Many people use detox diets to quickly shed those unwanted pounds, but are quick fix detox diets safe? Read on to find out more about this dangerous dieting trend, and how it could effect your health.

Celebrity fad diets seem to be all the rage at the moment, but are a few pounds of weight loss worth risking your health? Health care professionals are now advising dieters to avoid all forms of detox diets, due to adverse health effects associated with these fad weight loss programs. It was recently reported that a women was hospitalised and actually suffered minor brain damage, just by following this type of diet.

Detox diets often require that the dieter drinks excessive amounts of water, in order to lose weight. Drinking too much water can actually have an adverse effect on the body, and eventually reduces the amount of essential salt needed in the blood. In severe cases, the additional water can cause organs such as the brain to swell, which can lead to a number of very serious health problems, such as seizures.

In addition to this, regular detoxing and antioxidant detox products has recently been linked to an increase in diabetes. The sharp increase of antioxidants can be just too much for our bodies to handle, and can in some cases, end up damaging our cells.

Detox diets can be effective and in some cases beneficial, but they must always be followed properly. Many dieters are still taking their detoxes too far, by starving themselves and causing a whole host of health complications. The hydration based detox plans should be avoided at all cost, as these are often the most dangerous dieting programs.

Doctors are now suggesting that the detox fad is just another new way for the dieting industry to make money, and simply a waste of our time and money. Eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and drinking enough water each and everyday, is far more effective than regular detoxes. Our bodies are well equipped to cope with the build up unhealthy toxins, and our livers and kidneys are able to get rid of them effectively, without the need for harsh and harmful detox plans.

Short term fad diets and detox plans can never offer long term solutions to weight loss, and dieters often find that they quickly re-gain the weight after using such programs. The best way to lose weight, is to follow a balanced diet and exercise regularly. Losing more than 1-2 pounds per week is dangerous, and can be damaging to your health.

There is still no real proof to suggest that detoxing your body, or fashionable celebrity cleanse diets actually work, or have any real beneficial effects on your overall health. Health care professionals have now suggested that plenty of water (tap – not bottled) and a enough sleep each and every night, is far more beneficial than any detox diet or plan out there. So, there’s no need to waste your hard earned cash on detoxifying foods, books or products. Instead, all you need in order to stay healthy is top up your tap water in-take, and get a good nights sleep.

Have you ever wondered why you have trouble losing weight, whilst those around you seem to melt off those pounds with little or no effort? The answer is in your metabolic rate, and in the foods you eat. Read on to find out more about your metabolism, and how you can boost your weight loss efforts with just a few simple changes to your lifestyle.

Some folks just seem to be lucky enough to eat whatever they want, and never seem to gain an ounce of weight. Well, it has nothing to do with luck. It’s all to do with our individual metabolic rates. And when it comes to metabolisms, we’re all very different.

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Just about every isle in a grocery store contains a variety of products that are packaged with the words: “A good source of Omega-3″ boldly printed on the label. Food manufacturers have discovered that omega-3 sells product. Omega-3 is an essential body fat that is found in every cell in the human body, but the body can’t make enough omega-3 on its own, so our diet plays an important role in supplying enough of these essential fatty acids (EFA) to keep the body functioning properly.
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There are a number of things you can eat and drink, or avoid, which may help curb your hayfever symptoms, including itchy eyes, itchy face and skin, sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion and lethargy.
Things to avoid are foods which stimulate the production of mucus. This includes dairy products, refined food, processed food, alcohol and caffine. Try an alternative to dairy like goats milk, goats cheese, sheep milk, rice milk oat or soya milk. Or even better, try a herbal tea with added benefits.

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Vegetables are amazing foods, not only are they jam packed with vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants, but they are also rich in a particular type of nutrient called ‘phytochemicals’ which are specific to plant foods. These fascinating protective plant compounds have a health enhancing effect and help to protect us against a number of diseases such as heart disease and cancer just like they help to protect the plant from disease. Hundreds of different phytochemicals have been discovered in plant foods and are responsible for giving plants their colour, flavour and smell.

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Over the last few years there have been dramatic increases in the understanding of how cancer operates at a cellular level. There are now moves towards a more intelligent way of dealing with cancer that work with the body, and a gradual shift away from the toxicity of therapies like chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

This greater understanding has, in some quarters, changed the concept of what cancer actually is. A recent scientific paper suggests that a tumour has a lot of similarities to a wound, and has been likened to ‘a wound that doesn’t heal’. A wound induces rapid growth but then switches off the growth when the wound has healed – in cancer that ‘off switch’ fails.

We do know that a diet high in fresh fruit and vegetables can greatly reduce our chances of getting cancer, and also, being overweight can increase our chances of getting cancer. What has been missing up until now has been the fine detail of the processes involved.

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