Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet – A Review
The Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet (also known as the Sacred Heart Diet) is another such diet that, like the Tuna Diet, is attributed to hospital staff trying to reduce the weight of a heart patient by about 10 pounds. It has been around since at least the 1980s and takes the form of a vegetable soup that is consumed, along with some other foods, over a seven-day period.
Potential users should be aware that the origin of this plan is uncertain. Hospitals have denied being the source, as have other institutions that have been nominated as possible creators, including the American Heart Association.
Nonetheless, the diet continues to circulate and has adherents who are happy to use it, along with others who were skeptical or did not find it helpful. This soup diet is also known as the Cleveland Clinic Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, and the Spokane Heart Diet. I have found user reports claiming they were submitted by their doctor.
The dieter is expected to eat the soup at least once a day, and at different times, meats, rice, vegetables, and fruits can be included in the meal plan. Bread and alcohol are excluded. Included are chicken noodle soup, stewed tomatoes, beef broth, celery, and more. The only drinks allowed are water, black coffee, cranberry juice (unsweetened), and skim milk. A detailed outline of this plan can be found with a quick search of my article “Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet – Recipe and Diet Plan”.
EFFECTS:
1. The Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital diet is essentially a short-term, low-calorie diet, with the typical difficulties of such a plan, such as dizziness, lack of energy, occasional diarrhea, and sometimes fainting spells.
2. Short-term weight loss is often a loss of water rather than a loss of fat and is easily regained after the diet is finished.
3. The body tends to conserve energy and fat stores on low-calorie diets. This makes it difficult for lasting weight loss to occur.
4. There are reports of significant amounts of weight reduction, but the feelings of hunger and discomfort caused by this diet plan make it likely that the user will overeat after the seven days of restricted eating. Therefore, the amount of weight that has been lost will soon be regained.
5. No change in eating habits is required except during the seven-day period of the diet. This means that the benefits are unlikely to continue, as returning to the same conditions as before will soon restore what has been lost.
Lasting weight loss does indeed require a lifestyle change: a different selection of foods as part of the normal diet rather than an intensive program that adds stress to the body and provides only short-term benefits. Such a plan would include foods that have high nutritional value and are tailored to the dieter’s tastes and preferences. Also, a major part of the weight that has been lost should be fat loss and not just water, which is easily replaced. Unfortunately, the Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital diet does not meet these requirements.