Dieting sans consultation can lead to health issues, say experts

Indore: Plethora of information on google is generally considered a boon for the mankind, however, it becomes a bane too when people start considering it as the first and the last option to find solutions to their problems, said dieticians of the city.


For a 24-year-old marketing professional, Krati Adhikari, following the seven-day

diet

became the biggest task when she started feeling lethargic with each passing day. “On a friend’s advice, I decided to follow a week-long crash diet without any expert’s consultation and it turned out to be a disaster for me,” said Krati, who thereafter, vowed not to follow any other crash diet.

Maintaining ideal weight is not a big deal, it doesn’t require eliminating everything from the diet. It only requires a few changes. People who don’t take advice make it look like a difficult task to accomplish. But, in reality, it’s just the opposite, said nutritionist Dr

Sangeeta Malu

.

Diabetes, hyper acidity, irritable bowel syndrome, blood pressure, weakness and loss of energy are a couple of issues that people will face in case of diets without consultation of the

experts

. “It’s a good thing to be fitness conscious, however, without the guidance of an expert it can be harmful for the person,” said dietician Dr Preeti Shukla.

According to Preeti, the Indian diet is the most balanced one. “We start opting for shortcut like eating only rice and dal or chapatti and vegetables and that’s where we lose. If we start skipping some elements of our food, then it will definitely lead to multiple medical issues,” added Shukla.

There are several crash diets- seven days, ketone, juice crash, Hollywood and master cleanse- which have been followed by many people. But, these diets are designed and are tailor-made to the individual based on the work profile, medical history, and climatic conditions, said the experts who strongly believe that before starting any kind of diet, the person should definitely opt for an expert advice.

A fashion designer Sheena Kumar, who followed a three-day all liquid diet had to be taken to a doctor on the third day due to excessive weakness and giddiness. “I had a bet with my cousin to complete this diet. I wanted to lose some weight as well, so I gave in. But, instead of weight loss, I had to go through some medication in the end,” she said.

As per dietician Dr Swati Sharma Parmar, dieting without the advice of a qualified dietician/nutritionist can lead to malnutrition and many major deficiencies. “During some diet people leave the major component of food, i.e carbohydrate. One should restrict the amount of intake but shouldn’t eliminate it completely,” added Parmar.