Affiliations: [a] Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana – FUNIBER, Nutrition Unit, P° Garcia Faria 29, 08005 Barcelona, Spain. e-mail: sandra.sumalla@funiber.org
| [b] Department of Biochemistry, Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Ranieri, 60100 Ancona, Italy
Abstract: Miracle diets are characterised by promises of fast weight loss without any effort. However as these types of diet lack many essential nutrients and are unbalanced, they may cause negative long-term health problems. The Mayo Clinic Diet, analysed in our study, was found to be unbalanced in the amount of macronutrients (47.65% fat, 32.06% proteins and 20.37% carbohydrates) and all minerals (the amount of minerals are under 50% of the RDA) and deficient in vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, D and E. As multiple studies show that weight loss is similar, independent of the macronutrient composition of the diet, and data from recent studies indicate that following these types of diets in the long term can be associated with an increase in mortality, recommended diets should have a wide variety of foods and be balanced in the amount of macro- and micronutrients, like the Mediterranean diet.
