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HOT TOPIC: Lemon Detox Diet |  |
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It promises huge weight loss….but at what price? Recently this new diet used by such celebrities as Beyonce, Angelina Jolie and Rachel Hunter, has become quite popular in Australia. Problem is like most diets it seems to be a fad offering very little health benefits and may potentially be harmful to the men and women who use it. Whilst people may lose a lot of weight on the scales, it is actually from your bodies’ own lean body mass. What this means is that it causes your body’s metabolism to slow down and therefore if you stop the diet; (which you cannot maintain a diet like this) you end up finding it even harder to lose weight in the future. Also, once, you stop, not only will you gain the weight you lost, you will also gain additional kilos which is very common with any quick weight loss programmes. “The reason for the sudden energy increase people experience is more likely due to the removal of foods that caused the problems in the first place,” Dr Gilbert, a dietician who recently appeared on A Current affair said. The harm a diet like this can cause to your metabolism is also due to lack of calories in it, when you stay on the programme over long periods of time (sometimes up to 14 days). Here is what you do with the diet: Over a whole day you consume 2 litres of the Lemon Detox Mix, a blend of lemon juice, Madal Bal Tree Syrup (which is really sugar at the end of the day), cayenne pepper and water. The total calories that you consume with this diet is only 422 calories per day. It contains virtually no protein (1.76 g) and no fat and only has 103 g of Carbohydrates mainly from the sugar content. This barely covers the minimum amount of carbohydrates that your brain needs before it begins to shut down vitals organs just to stay alive. Not to mention the dangerously low calories and protein content. As an absolute minimum, the average male needs at least 1800 calories and a woman requires at least 1200 calories for a healthy functioning body. To break it down just a little further a man needs at least 180 g of carbohydrates, 180 g of Protein and at least 40 g of good fat. A woman requires at the very least 120g of protein, 120 g carbohydrates and at least 20 g of good fat. So as you can see, the Lemon Detox Diet does not provide enough of the things you need to keep your body healthy. So is it worth the short-term weight loss? In a nutshell…NO. I think any intelligent person knows there really is only one way to lose weight and remain healthy. A combination of eating well and regular exercise is the only way to lose weight and keep it off! |
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