As slim as the stars
Singer Adele has lost a lot of weight and she says this is due to the ‘Sirtfood diet’. Recently a book about this diet has been published in Dutch. Is it really a new miracle diet?
There is quite a complicated story behind the term ‘sirtfoods’. They are foods that can activate sirtuins in our body. These are proteins that are also activated during fasting.
Scientists are very interested in fasting and its effects on the body. For example, it has been known for some time that fasting extends life and may also protect against age-related diseases. This research is still in its infancy. But the authors of the book ‘The Sirtfood Diet’ claim that eating sirt foods gives you the same effects as fasting.
What are sirt foods?
So what are those sirt foods? Twenty are mentioned in the book:
- strawberries
- coffee
- capers
- buckwheat
- Kale
- cacao
- olive oil
- turmeric
- lovage
- dates
- parsley
- rawit pepper
- Red onion
- Red wine
- red chicory
- arugula
- celery
- soya
- green tea
- walnuts
Eating those sirtfoods regularly will make you leaner and healthier, at least that’s what the authors say. You immediately see that it is mainly a lot of fruit and vegetables, but that red wine and chocolate are also in the list. That certainly sounds appealing!
The diet
It is not a matter of simply eating those products often. No, the authors have made it a pretty strict diet. The first week you mainly drink vegetable juices (kale, parsley, arugula juice, for example) and you only eat one meal a day. Also in the second phase, the diet contains few calories. You are not allowed to eat anything after 7 p.m. What about the red wine and the chocolate? This is only allowed in limited quantities.
Beautiful promises
Although research into sirtuins is still in its infancy, the authors are convinced of its beneficial effect. They make big promises: “Fat melts away on the sirt food diet. That’s because sirtuins can determine whether we stay thin or get fat.” They claim that you also build muscle tissue automatically and therefore do not have to go to the gym. Or that the amount of brown adipose tissue will increase. Those claims really haven’t been proven yet.
Apart from the very strict initial weeks, the sirtfood diet is ultimately not really unhealthy: you eat a lot of vegetables, only unprocessed products and no sweets (except for some dark chocolate). But with a different weight loss diet you probably have the same effect.