The diet which headlined the news in 2006 was the Maple Syrup Weight Loss Diet. It was widely reported in the media that the famous American Singer & Actress, Beyonce Knowles, used the diet in order to lose weight fast. Since that time it has featured extensively in celebrity magazines as well as hundreds of on-line articles, sparking a huge interest and causing huge growth of maple syrup sales across the western world.
It all started back in 2006 when Beyonce (along with her Dreamgirls’ movie co-starts) was being interviewed by Oprah Winifrey. Quite surprisingly, on researching the interview and the transcript of the show, I could find no evidence that Beyonce had ever mentioned the Maple Syrup diet directly. On being asked about the 20 pounds she had lost her comment during the Oprah interview was “I figured in the 60’s Twiggy was the hot model and Diana and Cher and all the legends were thinner than I am” she explained. “So I decided I wanted to lose weight and make a physical transformation. And it was difficult because I love food. I love to eat. I did a fast – a master cleanser for 14 days. Everybody was eating Krispy Kremes around me. I was grouchy, but I did it and I lost the weight”
Later, I found two other references to quotes purportedly made by Beyonce in the China Daily: “Normally they’d change your make-up or your clothes, but I wanted to go the extra mile, back in the sixties, models like Twiggy were popular and I knew Deena would have been thin them, so even though I really loved eating, it was necessary to lose weight really fast because we shot Deena at 16 and Deena at 36 two weeks apart”. The second purported quote read “My nutritionist suggested the only way to do that was the fast. As soon as it was over, I gained the weight back”. Later in 2006 during an interview with Kate Garraway of GMTV here in the UK Beyonce was asked about her weight loss for the film and she responded by stating “I would not recommend it if someone wasn’t doing a movie, because there are other ways to lose weight”
However, for some, seemingly inexplicable, reason the Maple Syrup Diet craze had arrived and articles were published about it in just about every newspaper and women’s magazine. It was more commonly referred to as “The Beyonce Diet”
Although this is commonly referred to as a “diet” it is quite clearly a short-term “fast”, “a crash diet” or a “detoxification programme”. The original diet was developed in the 1940’s by Stanley Burroughs, an “alternative medicine guru” with no medical training and, more worryingly a convicted second-degree felony murderer (a patient had died after following Burroughs’ advice to ignore his medical doctor). Originally called “The Lemonade Die” or “The Master Cleanser” The purpose of the diet was supposedly to:
- dissolve and eliminate toxins and congestion that had formed in the body
- to cleanse the kidneys and the digestive system
- purifying the glands and cells throughout the entire body
- eliminate all unusable waste and hardened material in the joints and muscles
- to relieve pressure and irritation in the nerves, arteries and blood vessels
- to build a health blood stream and
- to keep youth and elasticity regardless of age.
In the early 2004 Peter Glickman wrote and published the book Lose Weight, Have more Energy and Be Happier in 10 Days! The new book based on Stanley Burroughs’ “Master Cleanse basically re-presents it to give the weight loss element top billing.
What is of particular concern is that the author, Peter Glickman, also appears to have no formal medical training and his website biography is vague – it refers to a BA degree but does not confirm the subject studied. It clearly states that “He began doing websites in 1996” but makes no reference to what on earth “doing websites” actually means in terms of subject matter or his involvement. Links from this biography do take you to his Raw Food Website where you can purchase from a range of products. Products include his books and all supplies (right down to the certified organic lemons).
In my view, this “diet” is dangerous. Whilst it is not uncommon to fast (fasting having been around for thousands of years and undertaken by many people on religious and health grounds) fasting is usually undertaken for two to three days at most, not the 10 days or more recommended for this diet. There is no nutritional value in the diet and whilst anyone consuming a diet with less than 312 calories a day (based on a tablespoon/10ml of Syrup containing 26 calories per tablespoon x 6 drinks per day each containing 2 tablespoons) will lose weight there is no scientific evidence that the weight will stay off once you remove yourself from the diet.
Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSC RD, is not only worried about the extremely low calorie content but she also comments on the fact that the drinks “devoid of protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and all the naturally occurring plant chemicals (phytochemicals) we know help keep us fit and healthy.” She goes on to state that “After just a few days, its likely you’ll become constipated due to the complete lack of fibre in the diet and if you follow this diet for any length of time, you could end up with low nutrient levels, including iron, calcium, zinc and vitamin C”.
In May 2007, Erin Kelly wrote an article for the The Daily Mail based on her experience of following the Maple Syrup Recipe for 5 days prior to a beach holiday. The most concerning part of the article is where Erin talks of feeling “floaty” and “vague” and twice nearly crashing her car despite concentrating on her driving “so hard I hardly blinked”. She goes on to say that she misplaced her glasses about seven times in one hour and she is finding work impossible because her concentration span has dropped to about 6 seconds and she is spending lots of time staring vaguely at a computer screen not knowing what she is doing. Most normal people would certainly not have the luxury of taking 10 days out of their lives in order to be in a position to follow such an extreme diet and those having to drive or operate machinery may be putting others at serious risk.
This quick-fix diet has remained in the news and every so often it is back in the spotlight due to another media article. In 2009 it was reported by the celebrity news magazine, Closer, that Angelina Jolie has followed the diet in order to shed 21lbs in as many days for her role as a CIA Officer in the movie Salt. Again, in May 2010 it was reported in the Daily Mail that model Naomi Campbell regularly used the Maple Syrup Diet in order to control her weight.
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