Students Rely On Fad Diets To Lose Weight
by Dr. Gary Farr on 1 March 2002
1
Students rely on fad diets to lose weight
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- There are three -- possibly less for some -- days until many Virginia Tech students will be on tropical beaches. Half a week to go, and all of the sudden it is crunch time to get a bathing suit body.
Some students are eschewing healthy eating and working out in favor of fad diets that can be damaging to one's well-being.
The Atkins, Beverly Hills and high protein diets are just a few of the popular diets that advocate quick weight loss, but are unhealthy in the long run.
"The weight you lose in these fad diets, while quickly, is water weight and not permanent," said Christina McIntyre, the undergraduate coordinator for the Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise department. "So dehydration is one the adverse effects of dieting."
Another popular alternative to fad dieting is over-the-counter diet pills.
"People have been using ephedra-based products, like Metabolife, which contains a stimulant that is currently being reviewed by the FDA," McIntyre said. "There have been several thousand cases of adverse reactions and even deaths with this type of product and in most cases people didn't clear it with their doctors."
Herbal versions are no safer.
"Supplements that say 'natural' include Ma Huang, an herbal form of ephedra with the same problems, like increased blood pressure, increased heart rate and strokes in otherwise healthy people," McIntyre said.
Not only are the diets harmful to cardiovascular systems, they eventually cause more weight gain in the end.
"Typically, if you do experience a weight loss, it causes 'yo-yo-ing,'" McIntyre said.
"Your weight goes low and then you gain more than you lost before, so you gain more than not having gone on the diet in the first place."
The American Institue for Cancer Research Web site, lists the dangers associated with fad dieting.
It says that unbalanced dieting is potentially fatal.
"If such an imbalanced diet is maintained, the body soon reverts to a fasting state called ketosis, in which the body begins to metabolize muscle tissue instead of fat," according to the Web site.
"In fact, this state is one of the body's last-ditch emergency responses; deliberately inducing ketosis can lead to muscle breakdown, nausea, dehydration, headaches, light-headedness, irritability, bad breath and kidney problems. In pregnancy, ketosis may cause fetal abnormality or death. It can be fatal in individuals with diabetes."
Of course, the best way to look spectacular in a string bikini is the old fashioned way.
"I know it's not the popular way, but exercise is the safest and healthiest way to lose weight," McIntyre said. "You will enjoy spring break a whole lot more if you are in shape. Exercise is less painful and you aren't depriving yourself all at once."
Although it takes longer to see results, McIntyre said to start working out now to see results for this summer, and next year's spring break.
From: The Collegiate Times via U-WIRE
© Copyright 2000-2005, BecomeHealthyNow.com, Inc. All rights reserved.