Seven absurd and dangerous diets that can ruin your health

If there are two key moments during the year in which the most sought after words in Google are “diet” or “lose weight”, we could say that September and January take that prize, since they coincide exactly with the end of two broadly characterized periods for the high and excessive infestas of food: summer and Christmas.

However, unfortunately for our health, they proliferate in the same way (although basically they do not care about the time of year) the known “miracle diets” based on supposed scientific studies (and I say assumptions because we never see those studies revered by any side) that promise to lose a lot of weight in a very short time, and sometimes they do it with the claim of the figure of one or several celebrities to whom they put as examples.

How should I lose the weight I gained?

The simple answer would be “slowly and controlled by a professional.” But let’s try to delve a little deeper into the reasoning, so that we understand why we are so against these alleged miracle diets and why they are a danger to our health .

Slow weight loss Fast Vs and adhesion

The main problem that we are going to find with too rapid weight losses (for “fast” we can understand more than three or four kilos a month in normal situations) is the lack of adherence that they will create us and that would cause that when we leave that diet, we suffer the dreaded rebound effect and recover the lost weight and some extra kilo.

When we say “weight loss in normal situations”, we are referring to a person who has a few kilos (overweight type I), because in cases in which the person presents overweight type II (pre-obesity) or obesity in any of its stages, the moment we start to control their diet and introduce a component of physical exercise, the initial loss can be significantly higher (sedentary Vs physical exercise).

When this weight loss occurs in a slow and controlled way, what we know as adherence will be generated , which is what we will be able to continue with the passage of time, that is, the healthy eating patterns that we have been acquiring during the diet, prolong them over time (the ideal would be to do it forever).

Diet controlled by a professional dietitian / nutritionist

For a diet to be effective and not harmful to our health, it must be prescribed by a qualified professional in dietetics and nutrition, since they have been trained precisely to know how to perform them and what they should take into account.

Therefore, neither the sellers of products like Herbalife are trained to carry weight reduction issues ( Herbalife’s business model is only based on attracting “investors” who sell their products without giving them any training) or following the diet of the neighbor. of the fifth can be a good idea. What should be done is to go to a qualified professional and not put our health at risk by winning a few months to lose weight and perform the bikini operation at forced marches.

Diets that will ruin your health if the tests

Although the global set could encompass many more diets (and in fact in Vitónica we have a section dedicated to these miracle diets ), we have selected some of the most absurd and absurd that we could find by searching the internet a bit:

Worm Diet

Despite being in the XXI century, this method of weight loss is still followed in various countries around the world , and is as strange as dangerous. The diet of the worm consists in ingesting a tapeworm in adult state to later expel it with antiparasitic.

In 2014 in the state of Florida , the health authorities of a hospital were confronted with the case of a mother who fed her daughter an egg of parasites in order to make the little one lose weight. When questioned, she confessed that she had obtained the capsules in Mexico.

Lingual mesh diet

It is an extremely aggressive diet that consists of placing a small plastic mesh on the tongue with four or six stitches, lasts between a month or a month and a half and promises to lose 15 kilos in a month. These mesh-shaped implants are widespread in countries such as Mexico or Venezuela. In although this technique is not forbidden, it is not homologated, so we are in a legal vacuum that those who wish may take advantage of it.

During the period of one month (or at the most we could reach 45 days, since from there the mesh breaks down due to saliva) we follow a liquefied diet based on juices, vegetable creams with pieces of meat, chicken or fish liquefied and skim milk, which are divided into 3 main meals and 3 snacks (each take should be maximum 250 cc). In general, 600 calories for women and 800 for men are not exceeded. In no case exceed 1100 calories daily with this diet .

After a month or 45 days, depending on what you want to lower, the mesh is removed. In case of wanting to repeat the process, a period of time must be allowed before replacing the mesh.

Backpack diet

This diet was popularized by Oliver di Pietro from his clinic in Miami and is known by the acronym KE ( Ketogenic Enteral ) and is characterized by promising to lose weight ten kilos in ten days without a bite and without feeling hungry.

The regime consists in supplying the patient with 800 calories (the daily minimum necessary to survive) through a nasal tube, a method that has caused great controversy since some specialists consider this diet “very aggressive”.

A nurse introduces a two-millimeter thick tube (the same one used for newborns) through the nose, which passes through the esophagus and ends in the stomach. Then, you must carry the backpack containing all the nutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins mixed with water, vitamins, electrolytes and trace elements) that with the help of a pump supplies the patient with food 24 hours a day.

In the US, this treatment costs 1500 dollars (1146 euros), while in the Clinica Planas de Barcelona (the center ensures that it is a simple method and that the body reacts well) the patient must pay between 3000 and 5000 euros. However, the Association of Nutritionists Dietitians (AEDN) has advised against it since it can cause bone fractures, gastroenteritis and other alterations , and has urged the authorities to protect the population from the negative consequences of this type of regime, which qualify of fraudulent and “miracle diet”.

Diet of the sleeping beauty

Perhaps one of the “miracle diets” that can have more danger and greater consequences for our health, since it is based on the use of drugs and sleeping pills in order to sleep for long periods of time and, in this way, avoid eating food and do not feel hungry

This “diet” is a terrible danger to health, because drugs, sedatives, or sleeping pills create addiction (which is already a risk per se). In addition, sleeping pills tend to increase the dose to be effective, and overdoses are the order of the day.

Urine diet

Yes, it is actually a diet based on drinking your own urine , and apart from disgusting, has no scientific studies to support this nonsense, although this does not mean that there are gurus and “professionals” to recommend and praise its benefits and benefits .

Flora Peschek-Böhmer and Schreiber (author of “Orinotherapy: the elixir of Nature for good health” and who works at a naturopathic medicine center in Hamburg, Germany), together with Harald W. Tietze, author of “Urine: Water Blessed, “and Dr. SK Sharma, author of” Miracles of Urine Therapy, “all cite anecdotal reports of the efficacy of urine therapy in patients who want to lose weight and improve their overall health.

Alcohorexia or ebriorexia

You have got it right: it is a diet based on alcohol consumption . His philosophy is to stop eating to drink alcohol, so that the calories in the glasses do not cause weight gain and thus, those who follow it – mostly young people obsessed with thinness – get drunk faster. With it runs the risk of malnutrition, loss of proteins, vitamins and minerals, as well as develop a liver disease (fatty liver, hepatomegaly or cirrhosis). Actress Lindsay Lohan is often cited as one of the inspirers of this diet.

Pregnancy hormone diet

It combines an extremely calorie-restricted diet (500 a day) with injections of hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), a hormone that is produced during pregnancy and sends signals to the hypothalamus to mobilize and carry fat reserves to the fetus. body. The FDA, the US health authority, has banned the use of this hormone to lose weight , because it can lead to the formation of gallstones and clots, alter the heart rate or promote ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and even, in the most serious cases, they have even registered pulmonary emboli .