Gruel and unusual diets: Do they work?

48 Hours staff suffer some extreme diets in the name of reader education.

   

Alkaline diet

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