Free The Dukan Diet by Pierre Dukan Page A

but no more than 8 ounces per day. However, if you want a lightning-fast start to your Attack phase diet, you are better off avoiding them altogether and even more so if you have hit a weight plateau.
Category 10: 1½ Quarts of Water per Day
    As I have already told you, and at the risk of repeating myself, drinking 1½ quarts of water a day is indispensable and non-negotiable. Even if you are following the diet very carefully, if you do not thoroughly flush out your system, your weight loss will stop. The waste from your burning of fats will accumulate and extinguish the metabolic fire.
    All types of water are allowed, including spring waters, as long as they do not contain too much sodium. If you do not like plain water, you can drink carbonated water, since carbonation has no effect on weight; it is only water high in sodium that must be avoided.
    In addition, if you do not care for cold drinks, remember that tea, herbal tea, coffee, and any other hot drink are all assimilated as water and count toward your obligatory 1½ quarts of water per day.
    Finally, diet drinks that do not have more than 1 calorie per 8 ounces are all allowed at every stage of the Dukan Diet. Nutritionists are divided when it comes to drinks sweetened with aspartame. Some think that the body detects and compensates for their trickery, whereas others think that their use provokes further cravings for sugar.
    As far as I am concerned, my experience has taught me that abstaining from sugar, no matter for how long, never gets rid of the taste or the longing for sugar. So I see no reason to deprive yourself of this calorie-free treat. Furthermore, I have noticed that using these drinks make following the diet a lot easier and that their sweet flavor, strong smell, color, and bubbles, as well as their association with festivities and fun, all contribute to a powerful sensory gratification that soothes those cravings for “something else” that so often tempt those of us who like to snack.
    This is the moment to talk about the controversy surrounding aspartame. To put it bluntly, some people are concerned that it may be carcinogenic, and I can understand why this is worrying. In my opinion, there is no need for all this controversy. Aspartame has been used as a sweetener by billions of individuals in every country in the world for twenty-five years without ever having given rise to any complaints or side effects and certainly not any human cancers. As far as I am concerned, I see no reason at all to deprive people on a diet who particularly like sweet tastes.
Category 11: 1½ Tablespoons of Oat Bran
    For years, the first two actual weight loss phases in my program did not contain any starchy foods, cereals, or flour-based foods. The program worked fine without them, but many of the men and women who followed it eventually ended up longing for carbohydrates.
    I discovered oat bran while attending a cardiology conference in America, where there was a presentation on how it reduces cholesterol and diabetes. I brought some home and one morning, having run out of flour, I created a special pancake, which I now call the Dukan Oat Bran Galette, for my daughter Maya. It is made of oat bran, an egg, and nonfat Greek yogurt sweetened with aspartame.
    Maya loved it and felt completely full, so this spurred me on to suggest to my patients that they try the galette as well. Their enthusiasm for it persuaded me to include it in my method and my books. This is how oat bran gradually became a fundamental part of my method, the only carbohydrate allowed among the proteins and even within the sanctuary of the Attack phase. Why?
    First, from a clinical perspective, I very quickly noticed an improvement in results: my patients followed the diet better over the long term; they felt less hungry and full sooner; and all in all, they were much less frustrated.
    To try to understand how oat bran works, I looked at the studies available on it. Oat bran is the fibrous husk that