Unsafe Fad Diet Trends to Watch out for If There Is One Universal Truth
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Unsafe Fad Diet Trends to Watch Out For If there is one universal truth that few people would argue with you about it is that the United States has a very big obesity problem. Millions of people spend millions of dollars every year on supplements and diet plans that are supposed to help them lose weight. Some work and are based off scientific fact and common sense, while others are nothing more than dangerous fads. Here are some of the unsafe fad diets trends that are popular today that you would be better off avoiding all together. Sticking to common sense methods like being mindful of what you eat and being as active as you can each day is much better and safer than trying any of these dangerous diet trends: Exclusivity – Any diet that requires you to give up everything or to eat only one particular type of food exclusively is one that should be avoided. Now, giving up things like salt and added sugar are not bad, but when a diet tells you to eat nothing but eggs every day for a week, that you should eat nothing but meat, that all food other than raw fruits and veggies are bad, and so on and so forth are a recipe for failure eventually. We need balance and the key to a health diet is moderation so any diet that requires you to throw these out the window should be avoided. Liquid- A very popular diet that can have its usefulness sin limited applications and selected situations- pre or post surgery or to help jump start metabolism- the liquid diets not meant to be done for more than 5-7 days at the absolute max. Liquid diets are popular for weight loss because it is hard to get adequate caloric intake when you’re only drinking your foods. And if you try to supplement with nutrition shakes, you are often just loading up on a lot of sugar and other harmful things. The key with liquid diets is to never look at them as a long-term solution. Extreme Detox- Like the liquid diet address above, there is a time and place for a detox but it should never be maintained long term as a way to lose weight. Detox is meant to help flush the body, particularly after and illness or prolonged overindulgence. It is meant to wash the body of toxins or addictive elements like sugar or caffeine. Long term however, the detox diet can throw your body out of balance and cause a great deal of harm as you body is starved of necessary and vital nutrients that keep the body functioning as it should. 5-Bites- This is a new fad diet that is popular these days but versions of it have been around for decades. As the name suggests, this fad diet is based on the idea that all meals are comprised of just 5 bites. And these are not giant, eating contest bites but are meant to be your normal every day bites. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner- all 5 bites. This means that your entire food intake for an entire day is 15 bites. The diet usually states you can eat whatever you want but 15 bites of anything is no where near enough to be healthy and sustained long term. Baby Food- As a baby, we are unable to eat normal high calorie foods but that is not stopping some people from reverting back to those infantile food options. The baby food diet has participants eating only baby food, because it is low calorie and that the jars make it easy to set up portion control. There are many ways that this is a very bad idea, the main one being that there is no way to get enough nutrients and vitamins to sustain an adult body in a healthy manner by eating baby food and illness and other health problems are sure to come. Cabbage Soup- While cabbage is a low calorie food and you can actually burn as much or more calories digesting it than you will gain by eating it, consuming nothing but cabbage for a week at a time is asking for trouble. Not only are you depriving yourself of necessary nutrients, you are setting yourself up from major health problems. Eating cabbage soup long term can lead to bloating, gas, indigestion, diarrhea, and other nasty stomach and digestive issues. The minor benefits are definitely not worth the consequences that will come from following the fad. Cotton Balls- This is one of those diet fads that make you stop and wonder how in the world someone thought this would be a good idea and at all safe. The cotton ball diet has you soaking cotton balls in chicken broth, juice, or coffee and then swallowing them. Up to five cotton balls a day can eb eaten by some people on this dangerous fad diet. The idea is that the cotton takes up room in the stomach and is slower to digest so you won’t eat as much. However, the cotton balls can lead to major blockages in the stomach with can be life threatening most of the time. Tapeworm- Another diet that makes you wonder what people are thinking, the tapeworm diet has in fact existed for decades. People will actually intentionally ingest the tapeworm larvae to get the worm growing inside their stomach and intestines. The idea is that the parasitic tape worm will feed on the food they digest so they do not gain wait when they eat. This is a crazy idea and has many dire consequences; and when you think about it just watching what you eat and being active is so much better than intentionally giving yourself a parasite. Sleeping Beauty- It make sense to think that sleeping is good for our diet because when we are asleep we are not eating. However, the sleeping beauty diet takes this idea to an extreme level. For this diet you are to sleep for 12 or more hours every day so that you avoid eating; the goal often being to eat just one meal a day. The danger here, aside from not getting enough nutrients to stay healthy, is that people who follow this fad can turn to drugs and medication to keep themselves asleep for long periods of time each day which can be very dangerous indeed. Extreme Fasting- It has been shown that periodic fasting can be good for the body and can keep metabolism rates high and help you burn more weight. However, long term fasting will have exact opposite effect. If you deprive yourself of significant nutrients and vitamins for more than 3-5 days your body will start to enter what is known as starvation mode. In this mode, your body holds on to each and every fat cell and calorie and you will lose weight much slower than you would if you were eating normally and being active every day. Flecherizing Diet- Most of us were told as children to chew our food well and eat slowly. This is a diet that takes that advice to a whole new level and recommends chewing every single bite 100 times before swallowing. The idea is to slow down the process of eating so we have less time to ingest a lot of calories and to also burn more calories that we consume with all the chewing. There has been little evidence that this method does any good and can really hurt your jaw, teeth, and mouth and deprive you of the nutrients your body craves. Caffeine Overdose- The final fad diet you need to be wary of in these modern times is a popular and very dangerous fad known as the caffeine overdose diet. The idea here is to drink nothing but energy drinks or coffee all day long. The caffeine is thought to have several effects- boosting metabolism and fat burning, making you more active, and flushing your system due to its diuretic nature. The dangers of this fad are vast but the most severe are issues including heart attack, stroke, stomach bleeding, dehydration, and even death. Many people in the United States have an obesity problem and many spend millions of dollars every year on things to help them lose weight such as diet pills and dietary plans. Some work and are based off scientific fact and common sense, while others are nothing more than dangerous fads. You should always consult your doctor or nutritionist before starting any kind of diet program and always go with a common sense approach to dieting and exercise and avoid fad diets at all costs! .