Diet of maple syrup the latest celebrity fad

With the carb-hating Dr Atkins dead and his fans still reeling from revelations that he ended his days overweight, faddish dieters the world over have been looking for the latest regime to follow.

They may have found it in the maple syrup diet.

The programme has all the right ingredients to become an instant dieting success story; celebrity endorsement, a little bit of dubious science and a stomach-churning combination of foods.

Health food shops have reported soaring sales of pots of the Madal Bal syrup on which the diet is based and its UK distributor says orders have soared from 500 pots a year to more than 2,000 a month.

Fans of the diet, which basically consists of replacing normal meals with a liquid made up of the maple syrup, lemon juice, water and cayenne pepper, claim it purifies the body and can lead to weight loss of almost a stone in ten days.

Its detractors, however, say it could be harmful to health, misleads impressionable teenagers - and will not lead to long-term weight loss.

The Madal Bal syrup is made in Switzerland from the sap of maple trees and four rare Asian palm trees.

According to its makers, the syrup is high in natural plant sugars which provide energy and satisfy hunger pains, but does not contain the added sugars contained in most shop-bought maple syrup.

Adherents can spend up to ten days on the diet, drinking up to ten glasses a day of the syrupy mix.

Singer Beyonce Knowles revealed last month that she had used the maple syrup-cayenne pepper combination to lose 20 pounds 9kg before filming the movie Dreamgirls along with Jamie Foxx.

She said: "I lived on water, cayenne pepper and maple syrup for 14 days. It was tough; everyone was eating and I was dying."

Azmina Govindji of the British Dietetic Association warned that dieters should be wary of such rapid weight loss regimes.

"There is no evidence that detoxing is any better for you than eating a balanced, healthy diet.

"Fasting for that length of time is likely to give you drastic weight loss anyway because it is all about the deficit of calories."

She added: "It would surprise me if a drink like this would contain all the nutrients necessary for health.

"Furthermore, constant sipping of drinks containing syrup and lemon juice is likely to erode dental enamel.

"What I think is misleading is that people will believe that it is the drink that is magical in some way.

"I doubt this would have long-term positive effects on health."

Nutritionists say that while fasting for a short time once a year may have some health benefits, the plethora of detox books and products on the market are encouraging people to believe, wrongly, that frequent starvation is the secret of weight loss.

Even those who appear to have endorsed the diet have admitted that life on pepper and syrup cannot be sustained.

Ms Knowles admitted in a recent magazine interview: "At the wrap party the day after filming they had these cupcakes and I ate about twelve.

"After that I ate waffles, fried chicken, cheeseburgers, french fries, everything I could find.

"That was the best time of my life. I've gained twelve pounds."

- INDEPENDENT