What is the milk diet and is it dangerous?

The most extreme form of the milk diet involves consuming nothing but milk for an entire month.

No food, just four pints of milk every day, for four weeks.

We have to be honest – this sounds completely ludicrous.

Any diet that advises cutting out all food in this way sounds like bad news. And a diet this restrictive will surely leave you lacking in a whole range of vital nutrients.

But its January, and that means people are going really extra on the weight-loss front – so the milk diet is being searched for a lot online.

So, before you chuck everything out of your fridge and tie up a cow in your back garden, lets have a look at the facts.

The diet plan – which has actually been around for decades – involves drinking four pints of semi skimmed milk for a month. Thats it.

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The science behind it is scant, but there appears to be an argument that consuming high levels of calcium leads to weight loss as it helps the body rid itself of fat, particularly abdominal fat.

Yeah, that and not eating any solid food should do the trick.

But if youre still at all tempted by the milk diet, this damning indictment by registered associate nutritionist, Sophie Bertrand, should put you off.

The milk diet requires you to cut out pretty much everything – expect milk. Cutting out food groups and relying on certain foods to help you lose weight is never going to lead to long term happiness, Sophie tells Metro.co.uk

In fact, it will most likely lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and may be quite dangerous. By going on such extreme diets, you are also at risk of deficiency of certain nutrients including fibre.

Of course if you cut out food and just drink milk, youre going to lose weight – but you will also probably be extremely unhappy and likely to put the weight back on when you cant stand only drinking milk everyday.

Fad diets like this are completely unsustainable. This diet is one of the most ridiculous Ive seen as it is just so restrictive. I would not recommend it for weight loss.

There are also less extreme versions of the diet that recommend drinking a glass of milk before each meal to help control portion size and therefore calorie intake – essentially it means you wont be as hungry, so you wont need to eat as much at meal times.

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This seems like a less dangerous option, and gives you the benefit of consuming regular calcium and vitamin D from the milk – but it could still lead to a dubious relationship with food, calories and portions.

Ultimately, theres no quick fix when it comes to weight-loss.

If you want to lose weight and maintain it, then you have to develop healthy, sustainable habits that work for you in the long term.

Anything that makes you miserable or pushes you to the brink of starvation wont give you the results you really want.

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