. So the method we recommend, on the basis of scientific nutrition and dietary requirements of the human body, is that everybody, young or old, thin or fat, must eat 3 - CARBOHYDRATES PLUS PROTEIN BALANCED MEALS daily.

This means, that we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner all 7 days of the week. The 3 meals should ideally be spread over a 12-hour period, so if you have breakfast at 8-8.30 am then lunch by 1-1.30pm and dinner by 8-8.30 pm. So if the diet plan that you may be advised to follow, or that you have heard about and wanting to try out, does not follow the above 2 rules, then beware you are going into a dangerous and harmful situation.

I would like to enlighten you about some popular diets that are being followed at present. High Protein Diet, which involves a lot of nonveg food or paneer and pulses if you are a vegetarian.

1. Firstly, it causes a heavy load on your kidneys and also will result in uric acid levels in the blood going high. This then can cause pain and discomfort in joints like toes, ankle, knees, shoulder, etc. and even in the heel.

2. It can affect the liver and gall bladder causing fatty liver and gall bladder stones formation, which may result in severe pain and also may require you to surgically remove the gall bladder.

3. It can cause a rise in blood cholesterol levels which can finally cause a blocking of the arteries and effect the heart.

4. Many who have followed this have been seen to break out into serious acne problems on the face, chest and back which again will require medical treatment and antibiotics for long periods of time to clear up the skin.

5. Finally, we have seen that many people in the United States followed this type of a diet pattern when they were age 30 to 40 and at age 60-70 have developed colon cancer due to the lack of complex carbohydrates and fiber in the diet.

Another popular diet pattern is Intermittent Fasting which many are following at present.

1. The first problem is the buildup of acids in the digestive system during the long duration when there is no food eaten. This can result in a burning sensation in the digestive passage. In some cases, we have seen the development of ulcers in the intestine and also erosion of the walls of the intestine leading to blood loss and finally the hemoglobin levels in the blood dropping causing severe fatigue and anemia.

2. Some suffer from constipation resulting in piles problem.

3. Another serious problem that arises is that individuals get into the habit of eating much larger quantities of food at one time and ultimately instead of losing weight they start putting on weight.

4. Also they feel that they are eating only once or twice a day so they can indulge in any kind of food and they get into the habit of eating all kinds of fatty foods which will ultimately harm their heart, liver and kidneys.

5. The most serious damage that happens with this method is that the Basal Metabolic Rate slows down during the long duration without food. At this time the body is struggling to cope with no energy input. The message from the brain is there is some starvation problem, income is low so slow down or cut down expenditure. The body slows down all the internal motors to cope on low fuel mode.

6. Finally, another serious problem is that the body needs not only a supply of energy 3 times a day, but also a supply of protein 3 times a day for tissue maintenance and repair. If this is missing it cannot burn fat and get protein from fat. It will break down muscle tissue and use it to meet the protein need of the body.

7. This will result in a very, very serious change in the body composition where the muscle mass goes down and the fat mass goes up. When the muscle mass goes down the Basal Metabolism again goes slow. Also your skin will sag and you will start looking aged and haggard.

None of the above side effects are worth having, so please, please beware of all the strange diet programmes that are being circulated. I have personally battled a weight problem from age 9 to age 59. From age 10-35 I tried all kinds of diets on my own and lost and gained weight several time and experienced many harmful side effects too. Finally, at age 35 I decided to go by the book and EAT 3 BALANCED MEALS AND GIVE UP FATTY FOODS for a period of time.

In a year I had lost 25kgs. Then I decided to start my Diet Counselling Clinic and by the Grace of God we have worked now for 23years, helping over 7000 people to eat in a healthy way. We help people to do a healthy weight loss programme, guide those with various other diet related health problems and help sports people with proper sports nutrition guidelines. So BEWARE and be WISE.