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the protein diet in its purest form for an average of 2 to 7 days, depending on the individual.
    Alternating pure proteins with proteins and vegetables gives power and rhythm to the Cruise phase, which leads you straight to your desired weight.
    The Consolidation phase is the period of transition between hard-line dieting and a return to normal eating.
    And finally, in the Stabilization phase, the pure protein diet, followed for just 1 day a week for the rest of your life, guarantees permanent stabilization of your weight. In exchange for this occasional effort, for the other 6 days of the week you will be able to eat without guilt or any particular restriction.
    How does the pure protein diet work? All will be explained in this chapter.
This Diet Provides Only Proteins
    Where do you find pure proteins? Proteins form the fabric of living matter, both animal and vegetable, so they are found in most known foods. But to develop its unique action and full potential, the protein diet has to be composed of elements as close as possible to pure protein. In practice, other than egg whites, no food is this pure.
    Whatever their protein content, vegetables are still too rich in carbohydrates. This includes all cereals, legumes, and starchy foods, and even soybeans. Though known for their protein quality, soybeans are too fatty and rich in carbohydrates.
    Some animal proteins are also too high in fat. This is the case with pork, mutton and lamb, some poultry, such as duck and goose, and some cuts of beef and veal.
    There are, however, a certain number of foods of animal origin that, without attaining the level of pure protein, come close to it and will be the main players in the Dukan Diet.
Lean cuts of beef, no ribs, spare ribs, and cuts used for braising or stewing
Lean cuts of veal
Lean cuts of pork
Game, such as venison, and some exotic meats, such as ostrich
Poultry, except for domestic duck and goose
All fish, including oily fish, whose fat helps protect the heart and arteries so they can be included here
All other seafood
Eggs, even though the small amount of fat in the yolk taints the purity of the egg white
Nonfat dairy products. Though very rich in protein and totally fat-free, they may, nevertheless, contain a small amount of lactose, a natural milk sugar found in milk, just as fructose is found in fruit. They can, however, remain in the Dukan Diet’s strike force because they have little lactose but lots of taste.
How Do Proteins Work?
    The Purity of Proteins Reduces the Calories They Provide Every animal species feeds on foods made up of a mixture of the only three known food groups: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. But for each species, there is a specific ideal proportion for these three food groups. For humans, the proportion is 5–3–2—that is, 5 parts carbohydrates, 3 parts fats, and 2 parts proteins, a composition close to that of mother’s milk.
    It is when our food intake matches this “golden proportion” that calories are most efficiently assimilated in the small intestine so that it is easy to put on weight.
    On the other hand, all you have to do is change this proportion and the calories are not absorbed as well and the energy from the foods is reduced. Theoretically, the most radical modification conceivable, which would reduce most drastically the calories absorbed, would be to restrict our food intake to a single food group.
    In practice, even though this approach has been tried out in the United States with carbohydrates (the Beverly Hills Diet allowed unlimited quantities of exotic fruits) or fats (the Eskimo diet), it is hard to eat only sugars or fats, and doing so has serious repercussions for our health. Too much sugar allows diabetes to develop easily, and too much fat, apart from our inevitable disgust, would pose a major risk to the cardiovascular system. Furthermore, proteins are essential for life and if the body does not get them it raids its own muscle for them.
    If we are to eat from