Hcg Diet

We’ve all heard of fad diets. What does this mean? Let’s define it this way: a fad diet is one that is popular because celebrities or “news” features tout it, and not because it has a scientific basis. Some fad diets simply don’t work, while others are actually dangerous.

How can you identify a fad diet? There are several ways:
• Promise fast loss of many pounds
• Require injections of any kind (other than those prescribed and administered by your doctor)
• Advocate severe calorie restriction (500-700 calories per day)
• Require cutting out or severely limiting entire food groups (for example, fats or carbohydrates)
• Rely exclusively on one kind of food (such as cabbage)
• Propose cleansing of the colon (ridiculous)
• Requires that certain foods always (or never) be eaten together
• Tout “fat burning” supplements
• Warn “results may vary”…why do they need to tell us something so obvious? Sounds like an “out”, doesn’t it?
There are hundreds of fad diets on the market at any given time and new ones are added every year. Some hang on for a few months, others for decades (depending upon how effectively they are marketed). Consider the following recent and dated diets: Cambridge, Zone, Protein Power, South Beach, “Fruitarianism”, Cabbage Soup, Caveman, Grapefruit, Blood Type, Tapeworm, HCG, Atkins, Liquid, Israeli Army, Negative Calorie, Three Day, Hollywood, Lemonade, Raw Food, Baby Food…and on and on the list goes. There’s no end to it.
The greatest danger in fad diets is that they advocate something other than a balanced diet and therefore do not provide an adequate supply of necessary vitamins and minerals. Let’s explore a few of the problems:
Low carbohydrate diets focus on protein and fat. These diets can elevate the blood cholesterol level and they can cause a condition called ketoacidosis. Ketones are normal byproducts of fat metabolism. If inadequate carbohydrate is provided, the body relies on the breakdown of fat for the production of energy. Through a complicated metabolic process, ketosis can cause the body to lose the protein normally stored in muscles. Ketosis can also cause kidney stones and kidney disease, osteoporosis, and high cholesterol
Some fad diets advocate fasting for weight loss. These diets are extremely dangerous and can result in serious illness. They cause fat burning as well as breakdown of muscle. (Remember that the heart is a muscle.) These “diets” also cause depletion of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. There is often a quick “weight” loss in the beginning of such a regimen because of water loss. However, extreme restriction of calories soon causes the system to go into a protective mode in which metabolism is slowed because of the body perceives a threat of starvation.
Diet pills are another fad which purport to cause weight loss. Diet pills unless prescribed by a physician who can monitor their use for safety, pose a danger to the health. Further, they often produce undesirable side effects (think frequent, urgent stools with liquid fecal discharge with the passage of gas). Others may even be addictive. Dozens have been discontinued by the FDA because they pose danger of addiction.
Don’t ever try dangerous fad diets, because some ‘celebrity’ tells you to do it! Instead, learn how you can easily change your lifestyle to lose weight the only correct way.
If you’re serious, I’ll help you.
By Sue Bristol, R.N.