With the Christmas season almost over, it’s small wonder that diet fads are once again rearing their heads as people begin looking for ways to shed all the holiday weight. But some diets take it to the extreme, and experts are warning against them.
The deadly so-called water fast diet bans everything except water, tea and coffee – essentially encouraging people to starve themselves, The Daily Telegraph reports. This fad has taken off on social media, and advocates against negative body image and eating disorders such as Mia Findlay are warning people that this is “the most dangerous” way to lose weight.
Findlay said,
There are a lot of people who do reviews on these so-called diets, and they say they felt so clear-headed, and they felt like they were reaching this state of nirvana, and the reason that is happening is because their bodies are going into starvation mode.
She further explained, “I think people do try to dress it up as it’s mentally beneficial and it’s spiritually beneficial when we all know the real purpose of it is to lose weight very, very quickly and in the most dangerous possible way.”
Joanne Labiner, an eating disorder expert, stated that “water fasting” pushes the human body to an anorexia-like condition, raising the risk for organ damage and early death.
Labiner said, “It can be so bad for your organs, that’s why people with anorexia can die of a heart attack — their body feeds on their heart. Our body thinks it’s an emergency and tries to prevent that fat storage from being used up and it feeds on the muscle.”
Unfortunately, social media personalities have been touting the water fast diet as an “effective” way to make their skin “look amazing” and drop pounds. One dieter on Twitter boasted of being on day nine of the 21-day fast, saying that it was “going very well.”
For those who are looking to get ready for spring and summer, there are plenty of other healthier diets out there, rather than risking death.
