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Slimming risks

OPINION: Angela Epstein
24/ 7/2008

GOING away this year? If by chance you are, then it's likely you're one of the millions of people who are currently crash-dieting their way to a bikini body.

But while there probably isn't a woman (or man, come to think of it) on the planet who hasn't at one stage felt the need to lose a little weight, there seems to be no end to the open season for every Tom, Dick and quack doctor to give their opinion about the best way to fight the flab.

However the news that mother-of-two Dawn Page was left brain-damaged and epileptic after a radical new detox diet must surely give us all pause for thought.

The 52-year-old - who, at 12 stone, was hardly clinically obese - embarked on The Amazing Hydration Diet, which involved reducing salt intake and drinking an extra four pints of water per day. The aim was to prevent fluid retention and so lose weight.

Responsibility

When she began suffering adverse symptoms her nutritionist assured her it was all `part of the detoxification process' and suggested she increase her water intake to six pints a day. Less than a week after she started the diet, Mrs Page suffered a massive epileptic fit and was rushed to intensive care, suffering from permanent brain injury.

Of course, anyone who puts themselves on any kind of extreme weight loss regime has to take some degree of responsibility. We're all adults here, and if you haven't the patience to practise sensible eating and regular exercise and prefer a miracle quick fix then you have to consider the consequences.

But this story also raises broad issues about a national obsession with dieting, which goes way beyond the country's spiralling obesity problem. For it seems barely a week goes by without us hearing of a new diet fad that urges us to behave in an increasingly crazy way.

Predatory

Whether it means guzzling cabbage soup, cutting out all fat, or even eating newspaper while standing on one leg (I made that last one up, though you could be forgiven for not spotting it), it seems the gullible old British public will try anything if it means a swift result.

This, then, is why an industry, so sadly lacking in - excuse the pun - meaty regulations and guidelines seizes its opportunity. For it seems with minimal training and very little professional accreditation, almost anyone can set themselves up as some form of therapist or nutritional advisor and prey on the weak and vulnerable.

In this case, the nutritionist denied she was in any way to blame and the £800,000 settlement paid out to Mrs Page was reached without any admission of liability.

Yet the disastrous consequences of cases such as this must surely be the catalyst to making certain that dietary advice is given and monitored by those with enough medical authority so that catastrophes like this never happen again.

Otherwise this potentially predatory industry will continue to feed from those who could end up paying the ultimate price to be thin.

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