Does the Kimkins Diet Promote Eating Disorders?

Obesity has continually risen in the U.S. year after year. And every year a new low carb diet comes out, or at least, a great new way to shed those stubborn pounds. A variety of pills are on the market that promise to vaporize the fat without any effort on the part of the dieter. Exercise videos come out all the time featuring a new trainer with a headset, an attitude and a DVD to sell. Diets too have become considerably more popular, but one diet in particular may be taking weight loss to a dangerous extreme.

Kimkins diet was introduced in 2007 throughout different media, but it is apparently the original 1972 version of the Atkins diet. Interest has begun to circulate in the past few years around a dietary regiment that can shed a pound a day or more. The diet, which is a low carbs, low calories and low protein- is seen by many to be nothing but anorexia in disguise. Kimkins demands a near starvation so members do not eat more than 500 calories a day, or 20 carbs, skipping out on as many fatty amino acids and fibers as possible. This diet can end up turning the body against itself to gain the necessary proteins, so body tissue and muscle may be lost instead of the fat.

The diet's founder, Heidi Diaz, went on for a time with the online moniker 'Kimmer' to hide her identity. The controversies surrounding her diet are simple. Kimmer has banned paying members from accessing her web page simply because they disagree with her advice. She has continued to show 'support' of members who eat below the recommended cap of 500 calories per day, making her seem more like an eating disorder coach than a dietary professional. Diets in Review conveys some of the severe health risks associated with Kimkins diet that still effect members to this day including hair loss, heart palpitations and even joint pain.