Scarsdale Diet

The Scarsdale diet is one of those diets that were popular for a long time but are now classified as a fad diet according to modern dieting principles. Because of the diet's low carbohydrate and calorie-feeding techniques and the expectation that a single grapefruit during breakfast will provide the enzymes needed to digest the food consumed within the day, the Scarsdale method became popular among the health-conscious crowd. The calorie intake is reduced to a low 1000 calories a day and even sugar is replaced with no-calorie artificial sweeteners.

Based on this diet, you can consume a broth made up of carrots, celery, and minimum amounts of sodium or salt in-between meals. This technique will calm down those hunger pangs and if necessary, appetite-suppressant pills can also be taken. The meal plan provides specific food types to be eaten throughout the duration of the diet, which mainly consists of unlimited amounts of vegetables, fruits, and protein-rich foods.

This diet plan is designed to make your body lose a pound everyday and to do that, the diet relies on chemical reactions produced by the low-carbohydrate meals and not on the actual control of calorie intake or of food portions. This targeted weight loss is admittedly quick; in fact, too quick to be healthy. The water that is quickly lost is also quickly regained when you stop following the regime. Because other food groups are eliminated, the nutritional imbalance is extreme and very unhealthy. Whatever positive output that may have been reported by following this diet only refers to weight loss because it totally ignores the dangerous effects of this diet on one's health.

Because this technique is designed to promote weight loss between one to two weeks, you cannot use it for long periods of time. Similarly, you cannot dine-out and follow the same plan. You cannot also follow it if you're a vegetarian and if you have a heart ailment or high blood pressure, the appetite suppressant will be dangerous for you, especially in large amounts.

Dr. Tarnower, the author and founder of this diet, designed the food combinations to supposedly activate the natural fat-burning process and put the dieter in a ketosis-like state. According to him, less fat causes the body to demand more fat from other parts that are already accumulated with fat because there's less or absolutely no intake of food rich in fat. Once the target weight is already achieved, you now have to follow the maintenance plan to keep the fat from returning. But because this diet requires you to let go of your favorite foods, it is hard to imagine that any person will be able to stick to the plan for more than two weeks.

Even if you are allowed to switch one kind of food for another with the same number of calories, this switching method will only work for a few days before you get bored or before your body will begin to crave for the usual favorite foods and ask for the nutrients that this diet lacks. Starvation can cause weight loss but it can lead to dangerous situations that can affect your health, life, and eventually even your sanity. Because rapid loss of weight is very unhealthy, there's no reason to follow this diet. This restrictive health plan is against the logic of an actual diet – a slow process of losing fat in order to enable the body to adjust to the changes. Since this diet requires the dieter to religiously stick to the plan, it is not good for those who live in other places where certain kinds of food are not available.