gh beauty parlors and he instructed dieters to “mix a teaspoon of his concoction of milk, chocolate, starch, whole wheat, and bran into one cup of water (a mere 11 calories total) and drink it for breakfast and lunch.”
Liquid diets gained acceptance by the medical community in the late 1960s and early 1970s when hospitals began offering liquid diets to severely obese patients. These liquid diets were called Optifast and soon after commercial meal-replacement diet shakes began to hit drug store shelves. However, this early generation of liquid diet shakes was not well-balanced nutritionally. Unlike today’s shakes which offer well-balanced nutrition, the early shakes were often nutritionally deficient. For instance, shakes like Ultra SlimFast Plus provide 19 vitamins and minerals, including the following RDA amounts: 15 percent of calcium, 50 percent of iron, 40 percent of magnesium, 30 percent of acid, 100 percent of vitamin C, 50 percent of vitamin A, and 40 percent of vitamin B.
Liquid diets have remained popular, but like many fad diets they are not infallible. Many liquid diet manufacturers overstate the abilities of their products and fail to inform consumers that many who stop using the shakes regain lost weight once eating solid foods. Further, many claim that liquid diets are effective in weight loss but individuals using them gain weight once they return to solid food because liquid diets fail to teach overweight individuals new eating habits and skills. In addition, new research shows that some important substances we consume to remain healthy are not available in liquid diet shakes despite their nutritional supplements. One such substance is phytochemicals, “Once you return to eating solid foods full-time, the pounds will probably return. And as more is learned about the importance of phytochemicals—plant substances believed to protect against disease—there’s just no way to know exactly how many...