It is possible that many of you know the dukan diet, which many women are following, especially now that summer is approaching. At the center where I work, at least, there are several companions who have carried it out and several who are in it.
Those who do not know it, perhaps you will have heard about the so-called hyperprotein diets, in which you take an excess of foods rich in protein to take too little fat and too few carbohydrates, which are the foods that provide the most energy and calories. .
These diets do not go unnoticed by celebrities and, apparently, they are using it even to recover the figure after childbirth, although in those precise moments it seems little advisable to ignore the foods that bring energy to the recent mother.
What is the Dukan diet?
This is a diet endorsed by Dr. Pierre Dukan, who has more than 30 years of experience in his consultation as a nutritionist and who has written a book entitled "I do not know how to lose weight" that apparently is being a real best seller because he gets what everyone looks for: lose weight fast and maintained.
For this he recommends taking many proteins. That is, do not starve excessively and eat certain foods that will starve and not make you fat.
This diet is divided into four phases:
- The attack phase: it is the first phase and lasts about 10 days. In this phase only protein-rich foods such as meat or fish are taken and the weight starts to fall almost immediately.
- The cruise phase: it is the second phase and it includes vegetables in the diet, to alternate them with proteins. In theory it is the phase that must be carried out until reaching the ideal weight. In this phase it is forbidden to eat: potatoes, peas, lentils, rice, corn and avocados.
- The consolidation phase: this third phase is in which the weight reached is fixed. Once the body loses weight, the most common thing when it comes to eating again is that it will gradually recover, so this phase is established, which should last 10 days per kilo lost (if you have lost 8 kilos, the phase must last 80 days). In this phase, bread, cheese, potatoes, rice, corn and fruits are prohibited.
- The stabilization phase: it is the last phase and it is the phase in which the person must start eating all the foods again, with a maximum that he must continue for life so as not to regain weight again: one day a week you should take only protein.
Is it a healthy diet for a woman who has just given birth?
This is the crux of the matter. We all know the theory: to lead a healthy life, whether you are pregnant, whether you are newly born, whether you are 20, 50 or 70, a balanced diet is recommended.
The dukan diet, like any hyperprotein diet, in which foods such as carbohydrates or fats are completely eliminated in some more or less long periods (the second phase can last weeks or months, until reaching the ideal weight), it has nothing balanced.
The ideal percentage of protein in a balanced diet is 15%. It seems impractical that nobody recommends a diet in which that percentage is exceeded so much (at least not logical from a prevention and health promotion). Now, if the goal is to lose weight without taking into account what our body needs, it is clear that this diet is achieved.
If we add to all this that a woman who has just given birth and has the responsibility (shared with the couple, of course), of feeding and raising a baby, with all the fatigue that this entails, seems It is very undesirable to eliminate foods that, precisely, provide more energy, such as carbohydrates, from the diet that, if you look at a food pyramid, they are the ones at the base, that is, they are the most important.
Now, if you are famous and in addition to a couple you have someone who takes care of the child for a few hours a day, because fatigue may not affect so much, because your mother's life is not the same as that of all those mothers who have less resources and less support.
This is the worrying after all, that the famous are many times the image and role model of many women and the circumstances at home are quite different. As we say, eating a diet that limits the foods that provide the calories that our body needs, at the moment when it needs them most, could be dangerous. If the woman is also breastfeeding, it is even less advisable, because she does not contribute a variety of foods to the diet, as recommended.
And tomorrow more ...
Despite having explained a little why this diet is not recommended for women who have just given birth, tomorrow we will talk a little more carefully about why is it not a healthy diet.
