Ditch the diet

When somebody says, “I’m on a diet” we are impressed, and the more stricter and newer their diet is, the more we tend to raise our eyebrows in awe. Following the latest fad diets sound cool and trendy but not necessarily healthy as many of them are quite restricted in terms of food and nutrition. May 6 is International No Diet Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of how unhealthy dieting can be harmful, or respecting and accepting body types, and promoting healthy eating rather than dieting. This day was created by Mary Evans Young, director of the British group Diet Breakers in 1992. After personally experiencing anorexia, she worked to help people appreciate themselves for what they are, and to appreciate the body they have. We asked nutrition experts about the fad diets that people follow and their harmful effects.

Pooja Makhija, clinical nutritionist
No Diet Day is required because following diets has become an obsession today. More so, following the trends of the latest diets has become an obsession. And it’s not just the affluent and swish set of the society, even the middle class and mid-income range groups want to see nutritionists and follow a diet irrespective of whether it’s good or bad. In the wake of this era, health has become a priority. People take care of weight, eat healthy to feel good and look good appearance-wise. 
“Ninety per cent of my clientele want to see a nutritionist and follow a diet so that they can wear smaller size clothes or wear good clothes or dress like someone. If even one Hollywood or Bollywood star is following a particular diet, they want to follow the same diet,” says Makhija.

What popular diets are people hooked on to these days?
The Gluten-free Diet. People are so scared of rotis! They think that going on this diet is going to give them fabulous results.

According to you, which popular diet is the most harmful and why?
There are many bizarre diets like the Tapeworm Diet and the Cotton Ball Diet to name a few, but the one diet that I disagree personally with is the No Carb Diet. This diet instills a fear of food which is disheartening and deprives the body of carbs. It’s like taking away from the essential of life. Around 90 per cent of trending diets involve deprivation or zero carbs. 
    
Carbs act like the engine for the body. And following such diets is like trying to run a train without an engine. Depriving your body of carbs is going to leave one fatigued, have hair loss, results in  mood swings and in severe cases could also lead to hallucination, anxiety and depression.

What is the worst diet pattern you’ve encountered in a patient?
Many years ago, there was a young woman in her mid-20s who just ate one grape every hour (besides water). And she followed this bizarre diet for two months! The reason being, she wanted to lose the weight she had gained after marriage. When she came to see me, I thought she was going to crumble. She did lose weight but she also lost her charm, energy, hair, had bad skin and she was depressed. Her husband didn’t think she was beautiful anymore and preferred her the way she was before the weight loss. 
I had to put her into a food rehab! I had to  coax her into making friends with food, and slowly introduce food into her body because her digestive system was rejecting food. More than weight loss, she lost on muscles. Because she was young, it was easier to get her on the right track. Had it been a middle-aged person, he/she would have collapsed.

Niti Desai, consultant nutritionist

There are a lot of people who are obsessed with following diets. Especially women, who are always on some form of diet or the other. I call them professional dieters! They will eat before 7 pm or will consume only three items in a meal or will have only fruits till lunch, etc., says Desai.

What popular diets are people hooked on to these days? 
The No Carb Diet, The 5:2 Diet, The Rosedale Diet and the evergreen GM Diet.

According to you, which popular diet is the most harmful and why?
All of these crash and fad diets are harmful as they lead to rapid weight loss and weight gain and associated hair fall and lowering of metabolic rate. The GM Diet is the worst as it borders on starvation. And it does not help change one’s dietary habits at all.

What is the worst diet pattern you’ve encountered in a patient?
There’s too many of them! Practices like skipping of breakfast, having lunch at 4 pm, having burger/samosa at 7 pm, having four cups of rice and vegetable followed by three scoops of ice cream and munching on a packet of wafers while watching TV at night, smoking 10 cigarettes and two cans of diet coke in a day.

Suman Agarwal,  fitness consultant and founder of Selfcare

Certain type of population could have an unhealthy urge to eat only healthy food and would stick to it no matter what, is an obsession known as ‘orthorexia’. One should not go on such a strict regime as it would lead to self-punishing and aggression. Instead, go for well balanced and well-portioned meals which include all the components like cereals, pulses, milk and milk products, nuts, fruits, vegetables, eggs and meat, says Agarwal.

What popular diets are people hooked on to these days? 
High protein diet is most popular these days. People have ideas in mind that including a high protein in diet will help them look leaner but only proteins (no carbs) might increase their hunger and may not help lose weight. Including limited amounts of dals, curds and non-veg foods (not fried) helps losing weight.

l According to you, which popular diet is the most harmful and why?
There are various fad diets used by people for losing weight. Few of them are as follows: The 5.2 Diet (five days normal meals and two days fasting), The Dukan Diet (strict low carb regime) and The Juice Cleanse (vegetable and fruit juices diet). The problems with these diets are that they lack complete balance of nutrients, are strict, hard to maintain and weight loss is not sustainable.

What is the worst diet pattern you’ve encountered in a patient?
A 20-year-old female weighing 136 kgs lost around 53 kgs with us. She had long meal gaps with a lot of binging at a time. Also, her meals did not include appropriate amounts of proteins and no exercise. We rectified this by giving portioned meal at regular intervals with suitable exercises.