Be Slim, Be Fit, Have Health

There are various versions of the “Mayo Clinic Diet” floating around the internet. The Mayo Clinic, a respected hospital in Minnesota, has said that none of these diets originated at their clinic and that they do not recommend any of them. In this article, I’m going to discuss two of the more popular versions of “the Mayo Clinic Diet” and then discuss what the Mayo Clinic actually recommends for weight loss.

One of the false Mayo Clinic diets revolves around eating a lot of grapefruit. For instance, a typical day’s food would consist of:

Breakfast: ½ grapefruit, 2 eggs any style, 2 slices of bacon.

Lunch: ½ grapefruit, any style of meat (any amount), salad with any kind of dressing.

Dinner: ½ grapefruit, any style of meat or fish in any amount, any green, yellow, or red vegetables cooked in butter or any other kind of seasoning.

Snack: 1 cup of tomato juice or 1 cup of milk

Avoid: White onions, potatoes, celery

Eat until you are full and then stop. Eat everything on the menu including the morning’s bacon. Cut down on caffeine. Don’t eat between meals. Don’t eat any sugar or starch including deserts, bread, or potatoes.

The “key” to this “Mayo Clinic Diet” is the grapefruit. It supposedly acts as a catalyst that starts the fat burning process.

Another false “Mayo Clinic Diet” revolves around eating gallons and gallons of Cabbage Soup. You can eat as much of the soup as you want throughout the diet. You make the soup with the following ingredients:

• • 6 large green onions
  • 2 green peppers
  • 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole)
  • 3 Carrots
  • 1 Container (10 oz. or so) Mushrooms
  • 1 bunch of celery
  • half a head of cabbage
  • 1 package Lipton soup mix
  • 1 or 2 cubes of bouillon (optional)
  • 1 48oz can V8 juice (optional) (reduce water by appropriate amount if used)
  • Season to taste with salt, pepper, parsley, curry, garlic powder, etc.
  • 12 cups water

The Cabbage Soup version of the Mayo Clinic Diet follows a 7 day plan. On the first day, you can have all of the soup you want plus any amount of fruit except bananas. The second day, you can have the soup plus all of the vegetables you want including one big baked potato at dinner time. The third day, you get all the soup, fruit, and vegetables you want except for potatoes. Then on day four, you get the soup plus all the bananas and skim milk you want. On day 5, you get up to 20 ounces of beef plus 6 tomatoes along with the soup. On day 6, you can have up to 3 8 ounce steaks and all the vegetables you want (no potatoes). The last day calls for brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice, and vegetables along with the soup.

The Mayo Clinic does not recommend that dieters follow either the grapefruit or the cabbage soup plans. Instead, the Official Mayo Clinic Diet is based on four principles that look more like what a dietitian would recommend:

1. Eat well using the food pyramid as a guide.
2. Increase your physical activity
3. Set action goals to guide your diet.
4. Get started and stay motivated.

So, if you are eating lots of grapefruit or drowning yourself in cabbage soup, you’re not following the official Mayo Clinic Diet.

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