Are you curious about the Sirt food diet? What about the Sirt diet side effects? The Sirt food menu is one of the most challenging weight loss challenges around because it’s not just selective about the food you eat, but it is also restrictive, which can cause damage to how you relate to food. With things like Sirt granola raring to take the place of your regular meals and snacks, will you last under the Sirt food diet?
What is a SIRT Diet?
How does the SIRT diet work?
The sirt food diet was invented by two nutritionists (Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten) and was initially unleashed onto the weight loss word through a book titled The Sirtfood Diet book. The premise of the sirt food diet isn’t that different from other weight-loss tactics. This time, the inventors claim that by eating certain foods that help activated sirtuins, people can lose weight faster.
What are sirtuins?
Sirtuins refer to a group of proteins that are naturally expressed in animals and humans, and these are linked to the regulation of metabolism in its many forms, including the burning of fats and sugar. In laboratory studies where mice were used as a medical subject, rats that had their sirtuins genes knocked off or inhibited (as transgenic animals) exhibited various abnormalities such as:
- Inhibition or reduction of the burning of fats
- Decreased expression or release of insulin
- Less effective metabolism of sugars
- May also harm insulin sensitivity
- Increase in production of fatty tissue
There isn’t enough medical data on sirtuins as weight loss aids, and there is certainly nothing special about having sirtuins because they are expressed naturally by mammals. The question now is, can we take advantage of the natural role of these proteins and genes to help burn off fat? Under normal circumstances, they will do what they are designed to do, which is to help regulate glucose utilization and the burning of fats. But as to whether you can diet in such a way that you will have access to these genes like you would a light switch, remains to be seen. Current studies about sirtuins are few and far in between, and it appears that it will take longer for human testing to become viable because sirtuins are not a priority of researchers, in the first place.
Why the sirt diet may be difficult to maintain
Like all novel diets, the sirt food diet makes its way across homes by advertising itself as a quick weight loss fix. Mainly, it restricts your diet and eliminates much of what we consume to get fats and proteins. Of course, one can argue that you can still get proteins, fats, and carbs from items like dark chocolate and apples, but how many months can a dieter last by following a severely restrictive diet plan like the sirt food diet?
There is a need for dieters to examine if a novel diet can be maintained for two years, which is the average milestone that weight loss experts consider lifelong weight maintenance. So if you are thinking of trying diets like this one, you have to ask yourself: do you see yourself eating kale and parsley for more than two years, and more importantly, how happy would you be happy in the future?
One thing that gives us a lot of pauses is the fact that the sirt food diet measures its success by how many pounds is shaved off. Anyone who has been on a weight loss plan knows that the process of shedding pounds is never mechanical, and people also know the wile rollercoaster ride associated with changing how one eats and lives.
Most of the time, people who are on highly restrictive diets fall off the wagon faster, and they feel even more discouraged to try again after. The psychological component of weight loss is a big factor if you’re thinking about success.
The second potential bump we see on the road is your body may consider diets like the sirt food diet as a direct attack because of the severe reduction of calories that you’re going to experience in phase one and phase two of the diet.
Let’s get realistic: you are not going to love shifting to non-solid food and eating a plate of kale and parsley if you have been eating like the rest of us for years. The tendency is for your body to overcompensate due to the restrictions, and you may end up overeating as a result.
What can you eat on a SIRT diet?
The sirt diet is also advertised as the MediterrAsian diet, and encourages people to eat the following foods:
- Coffee
- Capers
- Kale
- Red wine
- Strawberries
- Onions
- Blueberries
- Red chicory
- Soy
- Parsley
- Medjool dates
- EVOO
- Dark chocolate (at least 85% cocoa content)
- Bird’s eye chili
- Matcha
- Walnuts
- Arugula
- Buckwheat
- Turmeric
- Citrus fruits
- Apples
The general meal plan for sirt food dieters is easy to follow. Phase one lasts for seven days and requires the dieter to consume three juices (sirt food only) and one meal comprised of pre-approved sirt food items for the first three days. On the fourth day, you will be allowed to consume two sirt food juices and two meals filled with sirt food items, bringing your calorie count to roughly 1,500 calories. This is just phase one.
Phase two lasts for two weeks, and in this phase, you will be required to eat at least three sir food meals per day, plus one juice. Phase two is advertised as a means to turn your body into a weight loss machine, again, by severely restricting your intake of food.
There are no “cheat days,” and the premise of the diet makes it narrow, and it may not even be healthy for people with pre-existing conditions that require them to eat better diets. Restrictive diets are not naturally healthy, this is a misconception, and we recommend consulting with your physician before trying the MediterrAsian or sirt food diet.