Can You Survive on Rice?

Rice is enjoyed by many people all over the world, especially Asians. This makes the "Rice Diet Report" an attractive way of losing weight.

Developed in the late 1930s by Dr. Walter Kempner, a physician at Duke University, the diet is composed of cooked rice, fruit, sugar, and tea. It was so restrictive and was originally meant for people with severe kidney disease. In April 1944, Kempner told the North Carolina Medical Journal about his popular diet and how it had helped lots of patients.

The Rice Diet was later used by patients with high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetic retinopathy, a serious complication of diabetes. Kempner claimed his diet managed to control all three conditions.

"Dr. Kempner noted that the patients' blood pressure dropped to normal, and electrocardiograms showed their hearts had returned to normal size and function. Blood vessels in the retinas of the eyes also returned to normal," said Theodore Berland in Consumer Guide's "Rating the Diets."

Along the way, Kempner and his colleagues found that the Rice Diet also helped people lose weight. One patient, the wife of Richard Hughes, the former governor of New Jersey, was a diabetic who weighed 230 pounds when she came to Duke University. After 19 weeks, Kempner said she lost 80 pounds and her blood sugar dropped to normal levels.

At first, doctors were skeptical of Kempner's results. But they were amazed at the results. What makes the Rice Diet work?

In "Popular Nutrition Practices: Sense and Nonsense", Dr. Jack Yetiv said this particular diet is very low in sodium. This causes diuresis or the increased secretion of urine in the kidneys. In short, people on the Rice Diet don't lose fat; they only lose water.

"Although this could amount to as much as 10-15 pounds in the first few days, the weight loss is illusory. As soon as a regular diet (containing salt) was resumed, the water weight was regained," Yetiv explained.

Kempner's diet plan soon faded into obscurity in the late 1940s as drugs to fight high blood pressure became readily available. But it was recently resurrected by author Judy Moscovitz, a graduate of the Rice House in Durham, North Carolina, where she reportedly lost 140 pounds.

In her book, Moscovitz encourages the dieter to eat nothing but fruit and rice for four or five months or longer. You can eat any kind of rice provided it has no salt, spices, herbs or condiments. The dieter is also warned not to take dairy products due to their fat and cholesterol content.

Unfortunately, Yetiv said subsisting on rice alone is foolhardy and potentially life-threatening because this diet is low in iron, calcium, zinc, vitamins B12 and D, and protein. What's more, we cannot totally eliminate dairy products from our diet because they are a rich source of calcium. The least Moscovitz could have done is to tell readers to use low fat or non-fat dairy products. But you won't find any good advice from this book.

"I consider the Rice Diet to be one of the worst diet entries in the past decade. It is a very restrictive, choreographed diet. It teaches the overweight patient nothing about the dietary habits which led to the overweight condition to begin with, and therefore, doesn't provide him with the necessary tools to prevent regain of the weight," Yetiv concluded.

The only way to lose weight is to follow a good diet and exercise routine. Taking a supplement may also help. One popular product is Zylorin that will help you lose weight without draining your energy. For details, go to http://www.zylorin.com

Janet Martin is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premiere online news magazine http://www.thearticleinsiders.com

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