What is it?
The dissociated diet is one of the diets classified as a miracle, which consists of not mixing food groups. It is based on not combining foods rich in carbohydrates with those considered neutral and those that have proteins. This regimen is not varied and can have disadvantages for the body, since it is unbalanced as it is low in carbohydrates and rich in protein.
In addition, it restricts the intake of dairy, fruit, vegetables and legumes, which can cause nutritional deficiencies and health problems.
«This type of plan does not have any scientific foundation, much less I consider it to be a concept of responsible eating to be transmitted, since it does not guarantee food reeducation in the short or long term,» says Ylenia López Llata, dietician and nutritionist from Madrid, who regards this method as «dishonest to the person who undergoes this fast.»
Basic foods that allow
The structure of the diet consists of dividing foods into three groups that cannot be mixed with each other:
- Carbohydrates: such as bread, pasta or rice.
- Proteins: meat, fish or nuts, among others.
- Neutral foods: among which we find vegetables, milk, some cheeses rich in fats or vegetable oils.
This regimen does not allow mixing different types of carbohydrates with each other, nor with proteins. It is necessary to avoid the combination of legumes with vegetables, and fruits of different groups between them. If the aforementioned unions are eaten at the same meal, the food theoretically turns into fat and makes the person taking it fat.
One of the measures that must be taken into account in this diet is not to eat carbohydrates during dinners. This can be harmful because they are essential for daily nutrition by regulating the level of glucose in the blood.
According to the precepts of the dissociated diet, one of the types can be consumed each day, for example, one day you could have fruit and another day, dairy or vegetables. It also offers the possibility of eating one type of food at each meal, being able to consume up to three types each day, so it will be more bearable.
López Llata insists that with these diets, lacking medical control and following methodologies without scientific foundations, when they are abandoned, the so-called rebound effect appears and the weight that had been lost is recovered.
Disadvantages for health
Experts do not recommend this diet. The expert indicates that this diet is not personalized or specifies the amounts or in what way the foods can be combined, it can also cause malnutrition. According to the specialist, the dissociated diet has many negative effects, among which we find:
- Monotonous diet and difficult to carry out for a long period of time.
- Has food and nutritional deficiencies.
- Produces fatigue.
- Important rebound effect when abandoning the diet.
For these reasons the nutritionist concludes that «I recommend one hundred percent personalized hypocaloric diets, working on food re-education and accompanied by nutritional coaching.»
The expert adds that it is necessary to add healthy lifestyle habits, such as doing moderate exercise (climbing stairs, walking, dancing) on a regular basis, incorporating it into the daily routine.