The “inventor” of the rice diet, Dr. Walter Kempner believed that a simple diet of rice and fruit could help treat a variety of diseases, including kidney failure andHigh blood pressure, could be used. In fact, his diet had miraculous results, but the restrictive meal plan was difficult for patients to follow. Below you will find out what a rice diet weekly plan looks like today and how much weight you can lose.
What is the Kempner rice diet?
The rice-fruit diet from Dr. Walter Kempner was developed in 1939 when he was a professor at Duke University. His theory was that dietary changes could reduce strain on the kidneys and effectively treat kidney failure. The best way to achieve this was to drastically reduce protein intake, since the kidneys are largely responsible for processing protein.
Kempner also believed that eliminating sodium and cholesterol could lower blood pressure and improve heart failure in his patients. Dr. Kempner's rice-fruit diet consisted almost entirely of carbohydrates with very small amounts of protein and virtually no sodium and cholesterol.
According to an article published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in 2014, the macronutrient breakdown was 4 to 5 percent protein (less than 20 grams per day), 2 to 3 percent fat, and the rest carbohydrates. The amount of sodium allowed was 150 milligrams per day and fluid intake was restricted.
For Kempner's patients, only white rice and fruit were on the menu. Some fruit juices were allowed to contain citrate, which Kempner believed could counteract metabolic acidosis, a condition associated with kidney disease and kidney failure in which body fluids become too acidic. Patients also received a vitamin supplement to compensate for the deficiency of the B vitamin thiamine in white rice.
The diet had clinically significant results. Although 25 of the 192 patients who participated in his study died and 60 patients did not noticeably improve their blood pressure, 107 patients did experience a significant improvement in blood pressure. In 66 of 72 patients there was a decrease in heart size, and in 73 of 82 patients blood cholesterol levels fell. Diabetic retinopathy improved or disappeared in 21 of 33 patients.
The rice diet for losing weight
The authors of the article in the “Journal of the American Heart Association” point out that these results should be seen in the context of the time when life expectancy for malignant hypertension was six months.
Later, the rice diet was used to treat obesity and a number of other diseases. In a study published in “Archives of Internal Medicine” in 1975, Dr. Walter Kempner used the rice-fruit diet to treat 106 massively obese participants, who also received a plan for exercise and were motivated daily.
Each participant lost at least 45 kilograms, and the average weight loss was 63 kilograms. 43 of the participants achieved a normal body weight. Blood pressure, blood sugar and triglycerides were also significantly reduced.
The inpatient rice diet program in Durham, North Carolina became a popular destination for those who wanted to lose significant weight and improve their health. Under Kempner's strict supervision, the diet program resembled a weight-loss boot camp.
In order to keep his patients on track, Dr. Michael Greger, Kempner forced her to conform both mentally and physically. One of Kempner's patients sued him for allegedly beating her and other patients when they didn't stick to the diet.
The Rice Diet Center eventually split from Duke and Kempner in the early 2000s and was founded by Dr. Robert Rosati and Dr. Kitty Rosati took over. With the onslaught of diets like thisPaleo dietHowever, the Rice Diet lost popularity and the center eventually closed in 2013. But the following year, under the leadership of Dr. Frank Neelon reopened under the name “Rice Diet Healthcare Program.”
Rice diet: how does it work today?
The Rice Diet has changed over the years and is no longer quite as strict. In her book “The Rice Diet Solution: The World-Famous Low-Sodium, Good-Carb, Detox Diet for Quick and Lasting Weight Loss” published in 2005, Kitty Gurkin Rosati and Robert Rosati presented their version of the diet.
Here's how it works: The Rice Diet strictly limits salt and salty ingredients. Salt, like refined sugar, is an appetite stimulant. So if you reduce your salt intake, you'll lose water, weight, and be less likely to overeat. The Rice Diet also limits saturated fats and instead relies on carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains and beans) as the main source of nutrition. The fiber cleanses your body and keeps you full for longer. The rice diet makes it easy to limit calorie intake because you're eating foods that truly satisfy your hunger.
The Rosatis rice diet includes three phases:
Phase eins(with 800-1000 calories per day) lasts a week. The original menu of the rice diet - rice and fruits - is consumed only on the first day. On the other six days you can eat vegetables, whole grain bread and cereals as well as fat-free dairy products or plant milk.
Phase two(with 1000 calories per day) lasts until you reach your weight goal and focuses on creating eating habits for lasting weight loss. Every week starts with a day of the Original Rice Diet. Then add grains, vegetables, and the fat-free milk for the rest of the week. On a day of your choice, add a protein source, such as: E.g. fish, fat-free dairy products or eggs. Phase two contains slightly more salt and more calories than phase one.
Phase three(with 1200 calories per day) is the maintenance phase, which offers more choice, additional protein and more flexibility in salt content.
Why rice?
One of the first questions that may come to your mind is: “Do I only have to eat rice?” The answer is no. As Dr. When Walter Kempner developed the rice diet, he designed it to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease. Although we can't be 100 percent sure why Dr. Kempner chose rice, we believe it was due to two characteristics of rice: (1) it is a grain and therefore contains very little naturally occurring sodium, and (2) most people in the world do not suffer from chronic diseases , enjoy this highly nutritious, easy-to-grow staple. In fact, many people consume more rice than any other food in their diet. Dr. Kempner's answer was: "It's not about what's in the rice, it's about what's not in the rice." It turns out that rice contains a fairly complete protein. Which rice is best? Brown rice, basmati rice andblack rice.
On the rice diet you can also eat other grains and products. Oatmeal and oat bran are two popular breakfast options. Here are some other alternatives:
- Amaranth– South American grain that thickens soups well or can be popped like mini popcorn to add crunch to salads, rich in protein and vitamin E.
- barley– peeled, pearled, flaked, or as barley flour
- Buchwheat groats
- millet– Roasting them for 10 minutes before cooking improves the flavor and texture dramatically
- Oat groats or oat flakes
- Pasta, couscous and fregula pasta
- Polenta(finely to coarsely ground corn)
- Popcorn(without oil or salt)
- Quinoa
- Bulgur
How much do you lose with the Rosati version of the rice diet?
The Rosati Method helps you determine a realistic weight loss strategy. It starts with the basic premise that you need 22 calories per kilogram of body weight to maintain a healthy weight. Of course, this is an approximation since the number depends on your gender, activity, and so on, but it's easy to multiply by 22 and it's close enough. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you need about 1,500 calories to maintain a healthy weight. If you weigh 90kg you need 2000 calories, if you weigh 117kg you need 2600 calories and so on. Most of these calories are used to warm our bodies. Extra calories are needed when we exercise regularly. As a general rule, walking burns about 100 calories per mile. Again, this depends on your weight and gender, as well as your walking pace. So if you weigh 68 kg and walk for an hour every day (say 5 km), you need about 1800 calories to maintain your weight: 1500 + 300. If you weigh 113 kg, you need about 2800 calories to maintain your weight with the one hour walk per day.
Now let's see how you can use this knowledge to set a weight loss goal. Suppose you weigh 104 kg and want to reach a weight of 77 kg. If you weigh 104 kg, you will need about 2300 calories to maintain your weight. You could just reduce your calorie intake to 1700 and wait. With 600 calories less intake per day, you would lose just over 450 grams of body weight per week. It would take about a year for you to reach the weight of 77 kg. It would probably take longer because the more you lose weight, the fewer calories you need to maintain your weight and the smaller the deficit per day. If you weigh 104 kg and only eat 800 calories per day, you would be in a deficit of 1500 calories per day (2300 – 800 = 1500) and would lose about 200 grams of body weight per day. If you also took an hour-long walk, you would be in a deficit of 1,800 calories and would need about 3 to 4 months to get to 77 kg.
Why is the rice diet a low-salt diet and what does that mean?
Salt, like refined sugar, is an appetite stimulant. Without added salt, you will eat less. You will no longer feel hungry after your first meal.The low-salt or low-sodium dietalso provides many other health benefits and plays an important role in the management of high blood pressure, joint pain, diabetes complications and the risk of numerous other diseases, including heart failure, osteoporosis and stomach cancer. If you choose a very low-salt diet, you should generally avoid cheese. However, a small piece of salt-free cheese as a side dish every now and then won't hurt.
Another great benefit of the rice diet is that it is like fasting, cleansing the body not only of excessive sodium, but also of other unnatural substances that you have previously consumed, especially if you eat one day a week do the original rice diet. This is probably an impossible aspect to actually quantify or prove, but there are many symptoms of detox. Many people, for example, start the diet with a caffeine habit that they don't even realize. If you typically drink two cups of coffee or cola per day, you may have a headache for the first few days. You can eliminate or minimize this symptom by gradually reducing your coffee consumption over a week. You can take headache tablets or if necessaryincrease fluid intake. But otherwise, most people describe only positive reactions, including almost immediate improvement in sleep patterns, allergies, arthritis-like joint stiffness, energy levels (after the first week, your energy will increase significantly), attitude, and outlook on life in general.
Rice diet weekly plan
In each phase of the rice diet you eat specific portions of each food group. This helps you learn the right portion sizes and keep your calorie intake under control. The menu is divided into starches, non-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits and protein. Orient yourself to thefollowing Portion sizesTo be on the safe side:
1 x fruit:one medium fruit or 1 cup grapes or sliced fruit
1 x vegetable:1 cup raw or cooked non-starchy vegetables
1 x Protein:30g fish, skinless chicken, lean meat or 40g cooked beans or peas
1 x Strength:70g cooked rice or beans, 90g cooked grains, pasta or starchy vegetables or 1 slice of bread
1 x dairy product:240 ml low-fat milk, yogurt or 100 g cottage cheese
You can eat any fruit, grain or vegetable you want as long as no salt or fat is added. 2 packets of sugar, a teaspoon of maple syrup or honey are allowed with each meal. It is best to avoid coffee and alcohol.
Phase One (Detoxification)
On the first day of the rice diet you should have breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively2 portions of starch and 2 portions of fruitessen.
Example meal plan:
Breakfast:
2 starches = 100 g porridge
1 fruit = 2 tablespoons pitted cherries
1 fruit = half a banana
Lunch:
2 starches = 130g cooked brown basmati rice
1 fruit = 1 peach
1 fruit = 1 cup blueberries
Dinner:
2 starches = 130g cooked brown basmati rice
1 fruit = 1 apple
1 fruit = 1 cup grapes
On the other six days of the first phase:
- Breakfast: 1 starch + 1 fat-free dairy product + 1 fruit
- Lunch: 3 starches + 3 vegetables + 1 fruit
- Dinner: 3 starches + 3 vegetables + 1 fruit
Example meal plan:
Breakfast:
1 starch = 100 g cereal flakes OR 1 slice of bread
1 fat-free dairy product = 240 ml fat-free soy, grain or cow's milk OR 100 g cottage cheese
1 fruit = 1 peach
Lunch:
3 Starches = 200g cooked rice and/or beans OR 200g of another cooked grain or pasta
3 vegetables = 3 cups raw vegetable salad OR 120g cooked broccoli
1 Obst = 160 g Obstsalat
Dinner:
3 Starches = 200g cooked rice and/or beans OR 200g of another cooked grain or pasta
3 vegetables = 3 cups raw OR 120g cooked cabbage
1 fruit = 1 cup of berries (about 200 g)
Phase Two (Losing Weight)
For 1 day per week
- Breakfast – 2 starches and 2 fruits
- Lunch – 2 starches and 2 fruits
- Dinner – 2 starches and 2 fruits
For 5 days a week
- Breakfast – 1 starch, 1 non-fat dairy product and 1 fruit
- Lunch – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
- Dinner – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Example meal plan:
Breakfast:
1 starch = 100 g cereal flakes OR 1 slice of bread
1 fat-free dairy product = 240 ml fat-free soy, grain or cow's milk OR 100 g cottage cheese
1 fruit = 1 peach or 1 tablespoon jam (high in fruit)
Lunch:
3 starches = 150 g penne pasta
2 vegetables = 220 g tomato sauce
1 vegetable = 100 g fried vegetables
1 fruit = 1 cup grapes
Dinner:
2 starches + 2 vegetables = orzo-stuffed red peppers
1 starch + 1 vegetable = taco salad
1 fruit = 1 cup fresh berries (about 200 g)
For 1 day a week
- Breakfast – 2 starches and 1 fruit
- Lunch – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
- Dinner – 3 starches, 3 proteins, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit (sample meal plan can be found below)
Repeat phase 2 until the desired weight has been reached
Phase Three (Conservation)
For 1 day per week
- Breakfast – 2 starches and 2 fruits
- Lunch – 2 starches and 2 fruits
- Dinner – 2 starches and 2 fruits
For 4 days a week
- Breakfast – 1 starch, 1 non-fat dairy product and 1 fruit
- Lunch – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
- Dinner – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
For 2 days a week
- Breakfast – 2 starches and 1 fruit
- Lunch – 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
- Dinner – 3 starches, 3 proteins, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Example meal plan:
Breakfast:
2 starches = 90 g porridge
1/2 fruit = 1 teaspoon raisins
1/2 fruit = 70 g strawberries, sliced
Lunch:
2 starches = 130 g cooked black rice (Black Pearl)
1 starch = 70 g black beans with garlic
2 vegetables = 1 cup broccoli rapini
1 vegetable = baby spinach with roasted peppers
1 fruit = 1 pear
Dinner:
3 Protein + 1 Starch + 1 Vegetable = Seafood Gumbo
2 vegetables = asparagus spinach salad
2 starches + 1 fruit = Sweet Potato Pie
Can you use herbs and spices?
It may seem obvious if you're on a low-salt diet, but just in case: don't add salt to your food. Also pay attention to your spices. Herbs and spices not only improve the taste of various foods, but also your enjoyment. For example, sprinkling your oatmeal with cinnamon can make it taste much better. But using spices comes with a risk: you might eat more. So use them wisely.
What about using sauces and dressings on food?
Ready-made sauces and marinades are very popular in our fast-paced world and the low-salt versions are becoming increasingly tastier and easier to find. If they taste a bit bland, use your imagination and spice them up with fresh lemons, limes, horseradish, wasabi, fresh and dried herbs, dried chili peppers and chipotle peppers (smoked jalapenos), or vinegar, mustard and ketchup.
What can you drink while dieting?
You should consume between 1.2 and 2 liters of fluids per day. In our everyday lives, we generally drink many drinks that contain caffeine, sodium, fat, sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. All of these substances are potentially harmful. Even the decaffeinated drinks can have negative health effects. Caffeine-free coffee and/or tea have been shown to worsen hernias and inhibit iron absorption by 39 and 87 percent, respectively. If you really want decaffeinated coffee, look for “naturally decaffeinated” coffee. But also try some healthier alternatives like Orzo (an Italian coffee substitute made from malted barley). However, there are many other healthy options:
– water, low in sodium; good in combination with 100 percent fruit juices
– Herbal teas, preferably decaffeinated and unsweetened;green teacontains large amounts of health-promoting antioxidants and tastes great as iced tea
– Fruit juices, unsweetened
– Vegetable juices (unsalted) are great when you add lemon, lime or other salt-free and fat-free seasonings such as horseradish
– Milk: Recommended are soy and grain milk, skim milk, 4 percent and 1 percent, in that order. In contrast to cow's milk, soy and grain milk offer more protein andplant estrogens, so-called isoflavones.
Is the rice diet healthy?
Kempner's rice diet was too restrictive for the average person. It also had nutrient gaps that could have led to nutritional deficiencies if the right supplements had not been taken. The original rice diet should be carried out under medical supervision; therefore, you should not attempt to perform them on your own.
The new version of the diet is accessible to a wider audience and does not require medical supervision. While the diet is not unhealthy, it is still considered a fad diet because it requires sticking to strict meal plans and avoiding one or more food groups at least temporarily. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends against such diets.
The goal of the modern rice diet is to change the way you think about food and be more mindful of what you consume. By focusing on portion sizes, consuming unprocessed, fresh foods, and avoiding high levels of fat and salt, she provides credible guidance for building healthy eating habits.
In reality, however, most people will find it difficult to stick to such a strict plan long-term. The requirement to measure each portion and avoid many foods makes the diet very inconvenient, which is often the reason people stop the diet and relapse into unhealthy eating habits. Following a healthy, reduced-calorie diet that meets your individual needs and fits into your schedule is the best way to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight long-term.
Important
Any methods, information, and tips in this article are based on current studies and medical sources (at the time of publication). However, they are not suitable for self-diagnosis and treatment and in no way serve as a substitute for competent medical advice.
The nutritional method described is safe for many people, but not for everyone. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a medical condition, talk to your doctor before starting.
