You’ve seen the commercials: Beautiful models lounging by the pool, telling you how they lost weight with a prepackaged meal plan. What they don’t tell you is the health dangers associated with these diet foods. No matter what plan you’re thinking of using, if you get on it, you may be in for more health problems than you bargained for.
You’re Losing Water and Muscle Weight
Those attractive models and celebrities paid to endorse prepackage diet food plans tell you they’ve lost weight on the plan. What they don’t tell you is how. When you suddenly go from eating approximately 2,000 calories per day to half that (most of these diet meals contain only about 300 calories each), your body goes into starvation mode.
Not only does your body compensate by trying to hold on to more fat, you begin to lose water and muscle weight, which can lead to unbalanced electrolytes and other health problems.
You’ll Gain it All Back and More
Another danger of prepackaged diet foods is the likelihood you’ll gain back all the weight you’ve lost and then some. Once you begin eating “normally” again, your body will store more fat on account of its previous starvation mode. Your slowed metabolism will no longer be able to keep up with the higher-calorie diet.
They’re Loaded with Sugar and Chemicals
Some prepackaged diet foods are very high in sugar, which can lead to unhealthy sugar spikes. Since these meals are frozen, they also contain additives and chemicals the body cannot properly break down. These preservatives may contribute to weight gain and make it more difficult for you to shed those unwanted pounds.
They’re Microwaveable
Despite its convenience and ease, the modern microwave may be one of the reasons you’re not losing weight. Microwave cooking warms food using a process called friction heating, which rips cells apart. This process of cooking changes the food on a molecular level and greatly reduces nutritional value. No matter how much of this type of food you’ll eat, you’ll always be hungry and tempted to overeat.
They’re in Plastic
As if microwaving a 300-calorie, sugar-laden, preservative-packed meal wasn’t bad enough, add to it the fact you’re cooking it in plastic. Until very recently, the dangers of plastic containers and bottles were unknown.
Plastic containers contain phthalates and BPA, which have been scientifically proven to cause hormone disruptions in your body. When you cook these meals in the microwave, these dangerous chemicals are leeched directly into the food you’re about to eat!
This can increase your body’s formation of fat as well as lead to other health problems such as aggressiveness, impaired learning and depressed immune system.
As you can see, prepackaged diet plans have very little nutritional value and a fair amount of health risks associated with them. Instead of calorie-deprivation meals that work only temporarily and by starving you, turn to healthier methods of losing weight such as a whole-food, preservative-free diet and moderate exercise.
Sources:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/healthy/news/dietdelivery_jennycraig
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/microwave-hazards.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/31/the-terrible-truth-about-plastic-you-never-knew.aspx
