Another diet is about the make waves on the shores of the United States: the Dukan Diet. Like Atkins, it’s high in protein and low in carbs. Like many other diets, there are complicated and unrealistic phases to follow. And like virtually every other fad diet, I’m willing to wager that most of the people who go on it will gain all the weight they lose as soon as they go off it.
Straight from France, meet the Dukan Diet. But please, don’t go on it if you have preteen and teenage daughters. As someone who, from the age of 4 was self-conscious and paranoid about her weight, they will know if you’re counting carbs and eating an inordinate amount of bunless burgers in an attempt to be svelte. They will think diets are a way of life, and that fad diets are shortcuts worth trying.
The New York Times Styles Section had a write-up on the Dukan Diet this week, which isn’t surprising given the envy factor — American women have admired sophisticated red wine sipping, cheese nibbling Parisian women since the beginning of time. While your daughter might not read the Times, don’t be fooled into thinking she and her friends aren’t aware of what’s happening in the adult world of trying to be as thin as possible as easily as possible.
The example you’re setting by going on a diet like this is that healthy eating is not the answer even if health is the goal. You’re telling them that there’s an easy way to look like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model when the reality is no one in your family will ever look like one, and there are no shortcuts to being fit.
Don’t underestimate how what, how and when you eat affects your daughter. When she sees you trying the diet du jour (and eventually failing — because believe me, you will), you are just setting a yo-yo example that could become a way of life for her for her whole life.
Besides, a new report says there is a possible links between sustained high protein diets and colon cancer. For your daughter’s health — and yours — stay clear of the Dukan Diet.
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