The Mayo Diet is gaining some popularity, and I wanted to dedicate some time to understand its effectiveness in weight reduction. Is the mayo diet a fact, fad, or myth?
Well, let’s see what Wikipedia says about the mayo diet:
The Mayo Clinic Diet is sometimes used as a name for a diet plan based mainly on eggs, meat and grapefruit. Claims for it include that it is used on cardiac wards for patients needing to lose weight quickly, and that the grapefruit acts as catalyst to burn fat. However this diet is high in cholesterol and saturated fat. The British Heart Foundation and American Heart Association (among others) warn that these can cause heart problems.
The Mayo Clinic refers to it as a myth and advises people not to follow it.
Being that the Mayo Clinic is a non-profit medical practice, I tend to believe their opinion of the mayo diet…
It’s not only a myth, but the mayo diet may be a dangerous fad, in my opinion.
I’m sure this will continue to cause confusion because numerous versions of the mythical mayo diet have been in circulation for decades. The Mayo Clinic finally made the official mayo diet available in December 2005.
For comparison, here’s the UNOFFICIAL mayo diet:
Breakfast
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
2 Eggs (any style)
2 Slices Bacon
Lunch
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
Meat (any style, any amount)
Salad (any kind of dressing)
Dinner
1/2 Grapefruit or 4 oz. Grapefruit Juice (unsweetened)
Meat (any style, any amount) (fish may be substituted for meat)
Vegetables (any green, yellow, or red vegetables cooked in butter or any seasoning)
Bed Time Snack
1 glass tomato juice or 1 glass Skim milk
Vegetables Allowed
Red onions, green onions, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, peas.
Vegetables to Avoid
White onions, potatoes, celery.
Instructions
- At any meal you may eat until you are full - until you can’t eat any more.
- Don’t eliminate anything from the diet, especially don’t skip bacon at breakfast or omit salads. It is the combination of foods that burn fat.
- The grapefruit is important because it acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process.
- Cut down on caffeine - it affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. Try to limit to 1 cup per meal at mealtime.
- Don’t eat between meals. If you eat the combination of food suggested you will not be hungry.
- Note that the diet completely eliminates sugar and starches, which are lipids and form fat. Fat doesn’t form fat; it helps burn it. You can fry food in butter and use butter generously on vegetables.
- Do not eat desserts, bread, and white vegetables or sweet potatoes. You may double or triple helpings of meat, salad, or vegetables. Eat until you are stuffed. The more you eat of the proper combination of food, the more you lose.
Here’s an example of an OFFICIAL mayo diet meal:
**Pancakes with syrup and strawberries
**Dilled Pasta Salad with Spring Vegetables
**Rosemary Lemon Chicken
**Fresh Apricots
With the official Mayo Clinic plan you can pretty much consume large amounts of vegetables and fruit, plus whole-grain foods, lean protein and heart-healthy fats. The objective is to limit your intake to foods that are lower in calories, which allows you to eat larger amounts of food. Basically, if it’s lower in fat content, then more food can be eaten due to the fewer calories contained in protein and carbohydrates. Recommended foods are fruits, vegetables, legumes, poultry, fish, whole grains, low-fat dairy and unsaturated fats. This is not a restrictive diet plan, so there’s more willingness to stick with this type of diet for the long term.
Well, there you have it…
The mayo diet exists. You just need to be careful in following the correct diet plan.
Dear All, Some viewers of InvestServ’s Fit365 “What is Nutrition” video have asked me whether pink salt is better than table salt. I thought in this video I would talk about how you can decide if this is true.
Dear All, Hopefully, I’ll add more specific nutrition tidbits that I learn throughout the year, but I wanted to start by posting these websites below. Unlike some of the other nutrition sites out there, (as far as I know) these ones aren’t selling diets or health food products. They also try to examine the actual research, data and evidence on the topics.