Dieting Could Be Bad For Your Health, Says Study

Dieting generally has a negative connotation because it conjures up ideas of fad diets and unhealthy weight loss. Now, a study has shown that extreme dieting may have another effect: It can raise the risk of diseases.

According to the small study, published in journal Psychosomatic Medicine, people who limit their calorie intake could increase the risk of developing potentially deadly conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer because dieting tends to raise stress levels.

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco and Minnesota University looked at 121 women put on a standard three-week diet of 1,200 calories a day (the average recommendation is around 2,000 calories per day for women).

Study participants who controlled their calorie intake produced higher levels of the potentially harmful stress hormone cortisol, and exposure to this hormone actually made some dieters put on weight. The results showed a significant increase in the amount of the hormone after the three-week program.

"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 told the Daily Mail.

However, being overweight or obese is also a risk for a range of diseases and puts a lot of stress on the body, often changing hormone levels. Also, this preliminary study would need to be replicated before its results should be taken too seriously. The short-term stress of counting calories may outweigh a lifetime of health issues due to being overweight. The takeaway from this small study is not to give up on healthy eating, but to drop the "D" word altogether and change your eating habits to make sustainable, life-long changes that you can stick with.

If the idea of reprogramming your taste buds to love nuts and veggies instead of burgers and fries sounds daunting, That's Fit expert Jonny Bowden will walk you through how to kick your processed food addiction once and for all. If you're looking for more information on the dangers of dieting, check out AOL Health.