Beyonce is a trendsetter. From clothing, to singing, to dieting.
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Is the Beyonce diet a lemon worth squeezing?
April 28, 2009
So when she dropped 20 pounds for her role in the movie Dreamgirls, her secret was out: the master cleanse a.k.a. the lemonade diet.
"I did it before Beyonce, by the way," said lemonade dieter Larry Hartman. "Frequenty she does stuff before me, but in this case, I did it before her."
Hartman's done the cleanse several times.
On average during the 10 day program, he lost a pound a day, but this is all you get: a lemonade drink made from organic lemon juice, grade B maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and filtered water.
"This is alright for me," Hartman said. "It's good, it's good for you."
Dr. Donna Casey, an internist with Texas Health Dallas, says lemon juice is a diaretic that flushes essential fluids from your body.
Instead of washing away toxins, as the diet claims, Dr. Casey says the result is dehydration and all the side affects that go with it, like headaches and dizziness.
"Over 10 days, I think this is a recipe for disaster," she said. "A classic test for dehydration uses your hand, if we pinch your skin it snaps right back. People who are dehydrated, the skin stays up and slowly goes back."
Hartman admits the first three days are extremely tough, but says it's worth it to cleanse the body and create awareness.
"Where else do we get such awareness about what we're putting in us," he said.
Hartman says he was never hungry, although he did have cravings until his body got used to the program.
"You're not influenced by the coffee crash," Hartman said. "You're not influenced by the rise and fall.
Dr. Casey disagrees.
"On your first day, you're like, 'this is magical.' You get on the scale and you've lost three pounds, but it's really just a quick fix," she said. "And those don't last.
But Hartman says for him, it's less about weight and more about getting a fresh start to new eating habits.
"You're not apt to put that junk in you," he said. "You have more respect for your body."
