I know many will likely be outraged because today I'm about to attack something sacred: nutritionists and people who write weight-loss books. At first, I wanted to name them, but then I changed my mind. Why do I think I can criticize others? First, because I don't encourage anyone to harm their health. Even though I don't have a medical degree. Incidentally, neither do many other authors of popular weight-loss methods. And also because people perceive these books as the ultimate truth. 90% of readers won't see a doctor or get tested before starting any diet. And that's the horror.
I remember getting into a heated argument on TV with a woman who was publicly recommending everyone stick to a kefir diet for 10 days. My attempts to explain that her fans and ordinary people would likely heed her advice and end up damaging their health were unsuccessful. Which is a shame. After all, people follow this and other equally stupid advice simply because they trust such incompetent advisers.
Take, for example, one popular media personality who recently wrote a book about her weight loss journey. In one of the first chapters, I see the phrase: “During your diet, replace tea, coffee, juices, and fruit drinks with plain still water. Drink up to 2 liters per day. Drinking large amounts of water is stressful for the body, and therefore, our intelligent body burns a huge number of calories processing the water we consume.” It's scary to even imagine how many calories it must then burn processing everything else.
Or here's a Very Famous Nutritionist recommending:
- “If you can't live without sweets, don't torture yourself and buy what you want. But don't rush into it all at once: take a small piece, holding it in your mouth for a while. This might be enough to satisfy your craving.” (In 90% of cases, this will result in devouring an entire container of ice cream or candy, most likely by nightfall.)
- “Ask someone close to you to set the table for you so that the portions are small.” (Setting the table with small portions yourself is apparently an impossible task for someone trying to lose weight.)
- “When you're preparing dinner, invite someone into the kitchen with you to supervise the tasting process.” (Yeah, and if there's no one to supervise, then don't cook at all and eat fast food instead?)
But the most satisfying of all was the Doctor with a capital “D,” who recently lost a lawsuit claiming his diet was a public health threat. However, this wasn't widely publicized, as it could have hurt sales of his book. So, among other things, he recommends drinking Coke Light (it's unclear why this particular soda, as there are other drinks with sugar substitutes) and also allows eating crab sticks. I don't know if he reads the labels, but all crab sticks contain oil, starch, and salt (he's very vehemently against fats and carbohydrates in his book). No less effective are his other instructions, such as: “Suck ice. The desired effect will be even greater if you suck on pieces of ice at subzero temperatures (-10°C)… this allows you to effortlessly burn about 60 calories a day.” (And, apparently, to curb your appetite, since with a sore throat you're usually not particularly hungry.)
And this is only a small fraction of what's written and said in books, magazines, online, and on television. Trendy nutritionists, advising, as is now common, to eat everything while restricting diets to 1,000-1,500 calories, are appearing with increasing frequency. New theories are proliferating like mushrooms, only to be refuted by their own authors the following year. And the conclusion is clear: listen more to your body and less to those giving advice. And then you'll be much more likely to lose weight!
Diary of Ekaterina Mirimanova