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Medical Center
Diets that Aren’t
The Internet is rife with diets
that claim to provide the secret to quick and substantial weight
loss. If you assume that any diet attributed to world famous
medical centers must be trustworthy, think again. Top-rated medical
centers encourage weight loss through intensive multi-disciplinary
programs based on balanced diets that meet nutritional needs.
If you see a diet espousing rapid weight loss by sticking to
just a few foods over and over, go directly to the Web site of
the hospital that supposedly endorses the diet and you’ll
probably find that the diet claim is a hoax.
The “Cleveland Clinic Diet,”
for example, claims to produce weight loss of up to ten pounds
in three days. The three-day program includes meals of specific
foods, such as hot dogs, vanilla ice cream, cabbage and eggs,
which supposedly increase metabolism to burn fat. Actually, it
promotes short-term weight loss through an extremely low calorie
level and a low carbohydrate content that leads to water loss.
The three-day program is followed by four to five days of “normal”
(not extreme) eating and then re-starting the three-day plan.
This cycle makes long-term weight loss unlikely. After a few
runs through the cycle, there’s a good chance those “normal”
days may get even less normal, since studies show that the greater
the rigidity of dieting rules, the greater the likelihood of
binge-eating when the rules end. |
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The Cleveland Clinic expressly
denies any support for this diet. The center’s Web site
includes a statement denying the diet, saying its restricted
calories and rules of allowed versus forbidden foods are “not
the way to long-term, sustained weight loss and health.”
The Cleveland Clinic does not recommend any rigid diet. Instead,
it recommends a mostly plant-based Mediterranean-style pattern
of eating with abundant vegetables and fruits, limited animal
protein and moderate amounts of healthy fats like olive and canola
oil, nuts, seeds, olives and fatty fish.
A diet circulating for decades
purportedly from the prestigious Mayo Clinic is another hoax.
The plan allows unlimited meat, fish and poultry, plus daily
eggs and limited vegetables, and adds grapefruit at each meal
“to burn up fat.” By eliminating sugar, starch, fruit
and “white vegetables,” this diet ends up high-fat,
low carbohydrate and moderate to high in protein. It’s nutritionally
inadequate and the direct opposite of dietary recommendations
to reduce risk of cancer and heart disease. Furthermore, specifically
saying you can “eat until you’re so full you can’t
eat any more” is exactly the opposite of the skill most
people need to learn – to stop eating at a satiation point
well before “stuffed.”
The Mayo Clinic’s Web site
denies any support for this diet. Its approach to weight loss
involves a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables and fruits,
as well as physical activity and goal-setting. There is a Mayo
Clinic eating plan, called the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid,
but far from the rigid, limited diet circulating the Internet,
it includes a wide range of healthy foods, including up to 75
calories per day of sweets.
State-of-the-art nutrition care
doesn’t mean highly restricted, rigid plans, at least not
without intense medical supervision. Premier medical centers
employ registered dietitians to create individualized plans that
lead to weight loss and also meet nutritional needs, fit personal
preferences and lifestyle, and work long-term. But like the Duke
Diet from the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, these world-class
centers all emphasize an approach that also includes re-learning
skills like grocery shopping and cooking, daily physical activity,
behavioral change and record-keeping (such as food and activity
logs). |
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