But this would seem at first glance to be one of the wackiest (I ran across it accidentally while trying to find… not a naturopath, exactly, but I need a new doctor now that I no longer work in the city where my previous doc is located, and am interested in one who is both fat-friendly and open-minded about various types of therapies. These features would unfortunately seem to be mutually exclusive as far as I can determine through internet searches, seeing as most alternative practitioners also seem to be super-fixated on weight loss, colonics, and restrictive ways of eating such as raw diets, but that’s another story).
I especially love an argument I read in the Amazon reviews of a book associated with this plan, basically that it’s a human hormone, so compared to HFCS and trans fats, how could it possibly be dangerous? (After all, he or she argues, it’s used as a fertility treatment! So therefore it must be totally safe for everyone!) Anyway, everyone knows that there is absolutely no way hormones or related substances can cause problems.
The same reviewer states “I am very surprised by the negative reviews of Trudeau’s book. Amazon’s suggested tags have words like ‘fraud’ although this book has mostly positive reviews.” I mean, how can something be fraudulent or misguided if it is POPULAR, am I right?!?! LOL.
I would certainly never go off-topic and start ranting about a pet peeve (ha), but come to that, most diet books I have seen on Amazon have mostly positive reviews. That is because they all seem to say “I have been following this diet for 3 months and feel great and have lost x pounds!” or “I am 30 pounds into a 60-pound weight loss and better yet, I am keeping it off!” Um, I don’t think that means what you think it means. Rarely do you see an update from someone saying “I lost the rest of that 60 pounds and 8 years later, it’s still gone!” I wonder why that might be.
In any case, I think most of us can probably agree that eating 500 calories a day and injecting pregnancy hormones is perhaps not the most sane-sounding plan ever hatched.
January 8, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Can I just say, I had to take HCG for IVF and it caused me to GAIN weight? (There are a lot of other symptoms that they warned me about when I took it, too.) Seems like this was based on bad science.
January 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Wow–that is interesting, especially since the web site claims that it “mobilizes” a pound of fat per day or some such thing. I guess not so much.
It makes sense there would be side effects too… after all, it is a pregnancy hormone! The whole thing is bizarre. The research that the diet is based on is 50 years old or more, and links like this seem to indicate–not surprisingly–that studies showed no effect of HCG on weight loss. Since the particular clinic I linked to seems to put you on a 500-calorie-a-day diet when you are receiving the injections, it’s no wonder some people lose weight and one would think the HCG is probably NOT the important factor there. :/
January 8, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Sadly my MiL has been doing this diet–apparently this one has cycled back around as she says she did it 30 years ago as well. She seemed crestfallen when I pointed out that the reason she was losing weight was the 500 calories/day aspect. And, by the way, she does admit that she is hungry while on the plan. Really?! Color me surprised.
January 8, 2010 at 5:29 pm
I know, I found it hard to keep from laughing out loud when I saw that you were supposed to not be hungry on 500 calories a day. “Fat mobilization” or no (one assumes “no,” of course).
January 11, 2010 at 3:55 pm
This is one of the most disturbing “Diets” I have ever heard about. Any way you slice it, it’s a bad idea to eat 500 calories a day, and am equally bad idea to inject some non-FDA approved “hormone” into your body. Together, they are a recepie for disaster!