List of Diets
Well-known nutritional diets:
Evolution Diet
The Evolution Diet is a diet devised by Joseph Stephen Breese
Morse from 2002-2005. It involves eating "what and how
we were designed to eat." The main principles are:
- eat low sugar, high dietary fiber foods in small quantities
but often throughout the day
- eat healthy high energy foods only before and during exercise
- eat high protein foods after exercise and before rest
Benefits are said to include getting to and maintaining one's
ideal weight, consistently good sleep, balanced energy, more
motivation. The Evolution Diet is also a book, published in
2005. The book stresses the importance of natural human physiology
and bases the diet on how a cultureless human would eat. The
eating plan has similarities with the Paleolithic diet and
Natural Foods Diet, however the Evolution Diet stresses when
to eat certain foods, not just what foods to eat. Also The
Evolution Diet allows for modern foods that have similar properties
to natural foods, not just foods that were available before
agriculture.
Fruitarian diet
Fruitarians (or fructarians) are a subgroup of vegans who
eat only the fruit of plants. This includes not only what
one typically thinks of as a "fruit" in the culinary
sense such as apples and oranges, but also other foods that
are botanically the fruits of flowering plants (that is, the
seed-containing reproductive parts), including berries, nuts,
seeds, capsicums, tomatoes, squash, beans, peas, and so on.
There are different variations of fruitarianism. Some fruitarians
will eat only what falls (or would fall) naturally from a
plant—fruits, seeds, nuts. Others may eat all biological
fruits. Grains are usually accepted, as they are conventionally
harvested by cutting down the plant. Most fruitarians are
also raw foodists.
Fruitarians only eat the fruit of a plant so that the plant
does not have to be killed. (Note that when one eats a root
vegetable such as a carrot, the whole carrot plant dies.)
Fruitarians point out that, in nature, eating some types of
fruit actually does the parent plant a favor. Fleshy fruit
has evolved with the obvious purpose of being eaten by animals,
to achieve seed dispersal. Seeds in fruits will be swallowed
and travel through the animal's digestive tract before sprouting
in a pile of ready-made fertilizer, or, in the case of fruits
with cores or pits, will be tossed aside to sprout. Without
animals eating fruit, the seed would not travel far enough
away from the plant to allow the species to proliferate successfully.
A fruitarian diet can be difficult to follow, and on a long-term
basis fruitarians often suffer health problems caused by nutrient
deficiency. For example, Vitamin B12 cannot be found in any
fruit matter. Some say the diet is overly rich in sugar, and
that this can lead to symptoms suggestive of hyperglycemia
or diabetes, while it is lacking in protein, minerals and
fat soluble vitamins. Long-term fruitarians may be prone to
psychological food cravings and consequent binge-eating, either
of 'allowed' foods or 'illicit' ones. Fruitarians allegedly
often develop strong cravings for dates (for their high sugar
content) and avocados (for their high fat content). Some fruitarians
develop a type of eating disorder called orthorexia. Anyone
adopting a fruitarian diet should be aware of what nutrients
their body needs and what supplements they will have to take.
The diet of Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a physician who practices in New
Jersey, USA. He specialises in treating some major illnesses
through nutrition.
He has written a book called Eat to Live. He states that
he wants people to have the opportunity to benefit by developing
life long health-giving eating habits.
He introduces the idea of nutrient density, as expressed
by the formula Health=Nutrients/Calories. He believes (and
quotes research projects and statistical information to support
his claim) that there is excessive consumption of calorie
rich food, and minimising of nutritional foods in our modern
diet. This has resulted in a paradoxically overfed but undernourished
and therefore diseased population in the developed world.
He advises that we should base our eating on mainly fresh
vegetables, fruits and legumes, while minimising animal products,
processed grains and high carbohydrate foods. If we do this
we can eat as much as we wish, while progressively shedding
weight until we reach and maintain our individual ideal weight.
This is because our appetite and hunger (and our calorie intake)
will be naturally limited through the high nutrient, and low
calorie content of our diet. This emphasises the nutritional
value of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and phytochemicals,
and other micro nutrients of which nutritionists are as yet
unaware.
There are low levels of these nutrients (in ratio to calories)
in officially recommended eating programmes, such as the "Good
food pyramid". This has allegedly resulted in a high
incidence of ill health, including diabetes, heart disease,
autoimmune diseases (e.g. arthritis), cancers, high blood
pressure etc. These and other conditions can be minimised,
he claims, through a simple and easy change to our eating
habits.
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