Outline of the Champagne Diet

Christmas, with its tradition of calorific festive fare and parties awash with alcoholic beverages, makes this one of the most difficult times of the year for dieters. Then along comes New Year and more social pressure to indulge in alcoholic excesses. Alcohol is loaded with calories, but abstaining from it entirely over the festive season may be a step too far for many.




Those who are weight watching at this time of the year and are likely to find it a struggle avoiding alcohol, may find it easier to switch to the Champagne Diet. This is a diet devised by a lady called Cara Alwill Leyba which allows its followers to drink one or two flutes of Champagne every day while still losing weight.

Cara came up with the diet after struggling to lose weight while following various popular diet plans. With a stressful job and social obligations, she regularly ended up consuming one or two glasses of red wine each day. After a friend suggested that switching to Champagne and just eating more healthily may be an easier solution, she tried it out. And it worked. The pounds kept dropping off while she carried on socialising.


How Does it Work?

There are a few reasons why this diet might work for some. Dieting usually means completely banning some food and drink. This can have the immediate effect of making us feel deprived and wanting it even more. For those who are faced with regular social events, avoiding alcohol can be hard. So allowing yourself an alcoholic beverage each day can make your diet seem less restrictive.

Another reason why Champagne may work is because of the bubbles. In the same was as a fizzy drink does, bubbles fill you up with the knock on effect that you are likely to eat less. Plus, drinking a lower calorie Champagne such as Laurent Perrier’s Ultra Brut (made without added sugar) will set you back around 65 calories a glass, compared to over 100 for red wine or 95 for other brands of Champagne.

What Can You Eat?

Of course, the Champagne Diet is still a diet, and as such, doesn’t advocate eating cheeseburgers and fries. You can eat what you like to a certain extent. However, Cara recommends foods which are high quality and nutrient dense as well as tasty. She says dieters should “glamourise” their meals and order things like smoked salmon bagel with mixed greens along with their Champagne.

An example of a daily menu is a breakfast of a wholegrain bagel with an olive oil-based butter; a fruit snack; a lunch of flatbread pizza with goats’ cheese, roasted red peppers and mushrooms and dinner of grilled meat or lean fish with mixed vegetables. Each day you can have one or two flutes of Champagne if you need/want it. The overall diet provides between 1200 and 1400 calories a day which should enable most overweight people to lose weight.

Is it Healthy?

There are numerous studies given over to alcohol and the effects it has on the human body as well as safe limits to drink. According to guidelines by the Department of Health, one or two glasses of Champagne per day are within the limits, just. Two drinks a day for women is the upper limit. Ideally, days where there isn’t a need or desire to drink Champagne, then don’t have it. Also, the diet may be lacking in certain minerals, for example, calcium. Anyone following this diet or indeed any diet, should always check with their doctor or health practitioner before commencing the regime.



© Diets and Calories 2011