Hello everyone! (:

Sorry for the lack of posts - everyone's been really stressed&busy because of SS exams lately. Thankfully, its over now! :D

Okay so today's post will be about the different kinds of diets and their harmful effects. (:

So if you ever decide to start a crash diet (which you shouldn't), keep in mind that they are meant for short-term only, normally 3-7 days, and they are really unhealthy for you in the long-term because they're not balanced!

Let's talk about the Cabbage Soup Diet that you've always heard about but know nothing of.

Now, isn't this the cutest thing? It came from http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~zhuwm/photo/cabbage.jpg.

Basically, the diet consists of day 1 fruit, day 2 vegetables, day 3 fruit&vegetables, day 4 bananas & skim milk, day 5 beef & tomatoes, day 6 beef & vegetables, day 7 Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables. Let's not forget the cabbage soup, which can be eaten at any point during the diet.

Well, that was certainly enlightening. Its healthier than I expected, considering. I always thought the Cabbage Soup diet consisted of eating cabbage soup, and only cabbage soup!

Moving on to the famous Atkins Diet.

Supposedly, for the diet to work, the person must consume less than 20g of carbohydrates a day. You can eat all the meat & cheese that you want and certain 'good' vegetables. Some high-carbohydrate level foods are restricted. (Bread, Sugars, Potato, Cereals, anything made from Flour)

Mmh! My absolutely favorite kind of bread are BAGUETTES! (the delifrance one especially) What are yours?

Image from http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/images/nwaz_01_img0048.jpg.

The Atkins Diet says that it can be kept for extended periods of time, and though I am certainly no expert, common sense urges me to warn agaisnt this. Extended periods without carbohydrates will not only leave you feeling weak because of the lack of energy, it might also cause other adverse affects because you are now relying on fats & proteins for you energy.
Lethargic-ness leads to falling asleep in class which leads to bad grades which means BAD! (: So, please eat your fair share of carbohydrates!

Okay, last diet for today, the Grapefruit Diet!

I'm not sure if this it true, and it certainly seems exaggerated, but supposedly 2 1/2 months you should lose 52 pounds! Which translates to ROUGHLY 26kg? Which is really crazy, if you ask me. And really effective, if its true.

I just realized I've never eaten a grapefruit in my life! Poor deprived me):

Image from http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/grapefruit.jpg!

The 'rules' for this diet are:

1. You must drink eight 8oz. glasses of water daily (64 oz. total per day).
2. At any meal you may eat until you are full.
3. You must eat the minimum listed at each meal. (That's cool! (:)
4. You cannot eliminate anything from the diet. Especially the bacon at breakfast and the salads. You must eat the bacon and salads. (These combinations of food burn the fat, omitting one part of the combination will cause the whole thing not to work.)
5. The grapefruit or fruit juice is important because it acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process. Don't add or reduce the amount of grapefruit or juice.
6. Cut down on coffee, it affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. Try to limit to 1 cup at meal time.
7. Don't eat between meals. If you eat the suggested foods you will not get hungry.
8. You can fry food in butter and use butter generously on vegetables.
9. Do not eat desserts, breads, and white vegetables or sweet potatoes.
You may double or triple helpings of meat, salad or vegetables.
10. Eat until you are stuffed. The more you eat the more weight you will lose. (Now that is REALLY cool!)
11. Stay on the diet 12 days, then stop the diet for 2 days and repeat.

Wow this sounds like a dream come true doesn't it!

So the daily plan for this diet is:

Breakfast:
Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
2 eggs any style
2 slices of bacon

Lunch:
Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
Salad with any dressing
Meat any style and any amount.


Dinner:
Either 1/2 grapefruit OR 8 oz. juice (unsweetened)
Salad with any dressing OR a red or green vegetable cooked in butter or spices.
Meat or even Fish any style cooked any way.
Coffee or Tea (1 cup)


Bedtime Snack:
8oz. glass of tomato juice or 8 oz cup of skim milk.

Image from www.blog.thisnext.com!

Despite all the good stuff about this diet, its still a relative unknown and it might be potentially harmful. So if you're gonna start a diet, its always best to consult your doctor! (:

Okay I hope this post helped! Please tag! Oh most of the information about the diets were from http://www.webterrace.com/fad/home.htm! Thanks to person-who-runs-that-site!


LOVE,
SAM(:

PS: Sorry the part about Grapefruit diet is so wordy - there was just a lot of stuff to put in! (: