By now the combination of diet and celebrities should set off all alarm bells. And the one by Nicholas Perricone follows the usual script to the letter, with well-known characters delighted with the system and the results it produces, both when it comes to rejuvenating the skin and, incidentally, to lose a few kilos on the fast track. . Although the so-called Perricone diet is almost two decades old, Queen Letizia -apparently, one of its fervent practitioners for years- has managed to get people to talk about these menus with a lot of salmon, little coffee and, of course, supplements and not cheap creams
The recent barrage of headlines about this diet confirms that it’s all the rage. Or be again. It’s nothing weird. Every few months, one of these named systems or a leading food becomes the panacea until, magically, they are no longer talked about. In the case of the Perricone, two curious things happen: it is already many years old and, if we stay in the headlines, everything seems perfect.
As we read, nothing less than Gwyneth Paltrow is or has been one of the defenders of this diet. One of those red flags with capital letters that should make anyone who knows the actress’s relationship with science run away. Far from that, it is hard to find articles where the promise of losing kilos in three days and getting years off our skin is questioned.
“Dr. Perricone treats the problems of aging with a holistic program in three stages: diet, nutritional supplements and the award-winning line of cosmeceuticals for the skin”, can be read on his official website. He defines himself as “the father of the Theory of Aging caused by Inflammation” which, from the outset, seems to arouse some skepticism in his fellow specialists.
We read the keys to the Perricone system and its promises to Agustí Toll, head of the dermatological surgery section at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. “This is all very well, but it must be demonstrated with scientific studies,” he replies. Although he acknowledges that inflammation has been talked about for a long time and there are studies on aging, these are tests at the laboratory level, which are very complicated to transfer to people.
And are there real studies on the effectiveness of a system that was born focused on skin health and now also has a weight reduction aspect? A 2004 article from Quqckwatch -a space dedicated to discussing topics related to medical issues and pseudosciences- listed up to 25 errors and inaccuracies in the book The Perricone Prescription and concluded that the dose of marketing was much higher than that of science.
Along the same lines, The New York Times reviewed Perricone’s million-dollar business already in 2005 and all the sources consulted denied that there was any type of scientific study on the effectiveness of his method. Observational analysis or pointing out the effects in certain patients – without control groups, placebo and all the requirements of a scientific study – has the same validity as that well-known argument of so many diets and magic remedies: “it works for me”.
Two interesting facts to contextualize the story revealed in this article about Dr. Perricone, who is how he appears everywhere. His stay at Yale University, which is often mentioned when reviewing his resume, was in a brief, unpaid position as an assistant. And the department at Michigan State University specializing in the relationship between nutrition and dermatology and which is said to give scientific packaging to many of his claims he created himself with a check for five million dollars.
Marián García -better known as Boticaria García- already mentioned these curious details in an article published in 2015 and was especially critical of a diet that promises, in addition to rejuvenating the skin, to lose 8 kilos in 28 days.
The fact is that the English tabloids seem to be fascinated with what has been known for years as Letizia’s diet. The food plan that he proposes gives priority to vegetables and fruits, eliminates sugars, alcohol and reduces carbohydrates. Coffee is also one of the prohibited foods, along with wheat, rice, dairy products or oranges.
Faced with these restrictions, drinking green tea and eating a lot of salmon are encouraged. This fish is one of the fetish products of the diet, which proposes to eat it twice a day. It sounds weird. And it is, confirms Beatriz Robles, a recognized expert and disseminator on nutrition and dietetics. And she scourges all those diets that promise miracles, as well as the headlines that feed them.
“We must never trust a diet that proposes us to eat certain foods as the basis of its success or a specific pattern of products per day.” Along the same lines, it makes no sense to restrict certain fruits as this diet does, he points out while recalling that in Spain it is forbidden for a diet to promise effects, such as losing kilos in a certain time.
And the inflammation theory behind Perricone’s speech? “A diet with a high amount of foods that contain antioxidants is undoubtedly going to have an effect on inflammation, but the term anti-inflammatory diet as a panacea, or using the concept of inflammation as if it had to do with aging or difficulties in losing weight is much more a justification to sell diets than scientific evidence”, explains Robles.
As if the clues to distrust the Perricone method were not enough, there is more. Robles points out one that is usually infallible: “what diets with surnames sell is a commercial brand, it is one of the classic elements to identify a miracle diet.”
And, of course, the business. In addition to the catalog of so-called cosmoceuticals (creams, oils, makeup…) food supplements are also sold. Another alarm signal. In Spain only two at almost 80 euros, but in the United States the offer of Omega3 pills and antioxidants is notably higher. And it is that, like any good miraculous diet and with a questionable scientific basis, this one is not cheap either.