The Human Being Diet is the new health fad

The Human Being Diet first requires you to agree Epsom salts for breakfast is human. Phase two gets you tofu. You will eat three meals a day again … eventually.

No accounting for taste. The HBD diet is ‘brutal’, but effective. Picture: Supplied

Tired of intermittent fasting and restrictive plant-based eating? Whisper it, but the secret weapon for weight loss among the sleekest, leanest women is the Human Being Diet. Dubbed “HBD” by those who are on it, this three-month program does not require you to cut out meat, carbohydrates or even alcohol in the long term and eventually entails eating three square meals a day, but is hailed for its transformative powers.

Petronella Ravenshear, the woman behind the diet, is the go-to nutrition therapist for the fashion set.

The approach centres on regaining “metabolic balance and better digestive health” and has quietly, over the past 12 months, garnered a mass following on social media. Ravenshear has nearly 24,000 followers on Instagram, while there are more than 10,000 posts on the hashtag #thehumanbeingdiet with tips and recipes from her disciples.

But it is through word of mouth that most women are learning of the diet’s effects.

“I’m now on day 17 and have never felt so alert and energised. Although I wasn’t at all overweight to start with, I have visibly lost weight,” says Jacqueline, 36, from Barnes, southwest London. “Everyone I know is now doing it and there is a real buzz about the diet in this part of town.”

Ravenshear, who had a booked-out clinic in Chelsea, London, before the pandemic but has recently relocated to Florida, says the diet has been years in the making but that its popularity spiralled when she self-published a book on its principles at the end of 2018.

No grains, no proteins, no fat

“Appointments at my Chelsea clinic were permanently full, so I wanted to get the word out there,” she says.

“The response has been phenomenal as people discover the diet works for them.”

It’s not plain sailing. Even she describes the first 48 hours — or phase one – of the plan as “pretty brutal” and it gets off to a less than appetising start.

Appetising start: Epsom salts. Picture: Supplied

Half an hour before breakfast on the first day she recommends taking a dose of four teaspoons Epsom salts, dissolved in warm water and washed down with a glass of fresh water, to soften the stools and prevent constipation.

After that it’s a matter of eating no grains, protein or fat: just vegetables, preferably blended into a soup, two to three times daily. Root vegetables — beetroot, turnips and potatoes – are off the menu but, other than that, a 100g combination of any vegetables such as mushrooms, courgettes, cauliflower, onions and spinach is required at every meal.

Ida adds curry powder and turmeric to hers, and there are endless images of mostly green recipe concoctions on social media. It should be followed with a strong black organic coffee chaser, which Ravenshear says aids digestion.

And then we ‘reset’ … with no more than 800 calories

Phase two is the “reset” stage of the diet. On days three to 16, protein — chicken, salmon, minced beef or tofu — is reintroduced to your three daily meals but still no alcohol, with calorie intake peaking at just 600-800 a day.

“Aim for about 100-120g protein and an equal weight range of vegetables each meal,” Ravenshear says. “And try to eat an apple every day.” Apples, she says, are a wonder fruit: they’re packed with the soluble fibre pectin, which has been shown to help lower cholesterol levels, but also with beneficial polyphenols.

Phase two gets you tofu. Picture: iStock

“These plant compounds have been found to protect against the development and progression of several chronic conditions including cancer, diabetes [and] cardiovascular problems,” Ravenshear says, “and the combination of polyphenols and pectin is loved by our gut microbes, which flourish when they are consumed.”

By this stage, the rigours of the diet should mean weight will fall off. Jacqueline says she has lost 5.4kg by day 17 and that her mother and a friend each shed between 6.3kg to 7.25kg in the first two weeks.

Make phase three and you get a Sunday roast

Beyond this and into phase three, which Ravenshear calls the “burn”, you face 10 weeks —- yes, 10 weeks — of a similar approach, but with the addition of one tablespoon of olive oil with each meal to provide healthy mono-unsaturated fats and, for your sanity, a weekly treat meal. Surprisingly, considering the restraint required at other times, she says this can include an Indian takeaway or Sunday roast with all the trimmings and a glass of wine.

The traditional Sunday roast eventually makes a comeback. Picture: Supplied

You get to eat more — about 1200 daily calories — but there are still more rules to adopt, including forgetting any time-restricted 16:8 eating window and consuming breakfast within an hour of waking. “So much nonsense is talked about breakfast,” Ravenshear says.

“It triggers fat burning and resets our hunger hormones so that we can last through to lunch without needing a snack.”

Eat a bite of protein before anything else on your plate, make no meal last longer than an hour and allow at least a five-hour gap between meals for thorough digestion.

Phase four is forever

By phase four, the “for ever phase”, Ravenshear says that “it’s a case of (keeping) the principles that work for you”, with an extra treat meal and glass of wine when you want. I’m exhausted even considering it, yet most of her clients claim that the diet heightened their energy levels.

“We have forgotten how to eat well and regularly,” Ravenshear says. “For a lot of people it’s a case of re-establishing better nutritional balance: weight loss is one of the side effects of that, but people tell me that once they have adopted the diet they sleep better, have a healthier complexion, lower levels of stress and that they are bouncing out of bed to tackle the day.”

(thehumanbeingdiet.com)

The Times