starving vs balanced diet

Doctors advice patients based on evidence and years of studies and research. If some chose to go against it, then they should be ready to face the consequences. Coz what comes from our mouth, does not come from thin air. 

When doctors advise healthy diet in the process of weight reduction, there are strong reasons for it. When doctors advise against traditional supplement, there are solid reasons behind it. Most of the traditional medicine and herbs available over the counter are not researched properly. Some are fabricated. Some contain poisonous chemicals. A lot contain steroids. Yes they might give short term relief, but give it another couple of years, you will end up in the dialysis centre. Worse, in the morgue.

I had a pregnant patient who was told the worst news a mother could hear. Her baby she was carrying had a condition called anancephaly. It basically means 'without a brain'. So after counselling she decided for termination of pregnancy as the baby was not going to survive anyway. Unfortunately the process was complicated with severe bleeding and she lost about 3 pints of blood. In return, she had to be transfused. Worst, she ended having a Caesarean Section after all that. 

On further history, I have found out that she was taking some traditional diet pills for a year till the first few weeks of her pregnancy. She lost 20 kilos, and literally starved herself from carbs (mainly rice and bread) and other important nutrients. When she knew that she was pregnant, it was already too late to start eating healthy again. The baby had already gone through the first vital formation weeks without enough nutrients and vitamins to develop its brain perfectly.  As a result, the baby had none. 

It was devastating for the mother as it was for us to inform of the depressing news. It is a well known fact that folic acid during the first few weeks of pregnancy is of utmost importance for the formation of the brain and spinal cord. Some people choose to ignore that fact and refuse to take it when they are pregnant. The result is always heart breaking. But people still choose not to listen. When it happens, it is already too late to be regretful.

In this country, our rice and bread and a lot of other food are fortified with folate. So by right, there should be no cases of anancephaly or anything that is related to deficiency in folate. We expect the people of this country are well fed and famine is unheard of. But cases like this still happen. Why? Thanks to the unsafe usage of traditional supplements and poor diet that pretty much deplete the vitamins in the body by a process similar to starvation.