Harmful Diets!



While obesity is bad for health but the wrong way to diet can also be harmful to your health. Common examples are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorders. These are illnesses where extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surround weight and food issues. These are serious emotional and physical problems with life-threatening consequences. Anorexia Nervosa is an illness by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Symptoms of the illness include:

Refusal to maintain body weight at or above the minimal normal weight for height, body type, age, and activity level
Intense fear of gaining weight or being fat or "obese".
Feeling fat or overweight despite being at a below normal body weight
Overwhelming obsession with body weight and shape

Bulimia Nervosa is a condition of marked over-eating followed by purging through vomiting or diarrhea using laxatives, all done in secrecy. These patients stuff themselves on large amounts of food - within a short period of time, and then get rid of the food and calories through vomiting, laxative abuse, or over-exercising.

Symptoms of this illness include:

Repeated episodes of bingeing and purging
Feeling out of control during a binge and eating beyond the point of being "full"
Purging after a binge (typically by self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, diet pills and/or diuretics, excessive exercise, or fasting)
Frequent dieting
Overwhelming obsession with body weight and shape

Compulsive Overeating is characterized primarily by periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling "full". While there is no purging, there may be fasting or repetitive dieting and often feelings ashame of one self following a binge. People who overeat compulsively usually struggle with anxiety, depression and loneliness, which can contribute to their unhealthy episodes of binge eating. These patients can be normal in their weight, slightly overweight or obese.

Peer pressure that values "thinness" and obtaining the "perfect body" can be a social force for some patients to enter this pattern of self-destruction. Learn to beat Obesity the right way. Through exercise and the right diet, I believe that obesity can be beaten.


Patients Should Be Alert For Obesity Surgery Complication
It is important for obesity surgery patients to take their prescribed vitamin supplements and to be alert for symptoms such as vomiting, confusion, lack of coordination and visual changes signs of a serious neurological condition that can develop after the surgery. [click link for full article]

New Data On Fructose-Sweetened Beverages And Hepatic Metabolism
According to figures published by the World Health Organitzation (WHO), in the year 2015 some 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will suffer from obesity, a pathology which is increasingly being seen in children. In addition, for some time now the high incidence of obesity in developed countries has coincided with an increase in the consumption of beverages sweetened with fructose, a powerful sweetener. [click link for full article]

Red Pepper: Hot Stuff For Fighting Fat?
Food scientists in Taiwan are reporting new evidence from laboratory experiments that capsaicin - the natural compound that gives red pepper that spicy hot kick - can reduce the growth of fat cells. The study is scheduled for the March 21 issue of the ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. [click link for full article]

DVT Awareness Survey Findings For Respondents In High-Risk Groups: Obese Individuals
Up to two million Americans are affected each year by DVT, with up to 600,000 hospitalized. Its primary complication, pulmonary embolism (PE), claims up to 300,000 lives annually -- more than breast cancer and AIDS combined. The Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis (DVT) recently sponsored an online survey of a nationally representative sample of consumers and physicians. [click link for full article]

High BMI Associated With Lower Likelihood Of Being Discharged Home After Hospitalization For Stroke
Individuals with a higher body mass index (BMI) tend are less likely to be discharged directly home after hospitalization for an ischemic stroke, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. An ischemic stroke occurs when the flow of blood to a part of the brain is blocked or reduced and sufficient amounts of oxygen cannot be delivered to brain tissue. [click link for full article]

Do You Pursue an Hourglass Figure?
Forgive the double entendre. When it comes to the hourglass figure - many women pursue it, and it seems that men pursue women with it. Psychologists at the University of Texas (obviously with way too much time on their hands) have reviewed hundreds of years worth of literature and concluded: Men lust after slender-waisted women. Apparently it all comes down...

Obese Patients Run Higher Risk Of Post-Operative Complications
Obese patients have a significantly higher risk of complications following surgery, including heart attack, wound infection, nerve injury and urinary tract infection, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System. [click link for full article]

How to Display a Picture in Your Comments
I've finally enabled avatars / pictures for commenters. Here's how you do it. Go to a site called Gravatar. Follow the instructions by entering your email (make sure it is the same email address that you use for your diet-blog.com comments!). Once registered you can upload a picture. From then on your picture will display next to your comment (see...

Food: Can Variety Breed Indulgence?
Every morning I have the same breakfast. With the exception of a few minor variations I have been eating the same breakfast day in and day out for years. Some people believe that too much variation can lead to indulgence. Is this really true?...

Be Inspired: Shannan's Story
Some people have it tough, and others have it very tough. Shannan Hutchinson is one of the latter. Shannan has Multiple Sclerosis - yet despite the phenomenal challenges posed by her illness, Shannan was able to lose over 90 pounds - by eating right and exercising. Here is her story....