A low-carbohydrate diet plan that allows you to eat as much as you want of the prescribed foods.

The Mayo Clinic Diet is based on somewhat dubious science claiming that grapefruits and their juice burn fat and that it doesn't matter how much fat, cholesterol or sugar you eat.

It is important to note that The Mayo Clinic Diet has never been endorsed by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Various incarnations of the diet have been around for the past 30 years. All focus on using grapefruit at each meal as a way to encourage your body to burn fat. Most rely on large portions of meat and fat to stop hunger, and insist that eating more fat in your diet will actually lead to weight loss.

The real Mayo Clinic has healthy eating information on its Web site that is unrelated to the Mayo Clinic Diet .

• You get to eat as much meat as you want, and fried foods are actually encouraged.
  
  
• You won't be hungry because you're encouraged to "eat until you are stuffed" and you will lose weight quickly.

• This diet simply does not work for long-term weight management.
  
  
• It contains no complex carbohydrates and can cause physical weakness and lack of concentration.
  
  
• The foods that are encouraged are unhealthy if eaten in large amounts. And the healthy foods such as fresh vegetables are avoided.
  
  
• In the real world, the fat that we eat does not cause us to lose weight, and there is nothing in grapefruit that makes our body use fat for energy.