Caution: Dieting can be harmful to your health

It is well established that overweight can increases the risk for heart diseases, diabetes and other severe health problems. So you may conclude losing weight is good, right?

Well, not necessarily, mainly if you are a woman at risk of osteoporosis. There was found direct link between dieting and osteoporosis, a dangerous thinning of the bones that result in 1.5 million fractures a year (check...).
While people dieting, they think they are just losing fat, however, they're also losing muscle protein and bone minerals, especially calcium. This nutrients are essential mainly after menopause when reduced estrogen levels cause bone loss to accelerate.

Osteoporosis can affects up to a 1/3 of the female population over 65, and the cost of fractures caused by the disease is estimated to be more than seventeen billion dollars every year, according to the NIH. Usually thought of as a post-menopausal condition, osteoporosis can also strikes men and many young women, especially dancers and athletes.

Given the fact those up to 40% of the women are constantly on a weight-loss regimen,
Among the most significant findings:
a. Obese post-menopausal women who lost weight have 3 times as much bone loss as control subjects who are not dieting!
B. These women can prevent bone loss while on a moderate diet by eating foods containing at least 600 mg of calcium and taking 1,000 mg of supplemental calcium every day.
C. in spite of consuming the suggested 1,600 mg of calcium per day, overweight post-menopausal women who lose weight have four times as much bone loss as women who are not dieting. Bone loss was found at the hip and wrist, which are common sites of fracture.
D. Obese pre-menopausal women who lose moderate amounts of weight do not lose bone mass.


So be sure that the diet you choose, will not end up eventually with a bigger problem than it tend to initially solve.