Fish Chicken Eggs Pork, bacon Hard cheeses
Vegetables Citrus Coffee Water Cottage cheese
NUTRIENT PROPORTION By definition, the proportion of protein in a high-protein diet is much greater than that in the average diet( see chart, next page). Relative carbohydrate levels are too low, and the proportion of water must be kept high by a large fluid intake. APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGES OF CALORIES PROVIDED BY VARIOUS NUTRIENTS IN HIGH-PROTEIN DIETS
BALANCE It’ s very difficult, for most people, to be balanced on this kind of diet. Protein must be balanced by minerals( calcium), fats, carbohydrates, and water; the contractive substances in the diets need the expansive ones. But the high-protein diets, as prescribed, do not provide enough of these balancing factors. EFFECTS A high protein intake demands a very large amount of water for metabolism( see the table of Nutrient Proportions in Foods, this page – this page). This water can be obtained by drinking, but it can also be siphoned from body tissues. As a result, these diets cause a loss of water weight, a well-known fact that accounts for their initial success. For people whose metabolism tolerates animal protein well, the weight loss can continue and be quite effective. The large amounts of animal protein can make others energetic at first, but then very high-strung and tense. A third group will react in yet another fashion, with sleepiness, lethargy, sluggishness, or a general heavy feeling. The relatively low carbohydrate level will sooner or later provoke a bread or sugar binge. The diets are strongly tilted toward contractive, warming, and acid-forming foods. For a sedentery lifestyle( itself“ contractive”) pursued in a centrally heated environment, they generally prove to be unbalanced and cannot be tolerated for long. Eventual reactions are strong cravings for expansive, cooling carbohydrate foods, such as sugared desserts, ice cream, fruits. If those aren’ t needed, the next choice may inevitably and necessarily be alcohol. Of all the dietary strategies that my students have explored, these high-protein, low-carbohydrate ones were found to be most self-defeating, almost impossible to follow for long, and received the most negative votes. LOW-CALORIE DIETS These diets are an attempt to counterbalance the buildup effect of the Standard American Diet. They are not very different from the latter in the quality of the food consumed, only in the quantity. They are based on the general concept that if energy( calorie) input is less than energy( calorie) output, the accumulated excess will be burned up as the body draws on it for fuel. An example is the Weight Watchers Diet, based on the“ Prudent Diet” of Dr. Norman Jolliffe. Variations of the diet appear periodically in most fashion and women’ s magazines. Like the Recommended American Diet, low-calorie regimes also advise that the calories consumed be drawn from meat and dairy products as well as from vegetables of different colors and bread of any color( the four groups). Because the approach is quantitative, they rely heavily on weighing and measuring food portions and counting the calories in them as given by calorie tables. It should be noted that these values are approximate calculations. The only way to find out the exact number of calories in a food is by oxidizing it until it is reduced to ashes and measuring the amount of heat it gives off, at