Origins of the Dukan Diet   by JJ Jenkins

in Health / Weight Loss    (submitted 2011-02-23)

What is the Dukan Diet?

Looking for a diet plan that is certain to take off the pounds and keep them off? People in France appear to have this figured out - in France they are significantly less overweight than Americans. Why is that? The up coming short article gives a possible explanation why.

The Dukan Diet was first created by Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French medical professional that has specialized in human nutrition since 1973. The Dukan Diet was created ten years ago and has gained immense acclaim since it was first designed. The Dukan Diet was first created in the young physician Pierre Dukan’s mind when he faced people who would do just about anything to lose extra fat. People who underwent starvation phases (especially with meat), due to several other weight loss programs, were advised to have nothing but meat by Dr. Dukan. The Dukan Diet is based on ingesting high-protein foods while drastically limiting all carbs including fruits, starchy vegetables, legumes and whole grains. According to media reports, over 1.5 million French women rely on the diet to help maintain their figures and apparently politicians, film stars and high profile models are living the Dukan life, every one of them seduced by its promise of the ultimate dieters fantasy - long-lasting slenderness while ingesting whatever you like. It has also been used by models and celebrities including Giselle Bundchen and Jennifer Lopez to return to their pre-baby bodies. That attracted the eye of dieters around the globe. The Dukan Diet has four successive phases: The Attack Phase (generally known as “pure protein Phase”), The Cruise Phase, The Consolidation Phase and The Stabilization Phase.

The Dukan Diet is effective because it is primarily based on the nutritional value of high protein foods and the way the body responds to proteins. Unlike the other two main food groups, carbohydrates and fats, proteins are the most challenging for the body to absorb. It can take up to 3 hours for ones system to respond to protein digestion and this function uses up roughly 30% calories which were formerly consumed. In simple terms, more consumption of high protein food enhances the body’s calorie expenditure. High Protein foods also are lower in calories than carbohydrates and fats. To sum up, we can easily say that high protein food not only tends to increase the calorie expenditure of the body but also helps in taking in less calories as high protein food simply leaves people feeling fuller for longer because the slow rate of digestion. As outlined by Dr. Dukan, the diet has a powerful educational value and shows dieters the relative incredible importance of each food group in line with the order in which they are incorporated into their diet. It starts with vital foods, then introduces, in succession, indispensable foods, essential foods and important foods, finishing off with superfluous foods.

In addition to its sound scientific logic, the Dukan Diet enables you to “eat anything you want” providing what you want is protein. The Dukan Diet is a very interesting and appealing diet for dieters as it promises the holy grail of diets, that after the target weight-loss strategy is reached, the weight loss is kept permanently and one can return to unrestrained eating. It acknowledges the actual pleasure to be had from eating and, incredibly, pledges efficient weight-loss while feasting on unrestricted quantities of “real food.”

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