Protein Diet led me to the hospital

by Naia Leite
(Brazil)

Many years ago, I tried the Protein Diet. It was actually recommended by a doctor.

This is one of those extreme diets. I was promised I would lose about 1 kg per day.

Basically all you have to do is to eat proteins all day, and no carbohydrates. So I did.

I ate ham and cheese, and had a glass of milk in the morning, meat and eggs for lunch and dinner.

As all I could eat was protein, I needed to be creative in the kitchen. Omelets were the best I could eat.

Eating only protein is nauseating. You can´t cope it for very long, so my doctor had asked me to do the diet for 15 days only. But before that I had to stop.

I was on the computer, as I normally did, and I started feeling bad. I was having trouble concentrating. I was losing focus, I felt a terrible stomachache, and then I passed out.

My father took me to the hospital and they told me that the problem was my liver. It was no longer producing bile.

Bile is responsible for breaking carbohydrates and as I had not eaten them for a week, my liver decided it didn't need to produce bile anymore. The doctors told me that I needed carbohydrates to have it working again.

I had lost about 4 Kg in a week, which is a great result, much better than most diets we know, but my health was terrible, so I do not recommend this diet. It might end up making you really sick.

Naia

Note from Dr. Dan

Naia,

There's an old joke that ends, "The operation was a success, but the patient died."

Not too funny, especially when it happens to you. Diets are supposed to improve your health, not put you in the hospital.

That's not the first diet that makes people sick. There was a liquid protein fad a few years ago which caused a number of deaths.

The moral of the story? Simple. No extreme diets if you want to maintain your health.

Dr. Dan