PacNW
Sat, Mar-13-04, 04:10
Yet another miracle diet for millions to swallow
By Catherine Murphy
featureseditor~belfasttelegraph.co.uk
12 March 2004
A NEW best-selling guide says that these 14 wonder-foods can literally change your life for the better ...
It's been hailed as the new healthy alternative to the Atkins diet - 14 foods that make a you a lean, mean slimming machine.
The brains behind it is another doctor, this time by the name of Steven Pratt. Suprisingly, however, Dr Pratt's main expertise is not nutrition - he's a plastic surgeon and ophthalmologist by trade. It seems you don't have to be an expert to cash in on our growing obsession with diets.
As one local nutritionist puts it, the diet industry "flourishes on failure". As every disappointed slimmer abandons yet another diet that "isn't right for them", another one comes along to take its place, and a gullible, ill-informed public buys it every time.
The latest slimmers' 'bible' is Dr Pratt's Superfoods: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life.
After years of working with ageing patients, Dr Pratt claims to have pinpointed the foods that will prevent cancer, diabetes and stave off the ageing process.
Those foods are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, wild salmon, soy, spinach, green or black tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts and yoghurt.
Beans are in the top 14 because they're high in protein and help control blood sugar levels; blueberries, often nicknamed 'brain berries', are rich in vitamin C and E and are said to ward off dementia (we're not sure if they work with diet-induced dementia). For fibre look no further than broccoli which also has vitamins that fight cancer.
Oats can help lower cholesterol levels, oranges fight heart disease and cancer, while pumpkin is said to protect against skin cancer.
Wild salmon is low in fat and can reduce the risk of heart disease, soy supplies protein and is also recommended for menopausal women who can't use HRT because it's naturally high in phyto-oestrogen.
Popeye's favourite food, spinach, also makes it on to the list, as it is rich in iron and good for the eyes.
Don't forget our favourite brew, tea, which has anti-oxidants that fight cancer. Tomatoes, meanwhile, will help men fight prostate cancer.
The remaining recommended foods have the following benefits: turkey, a lean meat and good source of protein; walnuts contain Omega-3 fatty acids that control heart disease; and finally, yoghurt's bacteria boosts the immune system.
But before you rush out to your local supermarket to stock up on pumpkin and blueberries, take a look at that list.
Apart from the fact that it's full of simple, common-sense information that your mother should already have told you, a number of facts jump out. Firstly, it's geared towards an American market; secondly, it's not entirely practical and finally, surprise, surprise, many of the foods listed are expensive.
Dr Pratt doesn't ban any food but recommends minimum amounts of each superfood, including five to seven servings of oats and half an ounce of soy each day and two to four servings of wild salmon each week.
First things first. If you eat four portions of salmon a week, you'll die of boredom long before you die of heart disease. Alternatively, because wild salmon is so expensive, you'll buy farmed instead, which will probably worry you if recent warnings about its production are to be believed.
Surely nature only ever intended horses to eat that amount of oats and aren't pumpkins things that you cut holes in and put in the window at Hallowe'en?
If you're going to eat more oranges and tomatoes, should you worry about the chemicals they're sprayed with and fork out yet more money for organic? Is tea still good for you if you drink eight cups a day? And when choosing yoghurt, do those sugar-laden ones still count?
Margot Brennan, from the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, says Pratt's Superfoods diet is impractical and expensive.
"There's a lot of common sense in what he's saying but if you're eating a healthy, balanced diet you should be getting all the vitamins and anti-oxidants you need anyway," she says. "Pumpkin, walnuts and blueberries aren't exactly everyday foods. Some of the other foods, such as spinach, are quite expensive to buy fresh and there seems to be a conflicting message, on the one hand telling you to use soy, then recommending ordinary yoghurt, which is a dairy product."
It is grossly ironic that as the 'no-think' generation eats more junk than ever, they also possess a voracious appetite for the quick fix, the fad diet that will allow them to eat as much as they want and still be thin and healthy.
Roughly 200 million Europeans go on a diet each year. Worldwide, an estimated 20 million people are on the Atkins diet, with millions more trying similar high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets.
Our ignorance is fuelled by an industry that sends regularly conflicting messages. In the 1980s, we were instructed to count calories to within an inch of our lives; in the 1990s we were warned off fat and now, the whole thing has swung completely around with carbohydrates becoming the new Big C, the enemy in our battle against the bulge.
The food industry also plays a huge part, with sugar and salt hidden in virtually every prepared food we buy.
Diet books flood the market, with everything from Sugar Busters to Eat More, Weigh Less, the South Beach Diet, Eat Right For Your Type and of course, the industry's latest god, Atkins, weighing down book shelves and lightening wallets.
Brennan warns that there is no quick fix to losing weight. "It comes down to the same old rule of thermodynamics; the amount of food you take in and the amount of energy you expend.
"There are no bad foods, only bad eating habits. And if there was a real quick fix, we'd all be millionaires by now."
Belfast Telegraph (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=500542)
By Catherine Murphy
featureseditor~belfasttelegraph.co.uk
12 March 2004
A NEW best-selling guide says that these 14 wonder-foods can literally change your life for the better ...
It's been hailed as the new healthy alternative to the Atkins diet - 14 foods that make a you a lean, mean slimming machine.
The brains behind it is another doctor, this time by the name of Steven Pratt. Suprisingly, however, Dr Pratt's main expertise is not nutrition - he's a plastic surgeon and ophthalmologist by trade. It seems you don't have to be an expert to cash in on our growing obsession with diets.
As one local nutritionist puts it, the diet industry "flourishes on failure". As every disappointed slimmer abandons yet another diet that "isn't right for them", another one comes along to take its place, and a gullible, ill-informed public buys it every time.
The latest slimmers' 'bible' is Dr Pratt's Superfoods: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life.
After years of working with ageing patients, Dr Pratt claims to have pinpointed the foods that will prevent cancer, diabetes and stave off the ageing process.
Those foods are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, wild salmon, soy, spinach, green or black tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts and yoghurt.
Beans are in the top 14 because they're high in protein and help control blood sugar levels; blueberries, often nicknamed 'brain berries', are rich in vitamin C and E and are said to ward off dementia (we're not sure if they work with diet-induced dementia). For fibre look no further than broccoli which also has vitamins that fight cancer.
Oats can help lower cholesterol levels, oranges fight heart disease and cancer, while pumpkin is said to protect against skin cancer.
Wild salmon is low in fat and can reduce the risk of heart disease, soy supplies protein and is also recommended for menopausal women who can't use HRT because it's naturally high in phyto-oestrogen.
Popeye's favourite food, spinach, also makes it on to the list, as it is rich in iron and good for the eyes.
Don't forget our favourite brew, tea, which has anti-oxidants that fight cancer. Tomatoes, meanwhile, will help men fight prostate cancer.
The remaining recommended foods have the following benefits: turkey, a lean meat and good source of protein; walnuts contain Omega-3 fatty acids that control heart disease; and finally, yoghurt's bacteria boosts the immune system.
But before you rush out to your local supermarket to stock up on pumpkin and blueberries, take a look at that list.
Apart from the fact that it's full of simple, common-sense information that your mother should already have told you, a number of facts jump out. Firstly, it's geared towards an American market; secondly, it's not entirely practical and finally, surprise, surprise, many of the foods listed are expensive.
Dr Pratt doesn't ban any food but recommends minimum amounts of each superfood, including five to seven servings of oats and half an ounce of soy each day and two to four servings of wild salmon each week.
First things first. If you eat four portions of salmon a week, you'll die of boredom long before you die of heart disease. Alternatively, because wild salmon is so expensive, you'll buy farmed instead, which will probably worry you if recent warnings about its production are to be believed.
Surely nature only ever intended horses to eat that amount of oats and aren't pumpkins things that you cut holes in and put in the window at Hallowe'en?
If you're going to eat more oranges and tomatoes, should you worry about the chemicals they're sprayed with and fork out yet more money for organic? Is tea still good for you if you drink eight cups a day? And when choosing yoghurt, do those sugar-laden ones still count?
Margot Brennan, from the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute, says Pratt's Superfoods diet is impractical and expensive.
"There's a lot of common sense in what he's saying but if you're eating a healthy, balanced diet you should be getting all the vitamins and anti-oxidants you need anyway," she says. "Pumpkin, walnuts and blueberries aren't exactly everyday foods. Some of the other foods, such as spinach, are quite expensive to buy fresh and there seems to be a conflicting message, on the one hand telling you to use soy, then recommending ordinary yoghurt, which is a dairy product."
It is grossly ironic that as the 'no-think' generation eats more junk than ever, they also possess a voracious appetite for the quick fix, the fad diet that will allow them to eat as much as they want and still be thin and healthy.
Roughly 200 million Europeans go on a diet each year. Worldwide, an estimated 20 million people are on the Atkins diet, with millions more trying similar high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets.
Our ignorance is fuelled by an industry that sends regularly conflicting messages. In the 1980s, we were instructed to count calories to within an inch of our lives; in the 1990s we were warned off fat and now, the whole thing has swung completely around with carbohydrates becoming the new Big C, the enemy in our battle against the bulge.
The food industry also plays a huge part, with sugar and salt hidden in virtually every prepared food we buy.
Diet books flood the market, with everything from Sugar Busters to Eat More, Weigh Less, the South Beach Diet, Eat Right For Your Type and of course, the industry's latest god, Atkins, weighing down book shelves and lightening wallets.
Brennan warns that there is no quick fix to losing weight. "It comes down to the same old rule of thermodynamics; the amount of food you take in and the amount of energy you expend.
"There are no bad foods, only bad eating habits. And if there was a real quick fix, we'd all be millionaires by now."
Belfast Telegraph (http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=500542)