The Bread For Life Diet - May the Yeast be With You

I knew it was just a matter of time. In fact, I used to joke that sooner or later someone would come out with the "Bread and Water" diet. So, here we go!

I first heard about this new diet from a Newswire email I got. Seems there's a "nutrition" researcher named Olga Raz from Israel that came up with this concoction. According to the release, she is supposed to be as popular in Israel as Atkins was in America.

Debora Yost, the editor of her book "The Bread for Life Diet: The High-on-Carbs Weight Loss Plan", stated that other publishers didn't want to touch this book because it was so anti-Atkins and South Beach diet. I've got a better reason- it's because it's a load of crap!

Yost goes on to say that "As soon as I saw it I could see that it made perfect sense" referring to the diet. Sure it makes sense - if you're trying to hype up worthless information and then sell it to the unsuspecting public.

The key to this diet is that by eating a lot of carbs, you can keep serotonin levels high and prevent cravings and hunger. Without getting technical, serotonin is a hormone and it does have an affect on diet control and emotions. It is , however, only one piece of a very complex puzzle as to how, why, when and what people eat during the course of a day.

What floored me the most was the part of recommending up to 12 slices of bread per day for a woman and 16 slices per day for a man. I hope you like eating your bread plain, because this alone will give you anywhere from 600 to 1400 calories, or a good part of your entire daily calorie intake.

Advocating what amounts to nearly a pound of bread a day as a healthy way to eat is downright criminal. I have no doubt that if a majority of people put away this much bread in a day, both obesity and diabetes rates would increase dramatically.

Since all types of bread have a high glycemic index, for most this diet would play havoc with blood glucose and insulin levels. Bread is also relatively high in calories so other nutritious foods would have to be greatly limited, leading to a very inbalanced diet.

This diet goes against the "grain" (pun intended) of documented studies, credible research and just plain common sense. In Israel they call this the Raz Diet. My suggestion is to change the name by adding two letters and you will have what it really is - the CRazY Diet.

the Diet Meister

Livin La Vida Low-Carb Update

I had intended my next article to be on Barry Sears, author of the Zone diet. Instead, I decided to do another piece on Jimmy Moore, author of the blog livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com.

I wrote a critical article on a sample diet plan he gave at his blog and he sent me an email thanking me for mentioning him. Hmmm ... what's up with that?

I thought, what the heck, maybe I should do another review of his blog and get a better handle on what this guy is all about. Time to dig a bit deeper.

First, I decided to do a nutritional analysis of the sample diet items he listed in his post to see how balanced or unbalanced it actually was. I ran the numbers using software from credible sources I have so I am sure what I came up with is reasonably accurate for this review.

First, the total calories he took in were around 2500 for the day so this wasn't the typical 1200 to 1600 low calorie intake a lot of other diets would have you on.

Total protein intake was approximately 200 grams, carbohydrates 55 grams, and fats 130 grams, with a percentage breakdown of protein 33%, carbs 10%, fats 47%. While some may argue the percentage of carbs is too low, the fats and protein too high, for many I don't see a problem with this ratio, especially if someone is trying to lose weight. The roughly 200 grams of protein is quite a bit, but then again Jimmy is still a big boy and at 230 lbs that comes out to be around .87 grams per lb for him which isn't bad. For a number of people, however, boosting the carb intake anywhere from 75 to 130 grams per day may prove easier to handle, both emotionally and physically. That's an individual call.

So far so good with the total calories and macro nutrient ratios. But now we get into the micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients) and here's where the problems start.

Jimmy lists he takes a fish oil capsule daily. If it's cod liver oil then he is getting a good amount of vitamin A and D which is lacking in the rest of his diet, so these two vitamins may be covered. He also takes a multivitamin which is beneficial, since I found intakes of Vitamin E, C, B1 Thiamin, B5 Pantothenic Acid, B12 and Folate to be low (less than 100% DV which are barely adequate levels to begin with). Also, a very important vitamin which is often not in a multivitamin, Vitamin K was only about 35% DV.

There was a more serious problem when it came to his mineral intake. Zinc, copper, iron, manganese, selenium, sodium were all okay. Potassium was low at around 60% DV but what really could cause problems were the amounts of calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.

Jimmy's high consumption of diet soda gives him around 2765 mg per day of phosphorous which is 275% of the DV. This is not good. Since phosphorous and calcium should be in a one to one ratio, perhaps he tries to compensate for this by taking a 1200mg calcium supplement each day. Only problem is when you add this to the rest of the calcium he is getting (just the 2 Fibercon supplements he takes daily add 244 mgs calcium) you get a calcium total of...(drum roll) over 3,000 mgs per day!!! That my friends is a lot of calcium.

What's worse is the ratio of magnesium to the amount of calcium. It is critical you get a sufficient amount of magnesium in your diet and in balance with the amount of calcium you take in. Jimmy is getting around 400mg of magnesium which is good but the ratio of calcium to magnesium should be anywhere from 2:1 or 1:1 and his is more like 8:1. This could lead to a number of serious problems over time, especially regarding the cardiovascular system.

I can cover the rest of the sample diet by saying it was severly lacking in a vast array of phytonutrients that you need to get daily by eating an assortment of vegetables and fruits. Important nutrients such as lycopene and lutein were missing along with literally hundreds if not thousands of other beneficial plant chemicals everyone should be consuming daily.

There is no shortage of diet plans on the market. From Atkins to the Zone, from low carb to low fat. In my opinion, however, there really are only two diets you can be on. Either one that is balanced and healthy or one that is not. We all must eat out of necessity but eating wisely for optimal health is actually a science and art that takes time to learn and is different for everyone.

In summation, my personal take on Jimmy Moore is that he is an honestly good guy that just needs to tweak his diet a bit more, which is something that everyone can do. I think he has already modified what he eats so it is likely he is now on a much better diet.

I believe the main reason Jimmy has been able to lose all the weight he has, is by following the first rule I advocate, which is to first get a diet you can stay with. Jimmy has also demonstrated an admirable amount of will power and determination that far too few possess. If he can harness those qualities and inspire others as he has inspired himself, he will be a worthy role model to follow. Perhaps he has already done that as he has written a book that will be out soon. I think the book is called "Livin La Vida Low-Carb" and I look forward to reading it and writing a review some time in the future.

the Diet Meister

The Negative Calorie Diet - Fact or Fiction?

I thought I'd write about a lesser known diet this time, although if you type
"negative calorie diet" into the Google search engine, you will find 101,000 listings. But then again, type in "cabbage soup diet" and you get 200,000 listings. And that's basically what this diet is all about. Eating lots of low calorie fruits and veggies.

You don't need to go any further than the Introduction to know this is going to be a scientifically unbased load of bull. The first paragraph states "the apple you consume has 80 calories and your body's chemical processing, digestion and breakdown of that apple causes you to burn off 100 calories thus, your negative calorie effect is -20 calories. Can you see the implication of a diet based on this premise?" Oh can I.

First, let me say, if there was any truth to this there would not be a zillion diet books, pills, treatments, etc. on the market because no one would be overweight. But it sure sounds good and easy, so that's why garbage like this keeps selling.

The author that is taking credit for writing this hogwash, Matt Retherford, claims you will consume approximately 2.5 to 3 pounds of Negative Calorie foods per day. And while consuming all this delicious food you can lose a pound a day! Where is the FTC when you need them.

The actual foods listed are mostly vegetables, fruits, and a selection of fish. Surprisingly missing from the list of fish are salmon and sardines, which are high in healthy omega 3 fatty acids. Also, there are no other meats - no beef, turkey, chicken or pork. For beverages, the only thing allowed is water and lemon.

To expand on how this diet supposeldy works, let's get back to that apple. According to the author, if we take that 70 to 80 calorie apple, we are going to burn 5 calories just by getting out of our chair to go and get it. Next, by taking 10 minutes to finish it we will burn another 10 calories. (are you getting excited yet)? Finally, it is going to take 75 calories to digest this apple so now we have a negative calorie food. Amazing - simply amazing.

If only it worked like that. There is something called the thermic effect which takes into account there are calories utilized when the body processes foods we eat. It averages about 2.5% for fats, 7% for carbohydrates and 27% for proteins.

Apples are nearly all carbohydrate so an 80 calorie apple will use about 6 calories during the digestion process. That's it. Do a little research and you will find there are no foods that will expend more calories to process than the calories they originally contain.

Come to think of it, there may actually be a way to get negative calories when you eat. Any takers for my new cardboard and water diet?

the Diet Meister

Livin La Vida Low-Carb Or Livin La Vida Loco

I came across an interesting blog the other day at livinlavidalowcarb.blogspot.com. The blog is written by Jimmy Moore who is promoting the Atkins Diet which he said helped him lose 180 pounds in 2004. I guess he was around 410 and has since gotten down to the 230 range. And he has been able to keep from regaining the weight he lost for 7 months now.

Looking at his before and after photos is impressive and anyone that can lose that much weight and not quickly regain it, I commend. It should be an inspiration for everyone, except.....

I was skimming through his blog when I read a sample of what he eats in a typical day. His diet might be low carb, but there is a problem. It's seriously lacking in nutrition and this guy is a junk food addict! You might lose weight eating like he does but losing weight isn't the whole answer. The goal should be losing weight while eating healthy.

According to his blog, here's a sample of what he eats:

He starts his day with 2 ounces of either peanuts or almonds. He then puts away 4 to 6 pieces of sugar free candy and then washes it down with 2 cans of diet soda. Not quite the breakfast of champions or what I would start my day with but moving on,

Mid-morning it's an ounce of macadamia nuts, a couple of sticks of cheese and another can of diet soda.

For lunch, he eats 4 to 6 slices of turkey, 4 to 6 slices of American cheese with 2 tablespoons of mayonaisse, and polishes this off with 2 more cans of diet soda.

Mid-afternoon snack, either a low carb chocolate bar or a slice of Ruby Tuesday cheesecake and of course you need to include a can of diet soda.

For supper he might eat 2 bacon cheeseburgers with mustard or mayo and believe it or not, 2 cans of diet soda. A final evening snack could be a bowl of low carb ice cream and don't forget that last can of diet soda to finish off the day.

To say I was shocked to read this is a huge understatement. Also, to refer to this in any manner as the Atkins Diet, is a great disservice to the late Dr. Atkins.

As an example, on page 127 of Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, Dr. Atkins clearly states "Everyone should try to avoid caffeine." Page 189 "Excessive caffeine (found not only in coffee but in tea, chocolate and many soft drinks) has been shown to cause a hypoglycemic reaction which will provoke cravings and cause you to overeat."

And what types of soft drinks have a lot of caffeine? You got it - diet colas. Maybe one or two cans might not be that bad (although there are a lot of better choices) but I think swilling down 9 cans a day may be a bit too much.

Did anyone else happen to notice the complete absence of any fruits or vegetables in the above? I guess after eating all that candy and ice cream and polishing it all off with 9 cans of soda there's just no room left. But then again, he does take daily 1200 mg of calcium (going to need that and more to buffer all the phosphoric acid in the soda), 2 Fibercons so he can have a bowel movement, 1 multivitamin and 1 fish oil capsule. What a wonderfully well balanced diet.

I can tell you with certainty this diet is seriously lacking in a number of important nutrients that are needed to maintain good health. It is a recipe for disaster.

Moore mentioned in his blog he is writing a book that he plans to call "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb". If he gives sample meals and recommendations in his book like what he posted in his blog, I suggest he give it a more appropriate title. My choice would be "Livin' and Dyin' La Vida Low-Carb". Probably wouldn't sell as well though.

the Diet Meister

The 3 Hour Diet Written By A Lifetime Idiot

Actually I shouldn't say that because it's not true. Anyone that can put out such a terrible diet book and get so many people to buy it has to have something going on. But let me tell you, this guy (and I'm referring to Jorge Cruise) is nothing more than another marketing guru that has found a way of getting your money, without having to deliver the goods.

It was a little over 2 years ago, he came out with his first book 8 Minutes in the Morning - A Simple Way to Shed Up to 2 POUNDS a Week GUARANTEED. Personally, I've been exercising with heavy weights for over 40 years so I had my doubts. But hey, this guy was getting publicity everywhere and people were praising what a great program he had - Oprah, Anthony Robbins, Jack LaLanne, and others - were all endorsing it. So, when it came to the local book store I bought a copy and couldn't wait to get home to read it.

Rule number 1 people, forget all the celebrity endorsements and testimonials. They should be immediate red flags that you're about to pay too much for something you shouldn't be buying in the first place. In this case, that rule couldn't have been more appropriate. I kept flipping page after page expecting to come to some little known secret he had found but instead came to the end of the book, which was the only good part. All I found were poorly illustrated exercises that burn very few calories if you don't get injured first doing them and the typical low calorie diet. Nothing new - nothing original. Pure disappointment.

Fast forward a couple of years and now he unleashes The 3 Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin. Just the title told me this was going to be as bad or worse than the first book he dropped on the public. And no I didn't buy it.

The whole gist of this profoundly inept piece of a waste of good trees is you should eat every three hours and keep your calorie intake low. Wow! The man's a genius. Another best seller and again, he didn't have to do any real research or studies to back up his claims. All it boils down to is a another good marketing gimmick and gimmicks like this with a little celebrity backing seem to work everytime.

So let's see. He's given us 8 Minutes in the Morning and now the 3 Hour Diet. I wish I could say we have heard the last from this huckster but unfortunately I expect there's another book around the horizon. Any bets it'll have Seconds in the title?

the Diet Meister

The No Grain Diet And The No Brain Doctor - Part 2

To recap my last article, I discovered you could purchase Dr. Mercola's book for up to half price by buying it at Amazon.com versus buying it directly from him at his website. That is bad but what's worse is the site uses very deceptive advertising making it appear you are getting a sizable discount, which is the not case. Caveat emptor - "buyer beware".

Although taking advantage of the public and overcharging like this is a real peeve of mine, I probably wouldn't have bothered writing about it. That is until I received an email at the end of July he sent out to thousands of his newsletter subscribers. Here is some of it in detail:

Mercola: "For the past eight years I have lived frugally and used most of my personal income to pay for the Mercola.com website and newsletter. It was only in 2003 that Mercola.com was able to just break even with product sales instead of running in the red."

Comment: That sounds like a personal problem and anyway I don't see any association with the newsletter I signed up for and how he lives his life, or what he is making or not making.

Mercola: "But the expenses are ever mounting. In the past 12 months we had to buy new software for the website to the tune of over one million dollars."

Comment: First, I am having a hard time believing the million bucks for software, but assuming he is right, this guy has to be making some serious money somewhere. How many people do you know that have a million dollars to put into software for their website?

Mercola: "This is in addition to our regular overhead costs for programmers, IT consultants, managers, writers, editors, bookkeepers, lawyers, rent, insurance, etc."

Comment: It gets even better. Reading the above you would think this guy is Bill Gates instead of a doctor with a health information website trying to sell you some products. You really have to start reading between the lines to get a clear picture of what's going on here.

Mercola: "In the last 12 months I've also had to pay tens of thousands in attorney fees because the FDA wants to shut down the website on the basis that we aren't allowed to make "health claims".

Comment: Duh. I've been in this business for quite some time. I've formulated nutritional products and have worked with a number of major manufacturers. There are rules and laws, like them or not, that everyone in the business has to follow. So if Mercola is making health claims that he shouldn't be then he's at fault. Period.

On the other hand, the only FDA action I could find on him is he received a warning letter from the FDA on 16 February 2005 because of claims he was making on three of the products he was selling. That's it a warning letter. Where he comes up with they are trying to shut his website down I don't know. Simply change what your advertising, which he did, and that's it.

Nor can I see how this has caused him "tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees". He would have had to have done something a lot more serious to warrant these kind of legal fees. Maybe he did but I couldn't find it. In any case, he's not getting a sympathy vote from me on this one.

Mercola: "So far this year, I have had to once again use my personal and retirement savings to cover for these additional expenses and I cannot continue the newsletter if we do not have income to support the overhead."

Comment: Give me a break. He spent all his money on software, staff and overhead and he now needs your help to keep his newsletter going - otherwise we will all perish! Whatever he's been doing to come up with that million bucks isn't cutting it folks. The Mercola machine needs more to keep rolling. Get your wallets and credit cards ready - here comes the pitch.

Mercola: "I'm not going to ask for a donation because we are not setup as a non-profit organization at this time. This may change in the future. I would greatly appreciate it if you ordered a product or two from the Mercola.com store."

Comment: So here it is, a plea to buy some of those expensive products he's got on his website.
Here's the scoop on what I think is really going on.

Mercola has his office in Illinois where he charges an arm and a leg for his services there. His initial visit with lab tests will set you back almost $1,000. His website products, however, are stocked in Salt Lake City, Utah where he has a company to fulfill his orders. My guess is to get the biggest profit margins he could, he had to buy these products in large quantities from the manufacturers and this is where a lot of his dough is tied up.

In spite of his heart warming email to purchase some products from him I think I'll pass. I got a hunch if I just wait a little longer I might be able to buy some his stuff cheap during a going out of business sale. Maybe not but I can always hope.

the Diet Meister

The No Grain Diet And The No Brain Doctor - Part 1

I have been a subscriber to Dr. Joseph Mercola's newsletter for some time now. Admittedly, it is very popular and on his website www.mercola.com, he boasts there are over 450,000 people who have subscribed to get his newsletter. Equally impressive is the 6 million pageviews he says his website gets each month. So far so good.

Mercola has also written two diet books. The first was The No Grain Diet which came out in hardback cover on 28 April 2003 (paperback 30 March 2004) which had some success but then dropped rapidly in ranking as can be seen by its position on Amazon.com. It also received quite a few mixed reviews as would be expected by any diet making a claim to avoid a major food group. There are a number of issues with his diet but this isn't what I'm going to target here. Let's move on to the next book.

This one is titled Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program and debuted in paperback in December 2003, just 7 months after he started selling The No Grain Diet. Lo and behold this book took off and has actually done quite well. According to an ad promoting it on mercola.com, it has sold over 125,000 copies.

Here's where the plot thickens. I went to Amazon.com to read what I thought would be glowing reviews of this best seller. Instead, of the 23 reviews I found, 10 were negative and many downright hostile. There were complaints that this was just a rehash of his first book but the worse accusations were the book was nothing more than a marketing ploy to get you to his website so he could sell you more expensive products. Say it ain't so Joe.

Not taking the reviews at face value and not having his book, I decided to do a little review of my own of his website. There's no doubt this is a commercial site and there are a number of products for sale but no law against that. I did find it could get quite costly for someone following his recommendations though. I also wondered about the selection of some of the supplements. For example, I honestly don't think someone needs to be taking black tea extract at $19.95 for a months supply but it's one of the products Mercola's site is selling.

Besides questioning some of the actual products, the other problem I have is many of the items he is promoting can be purchased elsewhere on the internet and in some cases, for considerably less. But then I thought, at least he'll give you a good deal on his own products such as his book, right?

Wrong! His book Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program that Amazon.com has a list price of $19.95 and sells for $13.57, Mercola is selling on his website to his loyal subscribers and other unwitting visitors for $19.95 - full list! On top of that he is claiming people are getting a real deal because the book was originally $31.95 and he is giving you 38% off for a limited time if you order now. Hmmm I think I smell something and it's not mom's apple pie.

That's bad enough but he even charges an outrageous $9.03 for shipping bringing the total to $28.98. And that for the same book you can get on Amazon for as low as $13.57 if you qualify for their super savings or at worse $17.56, if you pay their more reasonable $3.99 for shipping.

As I have learned over the years, once you find something that isn't quite right, keep looking and you'll likely find there is more to the story. There's something else I question about this man and the way he conducts business but I'll save that for my next post. Stay tuned for Part 2.

the Diet Meister