Question: can dieting damage your metabolism

Gabriela da Silva Xavier answered on 20 Mar 2020:

This is a good question. Metabolism, from a biochemist’s perspective, are a series of interlinked biochemical reactions. “Food” are chemicals that are used in these reactions. Depending on which kinds of foods you put in, you would be favouring certain reactions over others. As the reactions are interlinked, altering the focus on any one reaction could also have a domino effect on the others. From that perspective, changes in food consumption, e.g. diet, can alter your overall metabolism. Whether it will cause damage will depend on the kind of foods consumed- is it balanced, is it favouring certain reactions a lot more than others, etc. For a view of how metabolic pathways are interconnected, have a look at the diagram here (https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-documents/articles/biology/interactive-metabolic-pathways-map.html)