fad diets, pills, etc....

[muppet]

I just watched Rachel Ray. I don't normally, but saw a commercial about her show today. A Dr. was coming on to talk about different diets, pills, etc. Well, he didn't really name anything specific, but talked about how bad the liquid diets are, and what they do to you. Basically, I think what he was saying is that your body feeds off it's own healthy tissue for energy. He specifically mentioned the heart muscle, which is why some people died when on liquid diets when they were most popular ( 70s and 80s) Which is why when you see some people who lose weight, they look so drawn and saggy. ( part of the reason anyway -- sometimes it's just cuz skin is not as elastic as it used to be)
He also talked about pills, and what they have in them. Gah--- DO NOT TAKE THEM!!!!
He also hit on the low carb, high protein diets. I'm so glad he did. He explained some things that I never really understood. He talked about ketosis, when you cut out all carbs. Something about how this removes oxygen from your blood and it becomes acidic. And how this then become a favorable place for disease, cancer, etc...
Please don't take my work for it. I've probably got plenty of facts wrong. I also realize that every Dr. on any of these shows has his own agenda. I think this one had a book, called 'The Cure', or something like that. But he addressed some concerns I had about some of these things, and he also affirmed some suspicions about some of these things. He basically advocates a 'back to nature' diet. Simplify-- back to basics. Makes sense to me. Real food....the least processed the better.
I love my processed foods though! But I've always known that they aren't really all that good for you.
Ok, I just want to get past the mumbo jumbo, and get to the heart of what I'm thinking here. Most of us want to lose weight to improve our health. Even if some of our main motivation is to improve appearance, I think most of us realize that out health is precious, and really the best reason to drop those excess pounds. I cannot understand people putting their health at risk in order to lose weight.
Losing weight should improve your health and your appearance. I have lost weight before -- the right way. And everything about me felt and worked better. If you do it right, there are no adverse side effects.
I wish some lawyer would take on the diet industry, and all their false claims and promises. They are just as bad as the tobacco industry. Who knows, like they claim with tobacco ramping up the nicotine to keep people addicted, and other tricks they do, maybe the diet industry is 'spiking' some of these pills, shakes, and prepared foods to keep us fat, so we keep buying them. Far-fetched? Maybe. But they obviously don't care about health. It's all about the all-mighty dollar.
Whew- quite a soap box! I don't know if anyone will bother to read all this, but I'm glad I wrote it. I was considering South Beach, but no longer. Even though it's only the first 2 weeks, that you severely restrict carbs, I am not about to try and tricks, or quick fixes.

[pammalitta]

I'm not bored reading your article at all. It's quite informative.

I'm not on any diet rules too. Too lazy to figure what should be categorized into good or bad foods. I use my own rule " Eat less than you burn".

I tried Cambridge diet before. The owner in Thailand is my father's friend so i got 25% discount. I took 4 courses of it [ 1 course per 1 week], 2 courses at the time. I was 172lbs at that time. After 2 weeks, i was 143lbs. I thought it was a fast-track way of dieting so i took 2 more courses and my weight went down to 120lbs. They never mentioned about yoyo side effect before and my weight jumped up and down between 120-143lbs in the past 3-4 years. That's really irritating.

[Widdlecuddles]

Thanks for sharing this... It is really imformative. So many people want a quick fix with weightloss (myself included) but fad diets and pills definately aren't the answer.
My aunt ook diet pills one time and while she was taking the pills she lost weight, but when she stopped taking the pills the weight jumped back on board and brought friends.

The natural way is a long road, but in the end it's the right road. I am a big fan of processed food also, but I guess it's all about making choices.

Again thanks for writing all this to share!