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Sacred Heart Diet
The Sacred Heart Diet is a fad diet that has been circulating for many years.
The diet was supposedly thought to come from the cardiology department at Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital where it was used for overweight heart patients. However, like most of these diets – this is an urban myth.
The Sacred Heart Diet has been called a number of different names (such as the Spokane Heart Diet, the Cleveland Clinic Diet, Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet and the Miami Heart Institute Diet).
The diet also bears a striking resemblance to the cabbage soup diet.
The Sacred Heart diet is a soup-based diet, and claims that you will lose 10-17 pounds in the first week.
This may be true, but most of the weight will tend to be water – and will be gained right back very soon after the diet.
This diet is very clearly an unsustainable fad diet, but is not as nutritionally unsound as similar diets. Most of these diets claim some magical fat-burning science is involved, or that there is something special about the combination of foods. This is simply untrue – it is nothing more complex than a reduction in calories!
7 Day Diet Plan
- The Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal Canada (Hôpital Sacre Coeur) issued a press release in 2004 stating that “no nutritionist at the Hospital took part in the development of this diet”.
- The American Heart Association have claimed that the diet is phony (ref).
- The Sacred Heart Medical Center also disclaim any association with the diet (ref).
Day 1
Any fruit (except bananas). Cantaloupes and watermelon are lower in calories than most other fruits. Eat only soup and fruit today.
Day 2
All vegetables. Eat until you are full with fresh raw, cooked or canned veggies. Try to eat green leafy veggies and stay away from dry beans, peas or corn.
Eat veggies along with the soup.
A baked potato and dinner time with butter.
Don’t eat any fruits through today.
Day 3
Eat all the soup, fruit and veggies you want. Do not have a baked potato.
Day 4
Bananas and skim milk: Eat at least 3 bananas and drink as much milk as you can today, along with the soup.
Day 5
Beef and tomatoes: you may have 10 to 20 ounces of beef and a can of tomatoes, or as many as 6 tomatoes on this day. Eat the soup at least once today.
Day 6
Beef and veggies, eat to your heart’s content of the beef and veggies today. You can even have 2-3 steaks if you like with green leafy veggies but no baked potato. Be sure to eat the soup at least once today.
Day 7
Brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice and veggies, until full (and eat the soup).
You can add cooked veggies to your rice if you wish.
Drinks Allowed
- Unsweetened juices
- Tea (also herbal)
- Coffee
- Cranberry juice
- Skim milk
- Lots of water
Soup Recipe
- 1 or 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
- 3 plus large green onions
- 1 large can of beef broth (no fat)
- 1 pkg. Lipton Soup mix (chicken noodle)
- 1 bunch of celery
- 2 cans green beans
- 2 lbs. Carrots
- 2 Green Peppers
Season with salt, pepper curry, parsley, if desired, or bouillon, hot or Worcestershire sauce. Cut veggies in small to medium pieces. Cover with water. Boil fast for 10 minutes. Reduce to simmer and continue to cook until vegetables are tender.
The soup can be eaten at any time.
Sacred Heart Diet Variations
Here is a different version of the diet – alleged to have come from Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pennsylvania.
“Follow the daily plan for 2 consecutive weeks, then take the following week off. You can repeat the cycle for as long as you like or until you achieve your weight loss goal.”
MONDAY
Eat SOUP and all the FRESH FRUIT that you want. Nothing else. (no bananas)
TUESDAY
Eat SOUP and all the FRESH VEGETABLES that you want. Nothing else. (no corn or beans).
WEDNESDAY
Eat SOUP and BOTH FRUIT & VEGETABLES, all you want. Nothing else.
THURSDAY
Eat SOUP all day and 3 BANANAS. 1 GLASS OF SKIM MILK. Nothing else.
FRIDAY
Eat SOUP, up to 8 TOMATOES and ALL the skinless CHICKEN, lean BEEF & FISH that you want. Nothing else.
SATURDAY
Eat SOUP, ALL the skinless CHICKEN, lean BEEF & FISH that you want… nothing else.
SUNDAY
Eat SOUP and all the BROWN RICE that you want. Nothing else.
SOUP Ingredients
Soup to be eaten ALL DAY as much and as often as you can
- 2 – 11oz. cans chicken noodle soup (Campbell Healthy)
- 5 stalks of celery
(diced) - 1 lb. pack frozen string beans
- 4 carrots (diced)
- 4 potatoes (diced)
- ½ green pepper (diced)
- 2 onions (diced)
See Also
My Sacred Heart Diet which was just released in 2009 and retails for $19.
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A few months ago, i brought this dress to wear at my cousin’s wedding. Since i’m the bride’s maid, it is important for me to watch my weight. The dress fit me few months back. But now, it doesn’t fit me. I have one week till the wedding and really have to lose about 15 pounds. This diet is my only hope. Today was my day 1. I dont feel any difference yet. But i hope I will.
My husband abd I are starting on Monday, will keep posted!
i have done this diet before, and yes it really does work, it is hard for the first two days but then once you get to have meat its awesome. going back to boxing this week so will be intersting how much i loose, last time i lost 5 kilos in a week, but doing boxing everyday and any excise will make u loose more so i would be very happy either way.
I did the trim club diet for 8 weeks and lost 30 pounds. I would like to lose an additional 10-15 pounds so I’m trying this diet. Today is day one. I had fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch. I’m not hungry but my stomach is making an awful racket. I know people that tried this and they did lose weight, but it’s also a cleansing diet (if you know what I mean) so maybe that’s where alot of the weightloss comes from. They say most people carry 15 to 20 pounds in their colon. Has anyone experienced that problem. My friend also tried this and said that by the third day she just couldn’t eat any more soup and gave up.
Today is my first day.. and it sucks because I’m very picky. Plus, the peaches I got aren’t ripe yet, lol, so I think I’m stuck with apples all day..
I think I need some words of encouragment!!!
Can you have a potato more than on the second day. I am a little confused if you can have it on other days or only the second.
3.5 lbs lost on the second day!
I love this diet and will be doing it until I drop 25lbs. Its been 4 days already and I have lost 6lbs! I can’t wait til Saturday to see if I lost more. I workout everyday and the food is very filling. The diet works! Its hard at first but gets easier everyday.
I used the first recipe and have lost 9 pounds with only three days behind me. Even if it is a “fraud” diet, it is keeping me eating healthy foods so it is worth it to me!
I stayed on this diet for 2 months and went from a size (tight) 38 to in between a 34 -36, I went from around 200lbs to 173 lbs in 2 months…..but I strickly struck to the diet….no slips no substitutes!!
Ashley, Did you put spices in your soup? Did you puree it? Try putting Italian spice, bell peppers in your soup than puree it. I’m totally picky as well. Watermelon is really good and it fills you up fast! Don’t give up this works!
my husbend and i are doing this together so lets hope this works
started today:)
Please, I WARN EVERYONE if you’re going to attempt fad diets such as these to excercise EXTREME CAUTION! As a teen I went on this diet for just over two weeks and had a HEART ATTACK.
Most extreme diets are intended for obese people because their bodies have excess reserved stores of fat.
Just BE CAREFUL. If you find yourself feeling irritable, faint, over-heated, tired and/or lethargic STOP. Don’t carry it out longer than a week unless you’re more than 20 lbs overweight and never NEVER go longer than 2 weeks without a break of a week or two with good hearty food.
I lost 10 lbs and my husband lost 7 lbs! Good luck to everyone!
i amm on this diet and i stared on june 3 2008 with 153 pound 7 days and then one day off and like that i weight myself june 22 2008 and i am on 145 well i didn’t lose what is say but is my only hope and i am sticking on it
I needed to lose 60 pounds in three months to qualify fora heart transplant and then keep the weight off for a year. Quess what, it works!!! I followed the plan for three months off came the sixty pounds(along with walking one mile twice a day),after that it was this diet and a sensible dinner every day for the next year. Like any other diet if you return to how you were eating it will come back.
On day two of the diet. I love fruits and veggies so this is the perfect thing for me.I have lost one pound so far. However im leaving for vegas this weekend and plan to drink. So my results may be delayed. Im going to stop the diet for the weekend only then start over on monday. But so far the test run is going good. Ive even got my parents doing it with me. Keep everyone posted.
Also just to note: I run and exercise every day. So Im not just a lazy dieter that wants to lose weight with out working for it. I just need the diet to break my platau.
i lost 7lb in the first week, my manager lost 15lb in the first week and totally to date over 30lb. i’ve kept it off and so did she. im going on my 4th week right now, and she’s down in florida bathing in sun, on her 6th week of diet.
and to critic_92, with all due respect, i’d rather listen to my body and scale instead of someone posting on a site. its easy to trash an idea, but its better to feel the facts.
hello everyone i have been doing this for about a month and i have lost 63 pounds , but i only ate soup, apples, and carrots. I drank only water and i exercised religiously * like alot of exercise*, and my doctor told me it was a fast and sudden weight loss but its better then being what i was before i started. Also i took diurex tablets , there like a dieurtic pills that make you pee alot more, and i used to weigh 200 now im already down to 137 and i look and feel great .
on day 3 at the moment and finding it quit difficulT! not that im hungry really, just that im craving foods! not looking forward to tommorow having bananas all day but i hope i can get through it. Along with losing the weight i want to know if i have the willpower to complete the diet as i have never tried anything like this beforE. i hope once i finish the diet that i will have lost up to 8pounds and hope that once i start eating normally again that the weight will not return. normally i eat quite well however i feel after this diet i will binge. just wondering about other peoples results? if the weight did pile on afterwards or if they also found it quite dissiculT!?
I did this diet about a year ago. i only did it for 3 days, because i was being a little baby about it and got sick of the veggies. but in those 3 days i lost 6 lbs! I’m trying it again next week.
Hi,
I started this diet and today in Day 4.I follow this Diet Plan strictly still I lost only 1lb in 4 days.Are there any chances of losing more in coming 3 days.Doesn’t it work for everyone.I drink 10 glasses of water and I am not having this soup.Is it because of this,am I not loosing an weight?Please suggest,if it reall works for me?
I am on my 4th day and noticed that, although I pee a lot (obviously from drinking 8 glasses a day) I am having trouble going to the bathroom – in the other sense – if you know what I mean.
It seems that no one else on this blog has had this problem. Is it just because I haven’t reached the meat part yet?
Because of this “problem” I haven’t lost an ounce but have not cheated one bit on the diet and have been excersing like crazy (45 minutes spinning class or running every day).
HELP!!!???!!
i started this diet today. my doctor wants me to go from 129lbs to 110.i had one small bowl today and 2 cups of lite cranberry juice. it doesnt help that i’m a VEGAN. i substituted the beef broth for veggie stock and didnt put any chicken soup mix at all. i cant have the beef or skim milk…will that affect my results.??? does anyone know??..and mind u im only 17 yrs old
I have a slightly neurotic question… I’m on the second day and I hate veggies. So, instead of eating the baked potato for dinner, I had it for lunch so that I’d have some energy through the day. I plan on just eating the soup until I go to bed. Does anyone think this could mess up the mechanics of the diet? Thanks! I hope this diet works!
this diet works my mom did it and lost about 40 lbs in aprox 4 to 6 months. she looks and feels great and since I put on some lbs I’m gonna try it too. Just takes dedication cause that soup is wicked.
What lipton soup mix did yall use?
If you havent figured it out..this diet is not a fraud, the base mechanics of this healthy eating plan points to negative calorie intake…if you check, all the ingredients of the soup, except broth and chicken noodle soup, are negative calorie foods. Meaning, that your body burns more calories(energy) processing the food than that particular food holds. So therefore you have a negative calorie intake. And that is why it says the more you eat the more you lose. With the added fruits(vitamins), Milk(fat) and Bananas(carbs/Potassium)along with the odd meat(protein) it seems to be a pretty balanced healthy diet. Im on my second day, and so far it doesnt seem that hard at all. Even if I dont lose the 10-17 pounds of fat it claims I can…it will be worth it to lose some, and learn how to eat alot healthier than I have been.
YES IT WORK!!!! I AM TRYING IT AGAIN….I JUST HAD A BABY AND NEED TO LOSE THIS BABY FAT! I TRIED IT B4 AND LOST 20 POUNDS! THIS TIME I AM WALKING WITH IT
i’ve done this diet before and lost around 11 lbs. after i finished the diet i lost even more weight and have kept it off for over 6 months. this diet encourages you to continue to eat healthily and gives you the motivation to do so.
and to bambootree, eat a cup of bran if you are having trouble going to the bathroom after 4 days, this will help and is recommended.
to verinca neff its the first one with out potatoes and
yes! this diet does work and what is really is just detoxing yourbody to get you started if you really want to lose alot of weight and , who ever said it doenst work it does
thhey are wrong honsetly i have seen many people do it in mylife and how greadthey feel. also this diet is hard especaillay in a family you watch everyone eat all of there yummy foods while you can just eat soup and what ever else is says that day but just stay postive and keep your mind on what you are trying to lose. this sounds bad but i feel the flub of where i want to loose the weight when i am about to eat something else other then what it asks for and and tehn i say this is why i am doing it and i stick to it!