14 DAY TRIAL // Many celebrities speak highly of the so-called baby-food diet, saying it helps you lose weight in the most natural and healthy way. Because it consists of eating nothing but pureed fruit, it helps you purge easily, thus shedding the pounds, while also making sure you’re not starving yourself. Reality, though, is somewhat different from what they say, as an editor for That’s Fit learned the hard way.
A while ago, Liz Neporent came to the conclusion that, in order to offer the community of slimmers the best advice possible, she should at least try out some of the diets she wrote on. This way, she came across the baby-food diet, a fad that many celebrities have reportedly tried out – and by which they stand no matter how much nutritionists claim it’s just as harmful as starving yourself. Neporent lasted less than a day on the diet, during which time she was also flushed with diarrhea twice, which, understandably, made her see there were other – better – ways of losing a few pounds.
Though everything started well, what might seem like a large quantity of baby food at the beginning of the day actually turned out to be small pickings. The 14 servings are enough to last for an entire day, but they’re so sweet and un-filling that hunger headache sets at around 14.00, while dizziness a few hours before. Plus, the pureed fruit is very sweet, which makes it even less satisfying from all perspectives. By 17.00 o’clock, the editor could hardly stand and was so irritable that she simply snatched a slice of pizza from her husband’s hand and ate it in three large mouthfuls.
To make matters even worse, eating baby food is more expensive than eating, say, healthy food. “As the diet outlines, I have purchased 14 servings of prepackaged baby food. There were a lot of brands and versions to choose from, but I finally settle on Gerber Graduates because, well, I went to graduate school. It occurs to me that this is a pricey way to eat. A few supermarket aisles over, I look for the most expensive jar of applesauce with the same ingredients as the baby applesauce and confirm the baby version is about 30 percent more costly per ounce. The kiddie sauce has been run through the blender a few more times – but still,” the report reads.
“So, the bottom line: If you stick with it for a day or two, you absolutely will shed weight as promised. But there’s no magic here, since 14 servings of baby food equal approximately 1,000 calories, which would result in weight loss no matter how you arrived there. The pre-measured, prepackaged servings are just a twist on the concept of portion control. Baby food is also low fat with few food additives. These are not bad things, but believe me, there are healthier – and tastier – ways to eat. As an alternative, you could buy a kitchen scale and organic low-fat foods. Unless you are trying to get down to your original weight of seven pounds, four ounces, I would skip this diet,” Neporent says on a final note.