Despite the word “health” in the name, a health fad is not necessarily something you should follow. Many health trends become popular because they cause you to lose weight quickly—sorry, but quick weight loss is rarely healthy. As much as I understand your impatience to get your bikini body yesterday, it’s better for your long term health to lose weight slowly and naturally, rather than with jumpstart diets and new age exercises. I’d like to discuss a couple of trends that I’d give thought to before trying:
1. Bikram Yoga
You might be familiar with the term “hot yoga.” Hot yoga is a specific practice of yoga designed by Bikram Choudhury in which the studio is kept around 105 degrees Fahrenheit for a 90-minute yoga session. Many times, these steamy sessions are completed without water breaks. The thought process behind the trend is that the heat will raise your heart rate and give you a higher intensity workout that will burn more calories. If the description doesn’t already have you sweating, let me share a few concerns with this form of exercise.
For starters, Bikram yoga puts the participant at an extremely high risk for heat stroke and dizziness. Oftentimes, the dizziness does not even subside after the class, because the body is under so much stress trying to adjust back to the normal temperature. While some may say “no pain, no gain,” I’d have to disagree and say that I think the amount of discomfort your body experiences in hot yoga outweighs the benefits of the practice.
Another concern is the extreme elevation of the heart rate…without the intended elevation of the metabolic rate. The heat from the room will cause yogis’ hearts to pump quickly, meanwhile producing bodily sweat. However, the sweat cannot act as a coolant. Sweat alone does not produce cooling, but rather the evaporation of sweat from your skin. Under the humid, hot conditions of the room with at least a dozen sweaty people, sweat is unable to evaporate. Your body sweats even more in response, and this time it also sweats out minerals like potassium and sodium. Think the elevated heart rate is worth it because it helps you burn calories? Guess again. Studies show that people who practice hot yoga raise their metabolic rates to the same extent that they would by walking briskly.
2. Detoxes
Now let’s go after the juice cleanse. Americans often feel guilty for the amount of processed food/fast food/junk food that they consume on a regular basis. Therefore, when the word “cleanse” is thrown in our faces, we are tempted by the fantasy that we can erase the harm that we have done to our bodies (especially if the process only takes a few days).
While you will have a high liquid intake under any of the various detox diets (the master cleanse, the juice cleanse, the Martha’s Vineyard detox diet), these are essentially starvation diets because none of the plans intend for you to consume a balanced amount of calories or food groups. Major risks of starvation – even starvation for a brief period – include vitamin deficiencies and muscle breakdown. Starvation can also weaken your body by depriving it of the nutrients needed to fight infection, and also depriving it of energy for the day.
Yes, detox diets flush out much of what is in your body, but you’re flushing out the good stuff too, such as the vitamins your body needs. Also, once you finish your 3 day/5 day/10 day/etc. plan, you’re likely to eat excessively because your body will crave the food you’ve been denying it. So, even if you do succeed in losing weight during your cleanse, you’re very likely to gain it back almost immediately afterward. Personally, I’d skip the liquid diet—it’s not healthy to starve your body, and I’d imagine you don’t want to be going to the bathroom half the day anyway.
*pictured are the ingredients for the Master Cleanse, just add water
3. The “Gluten-Free” Diet
Let me be clear from the start: if you have Celiac disease (an allergy to gluten), you should of course steer clear of gluten, as one with a peanut allergy would steer clear of peanuts. My concern is for the people who are arbitrarily deciding to take up a gluten-free diet because the want to reduce carbs or, truthfully, because they want to be as skinny as Zooey Deschanel and Miley Cyrus (both proudly gluten-free).
Unless you have Celiac disease, there is no research that substantiates that a gluten-free diet is for you. We are quick to see labels that have “LESS” of this and “REDUCED” that, and we get excited, thinking we are skimping on calories for our same delicious foods. But just because something is free of gluten, does not mean that it will benefit your health or waistline. Gluten-free items often have more calories and are almost always more expensive.
The major issue I see with the gluten-free diet is that gluten is a protein found in wheat products. When you remove the gluten, what you are essentially removing is the protein—one of the healthiest parts! A person with Celiac cannot digest this protein, so if they want to eat pasta, they need a version of pasta that will be easier on their stomachs. For the 93% of Americans who don’t have Celiac, however, we want the protein because it contributes to the balance of our diet and gives us energy. If you want to reduce your carb intake, I would suggest taking out any white-flour carbs (white bread, white rice, plain bagels, pasta), but continue eating whole grains—they are an excellent source of energy and contain fiber, which will keep you full longer. The sentiment behind the gluten-free diet is correct: we do tend to eat too many refined carbs. But the process is wrong. Cut out the processed carbohydrates, not the gluten.