The Dukan Diet (9 page)

This is the moment to talk about the controversy surrounding aspartame. To put it bluntly, some people are concerned that it may be carcinogenic, and I can understand why this is worrying. In my opinion, there is no need for all this controversy. Aspartame has been used as a sweetener by billions of individuals in every country in the world for twenty-five years without ever having given rise to any complaints or side effects and certainly not any human cancers. As far as I am concerned, I see no reason at all to deprive people on a diet who particularly like sweet tastes.

For years, the first two actual weight loss phases in my program did not contain any starchy foods, cereals, or flour-based foods. The program worked fine without them, but many of the men and women who followed it eventually ended up longing for carbohydrates.

I discovered oat bran while attending a cardiology conference in America, where there was a presentation on how it reduces cholesterol and diabetes. I brought some home and one morning, having run out of flour, I created a special pancake, which I now call the Dukan Oat Bran Galette, for my daughter Maya. It is made of oat bran, an egg, and nonfat Greek yogurt sweetened with aspartame.

Maya loved it and felt completely full, so this spurred me on to suggest to my patients that they try the galette as well. Their enthusiasm for it persuaded me to include it in my method and my books. This is how oat bran gradually became a fundamental part of my method, the only carbohydrate allowed among the proteins and even within the sanctuary of the Attack phase. Why?

First, from a clinical perspective, I very quickly noticed an improvement in results: my patients followed the diet better over the long term; they felt less hungry and full sooner; and all in all, they were much less frustrated.

To try to understand how oat bran works, I looked at the studies available on it. Oat bran is the fibrous husk that surrounds and protects the oat grain. The grain, used to make rolled oats, is rich in simple sugars. Oat bran is the grain’s jacket. It has few simple sugars but is very rich in proteins and particularly in soluble fibers. These fibers have two physical properties that give oat bran its therapeutic role.

On average, oat bran can absorb up to twenty-five times its volume of water. This means that as soon as it reaches the stomach, it swells and takes up enough space to very quickly make you feel full. It is also extremely high in soluble fiber and can reduce the absorption of dietary fat. Because oat bran makes you feel full and pushes food through your system more quickly, it is a precious ally in my battle against the weight problem epidemic.

I have done my own research on oat bran and have found that the way the bran is produced greatly determines how effective it is. Two manufacturing parameters, milling and sifting, are crucial. Milling involves grinding the bran and determines the size of its particles; sifting involves separating the bran from the oat flour. If the milling is too fine, the bran loses almost all its effectiveness. Likewise, if the bran is too coarse, its useful surface viscosity is lost. If the bran is not thoroughly sifted, it is not sufficiently pure and contains too much flour.

Ideally, milling should produce particles with a medium+ size (technically called M2bis). As for sifting, it is after it has been sifted for a sixth time, B6, that oat bran has negligible fast carbohydrate content. These two indexes together make up the overall M2bis-B6 index.

I am currently working with international manufacturers and distributors, sharing these results with them to try to get them to adopt the milling-sifting index, which makes production a little more expensive but produces a more nutritional bran. In the meantime, the recommended type of bran can be found on the Dukan Diet website,
www.dukandiet.com
.

During the Attack phase, I prescribe 1½ tablespoons of oat bran per day and recommend eating it as prepared in the Dukan Oat Bran Galette.

This light and easy pancake is a tasty way to eat your oat bran
.

Most of my patients eat their galette for breakfast to avoid feeling famished midmorning. Others eat the galette for lunch with a nice slice of smoked salmon or some thinly sliced ham or turkey breast. Other patients have the galette in late afternoon, at the “danger hour” when cravings can overtake them, or even after supper when they want to rummage around in the cupboard to find a final treat before bedtime. If you are going through a difficult period when irrepressible cravings are overwhelming, for a day or two (and I really do mean for only a day or two), you can eat more oat bran and up to three galettes per day.

Nonfat milk, either fresh, UHT, or powdered, is allowed and can improve the taste and the consistency of tea or coffee; it can also be used to make sauces, cream desserts, custard tarts, and many other dishes.

Sugar is not allowed, but aspartame and Splenda are perfectly acceptable and can be used without restriction, even by pregnant women.

Vinegar, spices, herbs, thyme, garlic, parsley, onion, and shallots are not only allowed but highly recommended. Using them brings out the flavor of foods and heightens their sensory value. These oral sensations trigger our nervous system, which is responsible for whether we feel full or not, contributing to our feeling of being satisfied. To be clear, I am
saying quite simply that spices are not just taste enhancers, which in itself is no small achievement, but that they are foods that encourage weight loss.

What certain spices such as vanilla or cinnamon do is offer their warm and reassuring taste in exchange for sugary flavors. Others such as coriander, curry powder, and cloves can cut down the need for salt, especially for women who suffer from water retention and want to add salt to everything even before they have even tasted it.

Pickles (made without sugar), as well as pickled onions, are allowed, as long as they are condiments. If eaten in too large a quantity, they become a vegetable and outside the Attack phase’s pure protein requirement.

Lemons can be used to flavor fish or seafood but cannot be consumed as lemon juice or lemonade, even without sugar, because although sour, lemons are still a source of sugar and are therefore incompatible with the program’s first two phases, the Attack and Cruise phases.

Mustard and salt are acceptable but must be used in moderation. There are salt-free mustards and low-sodium diet salts if you want to use them liberally.

Ordinary ketchup is not allowed because it is both very salty and very sweet, but there are sugar-free natural ketchups that can be used in moderation and high-quality tomato purées and pastes that turn into a real treat with just a little flavoring and spicing up—without any of that sweet aftertaste that does not go well with meats.

Sugar-free chewing gum deserves better than this single entry in the extras category. To my mind, it is extremely useful in the fight against weight problems and especially so during my program’s first two weight loss phases, the Attack and Cruise phases. I do not usually chew gum myself, as chewing is inelegant, but if I am overstressed, I do have some.

“Bruxism” is what dentists call the nighttime habit of grinding your teeth until the enamel is worn down. And as many overweight people often eat under stress, chewing gum can slow down this mechanical swing toward eating whenever you feel under pressure. What is more, a mouth that is busy chewing gum cannot take in or chew anything else,
so this is a technique for keeping your mouth full. Many scientific studies have also proved at regular intervals how useful chewing sugar-free gum is when battling weight problems, diabetes, and even tooth decay.

Of course we are only talking here about so-called sugar-free gum. Select your sugar-free chewing gum according to taste but go for the ones whose flavor lasts longest in your mouth.

All oil is forbidden, except in the smallest quantities for greasing a frying pan. Even though olive oil justifiably has a reputation for protecting the heart and arteries, it is still oil, and pure fats have no place in a pure protein diet.

Apart from the allowable extras listed here and the food categories just described, you may eat
nothing else
. All other foods and drinks—anything that is not explicitly mentioned on this list—are forbidden during the Attack diet’s relatively brief kick-start period.

Concentrate on what you are allowed to eat and forget the rest. Make sure you get enough variety and pick ingredients for your meals in any order you want so as to keep things interesting. And do not ever forget that all the foods allowed and on this list are for you, really and truly for you.

Do not forget that the secret of this diet is to eat a lot and to eat before hunger strikes so that you avoid succumbing to a tempting food not on the list.

Skipping meals is a bad mistake that often stems from good intentions but that can, little by little, destabilize your diet. Whatever you save by not eating one meal you not only make up for by eating more
at the next, but your body reverses this initial economy by increasing the “profit” it gets out of the next meal by extracting every last calorie. Furthermore, if you suppress and fuel your hunger, you will be driven toward more comforting foods, forcing you to rely increasingly on your willpower to resist, and eventually the strain will undermine even your best intentions.

For some strange reason, an outdated piece of advice from the 1970s not to drink at mealtimes still remains in the public mind. This advice can be harmful for those on a diet, particularly a pure protein diet, because not drinking at mealtimes may make you forget to drink at all. Drinking at mealtimes also increases gastric volume and makes you feel full and satisfied. Finally, water dilutes food and slows down its absorption so that you feel satiated for longer.

Always have on hand a wide choice of the eleven food categories that are going to become your best friends. Take them with you whenever you go out.

Just to be extra sure, keep this list with you during the first week. It is simple and can be summed up in a few words: lean meats, organ meats, poultry, lean ham, all fish and seafood, eggs, nonfat dairy products, and water.

Breakfast is an important meal in our pure protein diet. Coffee or tea, sweetened with aspartame or Splenda if you like, with or without nonfat milk, and enjoyed with a nonfat yogurt, boiled egg, a slice of turkey, or
light ham is much better nutritionally than a pastry or chocolate-flavored cereal, and it is also more satisfying and stimulating.

Breakfast is the perfect time to cook your
oat bran galette
. If you are in too much of a hurry to make the galette, you can eat the oat bran as a hot cereal by mixing 1 tablespoonful of oat bran with some hot nonfat milk sweetened with aspartame or Splenda, or mix it with yogurt to give it a thicker texture.

Take care! During this Attack phase, you must not exceed the daily dose of 1½ tablespoons of oat bran so as not to disrupt the specific action of the proteins
.

With a little imagination, the pure protein diet is easy to follow. Fish, seafood, poultry, and meat generally come in many different guises. You should be able to find some that have been prepared without any fat. You may have to ask to have your dish served without the sauce. The difficulty comes afterward, when dessert fans are tempted to eat something sweet. The best strategy is to have a coffee, or you may find that some restaurants now serve low-fat and nonfat dairy products. Otherwise you can always have a nonfat yogurt or fruit yogurt in your car or at the office so that you can end your meal on a satisfying note.

How long to follow the Attack diet is one of the most important decisions in the Dukan Diet, because this pure protein attack is not only the kick start that gives you the initial impetus but also molds and sets the tone for the program on which the three other diet phases are based.

Proteins are extremely dense foods that remain present for a long time in the digestive system, making us feel full. As they are broken down during metabolism, ketones are produced, which are well known for
creating a feeling of satiety. These two properties mean that proteins are useful for combating compulsive behavior and introducing order into unbalanced eating habits.

Finally, because the Attack diet is extremely effective, it produces obvious and immediate results, making you feel powerful and enthusiastic, and pumping up your motivation for the long-term haul. That is why it is so important to succeed in this first stage and to decide on its exact ideal duration.

This is the time the diet needs to produce its best results without encountering resistance from the body’s metabolism and before the dieter becomes weary of it. This is also the attack period that best suits the sort of weight loss that most people want to achieve—that is, between 20 and 40 pounds.