The Skinny on Crash Diets January 14, 2009

To diet, as the joke goes, means to die with a ‘T’.  Such is the case of the vain who go on crash diets just because they think they’re too fat; that their clothes no longer fit; or because their love handles are too big, even if in truth they are not fat at all.

Diet is often equated with nutrition.  The dictionary defines it as the act of restricting food intake or at least intake of particular food.  Diet as a collective is the amount of food a person eats or drinks during the course of a day.  People do it for health reasons, some to simply lose weight, and some altogether for all the wrong reasons.

The body needs calories for heat.  A calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. The unit’s name is French and derives from the Latin calor (heat).  Although the new unit of energy is joule, calorie remains as the unit of measurement for energy obtained from food.

A crash diet is a diet which is extreme in its deprivations – typically restricting calorie intake abruptly.  Meant to achieve rapid weight loss, a crash diet differs from outright starvation only slightly. Crash diets are unhealthy and are hardly – if ever – recommended by doctors or dietitians.  A crash diet may lead to malnutrition, and is not a suggested means of weight loss.  It involves drastically cutting back on the amount of calories that you take in daily. Highly similar to a starvation diet, it is often paired with other weight loss “fixes,” including extreme exercise routines and the use of diet pills. Most people follow crash diets yearly in the hopes that they will lose a lot of weight in a very short span of time. Crash diets are recognized by health care professionals and dietitians as being a very dangerous way of trying to lose the excess pounds.

At a technical level, when one goes into crash dieting, the body is shocked by a sudden change in food intake.  From a high-energy diet to low-energy food regime.  There appears to be a rapid weight loss, creating an illusion that the plan is working. At this point, no fat has been lost; what happened is that the body’s limited store of glycogen, a form of carbohydrate, is used up. As glycogen is utilized, the body loses water with it, so there appears to be a rapid weight loss.

Additionally, weight loss during crash diets doesn’t continue for a long time. Eventually, dieters will find themselves hitting a plateau, during which it will become more difficult for them to lose weight. Majority of crash dieters find that this weight loss plateau is followed by weight gain. Many followers of crash diets eventually end up gaining all the weight they lost, with a few additional pounds. This is known as the yo-yo diet effect: just like the up and down motion of a yo-yo, crash dieters find their weight constantly fluctuating with each diet that they go on.

The side effects of crash dieting include Vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies, dizziness and/or fainting (due to extreme calorie cutting), pressure and strain on certain organs like the kidneys and the liver, burning off lean muscle and tissues, among other things.  In extreme cases, heart attack or stroke can be a result of crash diets; it may even lead to death.

There was a woman named Matilda Callaghan, aged 25, who died after going on a crash diet for six months straight.  She only consumed three servings of food powder mix per day.  She was said to have been battling obesity since she was twelve.  Following the diet regime strictly, she was said to have lost ten pound in her first week, four pounds in the second and seven pounds in the third.  She was being monitored closely by the dieting firm she had enrolled on.  She fell ill and was diagnosed to have died of a heart failure.

Before deciding to pursue a weight-loss program, make sure to that it is going to produce a long last result. A balanced diet and moderate regular exercise may take time to get you the figure you wanted, but it will gently get you toned up, and keep the weight off for good.

Protect Your Eye Before It Is Too Late! January 8, 2009

Do you know that the computer is only one cause of discomfort for contact lens wearers? Have you ever found your eyes are often dry and irritated when wearing them? All these happen because of bad habits in caring for your lenses normally developed in a group of new contact lens’ users.

Properly caring for your lens and following the guidelines for your type is important in protecting your vision and ensuring your contacts are comfortable to wear. See if you’ve been making these following mistakes that could be ruining your contacts and possibly harming your eyes.

The first mistake is that Cleaning Your Lenses With Water. Your eyes are very sensitive and can easily become infected when you do not clean your lenses properly. The lens develops a build up of deposits that can irritate the eye. Lens cleaning solutions will break down the deposits and disinfect the lens.

Moreover, water and homemade saline solutions are not clean enough for cleaning contact lens because they can contain micro-organisms, chlorine and other minerals that can damage the lens and harm your eyes.

Unless you are wearing disposable lenses you must clean your contacts after every wear. Use an appropriate lens case for storage and clean the case and allow to air dry between uses.

Secondly, some users wear contact lens longer than the recommended amount of time, stated on the box. Some contacts are meant to be thrown out after one day of wear. Others can be worn for a week or a month without removing them in between. Most require removal and cleaning every day. It is important to know the schedule your contacts are intended for to prevent problems with your eyes.

Lastly, the hygiene of your eyes is very important. You have to make sure that anything like hands that will contact to your eyes is clean.

When you remove or insert your contacts be sure to handle them with clean, dry hands. It is better to avoid washing your hands with soaps containing perfumes or oils and don’t allow sunscreen, hand cream or nail polish remover to come in contact with them.

You can use eye drops or natural tear to remoisten your contacts when they are dry and irritated while wearing them rather than trying to take them out. In fact, if your eyes do feel dry and the contact is sticking try to remoisten your contacts before attempting to remove them.

If you wear makeup you should insert the contacts before applying cosmetics and remove them before washing cosmetics off. Powders and sprays can irritate contact lens wearers so be careful when applying powdery shadows or hair spray when wearing contact lens. If irritation occurs DO NOT rub your eyes; remove lenses first and clean them in the cleaning solution before wearing again.

Your eyes are precious – take care to protect it from harm. If you do think you’ve injured or infected your eye do not wear your contacts until you have been seen by an eye care specialist.