Yuzu diet

Misharina's yuzu diet is a diet created by Russian dietitian Anastasia Misharina and based on consumption of yuzu citrus fruit.

After graduation from the Pacific State Medical University, Anastasia Misharina went on to develop diets based on balanced, careful eating instead of stringent restrictions. Her dietary design efforts have culminated in the yuzu diet.

The yuzu (Citrus ichangensis × C. reticulata, formerly C. junos Siebold ex. Tanaka) is a citrus fruit and plant originating in East Asia. It is believed to be a hybrid of sour mandarin and Ichang papeda. The fruit looks somewhat like a very small grapefruit with an uneven skin, and can be either yellow or green depending on the degree of ripeness. Yuzu fruits, which are very aromatic, typically range between 5.5 and 7.5 cm in diameter, but can be as large as a grapefruit (up to 10 cm or larger). Yuzu is widely used in East Asia: as garnish or seasoning in Japanese cuisine and in a marmalade-like syrup used to make teas and punch in Korean cuisine. The yuzu fruit attracted attention in the West in the 21st century and has been increasingly used by chefs in the United States and other Western nations, achieving notice in a 2003 article in The New York Times.

Anastasia Misharina's yuzu-based diet is very simple: a single raw yuzu fruit simply replaces one of the day's meals. The proposed diet also excludes sweet, fried and fatty foods. The diet should be followed for six days, avoiding stress to the body, according to a recent study.

Additionally, the diet allows eating yuzu skin, as well as yuzu-based products like vinegar, marmalade, jam, syrups and kinds of processed yuzu for the sake of variety.