health education

Google Groups Subscribe to ehealthedu
Email:
Browse Archives at groups.google.com

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Losing water weight is also the key

 


Losing water weight is also the key to the quick weight-loss claims of some of the diet pills on the market. Many of these pills contain laxatives or diuretics - ingredients that force a person's body to eliminate more water. Other diet pills rely on ingredients that claim to speed up a person's metabolism (the process by which the body turns food into energy and stores unused calories as fat); suppress appetite; or block the absorption of fat, sugars, or carbohydrates.
Do these types of supplements actually do what they say they will? Unfortunately, there's usually no reliable scientific research to back up the claims provided by the product's manufacturer. In addition, there are many unknowns about the substances used in diet supplements, so dietitians and doctors consider them risky. What research studies do show is that most of the people who try one of these "crash" diets regain all the weight they lost within a few weeks or months.
Do These Diets Put Your Health at Risk?
Luckily, very few people stick to a highly restrictive diet for long periods of time and most people give up on them after a few days. But what happens if you keep following extremely low-calorie diets or taking weight-loss supplements? That's when things can get a little scary.
Radically cutting back on calories can make you tired, jittery, and moody. These symptoms usually go away when you resume healthy eating habits, but over the long term, a highly restrictive diet may cause other health problems. You may lose some of your hair, your fingernails may become brittle, dark circles may appear under your eyes, and your muscles may shrink and weaken. Sometimes staying on a highly restrictive diet for a long period of time can cause lasting damage to your body, especially to the heart and kidneys. Following extreme diets over the long term or a pattern of extreme dieting followed by binge eating are both signs that a person may have an eating disorder.
Drastically reducing your food intake depletes the body's access to the vitamins, minerals, and fiber that it needs to stay healthy. If a diet requires you to cut out all dairy products, for example, you are also losing valuable calcium. Over a prolonged period, a lack of calcium puts a person at increased risk for osteoporosis (pronounced: ahs-tee-oh-puh-ro-sis), a condition in which bones become brittle and more susceptible to injury as a person ages. Some diets - like those that omit all red meat - may leave the dieter lacking iron, which can lead to anemia, especially in teen girls. And trying to replace the foods you're cutting out with vitamin pills is a bad idea. Foods like fruits and vegetables contain more than just vitamins and minerals - they are some of the best sources of fiber. Fiber can help to prevent disease. Posted by Picasa

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home


Health - Diet - Food safty - Teen - Date - Feminine Hygiene - Care your Eyes