I did find one study that followed Weight Watchers™ participants for two years. What was the average result? It was six pounds. That's right, follow the regimen and attend the meetings and get weighed weekly and you can expect to lose six pounds in two years. (To be fair, a control group who dieted on their own only managed a single pound in the same time.) Before I give you the link to an article describing the study I have to warn you that if you read only the headline and the first paragraph you will be totally mislead. The story is available at RedNOVA news.
How many svelte people have you seen showing off their new trim selves in advertisements for the X diet, and then you see the small print that says "Results not typical." Wouldn't you be impressed if someone, in big letters, said "These are typical results." That would get news coverage from every TV and radio station and in every newspaper. If it happens we'll all hear about it.
One final remark on Diets. If you are one of the hundred million Americans who is overweight and has tried one Diet, and then another Diet, you've probably got down on yourself for failing. Nonsense. You've been mislead. Successful losers depend on diet — not a Diet — and exercise. (To learn more — beware of ads in the middle of articles — about successful losers, check this WebMD™ article by one of the founders of the National Weight Control Registry.)
If you're convinced you need a good diet, not a Diet, then you have to figure out what to eat.
The guidelines suggest that it is fine to consume half of our grains as refined starch. That's a shame, since refined starches behave like sugar. They add empty calories, have adverse metabolic effects, and increase the risks of diabetes and heart disease.In terms of protein, the guidelines continue to lump together red meat, poultry, fish, and beans (including soy products). They ask us to judge these protein sources by their total fat content, "make choices that are lean, low-fat, or fat-free." This ignores the evidence that these foods have different types of fats. It also overlooks mounting evidence that replacing red meat with a combination of fish, poultry, beans, and nuts offers numerous health benefits.
Harvard's School of Public Health proposes an alternative, nutrition-based pyramid. It's built like this:
| Use Sparingly | 1 | 2 |
1-Red Meat; Butter 2-White Rice, White Bread, Potatoes and Pasta; Sweets |
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| Dairy or Calcium Supplement, 1-2 times/day |
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| Fish, Poultry, Eggs 0-2 times/day |
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| Nuts, Legumes, 1-3 times/day | ||||||||||||||
| Vegetables (in abundance) |
Fruits, 2-3 times/day | |||||||||||||
| Whole Grain Foods (at most meals) |
Plant oils, including olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut and other vegetable oils |
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| Daily Exercise and Weight Control | ||||||||||||||
From Eat, Drink, And Be Healthy, Walter C. Willett, MD, Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Beside the pyramid is a recommendation for a daily multivitamin for most people and alcohol in moderation if not contraindicated.Follow this diet and you'll have lots of protein from the whole grains, from legumes (soy products, other beans, peas and lentils), from the fish-poultry-eggs group and from the dairy. The National Cattleman's Beef Association, wants you to believe its product is "what's for dinner." You decide where you're getting unbiased health advice. If you're surprised by that prominent place for plant oils, I recommend reading the full report at Harvard's School of Public Health.
Harvard reports on a 100,000-person study with followup from eight to twelve years. The study compared the USDA's dietary recommendations to Harvard's recommendations, assessing the reduced the risk of heart disease, cancer and other chronic diseases. The Harvard diet was almost twice as effective for men and was over three times more effective for women in creating these health benefits. This is serious outcomes research.
For more advice Harvard recommends the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust. Oldways has a selection of beautifully illustrated food pyramids you can download. Their Mediterranean pyramid is built this way:
| Monthly | Meat | |||||||||||||||||
| Weekly | Sweets | |||||||||||||||||
| Weekly | Eggs | |||||||||||||||||
| Weekly | Poultry | |||||||||||||||||
| Weekly | Fish | |||||||||||||||||
| Daily | Cheese and yogurt | |||||||||||||||||
| Daily | Olive oil | |||||||||||||||||
| Daily | Fruits | Beans Legumes Nuts | Veggies | |||||||||||||||
| Daily | Bread, pasta, rice, couscous, polenta, other whole grains and potatoes | |||||||||||||||||
| Base under pyramid | Daily Physical Activity | |||||||||||||||||
Recommended beside the pyramid: six glasses of water a day and wine in moderation .
You can visit Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust to see their Asian, Latin American and vegetarian pyramids if you think one of those might suit you better than the Mediterranean pyramid.
There's plenty of bad diet information on the internet but most of it is just a sales pitch. Sites selling supplements or promoting the X diet abound. Many of them make a lot of money for their promoters. None of them have a proven Diet solution or we'd all know about it. If you stick to non-selling sites with sterling credentials, such as Harvard's School of Public Health, it's easy to find sound diet information.
If your diet is typical, it's not healthy. Step one is to realize that and accept it. You are not to blame — it's what's for sale in America. It's your diet and if you try to make wholesale changes, you're not likely to succeed. Your diet is habit. It's not one habit, it's a host of habits. If you realize this, you can change gradually, learning new, good habits to replace the old, bad habits. Your goal is to adopt the healthful eating lifestyle as your own lifestyle. If you aren't sure that it can be done, check the National Weight Control Registry — 4,500 people who've lost an average of sixty pounds and kept it off for an average of over five years.
If you're afraid that healthy foods aren't delicious and satisfying, our Light-Side Cafe will be happy to change your mind. How you successfully change your lifestyle is our next topic.
1Since almost every state west of the Mississippi depends on the beef industry, the USDA won't come right out and say you shouldn't eat beef, even though you shouldn't. It's bad for your heart and contains not one but several known carcinogens. I love a good steak but I only allow myself this indulgence once a quarter.
2
Harvard's major criticisms of the USDA pyramid are these.
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Harvard's report cites intensive lobbying of the USDA by organizations such as these.
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