The Virgin Diet takes an interesting approach to weight loss: Drop & avoid 7 foods and you can lose 7 pounds in 7 days. Is this really true? Technically yes, but in this review, you’re going to get inside information and find out if this plan is really worth trying for you.
Contents
The Virgin Diet Explained:
JJ Virgin believes the secret to losing weight is simply by avoiding certain foods which cause it in addition to health problems. Basically you eliminate the 7 foods from your diet for 3 weeks and then re-introduce each food back into your eating routines.
However the key when adding each food back into the diet is to see how you react to it. If one of the 7 foods you started eating again causes you any sort of problems: Indigestion, constipation, heartburn, ect…, then you will have to eliminate that food from your eating routines permanently. However, if one of the 7 foods you started eating again doesn’t cause you any issues, you can continue to eat them. This process of elimination will basically let you know what your body likes/doesn’t like.
But now let’s take a look at each of these “taboo” foods everyone wants to know about…
The 7 foods you should avoid:
1. Eggs. I can’t say I agree with this. If you don’t have any known allergies and you eat organic eggs, you should be fine with this.
2. Corn. Another questionable food I’m not sure should be on the list, maybe because it’s so often used in combination with oils and fats.
3. Dairy. Technically she’s right. Most dairy foods this day n age are not healthy, are loaded with artificial ingredients and hormones which don’t exactly help us.
4. Gluten. I absolutely agree with this one. Eliminate gluten. It will help improve digestion and other health factors. A diet called the gluten free diet really gets into the details of why you should avoid this ingredient.
5. Peanuts. While I’m not their biggest fan, I believe JJ Virgin is mostly against these because a lot of peanut products are loaded with salt/sugar and other ingredients which make it very unhealthy for you. If you love peanuts and feel this food doesn’t negatively affect your health, at least try to buy them without any additional ingredients on them.
6. Artificial sweeteners + sugar. Though it’s not rocket science to know why this is bad for you, it’s still one type of ingredient you should avoid, especially artificial sweeteners. If you can’t live without sugar, consider eating raw organic honey as a substitute. If not that and you NEED sugar, try brown sugar. Way less harmful than white sugar.
7. Soy. I don’t really eat too many soy products so I can’t make a conclusion on this one.
Like it was mentioned before, you are going to eliminate all of these foods for 3 weeks then re-introduce each one again and see how they affect you. If they affect you negatively, stop eating them. If not, you can keep eating them.
Other aspects of the Virgin Diet:
JJ Virgin also promotes her own products through the book such as supplements, other diet books and shakes. I don’t really recommend taking these things. They just seem like extra ways to make money from the popularity of the diet, but certainly the choice is yours.
This pretty much summarizes the entire Virgin diet book.
Pros:
- Some of the ingredients you should avoid do cause weight gain and ruin health.
- Can help with weight loss, though 7 pounds in 7 days may not always happen.
Cons:
- Nothing really more to find in the book other than the information already presented in this review.
- Some of the foods JJ Virgin recommends avoiding may not necessarily be bad if you get them in their raw, organic state.
The Virgin Diet Score:
3 out of 5 stars. Good points, but aside from the 7 foods to avoid, not much else to learn. See #1 rated diet.
Conclusions:
It’s certainly worth trying this diet if you’re not into the traditional approach. With this diet, it basically is all about getting rid of the 7 foods and then testing out which of them are good/bad for you, then following up accordingly. That’s basically it.
Aside from that, there really isn’t much else you’ll learn from this book. JJ Virgin does also advertise her products, but again you know my position on that. My rule of the thumb in this case is this:
- If you plan on doing this diet, get the book to make sure you get it right.
- If you don’t plan on doing this diet, I just told you pretty much the most important parts of it, so there’s no reason to get it.
While I agree with her overall points about getting rid of foods in your current eating routines, I do question some of her choices. In the getting started section of this website where you learn unusual ways to lose weight right away, white sugar in addition to other unhealthy ingredients is highly recommended to be eliminated. Artificial sweeteners too, but the other choices, I can’t say I completely agree with.
You’ll have to test out each of the foods and see how it works for you. Since everyone is different, how each us reacts to these foods will vary.
Finally in regards to the weight loss results, they will vary too. I think the 7 pounds in 7 days is really wishful thinking. Yes getting rid of some foods will certainly bring about positive change, but I don’t think this will happen right away since for the first week or two your body will be adjusting to not eating some of the 7 foods you were once used. But you will lose weight.
If you have a review of the Virgin Diet you’d like to share, please leave a comment below!