Crash Diets Are Wrecking Our Health

Today, people are fixated with one’s body and weight. Peer pressure is also taking it’s toll on younger adults. It is not the parents, not the school culture but the dark claws of one’s distorted self-image that is the core issue. Social media like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and have their roles to in the complex social interplay.

Quick Fix Weight Solutions

The social media platforms promote unrealistic beauty and body-size standards. Unfortunately, misleading advertisements and propaganda are also responsible for the misconceptions people have about their self-image and weight. I am tired of seeing intelligent, healthy and energetic teens and youth getting obsessed with exotic diets that cannot sustain their bodies. Such extreme diets lead to serious consequences.

The younger generations and even adults are not aware that celebrities spend a lot of money on image consultants and personal trainers, quick diets, make-up, cosmetic surgeries that include injections. And finally, what cannot be “fixed” by surgeons is brushed up by photoshop.

I have witnessed so called “weight-loss consultants” peddling their powders and pills in parties, and sometimes even in trains. These powders and other weight-loss products are sold to naïve and vulnerable customers who are unaware that these pills and other items rarely have any science behind them—and they also have a negative effect on body image.

A lot of well-educated youth, aspiring actors and models jumping onto keto diets and pumping themselves on high-protein, zero carb diets and they lose an incredible amount of weight in a few months. But flash forward to a year later, and they have relapsed to their original sizes. What the majority of the youth do not realise that such extreme diets are not suitable for all.

Behind The Glory

Celebrities following such difficult diets are under the paid supervision of expert nutritionists, dietitians and doctors. Most teenagers and pre-teens have not seen the effort, discipline and the cost that goes into sustaining such otherwise tough regimens in regular lives.

Self-education and counselling are the first steps in dismantling this “unrealistic” new culture. I would like to see celebrities and the mainstream health fraternity promoting a healthy whole foods diet for a change. It is bad enough that many people out there still believe that milk is a boon. Most of us, don’t realize that a good eating habits are formed when you include more healthy foods in your daily routine, rather than eliminating foods from your plate to lose weight.

Final Word

This is not a critique of a particular diet or system. But its an appeal for all to eat regularly and choose wholesome foods. Do not self-prescribe weight loss powders or self-abstain from a group of vegetables just because they have more carbohydrates. Whole foods have a lot of other nutrients that your body requires. Finally, do your own research and connect with positive and healthy people. They will encourage you and set you on the right path. Sustaining healthy is easy and inexpensive if you choose your foods well. Stay healthy.

This is a short clip of a mother. Anita Shah (Author of Nature’s Kitchen) whose daughter went on one such “diet” to lose weight and wound up in the hospital due to complications.

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