Rumour has it that royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton has taken a leaf out her mother’s book to have that perfect figure on the big day—the Dukan diet. Last October, Carole Middleton, Kate’s mother, said that she was on the Dukan diet to lose weight—a diet that had made waves in France and was now proceeding to take Europe and North America by storm.
Developed by French physician Dr Pierre Dukan, the diet is based on the premise that big eaters can’t ration their food, and that people on a diet want to see instant results to keep their motivation levels up. Divided into four phases, the Dukan diet envisages users going back to an almost normal diet once they’ve shed the amount of weight they want to. In the first phase known as the ‘attack phase’ the person goes on a complete non-carbohydrates regimen and eats only proteins. Any amount of proteins from certain food groups, including lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs and seafood, can be eaten. This phase lasts for about five days, longer if the person has a lot of weight to lose. Sugar, fruits, dairy products and potatoes or pasta are forbidden.
In the second or ‘cruise phase’, dieters are introduced to vegetables, barring those that are rich in carbohydrates such as potatoes, legumes and rice. Dieters have one day with vegetables, and one day without.
This phase lasts until the person has reached the ideal weight. For most people, one week of this will lead to losing one kg, but this may not always be the case.
The ‘consolidation’ or third phase is when your body is finally allowed to take carbohydrates again— from whole-grain bread (two slices), potatoes, pasta and rice (twice a week). Also, you are allowed a sumptuous dinner twice a week on the condition that the next day you are back on the phase one regimen.
Finally, in the fourth ‘stabilisation’ phase, you are back to normal— almost. For six days of the week you can eat as you please— avoiding sugar and sweets—but for one day you have to stick to the diet.
The Dukan diet also makes it mandatory to walk for at least 20 minutes every day, drink about 1.5 litres of water daily, eat about three tablespoons of oat bran and forever avoid escalators and elevators.
While its fan following on the Web is immense —there are over 200 sites, blogs and forums dedicated to it—and thousands claim to have benefitted from it, the critics say that the Dukan diet, with its emphasis on protein-rich diet, is a copy of the hugely popular Atkins diet. Also, both France’s National Agency for Food, Environmental and Work Health Safety and Britain’s Dietetic Association have called it imbalanced and one of the worst diets of the year.
Critics also point to nutrition deficiencies in some of the phases. Dukan, however, dismisses it, claiming that his diet helps people lose weight and keep it off—a remarkable feat considering more than 90 per cent of people regain weight after going off a diet. Fans and critics may disagree, but with obesity figures going up, one thing is for sure that a large section of the population needs to lose weight.