Cardiac Diet
The Cardiac Diet is a tenuous sham and should not be followed. With its silly adherence to rigidity (including a scoop of vanilla ice cream after every dinner) and its outlandish claims, this inanimate thing, a diet, seems to have taken on a life all its own.
Known by many names including the Birmingham Heart Hospital Diet, the Hot Dog Diet, and the Cardiac Unit of UAB Hospital diet; this diet is available online with the click of a mouse.
When you first look at the diet, it seems pretty easy to follow and healthy as it includes things like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, apples, and tuna fish. This is the sham as there is no scientific basis for the “10lb 3 day” weight loss claims which run alongside the diet.
There are also fun looking foods including the ice cream I mentioned, peanut butter and hot dogs with such abundance that they drive the caloric intake back sky high. In fact, if you follow the diet and don’t cheat, well then you’re intake per day will be around 1200 calories, so if you’re taking in 1800 calories or more prior to this then you may lose some weight, but it will most likely be water weight or muscle tissue with very little fat lost.
The reason for this is that there is no exercise regimen along with the diet for full effect. There is also a mystical quality to the food selections “two weenies” which makes it appear as if these pedestrian foods, when coupled together, have some special weight loss powers to which only the diets creators are aware of. This is fallacy at best and a deliberate, hurtful lie at worst.
Finally there is nothing really that nutritious about the food choices. The diet you’re presented with is high in saturated fat and cholesterol and sodium and is low in whole grains. If you’re looking to lose weight, conventional wisdom wins out still as you’d like to get a high amount of whole grains, a moderate amount of protein and low in fat none of which is present in this nutrient depleted plan.