http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/d...&pagewanted=all

Here is a man who mostly seems to live on candy. None of us would recommend it, and I with diabetes simply could not do it. But we need to acknowledge that people have survived and thrived on a whole variety of what seems to be extreme diets. In the article is mentioned a girl who ate only white bread and fruit.

I would be aghast had my kids chosen this diet. But then I also would not have been able to face continued projectile vomiting and fighting either.

Even more examples that being fat is in a huge part luck of the draw, not being lazy or weak.

I remember a boy who died a few years back who would eat nothing but a few odd items. It did catch up to him.

Also it seems like these articles oversimplify whether or not someone is healthy by a flow chart that looks like this:

Are the alive? ---> Yes ---> Are they not too fat? ---> Yes ---> They're healthy!

We can't really tell until someone dies whether or not they were actually healthy, or at least put them through a lot of medical tests.

I guess they've never heard of the term "skinny fat." Since I know a lot of computer nerds I know a lot of skinny fats! They look rail thin, but they aren't exactly healthy and their little bloated bellies betray them.

The new Toddler Miracle Diet, used by millions of trim toddlers the world over!!!

DAY ONE
Breakfast - One scrambled egg, one piece of toast with grape jelly. Eat 2 bites of egg, using your fingers; dump the rest on the floor. Take 1 bite of toast, then smear the jelly over your face and clothes.
Lunch - Four crayons (any color), a handful of potato chips, and a glass of milk (3 sips only, then spill the rest).
Dinner - A dry stick, two pennies and a nickel, 4 sips of stale beer.
Bedtime Snack - Toast piece of bread and toss it on the kitchen floor.

DAY TWO
Breakfast - Pick up stale toast from kitchen floor and eat it. Drink half bottle of vanilla extract or one vial of vegetable dye.
Lunch - Half a tube of "Pulsating Pink" lipstick and a cigarette (to be eaten, not smoked). One ice cube, if desired.
Afternoon Snack - Lick an all-day sucker until sticky, take outside, drop in dirt. Retrieve and continue slurping until it is clean again. Then bring inside and drop on the rug.
Dinner - A rock or an uncooked bean, which should be thrust up your left nostril. Pour iced tea over mashed potatoes; eat with a spoon.

DAY THREE
Breakfast - Two pancakes with plenty of syrup, eat with fingers, rub in hair. Glass of milk: drink half, stuff pancakes in glass. After breakfast, pick up yesterday's sucker from rug, lick off fuzz, and put it on the cushion of your best chair.
Lunch - Three matches, peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. Spit several bites onto the floor. Pour glass of milk on table and slurp up.
Dinner - Dish of ice cream, handful of potato chips, some wine, coffee.

FINAL DAY
Breakfast - A quarter-tube of toothpaste (any flavor), bit of soap, an olive. Pour a glass of milk over bowl of cornflakes, add a half-cup of sugar. Once cereal is soggy, drink milk and feed cereal to dog.
Lunch - Eat crumbs off kitchen floor and dining room carpet. Find that sucker and finish eating it.
Dinner - A glass of spaghetti and chocolate milk. Leave meatball on plate. Stick of mascara for dessert.'

Bo

My father in law was a perfect example of this. He had several heart attacks, was diabetic, ate a terrible diet of sugar and refined carbs but was NEVER overweight his entire life. He died this past March at age 59 due to renal failure.

First, let's see his teeth Second he also eats dry roasted peanuts, not exactly a health food but not exactly candy.

Hey BoBoGuy, I may have to repost that diet. Chuckle of the day.

That was hilarious BoBoGuy

BoBo, are you channeling Erma Bombeck? That was hilarious!

That was me. My wife was using my computer again...

Yeah right! That's what they all say when their wife says something brighter than what they had planned!

I'm with the rest Boboguy - that was great! I can almost remember my kids eating like that and, what the hell! .... they survived!!! Not only that, they're intelligent and successful ... son's a popular local jazz musician (performing and teaching) and daughter's a school teacher. I figure that makes me a success!!!

hahaha that is hilarious... Id like to follow this diet hah

Hmm, BoBo, were you spying on my kids when they were toddlers? LOL

On a more serious note, the way Paul Rudnick eats is the way I ate growing up as a child...and pretty much the way my parents still eat, except that these past few years, they have suddenly gotten into eating lots of salads. In fact, I'd say that Paul Rudnick eats healthier than my family did back in the 60's and 70's...we never got peanuts or things like that. We mostly ate wonder bread, marshmallows, kool-aid and other similar things...and our only "healthy" food was milk.

(Probably why, despite my mostly being Paleo, I won't give up dairy...I feel like it was the food that saved me...my only sibling who hated milk has SO many health problems and is a good seven or eight inches shorter than me...)

Anyway, I do think the body can survive on almost anything with calories...but what I'd like to see is Mr. Rudnick in another ten or twenty years down the road....I can hardly believe his blood sugar is perfectly normal....as a child on a sugary diet, I fainted a lot and had lots of dizzy spells. Never saw a doctor or had it checked (despite the school's and neighbors concerns), but now that I eat healthy, I feel so much better than I ever did as a kid.

Okay, let's all bookmark the page on Paul Rudnick and check back on him in ten years and see where he is with his health...