New Fad Diet or a New Way of Eating?

Doctor: 'Sprinkle Diet' Helps With Weight-Loss

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The "sprinkle diet" could be the newest weight-loss success story. Under the plan, you can eat whatever you want, but you also sprinkle your food with special flavor enhancers. CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago reports the local doctor who invented it says it really works.

The sprinkles, called Sensa, were developed by Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment Center.

"What the sprinkles are is they're a unique blend of different sweet flavors and salty flavors," Hirsch said.

The sprinkles are non-caloric and contain artificial and natural ingredients approved for use in food products. You shake them on whatever you eat - the salty sprinkles on savory foods and the sweet sprinkles on sweeter foods.

"What we're doing is intensifying the smell and the taste of the food," Hirsch said.

Hirsch said that helps suppress hunger and tricks the brain into feeling full.

"It makes your brain perceive that you've eaten more than you have and thus you eat less and lose weight," he said.

Dolly Kiosea has found the secret of the sprinkles. She says she's lost 28 pounds and is still eating the foods she loves, but her portion sizes have definitely slimmed down.

"I used to go out for sushi and I used to eat four or five rolls," she said. "Now I'm mostly just having one roll."

Hirsch just completed a peer reviewed clinical study of nearly 1,500 people who used the sprinkles on everything they ate without changing their diet or exercise routine.

"We found an average weight loss over six months of 30 ½ pounds," He said.

Elisa Zied, of the American Dietetic Association, is intrigued. But even if the sprinkles help you eat less, she wonders what happens if you stop sprinkling.

"If you're not doing what you did to lose weight, probably you won't be able to keep the weight off," Zied said.

Hirsch hasn't studied the long-term effects yet, but Kiosea hopes to lose at least another 20 pounds using the sprinkles.

"I feel so good knowing that I finally found something that's really working for me," she said.

Hirsch is presenting his study Tuesday at the Endocrine Society's Annual Meeting in San Francisco. He plans to market Sensa, which would cost about $60 a month.

Hirsch's research has not been published, so it's hard for other experts to comment. Nutritionists WBBM spoke with say it's possible that enhancing taste and smell could help some people diet, but there are no short cuts for long term weight loss. The only proven method to lose weight, they say, is to eat less, and exercise more.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Here's the rub right here:

Hirsch's research has not been published, so it's hard for other experts to comment. Nutritionists WBBM spoke with say it's possible that enhancing taste and smell could help some people diet, but there are no short cuts for long term weight loss. The only proven method to lose weight, they say, is to eat less, and exercise more.

Until the research is scrutinized by others, it is meaningless.

Don't believe everything you read! :tt1:The Lap-Band:tt1: has been my blessing, not fad diets or baloney stories of other ways to loose weight. Lap-Band is the real deal.

Suspect it's like everything else. It will work for someone long term, for most of us it won't. Doesn't deal with emotional eating or the physiological aspects of obesity which they are just discovering.

On the other hand, it may make our 5 bites of food at dinner taste terrific! :smile2:

As a side note - first day on the two week liquid diet. Wouldn't mind some flavor enhancers about now!:biggrin2:

Okay, so you lose your weight and get of fthe "sprinkles". You're so used to having over flavored, super enhanced food, that normal flavored food will taste like shit, and you won't enjoy it anymore. what a shame!!! Ever eat a perfectly ripe, cold peach on a hot summer day? Where it runs down your elbows and you're in heaven? That's a healthy pleasure in life. One of the things I've noticed since being banded, is how much better food tastes. You have to slow down to eat, instead of shoveling the gobs in your mouth, and actually get to TASTE it. When you do indulge in a restricted food, you appreciate it. why take that away? If enhanced flavor helps you lose weight, then I'll have to say that being banded does that for me. What I do eat is REALLY enjoyed and I don't need "sprinkles". I have reservations about making foods taste super salty and super sweet anyway. Neither of which is good for you in the real world. So to match that effect without sprinkles you are setting yourself up for high blood pressure and insulin dumps you don't need. whole thing sound silly and irresponsible to me....

The idea behind this is so funny. Anyone here eaten a tub of icing? I have.. lots.. ho hum.. the whole 'too sweet' thing doesn't work for me. If anything, it would make me want more more more.

And if I put extra salt on my food, I don't get fuller quicker.

Think I'd have to pass on the 'sprinkles' diet.

That's why I gave it a thumb down. I'm sure if you sprinkle dirt on your food, you would eat less too. LOL! :smile2: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

That's why I gave it a thumb down. I'm sure if you sprinkle dirt on your food, you would eat less too. LOL! :thumbs_up: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

The dirt diet :0) I love it. :smile2::lol:

mmmm dirt LOL

I'm all for trying the dirt diet too!

We all know the proven way to lose weight is to eat right and exercise. Obviously that is not working.

I was one of the lucky people selected for Dr. Hirsch's clinical study (1436 people), and I lost 28 lbs in 6-months. You may not think this is a lot, but I have struggled for a long time to lose even 5-lbs. Sensa worked for me:)

PS - The study is peer reviewed and is currently in the process of being published.

For people who have tried everything and have problems with portion control and snacking, this product works very well! The product has no stimulants, no calories, no sodium, etc. I would love to get your opinion on this product. I've also heard the company has started another study and are taking participants...so let me know and I can pass along your info...... trysensa.com

People! Quit mocking this product!! If it comes from the ulta-prestigious Smell and Taste Treatment Center it's obviously no joke.:rolleyes2:

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the "smell and taste treatment center" may be the spare bedroom of some dude's house. Until I see the published study, Ima be skeptical.

Karobix-

Arent you worried about the chemicals you are ingesting?? You have no idea what the long term effects of this stuff will be. There are already enough chemicals in our food...this is part of what began the obesity epidemic that america faces now. Just look at the side of the box of most of the things we eat. Non-chemically enhanced foods are becoming hard to find, and when you do, they are 3 times the price of the other crap. What happens when in a few years your body becomes used to the "sprinkles"? You are no longer able to enjoy normal food without this additive?? Sounds like crack cocaine to me... In weight loss, a lifestyle change is imperative. Obese people will do almost anything to be thin (this just proves that theory). These people who tote these snake oil weight loss "treatments" should be arrested for fraud and public endangerment as they have not ever been proven to be safe. In fact, many people have died as a result of bogus weight loss "medicines." I don't think the people on the lap band board are going to be the most receptive to this idea as most have tried some diet pill or fad diet and have landed right back where they were. This is why they are on the lap band site....because they are tired of all of this other crap.

You know, I would love to just rip this diet a new rear end and yes, anything physiological that this diet claims is complete bullcrap. HOWEVER, some of the CRAPPIEST, relatively healthy fad diets ever invented worked for some people. Why is that? Because they made the people believe that they would work so they changed their exercise routines and dropped their caloric intake.

So, yes, this diet is crap, but if someone wants a diet to work, they will make it work.

I guess it all depends on what you consider "relatively healthy." The chemicals in it could cause people to get cancer, heart problems, a whole host of diseases that, because they have no long term research, would take a while to figure out. It could encourage people to change their diet, but how many side effects will they see due to the additives?? This to me seems like it would have so many more long term problems than most "fad diets." Maybe im just paranoid.

The idea of this product sounds ridiculous to me! "Intensifying" the flavor would just leave me wanting more...

What will they come up with next :rolleyes2: