US News and World Report has come out with its survey of the best diet plans. While I'm slightly offended that I was not asked to be part of its 22-member "panel of health experts," I have to say, I dig their findings. 1. DASH Diet
2. Mediterranean Diet
2. TLC Diet
2. Weight Watchers Diet
5. Mayo Clinic Diet
5. Volumetrics Diet
7. Jenny Craig Diet
8. Ornish Diet
9. Vegetarian Diet
10. Slim-Fast Diet
11. Nutrisystem
12. Vegan Diet
13. South Beach Diet
14. Eco-Atkins Diet
14. Zone Diet
16. Glycemic-Index Diet
16. Medifast Diet
18. Raw Foods Diet
19. Atkins Diet
20. Paleo Diet
Except for the fact that whoever wrote the list apparently has a few sticky number keys on his laptop, this is great. I love that the first three diets are pure common sense, not to mention completely free-of-charge to do. And I love that the fringier diets all fall towards the bottom.
I respect Vegan, Raw Foods, and Paleo eaters, but I don't think those systems are panaceas for the masses. They're more panaceas for the authors who write bestsellers claiming that they are panaceas - and even then, they're panaceas for their bank accounts more than anything else.
I think people like you and me, the edumacated and the nutritionally-bi-curious, should try these diets. You just might find all the hard work and research required to do them right is worth it. However, for someone who knows nothing about food, is obese, and just wants to turn their life around, it just doesn't make sense. All their problems will not be solved if they give up (in order of the three diets I singled out above) bacon, bacon, or everything but bacon. The first thing they need to do is learn what the spectrum of healthy foods are. Once they've mastered that, then get fancy.
And on a final, odd note, I'd never heard of the Eco-Atkins Diet before. It's a vegan take on the Atkins Plan (!) in which 31% of your calories come from plant protein and 43% come from plant fats, meaning the vast majority of your diet would be beans and nuts. I don't know if it's effective, but I do know one thing; I would not want to be trapped in an elevator with someone on the Eco-Atkins Diet. I don't even want to ride on the same bus. They should be made to wear some type of badge or identifying symbol. The Scarlet EA or something like that.
I just don't like that everything has to be called a "diet." The word has become associated with a non-permanent deviation from one's normal crappy eating habits, but by now most people have accepted that lifestyle changes are the way to achieve lasting results.
ReplyDeleteForget badges for the Eco-Atkins followers. I'd prefer that they all live together in an isolated colony of stench somewhere far away.