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Arts & Entertainment
 

Celebrities push diets; fans follow

Get Well

Ron Douthitt

After reading all the ingredients in the en vogue diet pills on the shelves, it looks like caffeine is truly here to stay. Although studies have shown that large amounts of caffeine can have unpleasant side effects, only those who are sensitive to it or abuse it usually feel those effects. In the 1970s researchers thought that perhaps caffeine was more harmful than it actually was, but long-term research has shown that that is not the case. It is now included in about 70 percent of all diet pills and supplements.

 This brings me to the latest crash-diet craze that has many a housewife sharking around the vitamin section of her favorite grocery store. Anna Nicole Smith was paid a sizeable sum to drop nearly a 100 pounds in the name of Trimspa. If I were paid seven figures to drop those unwanted remnants of cheeseburgers and soft tacos I was known to eat at 3 a.m. like Anna Nicole Smith so proudly boasts, I'd have no problem whatsoever.
 Assuming Smith is not consuming any additional supplements to assist her in her weight loss, then she is touting a product that contains what appears to be the highest level of caffeine one can purchase in an over-the-counter supplement.

 In addition to sizeable amounts of caffeine, Trimspa contains myriad non-essential vitamins and minerals. No one knows whether or not anything in Trimspa actually aids in weight loss. The makers just know it's safe — in theory, anyway.

 Trimspa is certain to make you so nervous and jittery that you'll have to go to the gym every time you take it and work out the nervousness to complete exhaustion. This is while you're feeling lightheaded and dizzy from the enormous amount of dismally intoxicating caffeine you must endure in order to curb eating habits and drop pounds. That's not even remotely healthy for losing real fat, just weight — there's a big difference between losing weight and fat.

 The raw-food diet is hailed as the only answer by supermodel Carol Alt. Nothing cooked above 118 degrees is allowed. All foods must be "cold pressed." This may ring a bell from the front of a bottle of olive oil, as some grocery store olive oils are cold pressed. But that's about the only item in a regular grocery store that a consumer will find that is not cooked. Most people don't know that all processed foods have been cooked at some point, and some seemingly raw foods have also been cooked. 

 Some diets are excellent for cleansing the system, if nothing else. Liquid diets, some of which are high in protein, are commonly practiced by celebrities in Hollyweird. I've personally tried the high-protein liquid diet and found it quite refreshing. After only a week the body does sense that it's receiving no solid protein mass and craves it in a bizarre, unexplainable way. But for the short-term fad dieter, this is by far the healthiest liquid diet.
 

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