While the Geldof family are still searching for answers on the sudden death of daughter, mother and wife, Peaches Geldof, experts are speculating that her death could have been caused by her yo-yo dieting, namely by her addiction to juicing.
The devastating news comes amid speculation that the 25-years-old’s rapid on-and-off dieting may have caused a heart attack. The young mother of two, who was open about her weight issues, had regularly spoken about her drastic eating habits, admitting in one interview that she could lose 4.5kg in four weeks by juicing. She also once said: “I do juicing. You juice vegetables then you drink it three times a day. It’s gross. I do it usually for about a month. I have to do it because I have to lose this extra 10lbs, I will lose it then I’m back going mental for the chips. I’ll juice and then I eat chips.”
Cath Collins, a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association warned yesterday: “Surviving on fruit is a very dangerous diet, Peaches was at high risk of electrolyte abnormalities, which could lead to acute cardiac arrest. Rapid dieting like this not only makes you lose muscle strength but wastes away your internal organs – it’s what kills anorexics.”
The juicing diet was one of the 10 most googled diets of 2013 and with celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Blake Lively and Rosie Huntington–Whitely all on the juicing bandwagon, the phenomenon is seen as the go-to diet for the world’s most beautiful women. Famed TV physician Dr Oz says that extreme juicing can lead to “juicerexia” while Rachel Dore, Psy.D, an eating disorder specialist and adjunct professor at the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University, says: “[Juicing] could quickly turn into a detox, then retox, then detox again pattern. Cleansing, or following any kind of strict diet, gives one the illusion of control. To someone with a type-A personality, which is commonly seen in those with eating disorder symptoms, that brings about feelings of power, euphoria, and motivation to maintain this overwhelming sense of control.”
Common sense tells us that too much of anything isn’t good for us. Even the guru of all things healthy living, Gwyneth Paltrow has felt the adverse effects of juicing telling The Telegraph: “I’ve done juice cleanses in the past, and in my twenties I did the Master Cleanse, which left me hallucinating after 10 days. Be aware: a juice detox can crash your metabolism and lead to future weight gain.”
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:
A post-mortem examination into the death of Peaches Geldof has proved inconclusive pending the results of toxicology tests.
Image: flickr/the travelling bum
