What are the risks of following fad diets?

Following fad diets over long periods could put your body at risk with serious health conditions. Few of them being: ketosis, nutritional deficiencies, kidney trouble and weight gain with little extra pounds when you decide to stop.

Ketosis - Fad diet is considered an unbalance diet; it eliminates or minimizes carbohydrates in your diet which synthesizes or creates fat in your body. Carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fuelling brain functions. A low carb diets may increase your risk of ketosis. Ketosis is a condition in which your body breaks down fat for energy. A little carbohydrate in the diet may result to the liver to convert fats into fatty acid and ketone bodies. These ketone bodies pass into the brain and replaces glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood may result to fruity smelling breath, loss of consciousness and worst coma. According to the research conducted at Dartmouth Medical School and published in the "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences" in 2005 discovered that people on the Atkins diet burn fat as fuel, develop ketosis.

Malnutrition – Women on fad diets is most likely to increase risk on vitamin and mineral deficiencies as well as lack of nutrients.  Due to restriction on the amount of food intakes, women maybe vulnerable to insufficient calcium and iron needed for bones and red blood cells.

According to American Heart Association the following are possible risks posed by fad diets.

·        Nutritional deficiencies caused by a lack of a balanced diet.

·        Lack of physical activity from emphasis on diet only can increase the risk of heart disease.

·        Lack of variety in foods can cause boredom and frustration, and make it difficult to maintain the diet for more than a brief period.

·        Severe restrictions on the foods you can eat may make it difficult to establish and maintain a healthy diet in the future.

·        Many quick weight-loss diets are based on unfounded claims that may do more harm than good.

Kidney trouble – The production of uric acid and calcium oxalate, substances associated with kidney stones and gout usually increases with low-carbohydrate and high protein diets.  This fact is confirmed by the research at the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago and published in the "American Journal of Kidney Diseases" in 2002 which says that consumption of a low-carbohydrate high protein diet in six weeks can increase risk of kidney stones. Further low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets increases urinary calcium and decreases calcium level in the body leading to increased risk of bone loss.

Gain on Weight – Contrary to your objective fad diets let you gain weight. Due to low adherence, fad diets may help you lose weight but will not help you sustain the lost weight for long.  Research by scientists at Tufts-New England Medical Center and published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 2005 evaluated the effects of weight loss on four popular diets and found that at the end of one year, participants who adhered to the respective diet lost an average of 2.1 kilograms on the Atkins diet, 3.0 kg on the Weight Watchers diet, 3.2 kg on the Zone diet, and 3.3 kg on the Ornish diet. Among those who began each diet, 50 percent completed the Ornish diet, 53 percent completed the Atkins diet, and 65 percent completed the Zone or the Weight Watchers diets.