The dangers of dieting -
dieting isn't a way to live longer or stronger

danger of dieting

The dangers of dieting may not be apparent until you dig a little deeper.  

It's bad enough that:

  • research provides plenty of evidence they don't work over the long term,
  • dieting is stressful and one study found that dietary restriction shortens our DNA telomeres - the shorter our telomeres the shorter our longevity,
  • many weight loss drugs offer supposed short cuts to acquire quick results without requiring too much effort from the dieter. Why do we trust them?  Because they've supposedly been approved by the FDA who is responsible for protecting after our health -right?  But why have many been banned? Well because they shouldn't have been approved in the first place but Big Pharma is a powerful lobby group that holds huge sway with the FDA.  
  • the diet industry  blames their failed products on the customers they have suckered with their fast promises.  It's a perfect business model. As long as they can keep us believing 'we' are the failures we keep coming back for more.  It's a very profitable multi-billion dollar business to have repeat business.

But what makes the dangers of dieting worse is that:

  • diets are downright dangerous when it comes to hi-jacking your thinking and overriding your body's biological health and longevity needs.  
  • dieting has it's roots in our fear of 'not being good enough', and by the time we're a repeat dieter, and even more insecure plus we now blame ourselves for being weak-willed.  PS.  Those people who attain healthy longevity - they also live with their so-called imperfections easily.
  • many of us are addicted to dieting - we've dieted for so long that we almost wouldn't know how to no longer diet, and we're addicted to the biochemicals of all the drama around dieting.
  • dieting to supposed 'ideal weight ranges' doesn't lead to the highest longevity - the current 'overweight weight range does' so most people shouldn't be trying to lose weight anyway.  

And worst of all - one of the little spoken about dangers of dieting is that the whole culture of thinness and dieting is the swiftest way to food obsessions, food cravings and eating disorders.

I'm really curious to know how many health professionals (and ordinary citizens too) ever stop to contemplate just how dangerous is the never-ending call to lose weight? One of them is that you are progressively dieting yourself fatter. The other is that you are messing with your incredibly successful and intelligent self-regulatory body and getting in it's way of regulating itself.

And possibly the biggest unconsidered danger of the whole weight loss industry is that it stigmatizes overweight people which affects their health far more adversely than the weight itself.  Living in a state of permanent stress at feeling stigmatized against is far worse for the body that weight itself. And it's not just a 'feeling:'  that stigma is very real it impacts everything from service in shops, to promotions to earning power and much more and it's very widespread.

Dangers of Dieting are spreading

As a psychologist with a special interest in the eating and body arena, I cannot help but notice that eating disorders aren't just increasing, they're mutating and late-frogging:

  • the age ranges it attacks have spread- every younger and ever older;
  •  it's target populations have margarined to include both men and previously unaffected ethnic groups and;
  • the geographical locations they’re found have leapfrogged to areas where eating disorders were once unknown and...
  • the variety of eating-disorders has grown.

The dangers of dieting is without doubt one of the best kept secrets to gaining weight poor health, disordered behavior and eating disorders.

People who attend my webinars and workshops are amazed to hear that about the dieting dangers and that dieting is what has made them progressively fatter.  It’s as if a light-bulb goes on Mind over Fatter participants say, “You mean all my frantic restricting and deprivation is what has GOT me to this state and I can do something different?” 

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