Just when I thought I had seen it all as far as dieting is concerned - from the land notorious for its dedicated food lovers comes a weight-loss "diet" that is sweeping the globe. Yes! France will no longer be famous for its croissants, wines and cheeses but instead will become known for (supposedly) helping us to stay slim!
A brief overview of the Dukan Diet
The Dukan Diet is somewhat different
from most other diet plans because it is
split into four parts, combining two
steps to lose your excessive weight
and two steps to help keep it off for,
supposedly for good:
Step 1: Attack
For 2-7 days you can eat as much as you want of seventy-two high-protein foods.
Step 2: Cruise
In step two, you continue consuming the protein-rich foods but now you add 28 vegetables.
Step 3: Consolidation
In this step you are permitted to add fruit, bread, cheese and some starchy foods, and indulge in two celebration meals a week, allowing 5 days for every pound lost.
Step 4: Stabilisation
Once you have reached step 4, you are allowed to eat anything you like and not regain any weight providing you follow 3 basic rules, including the famous 'protein Thursdays'.
This plan was created by a French doctor: Dr Pierre Dukan, who claims that he spent most of his career helping people to permanently lose excessive weight. Dr Dukan states that this diet is based on thirty-five years' clinical experience. Since the release of his book, the Dukan Diet has swept across France, and was hailed by several celebrities who reported successfully losing weight following Pierre Dukan's diet. Some press reports have estimated that the Dukan diet community now numbers over 5 million people in France and is still growing.
Since approximately March 2010, Dr Dukan's book has been translated into ten languages and is sold in over twenty countries.