The Cambridge Diet was originated in the 1960s as a weight-loss regimen that would guarantee rapid weight loss over four weeks. The main food items included in the diet were water-soluble powders containing essential nutrients, a minimum of carbohydrates and adequate protein. The composition of the diet was designed to create a fat-burning state, known as ketosis.
The Cambridge Diet
Alan Howard and Ian McLean-Baird created the Cambridge diet for weight loss in clinical settings in Britain. The diet consisted of three liquid meals a day and a total of about 500 daily calories for four week. This is about 1,000 to 2,500 fewer calories than is required for body-weight maintenance. The diet required a week's induction period during which the patient would gradually decrease their food intake. At the end of the diet, patients would supplement with healthy regular meals to ensure a daily intake of 1,500 calories. The Cambridge Diet products did not become commercially available until the 1980s, when the two researched joined forces with food companies to create better-tasting products.
Ketosis
Ketosis is a kind of metabolism in which the body burns fat to supply energy for the brain. Most cells in the human body can use fat as an energy source in addition to glucose, or blood sugar. Protein can convert into glucose when food supplies are extremely limited or the dietary intake of protein is excessive. The brain, however, can only use glucose or ketone bodies, a fat-burning by-product, as an energy source. So, when carbohydrates, the main source of glucose, are restricted, and the intake of protein is limited, the body must burn fat to supply energy for the brain.
How to Induce Ketosis
Restricting carbohydrates and eating moderate amounts of protein is a popular way of inducing ketosis. This is one of the principles behind the Atkins Diet. Ketosis also occurs when calories are severely restricted, as long as carbohydrates are not the sole source of the calories. In that case, the glucose that enters the bloodstream will, in effect, be too low for the brain to use as a sole energy source. So, the body must burn fat to produce ketone bodies for the brain to use as a supplement.
Ketosis and the Cambridge Diet
Because the Cambridge diet supplies very few calories, these calories will not by themselves be sufficient as an energy supply for the brain and body. In the initial phases of the diet, the body will use glucose stored as glycogen as a "emergency" energy source. Once the glycogen stores are depleted, the body can either break down protein-rich tissue, such as muscle and connective tissue, and convert that into glucose, or metabolize fat. Whenever possible, the body prioritizes using fat to breaking down tissue. So, by severely restricting calories, the Cambridge Diet eventually induces a state of ketosis.
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