What is the GM Diet? Nothing new

July 30, 1:40 PMWeight Loss ExaminerGail Gedan Spencer

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Earlier this week, a columnist at the New York Times wrote a piece about the GM or General Motors Diet and how he was following it while on a trip to Disney World with his daughter.

As he outlined the diet (bananas and milk, beef and tomatoes), a wave of familiarity came over me. Ah ha! This bit of silliness is also known as the Sacred Heart Hospital diet. Besides the oddball combination of foods, the diets have another thing in common -- they're not sanctioned by GM or any hospital. It's just an urban legend diet plan that used to be photocopied all around the world but now, because of the Internet, you can find it with a few clicks.

Once again, it's calories in, calories out. The one thing both of these diets have going for them is the abundance of fruits and vegetables and whole, real foods. But there is no magic combination -- neither bananas and milk (constipation, anyone?) or beef and tomatoes (heartburn, anyone?) will burn off fat any quicker than any other reduced-calorie diet.