How to stay healthy and live better

It is a simple fact known throughout the centuries that the human body needs food to fuel it. At its primary level food is human fuel. Throughout history people have gone through periods of famine with people turning to anything as food; grass, leaves and insects are just some of the things eaten desperation, as the human body needs protein and essential vitamins and nutrients to survive.

In times of famine no one ever got fat by eating too many leaves, but in times of plenty people often don’t know how to say no to the foods which lead to the fat piling on. One of the fads to lose the fat fast is to turn to liquid diets. These are distinct from liquid fasts which are used to detoxify the body.

Turning to a liquid diet for weight loss will work. You will easily shed the pounds of water from your body but most likely not shed any of the actual fat which is what you really need to lose. In fact the body is more likely to metabolize more slowly in protest and start to lose muscle rather than fat stores. It is unlikely that any permanent fat will be lost on a low calorie liquid diet.

Incredibly quick weight loss will occur if a person diets by using liquids, and there are likely to be side effects too such as lack of energy, fatigue and light headedness. Water and fruit juices fail to provide essential nutrients which the body needs. Most people should know by now that a sensible diet rich in nutrients, vitamins, protein and other essentials such as oil is needed.

If one is dieting it is best to exercise at the same time but with some of these liquid diets it is not possible to do so effectively as the calories taken in are just not enough to support it. Thus you end up in the position of having rapid weight loss without doing the necessary compensatory work on sustaining muscles.

People have been paying out hundreds of dollars for powdered meal replacement shakes made up with water, and then paying more on top for the necessary supplements to cover the shortfalls of their diet. It is very short sighted to diet in this way as once you reach your target weight and you return to normal eating you will have learnt absolutely nothing nutrition wise and will be lost without your handy meal replacement drink. Then you begin to eat as you used to eat and immediately pile back on the pounds. As the weight piles back it won’t all be water but fat as well.

It would seem that the diet industry has played a big con on dieters by persuading them to replace vital meals with liquid replacements, then selling them dietary supplements on top. The diet industry itself would not be sustainable if all these diets worked, as we’d have an instant population of people who no longer had a weight problem. Don’t risk your long term health by buying into liquid diets for a short term fix. Look at it as it really is, liquid in, liquid out.