Stones in organs, gout and heart attack: what are fashionable diets dangerous for?
'12.05.2022'
Source: AiF.ru
By the beach season, I want to look slimmer. And there is a great temptation to choose a diet on the Internet that promises results in two weeks in order to lose weight.
Doctors warn that almost any diet based on excessive restrictions does not solve the problem of excess weight. As a rule, the lost kilograms then return and bring "comrades" with them. With a high degree of probability, such self-medication can add new problems - gallstones, gout and depression.
What are the dangerous consequences of fashionable diets, AIF says nutritionist, senior researcher at the clinic of the Federal Research Center for Nutrition, Biotechnology and Food Safety Julia Chekhonina.
What are sick of diets
- It would seem, what kind of problem is a few extra pounds? Now so many different diets are offered everywhere - choose any and lose weight. This is a big mistake. Any of these diets does not teach the main thing - to eat right. It does not make it possible to fully provide the body with all the necessary substances. Diets offer to give up something for a while, and it is completely unreasonable. A person thinks that he only needs to be patient for a while, to exhaust himself. And then he returns to his usual diet, which was the cause of excess weight.
What happens during a rigid low-calorie diet? Not only does excess fluid and excess fat go away, but muscle mass is also lost. This leads to a decrease in energy consumption, the rate of metabolic processes, because the muscles consume more calories. And already with a reduced metabolism, a person returns to the previous diet, so the lost kilograms are gained with a plus. A common situation: let's say a person lost 5 kg on such a diet, but then added 7 kg within a year.
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Depending on the time of restriction, such diets can cause damage to health from remedial to irreparable. In some cases, you have to resort to surgical treatment. For example, there are a number of diets that are called high-protein, where carbohydrates are excluded as much as possible. They often have such a complication as stone formation. By the way, gallstones can form from almost any diet due to the fact that bile thickening very often occurs. Thick bile forms a sediment, and then stones. A common complication of high-protein diets is the same kidney stones. The fact is that such a diet is rich in purine bases (nitrogenous compounds), which cause an increase in uric acid levels, the formation of stones and the development of gout.
In addition, in the case of high-protein diets, foods with animal protein, which is almost always associated with cholesterol, predominate in the diet. Naturally, the level of cholesterol in the blood rises, its excess is deposited on the walls of blood vessels, then cardiovascular diseases occur.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that people who have been on a carbohydrate-free diet for years have almost a third more risk of premature death from cardiovascular diseases. In particular, the popular Dukan diet increases the risk of death from disorders of the heart and blood vessels. I'm not talking about diseases of the digestive system and excretion. These include cholelithiasis, urolithiasis, nephrolithiasis, and disorders of purine metabolism - gout.
Carbohydrate diets increase the risk of developing depression. After all, carbohydrates give us positive emotions. But, naturally, when used in reasonable quantities.
And the very name "carbohydrate-free diet" is at least illiterate. Almost no diet excludes vegetables, and these are also carbohydrates, and one of the most useful. In fact, there are no carbohydrate-free diets. But if someone calls their diet carbohydrate-free and offers it to others, then it is worth doubting the competence of such a “specialist”.
Moreover, any well-known restrictions (everyone knows that it is better to eat less salty, sweet, fatty) should be observed without fanaticism, within reasonable limits. Increasingly stricter prohibitions must have their evidence. For example, a salt-free diet is indicated if a person has high blood pressure, kidney disease in the acute phase, a tendency to edema, and so on. If such problems do not exist, then there is no need to completely eliminate salt from your diet. Because in a small amount it is still needed by our body.
Not harmless and diet pills. If a person uncontrollably begins to expel a liquid that seems superfluous to him, then his electrolyte balance is likely to be disturbed, useful micro- and macroelements will leave with the liquid. This can lead to very unpleasant consequences, ranging from muscle cramps (for example, many people are familiar with the feeling of cramps in the calf muscles, which is very often from potassium deficiency), heart rhythm disturbances, and ending with fainting as a result of electrolyte imbalance. If a person wants to lose weight, then you need to start with putting things in order in nutrition, and not with the use of dangerous drugs that help get rid of fluid or have a laxative effect. This is not an effect on the cause. After all, the cause of excess weight is excess nutrition. With the help of such pills, we will not eliminate this cause.
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Statistics show that overweight people who have never gone on diets on their own in their entire lives have better health indicators than those who are constantly on diets, driving weight plus or minus back and forth.
Very often we say to our patients: if you are unhappy with your body weight, but at the same time are not ready to see a doctor, then please do not even start self-medicating - do not resort to diets. Just start eating right. It's not that hard. And the principles of a balanced diet are known to all.
