Extreme Food Diets

Janice Taylor, Weight Loss Success Coach and host of the Our Lady of Weight Loss blog, gets it! We know that Extreme Food Diets are unhealthy, unsustainable and unrealistic, yet the desire for a quick and easy fix that eliminates weighing, measuring and thinking is strong, very strong! “When we hear about the next greatest fat-melting extreme food diet, we wonder, “could this be THE answer?” Before you jump on the next Extreme Food Diet bandwagon, think it through. Make an informed decision. Here, Janice shares the good, the bad and the gassy from five of the more popular Extreme Food Diets.

The Twinkie Diet
The Twinkie Diet works on the premise that calories are all that count. As long as you stay within your daily calorie limit, you can eat whatever you want, including nothing but Twinkies, and you will lose weight. Before you rush to buy a case of Twinkies, consider this. Excess sugar has been linked to a number of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, gynecological problems, respiratory problems, colon, breast and endometrial cancers. The lack of fruits and vegetable could have a negative effect on long-term health.
Rating: 5 Nutritional Lacking Twinkies

Egg Diet
The Egg Diet is a low carbohydrate diet that focuses on eating eggs and lots of them. There are a few variations of The Egg Diet: the eggs only plan, the eggs and grapefruit plan, but the most popular version includes lean proteins and low carbohydrate fruits and vegetables. Those who follow The Egg Diet can experience short-term weight loss, but how many eggs can a person eat before losing interest, or before losing control and bingeing? The Egg Diet does not encourage a balanced diet nor does it help to create healthy lifestyle habits for sustainable weight management.
Rating: 5 Rotten Eggs

The Grapefruit Diet
The Grapefruit Diet, which dates back to the 1930s, is based on the claim that grapefruit, due to its alleged fat-burning enzymes, has miraculous weight loss properties. Dieters are to eat half a grapefruit at every meal, along with a small amount of protein, black coffee and salad. By eliminating sugar, sweet fruits, vegetables, grains and cereals, consumption of carbohydrates are greatly restricted as well as calories. Rapid weight loss will occur due to low calorie intake. Note that grapefruits are a natural simple carbohydrate and eating a half a grapefruit per meal is one way to add fruits to your daily plan, but grapefruit juice can be harmful if the dieter is taking medication that interacts with grapefruit juice, or if the dieter is allergic to citruses. The Grapefruit Diet is extreme. Cutting out food groups is never a good idea.
Rating: 5 Bitter Grapefruits

The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet, a modified fast, is a 7-day fiber-rich, low fat, low carbohydrate diet plan. You are instructed to ingest unlimited amounts cabbage soup, and you are reminded to drink water, stay hydrated. In one week’s time you can lose up to 10-15 pounds. However, most of the weight loss is from fluids, not fat. When the dieter begins to eat normally, the weight will return. On the plus side, cabbage is a member of the Brassica vegetable family, which has been found to aid in preventing cancer. On the down side, this plan lacks good nutrition. You’re likely to be gassy. Eating cabbage soup day in and day out is monotonous.
Rating: 5 Gassy Cabbages

The Baby Food Diet
The basic baby food diet consists of eating 14 jars of puréed baby food throughout the day, followed by a healthy dinner. One might argue that consuming puréed fruits and vegetables contributes toward your ingesting the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables. You might say that baby food is additive-free. But, the negatives far out-weigh the positives. Baby food is not engineered for adults. It’s for babies! You will find that you’re not ingesting the proper nutrients. The diet can cause your metabolism to slow down and trigger your body to store the calories that you are eating as fat. If this plan still appeals to you, look beyond the idea of cute little containers of applesauce, peaches and pears, and think puréed meats. Ask yourself, “Really? I am going to follow this plan for how long?”
Rating: 5 Mushy, Puréed Meats

The Extreme Food Diet Conclusion
The next time you are tempted to try an Extreme Food Diet, ask yourself: Is the plan healthy? Is it sustainable? Is it too good to be true? Is there a better way?

Janice Taylor is the author of the Our Lady of Weight Loss blog on Beliefnet, and the book, All is Forgiven, Move On.

Article courtesy of Beliefnet.com. Beliefnet offers daily inspiration with news articles on faith, religion, politics, health, family entertainment, sustainable living and more.