" CRAZY DIETS: Don't Be a Sourpuss, Try the Grapefruit Diet

Wednesday

Don't Be a Sourpuss, Try the Grapefruit Diet


There are several foods I can't look out without thinking of dieting: cottage cheese, Melba toast, celery sticks, and grapefruit. As a child I watched my mother go on numerous diets, but they all seemed to involve a half of grapefruit in the morning with Sweet'n'Low and a cup of black coffee.
Sweet, sour, and bitter--the taste of diet in the days of yore. It was not uncommon to have a half a grapefruit as a choice as an appetizer on a menu either back before enormous piles of fried cheese and monstrous salads became the norm at your standard generic American restaurant.

So while numerous of diets have advocated the eating of grapefruit, there is one particular old standby crash diet that revolves around the yellow orb. The Grapefruit Diet. According to eDiets.com:

"Researchers at Scripps Clinic found that participants who ate half a
grapefruit with each meal in a 12-week period lost an average of 3.6 pounds. The
study indicates that the unique chemical properties in this vitamin C-packed
citrus fruit reduce insulin levels, which promotes weight loss. "


The Grapefruit Diet is your classic, extremely low-calorie crash diet. This is not a diet for the long term, but for a quick start to a more healthful diet or to lose the last pesky five pounds.


As with any popular diet, many variations abound, but this is the general standard Grapefruit Diet Menu:


WARNING: Before you proceed, if you are on any type of medication, please contact your doctor before even thinking about eating grapefruit, drinking grapefruit juice or taking any other grapefruit derived product. It is known to cause serious adverse events with various medicines. Please read this article from the Mayo Clinic for more details. As always please contact your physician before starting any diet program!


Note: if you dislike the taste of grapefruit, there are grapefruit pills designed to replace the fruit on the Grapefruit Diet.


The Classic 3 Day Grapefruit Diet Menu


Day 1


Breakfast:


1/2 a grapefruit with Splenda, Nutrasweet or Sweet'n'Low

2 slices of bacon, drained and blotted. Turkey bacon is even better.

1 egg cooked anyway you like, but don't use any oil or fat.

Water, coffee or tea. Scant drop of milk is OK, no sugar!


Lunch:

1/2 a grapefruit as above

Salad of lettuce and any green vegetables with lemon juice or vinegar

Any meat or fish you'd like, as much as you'd like. Don't go overboard. Choose wisely like a grilled chicken breast without skin. Broiled not fried.


Dinner:

Repeat either lunch or breakfast.


Snacks: 8oz of tomato juice, another grapefruit half or small cup of grapefruit juice or 1/2 cup skim milk



Drink lots of water. You can drink diet sodas, but try to find the low-sodium versions. The less salt you use, the more weight, at least water, you'll lose. So chose pepper. No one said this was a tasty diet!


There are other versions, you can, at breakfast omit the bacon, and replace it with 1 slice of whole grain toast or light white with butter flavored spray, and 1/2 cup skim milk


Unless you're a masochist, you're going to want to stay on this diet very long, but if you're in a jam, give it a go.


If you know other versions of the diet, please post your scoop in the comments!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is good to see this diet alone with other foods instead of grapefruit alone. There is a diet with only grapefruit which is rediculous.

Anonymous said...

Any sort of sufficient intake of grapefruit dependence in a diet is proven to up the likeliness of breast cancer by over 40%. The most important thing to know about diets is that it is all mental. All of it. The mind trains itself to know what the body is doing and vica versa. So even if you don´t know your body is going into recession because of a subconscious dependance, it is. I have healthy people that come to the clinic that can THINK about losing weight and it will happen. That is the body and mind of the healthy person. But if you have to resort to dangerously acidic fruit dependance, then that ¨pesky¨ 5 pounds was being held on to by your body for dear life.


~Lynch.

Anonymous said...

I find it hilarious that a doctor misspelled "visa" and threw out a statistic that is not true... the diet is great to kick start a diet. I did it for 12 days lost 14 pounds and then went over to weight watchers to lose 5 more... then maintenance... only use this diet for 12 days!!!