Tamil Nadu teen dies of consuming only juice for 3 months: Experts weigh in on the fad diet
In today’s generation, specifically the younger ones, have been making various changes to their eating habits and sleeping cycles in their daily lives.
A recent case of a 17-year-old boy’s death due to a month-long juice-only diet from Colachel in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district has ignited the discussion of taking up extreme diet plans without any prior consultation. An expert has weighed in on the topic and has also explained why it is harmful to one’s body.
What would happen if one were to take up a juice-only diet?
According to Radhika Thakur, a Clinical Dietitian and Diabetes Educator at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, unmonitored fad diets are the ones that are most dangerous. With growing children, they need fat, carbs, other vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients, which will boost immunity.
A prolonged juice diet led to the teen’s protein energy malnutrition, and the body started utilizing its muscle proteins. In addition, there is also an electrolyte imbalance, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies. Also, such a diet could lead to hypoglycemia.
Why is it important to make people aware of it, and what are the repercussions of such a diet?
Radhika stated, This is something we all need to be a little more vocal. Educate parents to consult a qualified health professional before implementing any drastic dietary changes.
Now, the thing is, this whole protein energy malnutrition leads to muscle wasting and delays wound healing. There’s a threat to your heart muscles, as well as your respiratory muscles. Also, there’s something called Kwashiorkor (a severe form of malnutrition caused by a deficiency of protein in the diet, despite sufficient calorie intake), which is nothing but a fatty liver and edema.
This is something that is going to happen. If you’re following any fad diet, you know that fad diet is the risk of ketoacidosis is associated with fad diets. This is something that occurs in prolonged fasting states. When you enter into ketoacidosis, your body is no more burning, you know, using carbohydrates as a fuel; it’s now using your fat, and thus it is releasing ketones. So that ketones keep on increasing, increasing, increasing. It shifts your blood, and it also becomes more acidic, and then it leads to ketoacidosis. So this organ damage progresses till the time you come to that.
What is a fad diet?
As per the CDC, Fad diets may promise fast results, but such diets limit your nutritional intake, can be unhealthy, and tend to fail in the long run.
Henceforth, before indulging in any kind of diet, one needs to be aware of what is right and wrong for the body. What matters is the quality and timely intake of meals, and having a better, healthier lifestyle.
