I sort of get you on that. The Rice Diet certainly isn't nutritionally complete, it's not a complete food in that sense. Hard to tell a sixty year old in New Guinea who's been living on a 93 percent carbohydrate diet most of his life that it didn't count as food, though.

But its not the sort of diet most people would choose. Lots of people ate less than 15 percent dietary fat, not that long ago, as Denise points out. Just about nobody keeps at it, once there's any other option.

When I ate a low fat diet, I actually did feel better, compared to the SAD. But I can't say I liked actually eating that way, nothing like eating ketogenically, this way I feel better, and I prefer the taste.

I've said this before, but I really think that if there's something to this low-fat "magic" Denise is talking about, it might be worth it for open-minded people to look at some sort of intermittent approach. When they take mice and feed them a diabetes-inducing diet one week, and low-fat chow the next, back and forth, they're protected from the development of diabetes. Planned phases of different approaches could help steer clear of some of the deficiencies likely to develop, later if not sooner, on a really restrictive, low meat and fat diet.