The media is constantly bombarding us with celebrities promoting one diet or nutritional program after another, but are these celebrity diets effective, let alone healthy? Well it depends on which celebrity endorsed program you are talking about and since there are so many it is easy to get lost in the quagmire. Celebrity Diets are nothing more than diets that are recommended by celebrities and until you consult your doctor, personal trainer or certified nutritionist you really shouldn’t just jump into any new diet/weight loss/nutritional program, even if someone like Oprah is endorsing it.
The basic theory embedded in all celebrity diets is the same – low carbs/ low calories. Even though, this formula is effective in bringing down your weight, in the long run, it is not at all a healthy proportion. Food is fuel for the body and if you are denying your body fuel then eventually it will cease to function properly. Not to mention that everybody’s metabolic type is different, which means that different people require different diet plans. Some people need more carbohydrates in their diet than others and some people require higher amounts of fat. The most important thing to remember is that the body needs food to survive and lower calorie diets do not provide your body with adequate amounts of energy to sustain you.
In addition to low/carb/low calorie diets, most of the so-called celebrity diets require a stringent workout regimen to backup the diet plan, which unfortunately may not be practical for each person’s individual lifestyle, that alternates between work and family. In other words, what is considered part of the job for a celebrity, looking good, may not be so for everyone. However working out is essential to losing weight and staying healthy, however spending 6 days a week, 3-4 hours a day working out, is definitely not advised. Your body needs time to rest and recuperate between work outs. Muscles are built during down times, just as much as they are during work out hours, so give your body the time to build muscle on your days off at the gym.
A few celebrity diets that have made headlines in the past, but also had invariably invited the disdain of nutritionists the world over include: Oprah Winfrey’s Cabbage Soup Diet, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Zen Macrobiotic diet, Rene Zellweger’s the Zone diet, and Heidi Klum and Drew Barrymore’s low carb/low fat diet. These are just a few of the celebrity endorsed diets that are out there, after all we are all aware of Kirstie Alley’s endorsement of Jenny Craig, but that’s an entirely different article. As, you continue reading, you will discover why it is not a good idea to blindly embrace these diet plans.
The Cabbage Soup diet prescribes alternating between eating one certain food all day long, with a specially prepared high sodium content broth from cabbage, V8 juices, and onion soup. The disadvantages with this diet are that it is calorie depriving as well as that it promotes a high sodium intake, both of which are unhealthy to the human body over time. Besides who want to eat just one thing a day and cabbage soup all of the time for months on end. One of the other problems with this diet is that it deprives your body of the many different vitamins and nutrients that you get from a well balanced diet.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Zen Macrobiotic diet, strictly prohibits the consumption of dairy, alcohol, meat, caffeine, fish, and eggs, and promotes organic foods instead. The cons with this diet are that it requires the dieter to consume more raw food and it severely restricts calories. Also, the diet lacks in B12, proteins, and essential fats, which could lead to dietary and other health related issues. The same problem exists with Heidi Klum and Drew Barrymore’s low carb/low fat diet.
Another reason why you should not trust celebrity diets is that these diets, while perhaps endorsed by the celebrity are not always practiced by the celebrity. Many of them only lend their name to a diet plan, and they do so in exchange for money, much the same way they endorse other products on TV. Remember, these people are not experts in the field of health and nutrition, they are not doctors, nutritionists or personal trainers. Their advice about nutrition isn’t any more valuable than your grandmother’s or your next door neighbor’s and in some case their advice is worse. After all celebrities aren’t always known for being the healthiest people, a lot of celebrities are accused of being anorexic or bulimic, or having problems with drugs or alcohol. So it wouldn’t be prudent to take their advice, unless perhaps you want to know about acting or how to make it in Hollywood.
So, which is the ideal diet plan that does not hurt your body? It would be better to follow a diet plan that focuses on your metabolic typing since each person’s biochemistry is different from one another. Some people may need more fat and proteins, while others require more vegetables and lean proteins. It just depends upon your biochemistry. As a rule of thumb, find a diet plan that is nutritious and well balanced, that meets your body’s requirements, one that includes lots of organic food, free range, natural fed and wild meat sources (not low quality factory farm meat) minus milk and dairy products unless you get it from a raw source. Also, avoid all non-healthy processed and tin foods, even if it is meat. Finally, if you are not able to chart a balanced diet plan as you would want it to be, don’t hesitate to seek the services of a professional nutritionist or dietician.
