The first time I ever heard of the Cabbage Soup diet was while I was in college working on my business degree. A club I was a part of was having a welcome back potluck to start the new semester. We were surrounded by all sorts of yummy foods and one member was sitting in the corner eating a bowl of soup she had brought from home. When we told her she was welcome to help herself to some of the food she said she would love to but she was only eating cabbage soup for the week. She said she did it a couple times a year for weight loss.
After first learning about the diet I have often heard it talked about. The origin of the Cabbage Soup diet is unknown. The diet gained popularity in the 1980's as a fast way to drop weight. The Cabbage Soup diet is still around today and has several variations. The diet is followed for one week and clams a person can lose up to 10 pounds. If a person wishes to lose more weight it is recommended that they wait a few weeks before doing the diet again. While there are different variations of the diet, the soup is usually made with cabbage and other assorted low calories vegetables, bouillon, seasonings, and tomato juice. Dieters are told to drink a lot of water and to avoid alcohol. Even though the diet has easy to follow instructions and can cause a person to lose weight quickly, it is not recommended by health professionals. Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, LD says that the weight dieters lose while on the Cabbage Soup diet will usually return because the weight loss is usually from the loss of fluids. The diet can also be dangerous since dieters may consume a very low number of calories because they can get bored of eating the same things over and over again. Also, while on the diet it is impossible to get all the nutrients a person needs. Some side effects of the diet are light headedness and feeling bloated and gassy. The diet does not provide any tools for continued weight management such as recommending exercise or advice on how to change bad eating habits. Experts recommend a more balanced and varied diet along with physical activity to lose weight. The following link has an example of one version of the Cabbage Soup diet and includes a video diary of someone who tried the diet: http://www.cabbagesoupdiet-s.com/7-day-cabbage-soup-diet.html References: http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-cabbage-soup-diet http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cabbage-soup-diet/AN02134
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The Dukan Diet
While the Dukan Diet has been popular in France for almost a decade it has only recently gained popularity in the United State in the past year. The rise in popularity can be linked to Kate Middleton who was rumored to have been on the diet to help slim down for the royal wedding in April 2011. By May 2011 The Dukan Diet book was #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. The Dukan Diet was created ten years ago by the French medical doctor Dr. Pierre Dukan. The diet is a high protein, low fat and low carbohydrate diet. The diet consists of four phases: 1. Attack phase: The first phase is used to instill lasting motivation by eating pure protein which results in a 1 or 2 pound weight loss per day. This phase last about one to ten days and allows to you to choose from 68 high protein foods. 2. Cruise phase: The second phase adds vegetable into the diet. The dieter will alternate pure protein days and protein with vegetables days. This phase can last for months depending on the about of weight loss desired. The average weight loss is 2 pounds per week. 3. Consolidation phase: The third phase allows two celebration meals per week. During the celebration meals a person may eat whatever they like. During this phase no weight loss is expected. A person stays in the Consolidation phase 5 days for every pound lost in the Cruse phase. 4. Permanent Stabilization phase: Phase four is the maintenance phase that lasts for life. A person is to follow three rules: 1. Consume three Tablespoons of oat bran a day 2. Choose to take the stairs and walk whenever possible 3. Have a pure protein day once a week Unlike other diets, the Dukan Diet does not require any counting, is low fat, and you can eat as much of the diet approved food as you wish until you feel satisfied. The diet does acknowledge that there can be negative side effects such as bad breath, constipation, dry mouth and fatigue. The critics of this the Dukan Diet claim that the diet can be dangerous because it doesn’t include all the nutrients required for good health and can lead to nutrient deficiencies and kidney problems. Karen Ansel, MS, RD, CDN with the American Dietetic Association agrees that the Dukan Diet is not the healthiest diet. She states that although the diet does recommend several healthful practices, it is hard to recommend the diet because the first two phases are highly restrictive and raise health concerns. In November 2011, the British Dietetic Association listed the Dukan Diet on their Top 5 Worst Celebrity Diets to Avoid in the New Year because there is no solid science to back up clams the diet makes. The BDA states the diet works by restricting foods, calories and portion control. http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=6442464088 http://www.bda.uk.com/news/111117CelebDiets.html http://www.ducandiet.com In this blog I am going to take a closer look at fad diets. The first fad diet I want to explore is the HCG diet. I had never heard of the HCG diet until a few years ago when some of my family members started the diet. HCG is the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone produced during pregnancy. HCG is commonly used to treat fertility issues in woman and can be used to increase low testosterone levels in males.
Using HCG for weight loss was first introduced in the early 1950’s by a British endocrinologist, Dr. ATW Simeons. Dr. Simeons noticed that when he treated young males with low testosterone by giving them injections of HCG their appetite decreased and they lost abdominal weight. After doing some research he found that HCG injections along with a restricted diet of 500 calories lead to a pound a day weight loss. He then came up with a HCG weight loss plan and wrote the book Pounds and Inches:, A new approach to obesity. Dr. Simeons intended for the HCG diet to be done under the supervision of a physician and warned that people should not try it on their own. The HCG diet was popular from the 1950’s up until the 1970’s. In 2007, Kevin Trudeau wrote The weight loss cure, what they don’t want you to know which introduced an updated version of Dr. Simeons's weight loss plan and lead to the more recent popularity of the HCG diet. With the recent rise in popularity has come the current discussion of whether or not the HCG diet is safe. While the FDA has approved the use of HCG injections for fertility treatment, they have banned homeopathic HCG from being sold. Homeopathic HCG is usually found in the form of oral drops, pellets and sprays. On December 6, 2011, the FDA advised consumers to avoid over the counter HCG weight loss products and sent notices to sellers saying their products are illegal. The products are illegal because HCG has not been FDA approved for weight loss. Also, there is no data to support the claims that HCG is responsible for weight loss since the weight loss is most likely coming from the strict calorie restriction. Dr. Pieter Cohen, MD of Cambridge Health Alliances, Harvard Medical School has commented that since the 1950’s over a dozen trials have been done and have showed that HCG doesn’t provide any positive results over given placebos. According to the Mayo Clinic and the FDA, the calorie restriction suggested during the HCG diet (500-800 calories a day) is dangerous without medical supervision and could be fatal. There is also the risk of irregular heartbeat, electrolyte imbalance, and the formation of gallstones. There is also a concern the diet can cause a deficiency in vitamins, minerals and proteins. People can still get HCG for weight loss under physician supervision in some states. However, just last month in Mississippi, the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure informed physicians that they could no longer prescribe HCG to patients for the off label use of weight loss. There seems to be a concern among some health professions that HCG diets don’t work and aren’t safe. The HCG diet usually involves restricting calories to 500 a day and taking HCG which results in the weight loss of 1-2 pounds a day. Below is an example of what someone on the diet might eat in a day. The HCG Diet; Sample used on Dr. Oz (weight loss controversy HCG diet pt.1) Breakfast – Coffee, then a snack of fruit Lunch – 3.5 oz. Protein and lettuce Snack – Melba toast or two Dinner – 3.5 oz. protein with a vegetable Snack – Fruit Although, many medical professionals say the HCG diet is dangerous and doesn’t work, many dieters still swear by it. I think it will be a while before the popularity of the HCG diet fades away again despite its health risks. My family members who followed the diet did lose a significant amount of weight; however, they gain it back not too long after they stopped the diet. One interesting fact to note is that while on the HCG diet women are not to use certain cosmetics because fats, oils, creams and ointments that are applied to the skin are said to be absorbed into the body as if they were eaten and will interfere with weight loss by reacting with the HCG. I would never have thought that face cream could count as fat while on a diet. For anyone interested in more information I found this episode of Dr. Oz to be interesting because it gives both the pros and cons of the HCG diet. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/weight-loss-controversy-hcg-diet-pt-1 References: www.doctoroz.com/videos/hcg-diet-fact-vs-fiction www.doctoroz.com/videos/weight-loss-controversy-hcg-diet-pt-1 www.familyphysicianinc.com/hcgdiet.html www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm281333.htm www.mayoclinic.com/health/hcg-diet/an02091 http://www.wreg.com/wreg-mississippi-bans-hcg-prescriptions-for-weight-loss-20120125,0,3534348.story |
AuthorHello! My name is Kimberly Rogers and I am a Dietetics student at Kansas State University. ArchivesCategories |