You may have heard of crash diets, and may be used to hearing about them with a negative connotation attached. After all, most crash diets such as the Cabbage Soup Diet or the Liquid Diet are only sustainable for a short period of time. These diets can cause rapid weight loss and are commonly followed to lose weight quickly before an event or trip. Certain foods are common in various crash diet plans, and others are usually avoided.
Negative Calorie Foods
Commonly, when you follow a crash diet you will eat a meal plan centered on negative calorie foods. These are foods that contain so little calories that many dieters believe they will burn as much or more calories digesting them as they take in through eating. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, chief medical editor for NBC News and author of "Diet Myths that Keep us Fat," explains in an article at "Time" magazine online that even though foods such as celery are low in calories, chewing and swallowing food burns a minuscule amount of calories. Nevertheless, these extremely low calorie foods are often featured in crash diets. Foods like celery, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and grapefruit are filling foods that are low in calories.
Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet is a diet that focuses mainly on eating cabbage soup for a full week. A few different fruits and vegetables are paired with the soup to add variety. The ingredients in the soup are green onions, green peppers, celery, canned tomatoes, onion powder, bouillon cubes and seasonings and cabbage. The diet has several variations, but the principle behind it is to lower caloric intake significantly without losing vital nutrients and vitamins.
Liquid Diet
The liquid diet is a crash diet focused on cutting out solid food for a short time. Many dieters choose a liquid diet when they want to detox from alcohol, cigarettes, and other toxic substances. There are a variety of liquid diets, and some feature pre-made shakes and juices, while others include recipes for making your own. One popular liquid diet involves a drink mixture made with lemon, water, honey, and cayenne pepper. This diet is said to speed the metabolism while cutting caloric intake drastically. One version, known as the Master Cleanse, is popular because it is extremely affordable. You won't have to buy any pre-made shakes, smoothies, or juices. The downside is that it eliminates solid foods, and is therefore difficult to stick to.
The Grapefruit Diet
Grapefruit is another common crash diet food, often added to a self-made crash diet. The premise of the Grapefruit Diet is to pair half a grapefruit with every meal. The fruit is rumored to speed the metabolism and help you digest the other foods you include in the meal, though this information is not confirmed by the FDA or nutrition scientists. According to the Mayo Clinic, the idea that eating grapefruit with each meal will cause rapid weight loss is a dangerous myth, as it implies that you can eat whatever you want with grapefruit as a magic solution. Instead, focusing on grapefruit as one of the very low-calorie options to include in your meal plan is a much more sound idea.
Dangers of Crash Dieting
According to Symptom Finder, crash diets carry their share of health risks, as any crash diet involves dipping below your recommended caloric allotment for a short time. This means losing vital nutrients, vitamins, and even electrolytes. Dr. Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D. suggests that the initial weight you may lose from a drastic crash diet is likely to be water weight emptied from the muscles rather than actual fat loss. The body needs more water to digest the nutrients in starch than in proteins or fats. Therefore, eating less starches immediately causes a drop in water weight. Uneducated dieters may mistake this quick weight loss for fat loss. Deprivation can also cause a reverse effect, binging, if you allow your hunger levels to increase too much. If you are considering a crash diet, consult your health-care provider first to assess the risks involved and to make a sound decision based on your needs, your activity level, and your lifestyle. According to EatRight, fad diets like the Cabbage Soup Diet, Grapefruit Diet, and Rice Diet are ineffective because they don't provide enough variety to be sustainable or to supply all the necessary nutrients to fuel the body. Adopting a meal plan you can stick to as a lifestyle change is a more effective route to weight loss.
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