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Where did this diet come from and what are sirtuins?
The originators of the menu based on products from the sirtfoods group are two British, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten. The first of them is a pharmacist and nutritionist by education, the second has a medical nutritionist diploma. Both have been specializing in nutritional counseling for several years, and their services have already been used by many celebrities and athletes, including Pippa Middleton and the award-winning boxer David Haye.
What are sirtuins? Sir proteins (Silent information regulator) are enzymes present in almost all living organisms. They play an important role in regulating the course of the aging process and activate repair mechanisms in the DNA code. Unfortunately, their activity decreases with our aging.
According to Goggins and Matten, their level in the body can be increased by including polyphenols in the diet, which are very rich in products from the sirtfood list. In their opinion, sirtuins also have a positive effect on strengthening immunity, supporting metabolic processes or reducing stress, but these benefits have not yet been confirmed in reliable studies.
What products do we eat on the sirtuin diet?
The strongest activators of sirtuins are: chili pepper, buckwheat, kale, dates, lovage, parsley, capers, celery, cocoa, coffee, olive oil, soybeans, green tea, strawberries, walnuts, turmeric, arugula, red wine, blueberries, citrus , chicory and red onion. As you can see, the list of sirtuin foods is full of wholesome foods that are well known from’s balanced diet.
Okay, so how does it work? The rules of the Sirt diet are very simple. The program has been divided into three repeatable stages. The first phase involves large dietary restrictions, because for the first 3 days you consume 1000 kcal per day (3 cocktails and 1 meal), for the next 4 days the menu includes 2 cocktails and 2 meals with a daily consumption of 1500 kcal.
In the second phase of the Sirt diet, the authors do not limit the caloric value of the meals consumed, but throughout the week we eat 1 cocktail and 3 meals every day. The last, third phase begins on day 15 of the program – it is a phase without strict recommendations, except for basing your menu on the products mentioned in the sirtfoods list above.
Additional recommendations in the so-called Adele diet are to take one and a half hour breaks between meals and eat the last one at 19:00 p.m. at the latest. The end date of the program depends on us, and the main goal of the creators is to propose a change in lifestyle and include valuable products in our menu.
And what does an exemplary cocktail look like, after all, it is a key element, especially in the first phases of the diet *?
- 3 stalks of celery,
- 2 handfuls of kale,
- a handful of arugula,
- 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley,
- 2 tablespoons of lovage,
- half an apple,
- half an orange
- half a teaspoon of matcha. *The recipe comes from the book by A. Goggins, G. Matten, Dieta sirt. A breakthrough in the field of healthy living and slimming, Warsaw 2017
How much did Adele lose weight on a diet?
It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally and it should not be the essence of the discussion on the effectiveness of the Sirt diet. While both Polish and foreign tabloids change new values every week, we can certainly assume that the British singer lost several dozen kilos during the year. This is a very high pace of reduction, and certainly (!!!) Adele’s transformation was supervised by a group of specialists – dieticians, doctors, psychologists and trainers.
The second, quite important issue is the lack of certainty about the details of the British singer’s metamorphosis. Is it only the result of the sirtuin diet? Was it a safe run? What was her physical activity like during this period? Was the decision to cut down for health reasons, or did the star have other motivations? As you can see, there are many unanswered questions and we can count on the fact that one day Adele, not famous for her exhibitionism in social media, will one day reveal the secret.
Is the Sirt diet safe for health? Assessment by a dietitian:
Marta Tomaszewska, nutritionist.pl
The first 3 days are definitely not safe, because 1000 kcal for most people is caloric below the basic requirement (exactly below PPM – basic metabolism). Fortunately, this stage is short-lived, so it shouldn’t do much damage to your body. In these first 3 days, your weight loss may be relatively large, but let’s face it, it won’t be a fat loss. Usually, the body gets rid of accumulated water in the beginning.
The next 4 days of the first phase are better in terms of health, but we still cannot say that the calorific value is correct. There is no individual approach at all.
It is worth knowing that people who are significantly overweight or obese are taking on diets of this type (i.e., promising a quick drop in kilograms in a short time). And the more we weigh, the greater the body’s needs, so 1500 kcal for such people can still be too drastic a diet. Calorie deficiency slows down the metabolic rate and is associated with deficiencies in nutrients, as well as vitamins and minerals. The use of deficient diets disrupts the endocrine system – menstrual disorders or thyroid disorders may appear. On the plus side, the entire first phase is only a week (3 days for 1000 kcal and 4 days for 1500 kcal).
The second and third phases no longer have any caloric restriction, which is also dangerous. Some people, encouraged by the quick effects in the first phase, will decide to stay on such a low calorific value. Unfortunately, it won’t be good for your health. Others, in turn, will revert to their previous eating habits, since the diet does not offer any restrictions. Especially since one of the recommendations is to eat every 1,5 hours.
Basing weight loss only on the fact that there will be products from the sirtfoods list in your diet may unfortunately fail. The products themselves do not have any miraculous slimming power. Yes, they are valuable, they are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, thanks to which they slow down the aging process and provide some protection, for example against cancer. But they have no significant influence on the weight loss process itself. It does not lose weight or gain weight from specific products. He is losing weight from a caloric deficit, and he is getting fat from a surplus.
What’s more, the Sirt diet, unfortunately, does not teach healthy eating habits, it does not show how to eat, and in my opinion, it is the most important aspect of losing weight. It is not an art to lose weight, but the trick is to keep a given body weight at a constant level, so that after some time you do not have to reach for another diet again.