| Who doesn't want a quick fix when it comes to dieting? Forty-five million Americans try out a variety of diets each year. But what exactly could that quick fix be doing to your body? From pills to shakes to the low-carb craze, Dr. Timothy Brantley author of The Cure: Heal Your Body, Save Your Life, reveals the risks and pitfalls of three popular fad diets.
Check out these fad diet culprits. 
Liquid Diets
"The common sense is fuggetaboutit," says Dr. Brantley, pointing out that there have even been deaths associated with this dangerous method. He elaborates on three "red flags."
1) "They don't give you the calories to sustain energy or good health," claims Dr. Brantley.
2) "Where's the fiber? Without the fiber, the GI tract is susceptible to diseases, cancer and constipation. All the 'scary stuff' in liquid diets, this is what's getting stuck in your body and your liver and recirculating in your brain. Very, very frightening."
3) Understand how liquid diets contribute to weight loss: "These things are ramping up your metabolism really quickly and they make your endocrine and adrenals overworked to force weight off your body, which is very dangerous."
 Diet Pills
"Like a liquid diet, they're putting a bunch of chemicals back into your body to rev it up," Dr. Brantley says. Food is fuel for the body. If there is not any "fuel," the body can turn to "eating away at your own muscle in order to make energy."
High-Protein, Low-Carb Diet
 Dr. Brantley explains that this diet "forces the body to go into its fat reserve and open it up for energy. This forces the oxygen out, resulting in a greater risk of diseases like cancer that thrive in low-oxygen environments." The diet may help you lose weight, but it can also clog your arteries.
So what does work? Dr. Brantley says the key is to go back to basics. "How do we do that? We go back to Mother Earth with fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. No more quick fixes."
aired on: February 26, 2007
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