Fruits and vegetables both have notably low calorie counts and high nutritional values, so it's logical to think that a diet based on them would be a healthy and complete eating plan. While fresh produce certainly has the potential to boost your health and aid weight loss, giving up all other main food groups for a 10-day period isn't a sustainable or smart plan.
Basics
A fruit and vegetable diet involves eating primarily or entirely fruits and vegetables for a specified period of time. You might supplement the diet with small servings of items from other food groups, but in its purest sense, the eating plan is severely limited and mandates that you eat only fruits and veggies for the entire 10-day duration.
Benefits
There are profound health benefits to getting more fruits and vegetables in your diet. According to ChooseMyPlate.gov, the vitamins and minerals present in produce can reduce your risk for health problems including high blood pressure, bone loss, diabetes, stroke, kidney stones, cancer, heart attack, high cholesterol and obesity. Fruits and veggies will also boost your daily fiber intake, which can improve digestive health, and they'll provide much smaller amounts of saturated, fat, cholesterol, sodium and added sugar than the foods in a typical American diet.
Limitations
Although you're not likely to gain weight on a fruit and veggie diet that lasts for only 10 days, it is possible. Dr. Melina Jampolis, physician nutrition specialist for CNN.com, points out that fruits have about three times the calorie count of vegetables and can interfere with weight loss or weight maintenance if you eat more than three servings per day. Since fruits naturally contain such small amounts of protein and fat, there's also a chance that you could develop nutrient deficiencies by eating them and no other food groups.
Considerations
If you want to lose weight, following a low-calorie eating plan that is more balanced may be a wiser choice than limiting yourself to just fruits and veggies for 10 days. The fruit and veggie diet is likely to help you cut calories and lose weight, but there's also a likelihood that you'll put the weight back on when you return to your normal eating plan. Dr. Donald Hensrud, preventive medicine specialist for MayoClinic.com, points out that fast weight loss may involve water weight loss or lean tissue weight loss and typically requires efforts that are unsustainable and potentially dangerous. Before you adopt any new eating plan, get approval from your doctor.
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