Nick Harding wanted to see what happens if you swap your usual healthy diet for meal replacement products for 7 days.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousIs it possible to live a week on just bars and other meal replacement foods? Obviously not. But Nick Harding himself tried it when he wanted to experiment on his own skin: for 7 days he fed exclusively on those alternative snacks, smoothies and soups that promise to be equally nutritious than a full meal.
Supermarkets, especially in England and the United States, are now full of products enriched with vitamins and mineral salts that promise the advantage of having, in a single food, everything you need like a balanced meal and of course without making you fat. But are these products really a valid alternative to a diet based on fresh foods?
Rhetorical question, but it must be said that in reality even on the packaging of these products it is clearly written "they do not replace a healthy and balanced diet".
Nick still wanted to see the same what happens if you swap your usual healthy diet with meal replacement products for 7 days. So let's see how his experiment was carried out and what the results were.
Before starting, Nick underwent blood tests which confirmed his excellent health. And despite the dietitian Phaedra Dihmis, whom he had relied on to conduct his experiment, advised him to avoid this test on his body due to the risk of running into nutritional deficiencies, intestinal imbalances, mood swings and because "some of these products are low in calories and fiber and high in proteins, sugars and salt ”, the man decided to proceed according to his plan which envisaged a consumption of about 1.800 calories and a liter of water per day.
Index
1 ° day
A bar of chocolate for breakfast, a brick of milk and 4 biscuits. After two hours Nick is hungry and eats a protein bar, for lunch the meal includes a chicken soup while dinner consists of a powder to be added to water to create a sort of raw drink based on brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds and fruit.
2 ° day
Hunger begins to take its toll and Nick eats the fortified cookies. After 30 minutes in the gym he feels hungry again (he usually quietly trained for about an hour). He then drinks an instant syrup or oatmeal based syrup, milk powder, sugar and protein. Despite this, he feels more and more tired and hungry. Lunch: chicken soup. Afternoon headache. Dinner: a product based on raw flour and Tabasco sauce.
3 ° day
Nick's mood begins to suffer from his diet. He indulges in a chocolate energy drink for breakfast but the headache does not go away and, perhaps even worse, his intestines are blocked and the man feels very bloated. Despite soups, enriched ginger pies and oatmeal, every few hours he's always hungry again. Tremors and weakness also begin. Soup again for dinner.
4 ° day
Nick's still had biscuits and energy drinks for breakfast but the headache persists and the man begins to feel dehydrated. He continues to eat his usual fortified foods in the form of snacks, drinks and soups throughout the day, and his intestines continue to gurgle.
5 ° day
After the usual breakfast of substitutes and drinks over drinks in the hopes of fueling up, in the afternoon Nick begins to fidget more and more and needs to lie down. He starts to worry about his health and can't even have dinner so he feels bad.
6 ° day
The experiment is about to end and Nick can no longer even think about those foods that have now disgusted him and is struggling to reach 1000 calories a day.
7 ° day
More and more tried and faced for the umpteenth time with the same food and drinks, in the evening Nick concludes his experiment very tried. He is sick, he feels depressed and is prey to very high levels of flatulence.
8 ° day
Let's see what came out of the analysis: the phosphate levels fell. Phaedra Dihmis explains that low phosphate levels are often found in malnourished patients. Cholesterol has also dropped, it seems like good news but it isn't. As explained by Dr. Martin Whyte, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey, the reduction is mainly due to a lowering of the levels of 'good' cholesterol, HDL or protective cholesterol.
Nick felt tired and dissatisfied every day, his energy was always at low levels. This, experts explain, is due to the fact that, although these foods are rich in vitamins and salts, they are exaggeratedly full of sugar. With this type of diet, man was therefore unbalancing blood sugar levels and consequently the use of glucose in his body, subjecting his body to severe stress.
An experience definitely not to be repeated then!
Read also:
- Sugar versus fat: the twins experiment
- 10 recipes for making cereal energy bars at home
Foto: @Carl Fox
