By Dr Tulika Bakshi Sinha , Dietician/Nutritionist
The word ‘diet’ has come to deviate from its original meaning since past few years. It comes from the Greek word ‘diaita,’ which means the manner of living. Millions of people all over the world involve themselves in various dieting fads to lose weight, not realizing its potential shortcomings.
Here are 3 reasons why dieting is bad for you.
1. Diet affects your overall physical and mental health
Dieting is a temporary phenomenon and as a result, its effects are short lasting. The sudden weight fluctuations caused due to dieting can bring many related side effects that may impact your physical health. It has been observed that dieting leads to cardiovascular diseases, low blood pressure, and even Type 2 diabetes. In fact, a diet low in carbohydrates can even cause bad breath.
The psychological impact of dieting is equally surprising. Dieting is found to trigger excess production of cortisol, the stress hormone, and this elevated stress leads to binge eating. A study on women also found that the younger they started dieting, the more prone they were as adults to harmful behaviors like alcohol abuse.
2. Dieting makes you obsessed about food
The lack of food intake in the process of dieting can make you obsessed about food. The persisting hunger in your stomach makes you more prone to thinking about food rather than anything else. Due to this obsession, food gradually becomes harder to handle, and as a result of this, other important aspects of your life are adversely impacted. Therefore, it’s important to maintain a balance rather than follow a diet in which you have to force yourself to starve.
3. Post-dieting food habits lead to weight gain
The process of dieting lowers the basal metabolic rate of the body, which simply means the body gets used to surviving on less food. So, after the dieting process when you resume your normal consumption of food, which was higher to begin with, you start gaining more weight and that too at a faster rate. In many cases, it may even lead to eating disorders.
“Forget about being skinny.Think about losing weight the Healthy way with no Starvation.”
