Recently, many people have been dieting to look better, but they often don’t think about the consequences of dieting and its dangers. Although people can do extreme diets just because of other reasons, overall, the idea of losing a lot of weight through extreme dieting is not good.

Sofia Rubalcava (10) is a survivor of an eating disorder and is part of a club here at YLHS called Mustang Warriors Club Mental Health Awareness. Sofia doesn’t think that such extreme dieting is fine. She also believes that there is no need for people to diet unless it’s a crucial health issue, other than that, there is no need to restrict his or her eating. She said that people tend to do extreme dieting due to what people say or the type of things that surround or influence them. Kind enough to share her experience, she said that she had gone to the extreme by restricting her eating and doing heavy exercise. It eventually led to anorexia, causing her to have to go to a hospital to get treated. This leads to an important question: how can you recover and be happy with the way you are? She answered that people just need to think positively, and they need to realize that beyond food, there is life. Although she is still going through treatment, she is strong and healthy.

Mr. Gerasimou (staff), also strongly disagrees with extreme dieting. Mr. Gerasimou explained that by not eating, the person is slowly killing his or herself and the body requires nutrients to survive. Adding into his point, he also said that he doesn’t want people to group all people who do extreme diets together. He said that everyone is different and some of them probably have different reasons as to why they are not eating. Most of those people likely have an eating disorder, and it is a treatable illness. He gave advice as to how to lose weight, suggesting that one should reduce the amount of calories and exercise and that throwing up on purpose, taking pills, and not eating is dangerous.

Although it is hard to stay healthy and perfectly happy with the way how you look, extreme dieting is not a good idea and should never be done. Be positive and feel satisfied about the fact that you are alive and breathing happily.