Danger lurks with 12 days of body cleansing

MSc. Le Thi Hai, Director of the Nutrition Examination and Counseling Center, National Institute of Nutrition, warned that adults who consume less than 800kcal/day must be monitored in the hospital. Fasting for 12 consecutive days is no different than starving yourself, pushing yourself to death.

Losing weight quickly and suddenly is like starving yourself.

The death of an 18-year-old girl after 12 days of body cleansing is a warning bell about the exploding dieting trend. However, on many forums, there are still many women sharing and defending this dieting method. While nutrition and digestive experts confirm that there is currently no scientific evidence to confirm that fasting for 12 days will help cleanse the body and in terms of nutrition, this is an unscientific method, endangering human health and life.

MSc. Le Thi Hai, Director of the Nutrition Examination and Consulting Center, National Institute of Nutrition, warns that fasting for a long time with the goal of losing weight quickly and suddenly is no different than fasting for life. This nutrition expert said that the method of fasting for 12 consecutive days to purify the body is unscientific because the body always needs a certain balance between energy intake and energy expenditure. Although following this method, women still receive a certain amount of sugar every day, but that amount of sugar is still not enough to meet the body's energy needs for digestion, so it is very easy to lead to fainting and hypoglycemia. Fasting can even lead to the risk of death, especially for people with a history of liver disease, low blood pressure, diabetes... and people over 40 years old.

Women are craze for 12 days of body cleansing

Death due to anorexia is not uncommon. There have been many recorded cases of death due to strict dieting in the world. Some specific cases include:

* Anna Carolina Reston was once one of the most successful models in Brazil. She was once hailed as the charming muse of Dior and Armani advertising campaigns. However, Anna died of complete kidney failure and severe physical weakness because she had only eaten apples and tomatoes for a long time. She was 1m72 tall but weighed only 39kg, her BMI was 13.5 (the average person's is 18.5).

* In February 2006, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos fainted and died on the catwalk during Montevideo Fashion Week. She suffered a heart attack because for more than 3 months she ate only lettuce and drank carbonated drinks to lose weight. Luisel's father revealed to investigators that his daughter had gone on a hunger strike many days before the fashion show. More heartbreakingly, only 6 months later, in February 2007, Luisel's younger sister Eliena also died of heart attack caused by her strict diet for too long.

* Jeremy Gillitzer was once a handsome model with six-pack abs and toned arms. But he was past his prime and struggled with anorexia for most of his adult life. Although anorexia is more common in women and only 1 in 10 in men, Jeremy spent 25 years training to fight the disease. In 2010, he died at the age of 38, weighing just 66 pounds.

"For adults who are on a diet, when they consume less than 800kcal/day, they must be monitored at the hospital. Meanwhile, with this method, the patient eats nothing but drinks lemonade at home, which is certainly very dangerous, even life-threatening, leading to death like the case that just happened at Thanh Nhan Hospital if not given timely emergency care. The patient died when he was only 18 years old, at the age of adulthood and development, his body needed energy but he fasted continuously for many days, leading to a heartbreaking outcome," said Master Hai.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tu Ngu, Vice President of the Vietnam Nutrition Association, also affirmed that fasting for 12 consecutive days to purify the body has no scientific basis to prove it is correct and on the contrary, it is harmful to health.

According to him, humans can hold their breath for a few minutes, drink for a few hours and eat for a few days. But fasting for up to 12 days in this way will certainly be dangerous to health, especially for people with low blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease... or weak health.

Before implementing a weight loss regimen, you need to have a health check.

Master Hai emphasized that anyone who wants to lose weight or follow a diet, no matter how scientific, needs to have a general health check-up to see if there are any medical conditions before they can apply it. Because a scientific diet does not mean it can be applied to everyone, it is good for one person but can be harmful to another, especially for people with other medical conditions. Therefore, anyone who wants to follow a diet or lose weight needs to have a general health check-up and follow a scientific diet according to the advice of nutrition experts.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Lam, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, said that to lose weight effectively, one must balance the amount of calories consumed so that it is less than the amount of calories burned, not fast completely, with no calories consumed.

Associate Professor Dr. Lam advises that if you want to lose weight, you still have to eat 3 full meals a day with a reasonable nutritional ratio (less rice, less fat, more green vegetables). You can eat extra snacks between main meals with low-calorie foods such as taro, yam, watermelon... The reason to eat snacks is to limit the body from getting too hungry, when too hungry, the survival instinct will rise up and urge you to eat more.

"Many women who come to us for consultation often wonder why they eat very little during main meals, even not eating rice at all or skipping many meals but still gain weight. When asked, we found out that many women do not eat main meals but have the habit of "eating" some biscuits, rice cakes, sweet soup, fried cakes... It is this snacking habit that makes women still gain weight, because these foods, although not giving a feeling of fullness, contain a lot of energy," Associate Professor, Dr. Lam shared.

This nutritionist also emphasized that if you want to lose weight, one factor that women cannot ignore is exercise.

"You can't lose weight if you're lazy to exercise. Women should create a habit of exercising every day. For those who are too busy, you only need to walk regularly for 30 minutes a day. Or if you don't have time to exercise, you have to exercise by walking up and down the stairs in the house or doing housework diligently. In addition, the habit of chewing thoroughly when eating is also very important, because the feeling of fullness takes 20 minutes to reach the brain. Women need to eat slowly, the body will soon receive the "full stomach" signal to stop eating," Associate Professor Dr. Lam shared.

According to Gia dinh.net