It’s truly disturbing when doctors come up with seemingly fad diets that could prove dangerous, but that appears to be happening all the time and most of them are also pretty successful. The latest to join the trend is an American doctor who is providing a drastic and quick weight-loss method, the K-E Diet. It involves putting food into your body through the nose, using a dripping tube.
The K-E diet stands for Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition diet and is the work of Dr. Oliver di Pietro, from Florida. He promises to help anyone shed 20 lb in as little as 10 days. As a part of the diet, dieters have to get a small nasogastric tube inserted into their nose going all the way to the stomach, through which a liquid solution drips constantly. The solution supposedly contains a mix of protein, fat and water and makes up 800 calories. A few hours of this and a process called ketosis is said to be triggered, which burns body fat due to the lack of carbohydrates. The fat is burned but the muscle and water in the body remain untouched. Dieters who want to achieve the best results aren’t supposed to eat anything for a period of 10 days and also have to carry around the bag of nutritious fluid everywhere they go.
What about hunger? Dr. Di Pietro has an answer for that, “Within a few hours, your hunger and appetite go away completely, so patients are actually not hungry for the whole 10 days. That’s what so amazing about this diet.” I’d also like to add that that’s what so unnatural about this diet. Aren’t hunger and appetite a part of a normal, healthy person’s life? But the doctor seems unfazed by such thoughts. He’s very happy with the results the K-E diet has brought about. “Patients typically burn around 2 pounds of fat per day. In every 100,000 patients I treated in Europe, nearly every one lost 20 lbs in 10 days. It’s absolutely painless – the stage of ketosis causes no pain. In fact, during the ketosis stage you feel no hunger and have a suppressed appetite.” Of course, after the diet is completed one needs to continue on a low carb diet to maintain the loss, he points out. So far, the diet has become very popular among brides-to-be, who are desperate to lose all those extra pounds before their big day.
Naturally, the K-E diet has got a few people concerned over the health hazard that it poses. According to nutritionist Suzy Weems, from Baylor University, eating through the nose could certainly cause long-term health damage. “It seems very extreme because of its potential for infections and irritations. It seems to be illogical to do this for one fairy-tale day when most brides have plenty of time before their wedding to lose weight the healthy way. The long-term solution to maintain a good weight is to eat right and exercise,” she says. Dr. Di Pietro does accept that there are some side effects to the diet, minor ones such as bad breath and constipation because there is no fiber in the food, but I suppose being constipated for 10 days is worth it if it means being able to slip into that dream dress on the wedding day.
Jessica Schnaider has tried it for her upcoming June wedding because she was desperate for a quick fix. But even though she was not hungry, she says the diet was by no means easy. “It was emotionally difficult, the 10 days of not eating. And I had to give excuses to people who were asking me if I was sick.” Jessica had to compliment the diet with a half hour of walking every day, but she was too tired to do that, which isn’t surprising in the least.
At $1,500 per 10 days the K-E diet sure is expensive, but the doctor says the before and after pictures talk for themselves about the results. Would you spend that much to lose weight and probably put your health at risk?
via Huffington Post
