What Is the Mayo Clinic Diet?
The Mayo Clinic Diet is a nutrition program developed in the 1940s. This diet underwent modifications over the years, then developed and became very popular in the 1980s. It is based on a food pyramid and by following its 8 basic rules, a desired body weight can be achieved, a recommended low-calorie diet of 14 days. Very strict, it displays a diet to follow (lots of grapefruit) that claims to lose 10kg in 2 weeks.
The Mayo diet is a restrictive diet designed to lose weight in record time. The principle of the program is to adopt a diet characterized by a low caloric intake. The Mayo diet limits energy intake to 800 to 1,000 calories per day.
We do this by alternating the Mayo diet with other weight loss diets and taking at least one week off each month. As mentioned earlier, you should not prolong this diet for more than a month, as this can have adverse effects on your body.

Mayo Clinic Diet Food List
- Avoiding sugar and sugary foods
- Edible grapefruit
- Do not consume milk and its derivatives
- Eat cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, spinach and celery
- Eat 6 to 36 eggs per week
Fish & Meat
- Chicken
- Cod
- Lean ground beef
- Salmon
- Sea bass
- Snapper
Fruits
- Apples
- Avocados
- Bananas
- Berries
- Grapefruit
- Oranges
Vegetables
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Bell peppers
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
Whole Grains
- Amaranth
- Brown rice
- Barley
- Rice
- Sourdough
- quinoa
- Oatmeal
Protein
- tofu
- Fish with Omega-3s
- Soy cheese
Dairy products
- Cottage cheese
- Fat-free or 1% milk
- Feta cheese
- Greek yogurt
Pros and Cons of the Mayo Clinic Diet
Pros
- The Mayo method allows you to lose weight quickly
- Authorized foods are readily available
- Daily menus are simple and easy to prepare.
Cons
- Too low a caloric intake
- The dangers of overconsumption of eggs
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Predisposition to eating disorders
- The Mayo diet is unbalanced
- The Mayo diet does not take into account the need for micronutrients,
- The low-calorie diet slows down the metabolism