Dukan Diet

[Negin]

This has been in Europe, and is about to arrive (or has already arrived) to the U.S.

Anyone try this yet? Know anything about it? Sounds interesting so far.

 

http://www.dukandiet.com/

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/18/dukan-diet-french-atkins_n_837609.html

[Peela]

I havent seen it before but it just looks like another rehash of the high protein/ketosis type diet.

I dont like it myself because I don't think a high meat diet is healthy. When they say "high protein" they only mean "high meat".

Its not that it doesn't work to drop the weight- its just not healthy or sustainable- IMHO.

 

I am coming back to edit this post because i am reading a book called the 3 season diet by John Douillard this evening after coming across it today online- and I really like the concept and its kind of relevant here. The idea is that in nature, we would all eat seasonally- and that is how animals in nature eat. His idea is that in winter, a high protein and fat diet is natural- such as squirrels and their nuts, man and his stored foods (dried meats, nuts and grains), bears and their whatever. So in winter, an Atkins type approach will work much better than in say summer. In spring, it is natural (in nature) to eat a lot of greens, bitters, roots, sprouts, and basically a low fat and low carb diet - such as Weight Watchers. Interesting to me that I started WW last September- which is Spring here- and enjoyed it and lost weight for a few months but as summer came on I dropped it. In summer, he says, the days are longer, we need more energy, and the harvest is abundant with fresh fruits and vegetables- so a high carb diet is more natural- such as the many vegetarian or near vegetarian diets out there. All have scientific research to back them up. His theory is that they all work- but they wont work long term because they all limit major food categories- and they work best in the appropriate season. But after a few months, the cravings for the next seasons' natural foods will overcome the willpower to stay on a diet that doesn't suit that season.

I dont know if I have explained it very well but it is making sense to me.

He is Ayurvedically trained and I am very familiar with the system- I have always loved ayurveda- but he has relaly brought it into the western way of thinking.

 

Just throwing that out there for other diet- interested people. I am not really interested in losing weight- the weight watchers and No So diet (which this book endorses- 3 meals a day, no snacks- although it doesn't mention it), have dealt with that for me. But I am fascinated with diet anyway and this seems like a very common sense way of looking at why diets work sometimes, or for a period of time, but are often unsustainable in the long run.

Edited March 26, 2011 by Peela

[SeekingSimplicity]

What would be the difference between this and the Atkins diet?

[Rosie_0801]

He is Ayurvedically trained and I am very familiar with the system- I have always loved ayurveda- but he has relaly brought it into the western way of thinking.

 

Cool! I'm just reading up on ayurveda at the moment, but the book I just finished had too many annoying words so it didn't translate into my Western mind properly. The word "astringent" makes me think of alcohol swabs, not asparagus.

 

 

Rosie

Edited March 26, 2011 by Rosie_0801

[Peela]

Cool! I'm just reading up on ayurveda at the moment, but the book I just finished had too many annoying words so it didn't translate into my Western mind properly. The word "astringent" makes me think of alcohol swabs, not asparagus.

 

 

Rosie

 

Hi Rosie- Deepak Chopra's books on Ayurveda- such as Perfect Health- are also pretty good.

[Crimson Wife]

I'm getting a copy through the Amazon Vine program, it should arrive the middle of next week.

 

I've already decided that I'm going to skip the first phase. Eating pure protein with no veggies is too extreme for me. Nobody ever got fat because he/she ate too much steamed broccoli, KWIM?

 

The other phases look somewhat similar to South Beach. I fell off the SB wagon last year and re-gained 15 lbs. Got back on as of New Year's, and have lost 9 of those. However, I've plateaued recently and am hoping Dukan will help me break that plateau. I'm also hoping it has some good recipes.

[PiCO]

What would be the difference between this and the Atkins diet?

 

This one looks closer to the South Beach Diet to me- lower fat, more veggies.

 

I'll probably get the book from the library. I feel great on low-carb, but it's difficult for me to stick to the diet when I start adding carbs back. Just makes me want more and more carbs.

[Negin]

I dont like it myself because I don't think a high meat diet is healthy. When they say "high protein" they only mean "high meat". Its not that it doesn't work to drop the weight- its just not healthy or sustainable- IMHO.

Peela, I agree about the long-term. I think that the plan is meant for short-term. I think ... Like hcg or some other extreme diets, I think it's meant to help those who like or prefer to have a jump start on weight loss. These days, I'm in the mood for jump starts. Slow and steady just hasn't been cutting it for me. :confused: I'm really only interested in kick-starts also. I'm no longer interested in losing and regaining the same exact few pounds - back and forth - like a see saw/teeter-totter. Enough with that, for me. Hence why I like hcg and some more extreme plans these days. I never used to like extreme plans and was always against them. Somewhat like yo, I also love playing around with different plans and and researching them to see what works. Right now, I'm just not as interested in moderation and don't find it very effective at all. These days, I need to see big weight losses at first to keep me motivated. I have never succeeded on the NoS plan. I've actually gained with it every single time. Very frustrating.

 

i am reading a book called the 3 season diet by John Douillard this evening after coming across it today online- and I really like the concept and its kind of relevant here. The idea is that in nature, we would all eat seasonally- and that is how animals in nature eat.

I dont know if I have explained it very well but it is making sense to me.

He is Ayurvedically trained and I am very familiar with the system- I have always loved ayurveda- but he has relaly brought it into the western way of thinking.

Just throwing that out there for other diet- interested people. I am not really interested in losing weight- the weight watchers and No So diet (which this book endorses- 3 meals a day, no snacks- although it doesn't mention it), have dealt with that for me. But I am fascinated with diet anyway and this seems like a very common sense way of looking at why diets work sometimes, or for a period of time, but are often unsustainable in the long run.

This book sounds very interesting. I just don't know if I could apply it to where we live - which has 2 seasons - rainy and dry. And the temperature is pretty much the same year-round. :confused: We love it, but when it comes to this book, I don't know if it's applicable.

 

I'm getting a copy through the Amazon Vine program, it should arrive the middle of next week.

Do please share your opinions if and when you remember. :D

 

Here are some copied and pasted stuff (for my own knowledge and clarification - and for anyone who may be interested). What sparked my interest is that it's French, and the French, as we know, are not really obese on the whole. Or at least it's very rare. When they talk about diet or skin care, I listen, or at least I try to.

 

The Dukan Diet has taken France by storm, selling 3.5 million copies in 14 different languages and being hailed as a life-long weight loss answer.

His own diet's high-protein, low-fat approach is organized into four phases:

 

Attack

Encourages dieters to eat as much as they want of nonfatty, protein rich foods, including oat bran (a key component) washed down with oceans of water

No caloric restrictions

Average length: 5 days - to lose lots of weight, 10 days are recommended

 

Cruise

Introduces vegetables, but no fruit

100 unlimited foods (72 from animals, 28 from plants)

Average length: 3 days for each pound you want to lose - lasts until the desired weight goal is achieved, lean protein, oat bran, and water days (as above) alternate with lean protein, oat bran, water, plus vegetable days. There are 28 vegetables to choose from -- no peas, carrots, corn or potatoes.

The dieter is supposed to drop about 2 pounds a week.

 

Consolidation

2 slices of bread

A serving of cheese and fruit

2 servings of carbohydrates a day

2 weekly "celebration" meals with wine and dessert (the diet is French, after all)

No second helpings.

Average length: 5 days per pound lost

No additional pounds will be lost, but weight should remain stable.

 

Stabilization

6 days a week of "anything goes" and one day of reversion to strict protein-only stage one -- for the rest of your life.

One pure protein day every Thursday for life

No more lifts (elevators) or escalators

3 tablespoons of oat bran a day

 

The French know a great deal about food and how to prepare it; they've taken pride in their national cuisine for centuries. It was a Frenchman, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who famously wrote in 1825: "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are." In Larousse Gastronomic, the monumental food encyclopedia edited by Frenchman Prosper Montagné, the entry on American cooking disparagingly mentions the countrywide distribution of factory-produced foods -- and this was in 1938! (Montagné goes on to observe, years before McDonald's served its first Happy Meal, that it is characteristic of Americans to eat as quickly as possible for as little money as possible). The great French chef Auguste Escoffier died before the Larousse was published, but not before he wrote the book's preface, which he begins with these words: "The history of the table of a nation is a reflection of the civilization of that nation."

This long cultural history of respecting food is likely a major reason why the French have had considerable immunity to the obesity epidemic. French women really don't get fat, or at least nine out of 10 don't -- according to the 2010 OECD Factbook a mere 10.5 percent of French adults are obese, in contrast to almost 35 percent of Americans. Nevertheless, for those who need help or just think they do, we imported Weight Watchers to France, and last year Jenny Craig opened shop. When queried as to why Jenny Craig (a company that sells low calorie prepared meals) made that decision, Eric Moreau, the company's chief executive in France, explained: "The French have a negative reaction to American food. But in terms of weight loss, the Americans have credibility here."

[nd293]

I am coming back to edit this post because i am reading a book called the 3 season diet by John Douillard this evening after coming across it today online- and I really like the concept and its kind of relevant here. The idea is that in nature, we would all eat seasonally- and that is how animals in nature eat. His idea is that in winter, a high protein and fat diet is natural- such as squirrels and their nuts, man and his stored foods (dried meats, nuts and grains), bears and their whatever.

 

That sounds interesting. I often consider how we were designed / have evolved to be when I make decisions about things, from child-rearing to eating (hence the co-sleeping and breast-feeding and omnivourous-ness!). I often wonder, regarding eating meat, whether we are designed to eat meat infrequently, but in large quantities (as hunters probably would have) - a once a week roast, perhaps?

[Rosie_0801]

This book sounds very interesting. I just don't know if I could apply it to where we live - which has 2 seasons - rainy and dry. And the temperature is pretty much the same year-round. :confused: We love it, but when it comes to this book, I don't know if it's applicable.

 

Do you find you want to eat differently? I'm just curious. I don't often make it up to the tropics :)

 

 

That sounds interesting. I often consider how we were designed / have evolved to be when I make decisions about things, from child-rearing to eating (hence the co-sleeping and breast-feeding and omnivourous-ness!). I often wonder, regarding eating meat, whether we are designed to eat meat infrequently, but in large quantities (as hunters probably would have) - a once a week roast, perhaps?

 

That'd give me a belly ache! But I don't think they were eating meat infrequently. They would have preserved it by drying and rationed it out. Perhaps it wasn't so different to what we generally consider ideal. A big party now and then, and enough to taste the rest of the time?

 

Rosie

[Crimson Wife]

What would be the difference between this and the Atkins diet?

 

My review copy came today and I had the chance to read the first 40 pages. Dukan seems fairly different from both Atkins and South Beach.

 

(1) Dukan considers all fat bad for weight loss. Atkins places no limits on fat consumption, and South Beach distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy fats.

 

(2) Dukan eliminates even non-starchy veggies in the first phase. Atkins and South Beach both encourage their consumption even in the strict induction phase.

 

(3) Dukan encourages Diet Coke consumption. Atkins and South Beach both talk about how terrible apartame is.

 

(4) Dukan claims that dieters can eat all they want as long as the foods conform to the diet, while South Beach talks about portion sizes.

 

(5) Dukan bashes vegetarianism while South Beach specifically includes chapters with vegetarian entrees in the two cookbooks I own.

 

(6) There's no carbohydrate gram counting on Dukan like there is on Atkins.

 

I'll post more thoughts after I have the chance to finish the Dukan book.

[3lilreds in NC]

(3) Dukan encourages Diet Coke consumption. Atkins and South Beach both talk about how terrible apartame is.

 

 

That, right there, will allow me to be successful on this diet plan. :lol:

 

I agree that aspartame is horrible. I'm just being honest. :D

[Negin]

Do you find you want to eat differently? I'm just curious. I don't often make it up to the tropics :)

Sometimes, yes, I do want to eat differently, particularly after being away from the tropics for a while and returning home. But I think once you live here over the long-term, your tastes tend to adjust. It's not like I want salads and gazpacho all the time, if you KWIM. I love a nice and warm soup at times. :)

Rosie, hope you can make it here someday :D :grouphug:.

 

(3) Dukan encourages Diet Coke consumption. Atkins and South Beach both talk about how terrible apartame is.

Very, very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing all your helpful info. :grouphug:

I wouldn't go near aspartame with a 10-foot pole. :001_huh: I haven't had Diet Coke in years and years ... I could understand going on it for a week or so (for what reason, I don't know :confused:. Does it suppress appetite? I hardly think so).

But if he endorses it over the long-term, I don't think I would do this diet.

 

Sorry to bother you, but if you find out at what stage or for how long, aspartame and Diet Coke are recommended, do please share. Only when you have time.

[Negin]

I got a reply from a Dukan blog:

 

"Diet coke is allowed in all phases as a measure of last resort for those who need some kind of substitute for the sugar they can't use anymore. In other words it is better to use diet coke than break the rules. Remember however that diet coke is everything but a healthy drink and will make you feel bad when used in excess."

[Crimson Wife]

Sorry to bother you, but if you find out at what stage or for how long, aspartame and Diet Coke are recommended, do please share. Only when you have time.

 

From page 34 of my review copy:

 

"Diet sodas are often the best way to make sure that you drink the 1 1/2 quarts of liquid already mentioned. In addition, they have virtually no calories or sugar. Finally, and above all, a carbonated beverage like Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Zero, the market-leading brand, provides a clever mix of intense flavors, which can reduce the craving for sugar if used repeatedly by those who like snacking on sweet things.

 

Many of my patients have confirmed that diet sodas were fun and comforting when used as a part of their diet and actually helped them."

 

The cynic in me has to wonder if Coke paid Dr. Dukan to endorse its diet brands. It wouldn't be the first time a food manufacturer did that (Bob Greene's The Best Life Diet was notorious for its paid product placements).

[PiCO]

I am coming back to edit this post because i am reading a book called the 3 season diet by John Douillard this evening after coming across it today online- and I really like the concept and its kind of relevant here.

 

Hey, I know this guy and his family! Beautiful, healthy family- lots of children. So he's doing something right.

[Negin]

From page 34 of my review copy:

The cynic in me has to wonder if Coke paid Dr. Dukan to endorse its diet brands.

Thanks for sharing that. Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if he is paid to endorse it. :glare: If I do try this plan, I'd rather drink herb teas and water. I'm so not a Diet Coke or aspartame person. Yuck.

 

Hey, I know this guy and his family! Beautiful, healthy family- lots of children. So he's doing something right.

I would really love to know if this book is worth getting if one lives in the tropics. I'm sure it is ... but I don't want to waste my time or $ on something that wouldn't be relevant to here. :)

[Crimson Wife]

Well, it's 5 P.M. on the second day of the "pure protein" part of the Dukan Diet and I feel awful. I felt great yesterday and this morning, which is why I decided to do a second day of it rather than moving on to the protein + vegetables. But this afternoon I've felt very lethargic and found it hard to think straight. Not sure if it's the heat (it was 85 degrees today) or the lack of healthy carbs or both. I'm going to try having a second oat bran galette with dinner tonight to see if it makes me feel any better. Dukan did say that it was okay to have up to 3 of them per day if necessary to satisfy carb cravings. I'm not experiencing any cravings, but if I want to have the energy to walk this evening, I need something.

[Peela]

Hey, I know this guy and his family! Beautiful, healthy family- lots of children. So he's doing something right.

 

Oh, thats really cool!

 

I would really love to know if this book is worth getting if one lives in the tropics. I'm sure it is ... but I don't want to waste my time or $ on something that wouldn't be relevant to here. :)

 

Hi Negin- its hard to say but its quite possible that you would just use the summer diet, all the time. But you know, you might be able to contact him through his website and ask- i would be very curious about the answer myself! However....the gist of it is that you eat seasonally, obviously. In summer, a high carb mostly vegetarian diet. In spring, a lowfat/low carb diet for cleansing after the heavy food of winter, and in winter a high protein/high fat diet. So, in order to lose weight in the tropics, it might be that a diet very high in fruits and vegetables and only moderate in fat and protein (I think he says something like 80% carbs- that means mostly fruits and vegies, not grains- and 10% each protein and fats) for summer. But I don't really know if that is sustainable (although it is probably what a lot of the world eats anyway).

I would be very curious as to how he would respond to that question. OK- I went to this page and wrote him the question myself because I am curious!

[Negin]

Well, it's 5 P.M. on the second day of the "pure protein" part of the Dukan Diet and I feel awful.

How do you feel now?

Better, I hope. :grouphug:

 

I would be very curious as to how he would respond to that question. OK- I went to this page and wrote him the question myself because I am curious!

Thank you so much, Peela. :)

Did he or anyone reply? I would love to know. This whole topic fascinates me.

The link didn't work. Hence why I'm asking.

[Peela]

 

Thank you so much, Peela. :)

Did he or anyone reply? I would love to know. This whole topic fascinates me.

The link didn't work. Hence why I'm asking.

 

 

Oooh, Negin, he repiled- here it is:

(Hi John- I have been reading your 3 season diet book and I love it and am following it. I have though a friend who lives in Grenada in the tropics and she wants to lose weight and is interested in the book, but thinks it may not be relevant to her at all because the seasons are not very distinguishable there- and its always hot. I suggested she contact you but I am also very curious so I am asking myself- would one perhaps just follow the summer diet all the time, taking note of what is locally in season? thanks, Susan)

 

Hi Susan,

Yes the seasons also change there but with less intensity so the 3Season Diet is also applicable there.

I would also suggest my new book The Colorado Cleanse which is a great weight loss program that has helps 1000s lose significant weight.

Be well

Dr John

[Negin]

Hi Susan,

Yes the seasons also change there but with less intensity so the 3Season Diet is also applicable there.

I would also suggest my new book The Colorado Cleanse which is a great weight loss program that has helps 1000s lose significant weight.

Be well

Dr John

Peela, you are so incredibly sweet and kind. :grouphug:

Thank YOU for writing to him and how very nice of him to reply. Also I'm happy to hear that he's quite informed about the climate here. So many people don't even know where our tiny island is ;).

I'm going to look into both his books. I'd love to get them very soon, but am trying very, very hard to save $, because of our upcoming very expensive trip in a few months. I'm putting both his books as top priority on my wish list. Don't know when I'll get them, but I will get them.

Thanks again. Peela, you're always so helpful and thoughtful. :grouphug: