20130801 48 Hours - Diets

48 Hours

August 1, 2013

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Gruel and unusual 48 Hours staff suffer some extreme diets in the name of reader education

Photos: Corbis

Alkaline diet

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Claim: it is based on the belief that foods that affect acidity in bodily fluids like blood and urine can lead to cancer, heart disease, arthritis and diabetes. An alkaline diet is supposed to help prevent these conditions, but there is no scientific proof of its efficacy.

It requires eating alkaline-yielding foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and legumes, while avoiding meat, fish, poultry, flour, dairy, processed foods, sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

48-hour experience: it’s not much of a stretch for me because I’m trying to eat more vegetables and fruit, anyway. But despite having my usual breakfast of

oatmeal with almonds, walnuts and blueberries and an apple, I was suffering from hunger pangs just before noon, it was because of jet lag from a recent trip to the US. I snacked on some dried cranberries, but the lunch of poached spinach filled me up with a little bit of rice.

Dinner was a home-made vegetable soup with quinoa, and was definitely filling.

After going to bed very early in the hope of resetting my body clock – something I haven’t done since I was a kid – my second day was much better.

Breakfast was again oatmeal with an apple, and then lunch was poached baby bok choy with some rice. Chocolates were

passed around in the office, but I avoided them, although if I wasn’t on the diet I’d have had one. Dinner was the hearty vegetable soup again. The diet does make for limited dining options.

Conclusion: overall, it’s good for people who are keen on eating more healthily as it advocates avoiding processed foods, alcohol and caffeine. In this way, it is similar to a strict vegetarian diet.

Trying to follow it to the letter could be difficult as there are many variations on foods considered acidic or alkaline.

This diet could cause to you to become a hermit.

Bernice Chan

48 Hours

August 1, 2013

48 48 WAYS WAYS totototolooking looking look looking looking andand and and and feelfeeling feeling feeling feeling your best your your your yourbest best best best Raw food diet Claim: raw foodists only eat foods that haven’t been heated above a certain temperature, usually between 38 and 48 degrees Celsius. It’s believed that cooking destroys enzymes that are essential to health. Reported benefits include weight loss, higher energy levels and curing ailments.

48-hours Experience: the fluffy, warm slice of wholegrain bread was my downfall. Walking past the bakery after breakfast, I gave in to my still unsated appetite, despite the two bananas, one peach and a handful of mixed nuts that kicked off my raw food diet trial. Weak, I am, but as someone who swims, cycles and runs about 10 hours or more a week, bread is my kryptonite – especially at the start of the day. The next 48 hours would be an immense challenge because keeping to the diet

The juice cleanse (juice detox or juice) diet Claim: a fast-paced modern lifestyle means that we are consuming toxins more quickly than we can eliminate them naturally, as our bodies were designed to. By drinking only juices (made of raw, unpasteurised vegetables, fruits and other vegan and gluten-free ingredients), warm water and herbal tea, we can flush the toxins out of our systems.

48-hour experience: I went into the cleanse wondering how long it would take before I cheated. But I made it through the whole 48 hours – and half of the next day – subsisting only on the prepared juices. Punch Detox’s minimum plan – of six 500ml bottles per day – is three days. None of the juices tasted bad, and a couple were delicious. I wasn’t hungry during the 48 hours, but I craved something crunchy and unhealthy to chew on, in particular, fried chicken wings and potato chips (Punch recommends celery sticks or cucumber). The days revolved around drinking, and using the loo. My biggest worry – that lack of caffeine and food would make me irritable – didn’t come to pass. Starting in the late afternoon of the first day, I did have a mild headache (probably from lack of caffeine) that came and went, then persisted for much of the second day. I got a deep muscle ache in my legs that I needed to massage away. It was worse on the third day, although I’d started to eat by the afternoon. By the next morning, it had gone.

Conclusion: on my first day after the detox, I wasn’t glowing with newfound health. I did feel bright and energetic – although whether it was at the prospect of being able to drink caffeine and eat normally, or the effects of the cleanse, I can’t be sure. I didn’t lose any weight. Would I do it again? Almost certainly not. For me, eating good food is a pleasure, and if it happens to be healthy, it’s just a bonus.

Susan Jung

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requires home cooking and a fair bit of anti-socialness, which I wasn’t prepared for.

Raw foodists spend a lot of time chopping, soaking, sprouting and dehydrating (in a special machine) to make their meals more exciting. But faced with only the office canteen for lunch, the best option was a Caesar salad – with grilled chicken, some cheese and a few croutons. I repented during dinner with a 100 per cent raw salad from the neighbourhood supermarket.

The next day, breakfast and lunch was again a struggle.

Dinner, with friends, however, was Japanese. Sashimi is raw and delicious – but it gets very expensive.

Conclusion: This diet is pretty costly, especially in Hong Kong where raw options are limited and traditional cuisine is based on stir-frying and steaming. Yes, cooking can destroy many nutrients, but some foods, such as tomatoes and eggs, are more nutritious when cooked. Yes, unprocessed foods are better, but processing also eliminates bacteria – there’s a good reason why they pasteurise milk. Yes, the raw food diet is lighter, but mainly because it’s about 75 per cent fruit and veg. But is it healthier?

I believe a balanced diet that’s based mostly on vegetables (both cooked and raw) is best. An extreme diet like this, isn’t. At least not for me.

Jeanette Wang