The Mayo Clinic Diet has been around for approximately 30 years
and was first shared through junk mail, word-of-mouth and bulletin
boards; then with the dawn of fax machines, offices everywhere
were indundated with anonymous faxes touting this miracle diet.
Now it has reached more people than ever, being shared via the
Internet by e-mail and on personal Web pages. A preface to the
diet often promises that you can lose up to 52 pounds in just
a couple of months. Mayo Clinic dieticians, nutritionists and
media personnel have being trying to get the word out for years:
there is no, nor will there ever be, an official Mayo Clinic Diet.
In order to avoid perpetuating this diet's eating plan by posting
it here, I read several different versions of it on personal homepages
and will provide some highlights: The Mayo Clinic Diet is usually
three or seven days in duration and is a high-protein, high-fat
plan. There are several different incarnations; almost all of
them include unlimited amounts of meat and poultry, fish and just
a few veggies and encourage you to eat a lot of grapefruit or
eggs. The main principle of each version is the consumption of
high-fat and high-cholesterol foods. The plan also claims that
the grapefruit burns up fat. Smacks of a fad diet to me.
Here are some warning signs that an eating plan is a fad diet:
- Ruling out of entire food groups
- "Unlimited" consumption of anything high in fat
or sugar
- Promotion of increased caffeinne intake
- No variety or extremely strict rules
- Certain food combinations to "burn" fat
- Promising that certain foods increase your metabolism
|
|
Whichever version of the Mayo Clinic Diet you encounter, they
all have one thing in common: they say you will lose lots of weight,
very quickly… like magic. Actually, you probably would lose
a lot of weight rather quickly. But, like many other quick-weight-loss
diets, most of that weight is actually going to be water... and
as we have all heard in recent years: quick weight loss equals
temporary results. And if the weight loss continues as rapidly
as the diet claims -- 52 pounds in two months -- common sense
says that a diet bringing such drastic results so quickly cannot
be safe.
Even the proponents of this diet say the results aren't permanent.
The dieter's page I used as a reference said, "This probably
isn't safe to live on. In fact you probably shouldn't be on this
for more than two months. After that you should probably start
a low-carb diet maintenace plan." In other words, if you
go back to eating normally, you're going to gain it all back…
and then some, most likely.
If the changes a diet recommends are something you cannot do
for the rest of your life, or in this case, are unsafe to do for
more than a short period of time, there's your first indication
that it's not worth doing. As the official Mayo Clinic Web site
says: "These diets may promote temporary quick weight loss,
however, they are not nutritionally balanced or a safe method
of weight loss for long-term success." The Clinic instead
recommends that we follow the nutrition guidelines set forth in
the food guide pyramid.
|
