Review: The Dukan Diet

Recently, there is a great anticipation for the book – The Dukan Diet written by Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French nutrition expert who developed the four phase, high protein diet that allows participants to lose weight fast and keep it off.

Whether it is true or not, use of the Dukan diet has reportedly been linked to Kate Middleton, Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bündchen.

The Dukan Diet was created by French physician Pierre Dukan over 10 years ago. It is done in four phases, and it incorporates a lot of protein, and few calories.

UC Davis Sports/Nutrition Director Liz Applegate reviewed the diet and is concerned about the small amount of fruits and vegetables in the first few phases of the eating plan.

“Lots of lean protein sources then apparently it moves to adding some vegetables which, as a nutritionist, that should be there all the time,” said Dr. Applegate.

Dukan’s bestselling book, “The Dukan Diet,” is being released across the U.S. and Canada today. The creator of this hot new diet is a mild-mannered French doctor who say’s it’s not a fad diet.

The soft-spoken nutritionist stumbled onto the high-protein, quick weight loss plan 35 years ago, but it took him decades to perfect his weight loss plan.

Similar to the Atkins diet, the Dukan plan allows dieters to eat meats but put some limits other kinds of food. The Dukan Diet comprises of four phases.

The attack phase encourages speedy weight loss with nothing but lean protein and Dukan’s special ingredient, oat bran culled from the husks – not rolled oats or oatmeal.

The cruise phase allows the diet to add vegetables, but not starchy potatoes or fatty avocadoes.

The third, or consolidation, phase, is the most critical.

Dieters are allows to add one serving of fruit and two slices of whole wheat bread per day.

The final phase, called stabilization, last the rest of one’s life. Dieters can eat whatever they want as long as they return to eating only pure protein for one day a week.

There are other requirements. Each day, dieters must drink six glasses of water, walk for 20 minutes and eat at least 1 1/2 tablespoons of the oat bran.

Dukan is not without his critics. An article by Judith J. Wurtman in the Huffington Post expresses fears about mood swings that may occur from the lack of carbohydrates to produce serotonin in the brain.

She says women have about 25 percent less serotonin in their brains than men, which may account for the higher cases of depression among women. Low serotonin activity has been linked to fibromyalgia, difficulty in falling asleep, lack of focus, and PMS.

The natural way to create serotonin is through eating carbohydrates except fruit.

The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Work Health Safety in France calls the Dukan diet one of 15 imbalanced and potentially risky diets. And it has been labeled as one of the five worst diets of 2011 by the British Dietetic Association.

Dukan dismisses the doubters, saying all diets are unbalanced; that’s how you lose weight. He says any nutritional deficiencies which may be caused by the diet are temporary.

Conclusion

There is no question this very restrictive diet will lead to weight loss, if you can actually follow it.  But the elimination of healthy food groups, and the unpleasant side effects, makes The Dukan Diet an unlikely choice for the long haul.

Protein is an essential part of a healthy diet, but it cannot stand alone.  A truly healthy diet includes all the food groups — vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and low-fat dairy and healthy fats along with lean protein. Your body needs the nutrients these foods provide.

This looks like a fad diet to me. However, I’m going to order this book The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever to take a real look at it. Do share your view on this diet.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2011 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.