The dangers associated with self-administered medicine and other substances
We should move around as much as we can and exercise regularly. Our diets should reflect that and be adjusted accordingly, based on lifestyle. For example, someone who works out every day will have different nutritional needs when compared with someone who does so three times a week.
Adding more soluble fiber may help with bowel movements, constipation, and therefore tummy discomfort. Also, remember that you need fat for the healthy functioning of your gastrointestinal system. Cutting too much of it from your diet can be detrimental.
Dietitian Jennifer Culbert explains: "They cut out meat because they heard that meat is bad, then they cut out dairy because they think it's fattening, and then they move on to anything that's processed. But processed foods aren't necessarily bad; for example, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and whole-wheat bread are actually all processed foods."
Sources: (Health Digest) (NHS) (Healthline) (Men’s Health) (Cleveland Clinic)
See also: Are you following the best diet for your body type?
Any form of obsessive eating is unhealthy, and this includes being obsessed with eating healthy foods. There’s even a name for this eating disorder: orthorexia.
Do you feel constantly bloated, constipated, or have excess gas? While it takes some time to adapt when you introduce healthier foods, after a while this might be a sign your diet is not working for you.
We change our diets because we want to become healthier. We may want to lose or gain weight, and make sure we have all the nutrients we need to nourish our bodies. For this reason, it’s impossible to disassociate lifestyle changes from our diets, most importantly: exercise.
This is usually a sign that you might have a vitamin and/or mineral deficiency. As a result, your immune system is compromised, taking your body longer to heal than it used to.
An extreme caloric restriction can really make you feel drained. Calories give us energy, and cutting down too much fuel will surely have an impact on our energy levels.
Is your body taking longer than usual to heal? If your wounds are taking longer to heal ever since you’ve started a new diet, then there’s your red flag.
Our diets also affect our mental health, so it’s important to stay alert and identify when changes occur. While a diet rich in processed foods, sugar, and fat won’t be good for you, one lacking good protein, carbs, and fat sources can also have an impact on your mood. And again, there is the amount of calories you consume.
Have you been feeling more tired, sluggish, and sleepy than you used to? Your diet might have something to do with it.
A 2019 systematic review looking into association between diet and mood, found that “DASH, vegetable-based, glycemic load-based, ketogenic and Paleo diets could improve mood more than the others.”
Cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and blood pressure, among others, are good indicators of if a diet is working to improve your health.
If this doesn't happen, then you need to make some adjustments. Your caloric intake might not be low enough to promote weight loss, or might actually be too low, somehow shutting down your metabolism. Either way, your current diet is not working.
If your overall health is not improving, or even declining, then your diet is not working for you. Doing some blood work will help you determine this.
When you start a new diet with the aim of losing some weight, it’s usually more effective in the early stages. You mostly lose water weight in the beginning, but then move on to steadily lose around 1 pound (around 0.5 kg) per week.
On the other side of the spectrum, you can drop a lot of weight, very quickly. This is also a sign that your diet is doing more harm than good.
The more rules your diet has, the more likely you are to fail at it. An option is to follow a diet with both restrictive and nonrestrictive phases—something that will keep you sane and is easy enough to follow, without feeling like you’re being restricted forever.
Stick to a diet you can, well, stick to. Otherwise your risk of overeating, and going completely off the rails, is a lot greater. "When you don't have much consistency, you can get caught off-guard by hunger and then reach for whatever is around," explains dietitian Jessica Cording.
Many diets restrict certain foods, but feeling very restricted about what you can eat can have a negative impact on a number of things, including your capacity to stick to it in the long term.
Another common issue is mistaking thirst for hunger. Drinking water, especially between meals, will make you feel fuller and therefore you will be less likely to snack.
Your diet is supposed to nourish your body with all the nutrients you need. Nutrient deficiency, also known as malnutrition, can be dangerous.
"I would never tell anyone to eliminate an entire food group, especially carbs. These are our body's fuel. Our brain only functions on glucose, and carbs break down into glucose," explains dietitian Keri Gans.
Eliminating an entire food group can be potentially detrimental, depending on the individual. The popularity of no-carb diets is a good example. How much of a food group you consume can have an impact on your health, and sometimes cutting one off completely can do more harm than good.
Some diets don’t highlight the importance of drinking water. "Water intake is thought to aid weight loss by increasing fat metabolism and decreasing feeding," says physician Chirag Shah.
If this happens, you're probably losing a lot of muscle mass. This is not good for your health and will even hinder your body’s capacity to burn fat in the future. Aim for slow and steady weight loss instead.
Malnutrition can cause a wide range of problems, and can affect both your physical and mental health. It’s important to ensure you’re getting all your macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) from your diet.
Adherence is of utmost importance when it comes to a diet. What’s the point of trying this amazing new diet if you can’t follow it?
Some diets even require you to drink more water than you usually would. This is the case of high-protein diets for example, where the water helps flush out excess nitrogen. So if you're following a high-protein diet, make sure you adjust your water intake accordingly.
In this gallery, we list the signs you should look out for. Click through to know more.
Signs your diet is doing more harm than good
Is your diet really working for you?
HEALTH Nutrition
In an ideal world, your diet would be tailor-made. Everyone has specific nutritional needs, and these should be addressed accordingly. In reality, however, many of us experiment with different diets. Sometimes they work, but often they actually do more harm than good.
In this gallery, we list the signs you should look out for. Click through to know more.