Which Popular Diet is the Most Effective? Our Expert Reveals All the Intricacies!

Discover the Most Effective Popular Diets

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on popular modern diets that are not only effective but also offer additional benefits. These diets can help you achieve a flatter stomach, lower cholesterol levels, and reduce blood sugar. Our expert, Larisa Muzychuk, comments on each diet and reveals which one is the most effective—prepare to be surprised!

The Wheat-Belly Diet by Dr. William Davis: Lose 5 kg in Two Weeks

This diet sets a challenging task: eliminate all wheat-containing products from your diet. This includes bread, pastries, and pizza. However, by following its rules, success is guaranteed: you’ll lose extra kilograms and centimeters from your waistline!

Principles of the Diet

American cardiologist William Davis, the creator of this diet, is convinced that the main culprit of excess weight is not sugar or fat, but wheat. Why?

Oxidative Properties: Wheat has strong oxidative properties, negatively affecting intestinal function, metabolism, and overall health.
Modern Wheat: Today’s wheat is a product of artificial cultivation, far removed from the ancestral grain used by our great-grandmothers. Consuming wheat causes a rapid rise in blood glucose levels, leading to hunger pangs shortly after eating.

The main principle of the diet is the complete exclusion of all wheat-containing products and limiting carbohydrate-rich foods that contain sugar. By following Davis’s diet, you can lose up to 20 kilograms in just a couple of months! Dr. Davis recommends making this diet a new lifestyle, promising not only weight loss but also fresher and firmer skin.

Forbidden Foods

Exclude all baked goods, pasta, pizza, pancakes, crackers, semolina, and muesli based on wheat flakes from your daily diet. Davis also recommends avoiding corn and corn-based products (including popcorn, corn sticks, and flakes).

It’s crucial to limit sugar intake, so avoid all sweets, dried fruits, and sugary sodas. Fruit juices are allowed but limited to half a glass per day.

Allowed Foods

You can eat eggs, meat, fish, all types of cheese, raw and boiled vegetables, and olives. Oils such as olive and peanut oil are permitted. Fruits can be consumed in small quantities, preferably sour ones like apples or strawberries. Unsweetened dairy products can be eaten in moderation—no more than two servings per day. Legumes and grains (buckwheat, millet, oats) are allowed in small amounts—several tablespoons per day.

Permitted Snacks

Dr. Davis believes that if you follow this diet, the need for snacks should soon disappear. However, if hunger strikes, it’s best to avoid cravings. Optimal snack options include:

Nuts: Choose any nuts you like, but avoid roasted, salted, or sweetened varieties.
Cheeses: Diversify your diet with gourmet cheeses (Camembert, Brie, white goat cheese, or Roquefort). You can complement the snack with a few olives.
Vegetables with Dip: Raw carrots, peppers, celery, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes pair well with cheese sauce or hummus.

Sample Daily Menu

Breakfast: Steamed omelet with two eggs and soft white cheese or homemade cottage cheese, or two boiled eggs and two slices of hard cheese with fresh greens.
First Snack: A handful of raw almonds or walnuts.
Lunch: Mushrooms baked with shrimp and white cheese.
Afternoon Snack: 2-3 pieces of dark chocolate with 70-90% cocoa content.
Dinner: Baked fish with mustard or another spicy sugar-free sauce, salad with lettuce leaves, pumpkin seeds, and cheese.
Second Snack (before bed): A glass of kefir or a cup of low-fat milk with cinnamon.

Expert Opinion on the Diet by Larisa Muzychuk

Larisa Muzychuk considers this dietary approach suitable for individuals with specific health conditions, particularly those with a genuine intolerance to wheat protein. For these individuals, gluten-free diets have long been established.

However, it’s important to note that gluten is also present in other grains such as rye, barley, and oats. Given that many products today contain components from these grains, it can be challenging for these individuals to find suitable foods. Typically, such patients suffer from being underweight.

But should a healthy person restrict themselves in this way by excluding most grains from their diet? It’s crucial to understand that without specific medical indications, there is no need to do so. Grains are the primary source of B vitamins for our bodies. They also contain a complex of microelements that affect the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, and the condition of the skin, hair, and nails.

Voluntarily depriving ourselves of grains for an extended period also deprives our bodies of many necessary substances. I can evaluate this diet as a variant of a restrictive diet for a short period—exclusively for variety. For long-term use, this dietary system is unsuccessful.

Low-Carb Diet or “The 100 Method” by Jorge Cruise: Lose 4 Kilograms in 2 Weeks

Tired of counting calories? This diet will simplify your life—you only need to count the calories that can actually make you gain weight. According to Jorge Cruise, most of these calories come from sugar.

Main Principles of the Diet

World-renowned fitness expert Jorge Cruise, based on his extensive experience working with people looking to lose weight, concludes that an effective diet should include:

Proteins: They provide good satiety.
Fats: Necessary for the normal functioning of the body and enhance the enjoyment of food.
Vegetables: Contain a range of beneficial elements and fiber.

This combination helps maintain low blood glucose and insulin levels, allowing the body to effectively use fat reserves. Weight decreases, and you won’t suffer from hunger pangs.

The diet is based on avoiding calories from sugar and sugar-containing products. Cruise refers to sugars not only in their pure form but also to carbohydrates. He also believes it’s necessary to limit products high in starch, any baked goods, cereals, honey, fruit juices, etc.

You don’t need to completely give up carbohydrates—it’s important that the number of calories from them does not exceed 100 per day (hence the name of the diet). You don’t need to count calories in other products.

To calculate the number of calories in ready-made products, Cruise suggests using a simple method: multiply the amount of carbohydrates indicated on the label by 4.

Forbidden Foods

Since sugar is prohibited, it’s best to avoid the least valuable products containing it, such as baked goods, desserts, pasta, and buns. Fruits, whole-grain products, starchy vegetables, and legumes should be limited, and their consumption should be strictly monitored.

Allowed Foods

These products do not contain harmful calories that turn into fat, so you don’t need to count them.

Vegetables: Zucchini, eggplants, all types of cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, green beans, and peppers.
Proteins: Meat, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy products.
Fats: Olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds.

For more information on healthy eating and dieting, you can visit The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.