Depending upon how you use it, gelatin can be an integral part of a weight control program, whether you are attempting to lose weight or maintain your present weight. However, gelatin is often associated with fad diets that have proved to be dangerous and even deadly. As part of a healthy diet, there's always room for gelatin products which are filling, help to improve skin, nails and hair and naturally stimulate the immune system.
Gelatin
Gelatin comes from stockyard leftovers. As Whole Health MD explains, gelatin is obtained by boiling the skins, tendons, and ligaments of animals such as cows, horses and pigs. It is essentially used as a stiffening agent in food, and creating jellied products ranging from Gummi Bears to Jell-O. It also is used in products such as film, medicine capsules, pill coatings and heart valves. Gelatin has no smell or taste of its own. It became popular in the 1890s when Charles Knox developed the product and founded the Knox Gelatin company.
Nutritional Profile
Gelatin is touted as a weight loss and weight control product because it is low in calories and sodium, can be used as a fat substitute in desserts instead of cream, egg yolks or starches, is devoid of sugar, cholesterol and carbs and tends to fill you up quickly. A packet of Knox Gelatine contains just 5 calories, no fat, no carbs, and 2g of protein. Even a serving of Jell-O Berry Blue Dessert, with flavoring and sugar, contains a reasonable 80 calories, 80mg sodium, 19g carbs, 19g sugars and 2g protein.
Pros
If you substitute gelatin products for cakes and pies and cookies, you will benefit in terms of weight loss or weight control. The Gelatin Manufacturers Institute of America says that gelatin can be used to create nutritious and low-calorie dishes with less fat, sugar and cholesterol. The GMIA also trumpets the amino acids, such as lysine, in gelatin, which might assist athletes in muscle growth.
Cons
Before going hog wild on gelatin for weight control or weight loss, keep in mind that gelatin diet crazes have had disastrous consequences. As Whole Health MD reports, a liquid diet craze in the 1970s, which included gelatin as the protein component, resulted in a number of fatalities, due to malnutrition, because the protein in gelatin is an incomplete and not readily absorbed. Another gelatin craze occurred in the 1990s, after studies showed cows rapidly losing weight on an all-gelatin diet. The downside of the all-gelatin diet didn't receive enough attention -- the cows grew weak and died of starvation.
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