Going on a diet could increase your risk of developing potentially deadly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, a study has revealed.

It found that those who controlled their calorie intake produced higher levels of the harmful stress hormone cortisol.

The Primal Blueprint: ... Sisson, Mark Best Price: $1.25 Buy New $4.70 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

And it claimed that exposure to the hormone actually made some dieters put on weight, which could explain why so many Britons fail to shed fat despite slashing their food intake.

The researchers also warned that far from making people feel better about themselves, dieting could actually damage their mental health.

Many suffered increased psychological stress when they were constantly forced to count calories and monitor what they ate.

Doctors should think twice before putting their patients on strict diets because of the possible long-term damage to their health, they said.

‘Regardless of their success or failure (in losing weight), if future studies show that dieting increases stress and cortisol, doctors may need to rethink recommending it to their patients to improve health,’ the researchers said.

Primal Body-Primal Min... Nora Gedgaudas Best Price: $4.98 Buy New $18.73 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details)

‘Chronic stress, in addition to promoting weight gain, has been linked with coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. Dieting might potentially add to this stress burden and its consequences would best not be ignored.’

The study, by California University in San Francisco and Minnesota University, looked at 121 women who were put on a standard three-week diet of 1,200 calories a day – around half a woman’s recommended daily amount of 2,000 calories.

Each patient was asked to provide a saliva sample before and after the study to test for cortisol levels. The results showed a significant increase in the amount of the hormone after three weeks on the programme.

The study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, said one reason for the increase in cortisol could be because it is used in the body to increase energy levels.

Read the rest of the article

April 22, 2010

The Best of Pat Hagan

$post_author: WP_User Object
(
    [data] => stdClass Object
        (
            [ID] => 2310
            [user_login] => pat-hagan
            [user_pass] => 8cef35cd9a37ee2655238c36ec73cbf1
            [user_nicename] => pat-hagan
            [user_email] => [email protected]
            [user_url] => 
            [user_registered] => 2012-11-02 08:11:54
            [user_activation_key] => 
            [user_status] => 0
            [display_name] => Pat Hagan
            [type] => wpuser
        )

    [ID] => 2310
    [caps] => Array
        (
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [cap_key] => wp_capabilities
    [roles] => Array
        (
            [0] => contributor
        )

    [allcaps] => Array
        (
            [edit_posts] => 1
            [read] => 1
            [level_1] => 1
            [level_0] => 1
            [delete_posts] => 1
            [email_single_user] => 1
            [contributor] => 1
        )

    [filter] => 
    [site_id:WP_User:private] => 1
)

get_the_author_meta: 

$bio: 

$bios: Array
(
)