Mayo Clinic Diet
The Mayo Clinic is a wolrd famous Minnesota-based not-for-profit medical practice dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment in virtual all types of complex illness.
The Mayo Clinic Diet on the other hand that has no formal affiliation with the Mayo Clinic. In fact it is fair to say that the Mayo Clinic are critical of the non-official Mayo Clinic Diet, due to the somewhat dubious 'science' behind the diet and weight loss programme the Mayo Clinic Diet promotes.
How does that Mayo Clinic Diet work?
The Mayo Clinic Diet is a low carbohydrate diet that allows the dieter to eat as much as they want from a certain selection of Mayo Clinic Diet prescribed foods. These foods include:
- Grapefruit
- Meat
- Fatty foods
Meat and fatty foods in place of carbohydrates ... sound familiar? Read our review of the Atkins Diet.
The claim is that grapefruits fat burning properties counter balance all the extra fat and cholesterol eaten with such a diet plan. As reported when reviewing the Grapefruit Diet, there maybe some truth in the idea that grapefruit can aid weight loss and weight management but perhaps the Mayo Clinic Diet takes this idea to an extreme.
Advantages of the Mayo Clinic Diet
For meat lovers the Mayo Clinic Diet may be a match made in heaven. Eat as much meat as you can as long as you also eat grapefruit. Doesn't seem too bad. The same can be said for people who like fatty foods - though not many fatty foods, other than meat, carry fat calories without also carrying calories in the form of carbohydrates. I'm thinking of cakes, pastries, sweets etc.
Another 'benefit' of the Mayo Clinic Diet is that there is no portion control what so ever. So for those individuals who'd shun low calorie diets like the Lighter Life Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Hollywood Diet, the Slim Fast Diet, the Weight Watchers Diet and the Special K Diet, the Mayo Clinic Diet will have its appeal.
Disadvantages of the Mayo Clinic Diet
Clearly this isn't the diet of a non-meat eater. To be honest shouldn't be the diet plan for anyone looking for gradual sustainable weight loss.
The rapid weight loss from low carbohydrate diets comes, primarily, through water loss. Carbohydrates hold water, as do the bodies muscles. Cut out carbs from your diet and a vast proportion of essential water retension will be lost. This, along with the effects of a low calorie diet, may leave the Mayo Clinic dieter feeling tired, dizzy and lacking in motivation, certainly until the body adjusts to such eating patterns.
Also, due to such rapid weight loss from reduced levels of water, dieters often find that any body weight lost on such a low calorie and low carbohydrate diet goes straight back on when normal eating patterns are resumed. In fact many dieters see an increase in body weight as the body adjusts to the idea that in future you may try such a diet again - it thus trys to store as much body fat as possible, just in case it needs to burn higher than normal levels of body fat in future.
Eating high levels or meat and fat may also give the dieter bad breath due to ketosis - the body burning body fats rather than carbohydrates for fuel.
The Mayo Clinic Diet - Conclusion
The Mayo Clinic Diet is a fad diet, with very little or no basis in common held weight loss and dieting beliefs, let alone nutritional science.
The fact that it uses the Mayo Clinic name to promote itself is little short of criminal. The fact that a high esteemed medical practice like the Mayo Clinic doesn't endorse a diet plan that bares its name (though via no legal connection) should be prove enough that the Mayo Clinic Diet isn't the best diet programme someone looking to lose weight could choose.
Latest health and fitness news
All news stories
Latest quizzes and tests
All quizzes &
tests
|
Home
