Read The 17 Day Diet for Free Online

yogurt, kefir, miso, tempeh and others.
    Fluid Assets
    While following the 17 Day Diet, you should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of pure water daily. Drinking this amount of water is essential to weight loss.
    First, it just takes up so much space in your tummy that you don’t feel like eating anything else.
    Second, water also helps your body metabolize stored fat. Your kidneys can’t function properly without enough water. When kidneys don’t work to capacity, some of their work is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body, but if the liver has to do some of the kidneys’ work, it can’t operate at full capacity. As a result, it metabolizes less fat and more fat remains stored in the body, and weight loss stops.
    Water also helps the body get rid of waste during weight loss. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of, and water helps flush it out.
    Surprisingly, drinking an ample amount of water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is then stored outside the cells. This causes swollen feet, legs and hands. The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs: plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released.
    So drink up. Before long, you’ll be the skinniest person in the bathroom.
BEWARE: Negative Water

T he following fluids, which I call negative water, do not count toward your must-have daily allotment of water.
Coffee*
Tea*
Diet sodas*
Regular soda
Energy drinks
Juice
Sports drinks (dilute with water—½ water and ½ sports drink if you are an athlete and use these products)
Flavored waters
* Coffee and tea are allowed on the 17 Day Diet, but do not count toward your 8 glasses of water.
     
    Special Mention Fluids: Green Tea and Coffee
    For added fat-loss benefits, another beverage of choice is green tea, although it is technically a negative water. Certain natural chemicals called catechins in green tea increase fat-burning and stimulate thermogenesis, the calorie-burning process that occurs as a result of digesting and metabolizing food.
    Green tea is also one of the foods that may block angiogenesis (sorry, I have to slip one technical term in here). Angiogenesis refers to a process of blood vessel growth. For example, angiogenesis that builds up a blood supply to tumors can unfortunately make the tumors grow. Scientists have discovered that angiogenesis does the same thing with fat tissue: It creates a blood supply to fat tissue too, so it can grow. Fat tissue and cancer feed on oxygen delivered by these new blood vessels.
    There’s excellent science published in the best journals that something in green tea inhibits angiogenesis. The jury is still out on all this, but until we know more, I suggest drinking three cups of green tea a day.
    Although doctors should set an example, I confess I’m not much of a green tea drinker. If I’m having a cup, I’m probably in an Asian restaurant. I promise to do better, though, and drink more green tea.
    Coffee is also permitted on the 17 Day Diet. The caffeine kicks your metabolism into high gear. Caffeine also jump-starts the breakdown of fat in the body. One to two cups a day is ideal.
MISTER M.D., CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME

Am I allowed to I drink alcohol on the 17 Day Diet?

I knew you’d ask that. Alcohol can actually be good for you. Major studies have concluded that moderate alcohol consumption cuts heart attack risk in half, largely because drinkers have about 15 percent higher levels of HDL cholesterol than nondrinkers, which prevents heart disease by cleansing the blood vessels of fatty buildups. Moderate alcohol means one drink a day: 5 ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1½ ounces of hard liquor.
Although a little alcohol is good for your heart, it’s not that good for your waistline.