Mary Kim
English 105
04-17-07
Crash Dieting: Is it Effective?
The Centers for Disease Control and prevention estimated almost 97.1 million adults and 6.7 million children and teens are overweight. Being obese can relate to many risks such as heart disease and diabetes. Diabetes is a blood sugar disorder that can cause nerve damage, organ failure, and blindness. Today, Americans have an obsession over dieting. Many people want to lose weight fast so they lean towards crash dieting, also known as a fad diet. Crash dieting is an unhealthy choice, because it leads to malnutrition. Doctors and dietitians do not recommend this type of diet because it is not safe or effective.
A fad diet or crash diet is often linked to the idea of rapid weight loss. The expression “fad diets” are known as diets that encourage a limited eating-plan that either lacks the right amount of calories or is unhealthy. A fad diet results in rapid weight loss, but it consist of a poor diet. Many people lean towards crash dieting when they want to lose weight fast.
In the last year, Americans have spent about $33 billion dollars worth of weight loss products such as diet-pills, weight loss supplements, low-calorie foods, and a large portion is spent on different types of diet plans. A few examples of fad diets include Atkins, Cabbage Soup Diet, Grapefruit Diet, and Negative Calorie Diet to Beverly Hills Diets. Time Magazine named Atkins “The Most Popular Diet Program”. The Atkins diet is eating any type of protein and fat, but no carbohydrates. Atkins is one of the most controversial topics of dieting because of the possible side affects on the dieter’s health.
The Negative Calorie diets consist of fibrous complex carbohydrates. In other words, green vegetables. People can eat as many green vegetables until they fill them up, because they are low in calories. The Negative Calorie diet gets its name from certain green vegetables that may possibly have a quantity of their calories burnt up in order to digest them, which is called the “negative calorie” process. Supporters of the Negative Calorie Diet said that eating a stick of celery which is 5 calories will burn 95 calories. This is only a theory and has no scientific evidence. The Beverly Hills Diet is one of the best examples of crash dieting. For breakfast, the dieter consumes 8 oz of prunes, limitless amount of strawberries for lunch, and a baked potato for dinner. The guaranteed weight loss is 15 pounds in 35 days. This type of diet would be hard to maintain because of the limited variety of foods, which will eventually result in rapid weight gain.
Many of the diets explained above do result in fast weight gain, but why do people go on these crash diets when they gain weight shortly after? The only possible answer is fast weight loss. Doctors and dietitians do not recommend these types of diets, because they are unhealthy and do not have good, nutritional value. Crash dieting is impractical because the diets require the same foods that do not have enough nutritional value and impossible to stay on for long amount of time. Fad diets forces the dieter to change the way they eat dramatically, which leads to emotional distress such as depression and low self- esteem. Fad diets can cause serious disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy blood cholesterol levels, gall bladder disease, and various types of cancer.
Doctors and dietitians recommend their patients to lose weight safe and effectively by losing small amounts of weight at a time, so that the weight being lost does not gain back quickly. Familydoctor.org said that good nutrition is one of the main keys to good health. A healthy diet requires habitual exercising and a healthy diet. This may not be the best way to lose weight, but it is the best way to treat your body. Weight can be lost by making minor changes in your diet like: eating meat baked, grilled, or broiled instead of fried, cut back on butter, margarine, salad dressings, sour cream, eat lots of vegetables and fruits, and drink plenty of water. By making these minor changes, the dieter will most likely begin to feel better about their self-image.
There are countless reasons why fad diets are not a good idea, but people keep dieting in a dangerous manner. Weight being lost rapidly is satisfying to see, which is why it seems reasonable to see people go on these diets. Many celebrities such as Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson have tried fad diets. Jessica Simpson told SELF magazine that the low-carb lifestyle was defiantly not the right path for her. She told SELF magazine, “Atkins really messed me up mentally. I was so starved for carbs, I binged on them. She told SELF magazine that she now enjoys her favorite foods in moderation such as bread, cookie-dough ice cream, Italian food, and lots of salad. This is one example of the effects of fad diets: starvation, binging, and emotional distress.
Losing weight slowly can be frustrating, but what is worse than gaining more weight you started with? Once the dieter is off crash dieting and maintains normal eating habits, the body conserves energy and stores fat, which leads to weight gain. It is better to lose weight slowly and effectively to make sure the weight being lost does not gain back faster. Crash dieting is beneficial for a small amount of time, but builds up and becomes detrimental to the dieter. America has created an obsession over different fad diets. Beginning to crash diet is a terrible idea because it is unhealthy, harmful to the dieter’s health, and not efficient.