Top 10 Worst Fast Foods
Dental Hygienist – “2 pregnancies back-to-back. Other companies wanted me to use stimulants and appetite suppressants….”
Chiropractor – “My patients were in despair; they had lost weight and gained it back so many times. Keep Canada Slim is not like these programs….”
Health worker – “My clients are not over eating, they are struggling and under eating, and can’t figure out why they are getting bigger. When I tell them I understand, they want to hug me….”
Health Canada scientist – “It’s sound science, very easy to implement and the results are spectacular….”
What's Wrong with the Doctor's Diets?
The Sigmund Freud Syndrome
Dr. Scarsdale Medical Diet
Dr. Bernstein
Dr. Atkins
Dr. Sears (The Zone)
Dr. Agatston (South Beach)
Dr. Ornish
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a Viennese doctor who became famous for his ground-breaking work studying the human mind. His theories formed the basis of all psychoanalysis and psychiatry for a hundred years and became commonplace as amateur psychiatrists (such as your relatives) used them to explain what was wrong with you. Problem was, the Good Doctor studied sick people, not healthy ones. (P.S. That's what doctors do). While it may be true that a deviant rapist fantasizes about making love to his mother because she once made him eat a banana, the idea that all men have that same fantasy hidden deep within their psyche has long since been discredited.
How does this relate to weight loss? Today we have many, many weight loss programs created by doctors who suffer from the Sigmund Freud Syndrome. They have studied sick people, then created programs based on this research, for healthy people. The result tends to be an unbalanced, unhealthy, and often times, very restrictive and confusing approach to a very simple problem. Simply put, doctors manage disease, they don't teach health. Check out these Doctor's Diets and see what we mean:
The Scarsdale "Medical" Diet dates back some 30 years or more and was one of the first Doctor's Diets to achieve national prominence. It was based, as are so many others, on low calories (800-1200) and a very specific short-term meal plan. This diet originally came with a warning not to stay on it for more than 2 weeks, since it would undermine your health. Doctor's Advice that makes you sick? What a concept. Result: short term results, long term problems.
This is the current king of low calorie programs - 500 to 800 calories. People on this diet often suffer migraines, hair loss, flaking skin, nausea, fainting, and worse. This Good Doctor actually paid a $700,000 settlement to the family of one patient who died while on the diet (CBC MARKETPLACE, April 3, 2002). Doctor's Advice that makes you... let's not go there. Result: short term results, long term problems.
This program is on the decline in recent years, partly because Dr. Atkins himself was clinically obese when he died recently. Not good PR! This one recognizes metabolism problems, but recommends eating a lot of protein, since protein is harder to metabolize and therefore turns into fat slower than carbohydrates. This is a case of blaming the food, (bread is bad for you?) rather than blaming the patient. Problem with this is that the high level of saturated fats that are usually found with protein is the basis of most degenerative disease (i.e. heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis). Doctor's Advice that increases your risk of disease. Result: short term success, long term problems.
This one takes you deep into the secret laboratories of science to discover the "problem hormones" that have some how rebelled within you to cause you to gain weight. This is a typical medical approach to disease - let's find the silver bullet, the single nutrient, the magic pill, the genetic defect that has suddenly appeared in the 20th Century to bedevil us and make us fat. Dr. Sears has spent his life studying hormone responses, so naturally that is his answer to everything. Much the same way that Linus Pauling suggested every ailment could be cured by vitamin C - if you just took enough of it. We like to say "if you give a man a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail."
The Zone has a lot of good science in it, although you need a Ph.D. to understand it, but any book that says and I quote: "eating carrots, lima beans, papaya, popcorn, etc. could be dangerous to your health" has clearly lost touch with reality outside the lab. Doctor's Advice that makes you confused.
Another "phasing" diet (different rules for each phase) based on the Glycemic Index, the faulty science that created the anti-carb craze. Why not just learn one system, rather than having to go through 4 different ones? South Beach focuses on eliminating fruit as well as the obvious fast foods and refined carbs that we all need to avoid. Fruit? Nature's perfect food? Avoid it? That's just plain crazy. South Beach recently added bananas to its recommended products list. It is moving in the right direction however they continue to recommend artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Splenda and saccharin. These are not healthy choices, ergo, this is not a health program. Doctor's Advice that makes you artificial.
This diet was specifically created for patients recovering from heart attacks. It restricts fat to less than 10% of total calories, making it virtually vegan vegetarian. Very healthy no doubt, but very hard to stay on. This one reminds us of the old joke about eating health food: "You don't live any longer, it just seems longer". Doctor's Advice that makes you wish you were dead.
Hey if you're sick, go see a doctor. But if you're just overweight, come see us. Keep Canada/Keep America Slim, a healthy weight control program that everyone can understand and everyone can stay on.
