Last week, Dr. Alejandro Junger was on The Martha Stewart Show to promote his diet book, Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself The diet is a detox diet that eliminates modern foods that are processed, pumped with chemicals and unnatural. Dr. Junger’s detox diet focuses on fresh fruits and veggies that will flush out the left over chemicals from the previously consumed processed foods. Unger argues that many common ailments such as colds, allergies, depression and insomnia can be cured by eliminating the toxic buildup in the human body.

His book offers tools and support to detoxify the system and restore health and vitality. His plan can be easily incorporated into a busy schedule and he offers a wide selection of healthy and detoxifying recipes.  At the beginning, dieters are to avoid foods that come in a box, bag, tin a bottle, etc… during the elimination phase. Foods that are allowed include veggies, fruits and fish. When it comes to the green veggies, Dr. Junger refers to them as the ‘royal family’ and kale is the king. He strongly suggests starting every morning with a green juice and that breakfast and dinner should always be liquid and lunch would be a traditional meal such as fresh fish and salad. Dr. Junger suggests doing his 21-day detox plan once a year.

Here’s the fiber-rich smoothie recipe he shared with Martha Stewart:

Dr. Junger’s Smoothie Recipe
1 bunch of red kale
1 mango
1/4 of an avocado
1 cup of coconut water
1 cup of almond milk
Ice

Celeb Diet Doc Says…

This is the detox diet that Gwenth Paltrow advocates. One comment, I’m not a fan of juicers. It’s much better use the whole food (including the fiber) than just the juice. Remember the fiber from fruits and veggies helps maintain the beneficial probiotics that leads to GI health.  If you’re looking for a quality blender to make the best whole food smoothies and juices please see my Vitamix Blender Review post.

Is this diet for real? You get to sit around on the couch all day watching TV, basically never moving, and still lose weight? Sounds too good to be true if you ask me. But apparently it’s worked for author of the diet book The Couch Potato Diet, Gregory J.E. Ladas.

Five years ago Gregory lost 50 pounds on the diet, and has managed to keep the weight off ever since. He’s simply found healthier alternatives to the foods he usually craves, as well as adding more fiber and protein to his diet, cutting back on saturated fats and cholesterol, and consuming a significantly less amount of sugar.

Gregory admits that exercising is a part of the diet, but he doesn’t say how much you need to do on a daily basis.

In the video above Gregory demonstrates a few of his substitute-recipes.

Celeb Diet Doc…
This diet is all about lower calorie substitutions.. veggie cheese (sounds awful),  low carb tortillas, sugar free cookies… Basically the Couch Potato Diet suggests less toxic versions of junk food must Americans eat.. so if you need to have your junk food fix, this may be your ticket!

It’s little known in Hollywood circles, but I’m sure it won’t be long before a celebrity attaches his or her name to a new Scandinavian diet, the ‘Viking Diet’. And similar to the ‘Jesus Diet’, it advocates Mediterranean foods like fish, dairy, olive oil, fruits and veggies, unrefined carbohydrates and white bread.

The diet consists of a good balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fat, even though the local Scandinavian produce is seasonal. The Viking Diet may be simple, but you won’t get bored with the food options because it’s so varied. You can eat anything from mixed grains (oats and barley), berries and vegetables to game, poultry and fish.

Endorsed by Prof Arne Astrup, head of the human nutrition department at Copenhagen University, the diet’s typical dishes include grilled lamb kebabs, meatballs and lean game, which are served with cabbage and kale or root vegetables and potatoes. Other foods from the diet, which are rich in omega-3s and protein, include baked mackerel, salmon, herring or trout.

Astrup has high hopes for the diet because of its high protein content, which makes dieters feel fuller longer.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Apparently Prof Arne Austrup is head of nutrition at Copenhagen University and launched a 20 million dollar program to develop a new “nordic diet.”  I’m not sure why you need 20 million dollars to develop a new diet??  This proposed diet sounds a lot like the Atkins diet with some bread. Btw the original source article describes unrefined carbs as pasta and bread… which is dead wrong. Bread and pasta are examples of refined carbs and will lead to weight gain.

I’m sure the Nordic diet book will follow. Stay tuned.

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It’s about time the markets find something for guys to hide the spare tire they carry around the middle, aka the beer belly. Women prance around in Spanx or even the cellulite-busting panties PeachBody in hopes of hiding the lumps and bumps on their saddle bags. But now, men can get a piece of the action too with Bodymax; a line specifically designed for the male body and all of its flaws.

Using shaped seams and a hidden support panel the slenderizing t-shirt is designed to flatten and shape the torso. Marks & Spencer has designed the vest and shirt in the UK and it will be in stores in early January. The head of buying for men’s underwear at Marks & Spencer made a valid point, he said,

“Men are becoming more conscious of their appearance. The fact that Men’s Health is now the biggest selling men’s magazine really highlights this trend.”

He went on to say that in the future he believe that shape wear will be a staple in a man’s wardrobe just like ties and socks. The shirts are made of 100% cotton so I’m guessing these guys with a spare tire are going to sweat a lot in these. But it would be funny to hear two guys at the bar discussing their latest Bodymax purchase.

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Talk-show host Rachael Ray debuted a new diet on her show last week – the 400 Calorie Fix. As the name suggests, this new diet (created by Prevention magazine’s editor-in-chief Liz Vaccariello) is based on calorie counting/controlling.

Inspired by a column in Prevention magazine, the basic gist of the diet is that you may only consume 4 meals a day, each consisting of 400 calories. So essentially you’re eating 1 600 calories a day, no more and no less.

“We show you how to eyeball foods, to read menus, so you’re not counting calories, you are controlling it,” Liz told Rachael on her show on Thursday. “It’s the easiest weight loss solution ever because it’s one simple rule: you learn to see the world through a 400-calorie lens.”

The 41-year-old author of The Flat Belly Diet says she and her team arrived at the number after consulting with registered dietitians, who say 400 calories is enough for you to feel satiated, prevent those nasty cravings and still get your fix of healthy nutrients.

The 400 Calorie Fix doesn’t restrict you to certain foods, and in her new book, Liz shares a few foods you could eat to make the most of your 400 calories, which foods and words you need to look out for and what size portions should be.

Celeb Diet Doc…
Breaking this strategy down, the 400 calorie fix is about small meals throughout the day. Smaller meals throughout the day iis a viable strategy that has been shown to reduce overall calorie consumption, promote weight loss and even lower your cholesterol.  The keys with this articular diet are going to be strict portion control and navigating the calorie traps that litter the processed food landscape.

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As you may have guessed, I’m not a fan of Atkins. There’s a lot of misinformation about this diet that a recent study helped clarify… and frankly validates my own beliefs about this controversial diet. First let me first say you will lose weight on Atkins and your cholesterol levels will go down. Sounds good right? Well don’t be fooled.

Consider this. Cholesterol levels will go down as a result of any weight loss period. You could be drinking motor oil to lose weight and your cholesterol will go down so don’t think for a second Atkins is healthy.

A recent study presented at the American Heart Association, corrected for this cholesterol “weight loss” lowering effect. This study involved 18 people, each of whom were put on three different diets for month, and they were carefully monitored so they had no weight loss. The three diets were: Atkins with 50% of calories as fat, South Beach with 30% calories as fat and the Ornish diet with 10% fat.

Atkins was decidedly the worst diet. LDL or bad cholesterol went up by 7% on Atkins, while it decreased by 7% on the Ornish diet and by 10% on the South Beach diet. Not only that, but markers for inflammation went up by 30-45% on the Atkins diet whereas on the South Beach and Ornish diets they were either unchanged or decrease by 15-20%. Inflammation is a marker for accelerated aging and high levels of inflammation are associated with an increased risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, dementia to name just a few chronic diseases that plague Western society.

Atkins has so many devotees because it’s easy to follow in our overly processed food world. It will result in weight loss because by cutting out refined carbs such as white flour products (cakes, cookies, breads etc) you’re essentially cutting calories. However by consuming a diet high in animal protein that’s low in fruits and veggies you’re putting your health at risk. The cholesterol lowering effect of Atkins is an illusion. It’s due to weight loss, not the diet. When you factor the weight loss out, Atkins causes your cholesterol and inflammatory markers to go up.

If you can get past all the shock-jock language such as – you’re a gluttonous pig – you need to exercise you lazy shit – don’t be a pussy – you’ll find that Skinny Bitch offers some good dietary advice. I frankly wasn’t expecting much in the way of sound nutritional advice from the authors who are proudly skinny bitches themselves. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are both former models, with Kim holding a degree in holistic nutrition.

First it should be mentioned that these skinny bitches are vegans and Peta supporters which helps explains their anti-meat stance. But instead of blindly discarding “meat as evil,” they point out some of the negative health consequences of an animal based diet. They correctly point out that a diet high in animal protein is associated with heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. They also debunk dairy. As I have written earlier, dairy does not aid with weight loss. Do you really think that a pro-growth substance like dairy, created to make a calf double in size, is going to help you lose weight? Dairy consumption is, like other animal protein sources, associated with osteoporosis and a higher fracture rate. Dairy was never meant for human consumption, which is why 90% of the world is lactose intolerant. I also agree with their other nutritional recommendations to avoid refined carbs (white flour and sugar products), go organic, and eat more whole unprocessed fruits and veggies.

Consumption of animal products can be part of a healthy diet, but in much lower amounts that consumed by the average American. The form of Omega -3 fatty acids found in fish, which is absent from a vegan diet, have proven benefits against heart disease and stroke with possible benefits against dementia, depression, asthma, and several forms of cancer. I would like to make clear that the plant-based form of Omega – 3 is not the same as that found in animal sources and they should not be considered as equivalent. Getting your omega 3 from flax seed is not the same as getting it from fish. Our body converts only about 5% the plant-based version of Omega 3 (ALA) to the longer chain animal form (DHA and EPA). While there is evidence that plant based Omega 3 is also beneficial in its own right, the majority of evidence for health benefits is from the animal form.

What the authors got completely wrong, however, is their advice on “detoxing” and fasting. They claim that fasting “is a powerful tool for cleansing, flushing, detoxifying and maintaining your body, and healing illnesses, both minor and major.” The authors mistakenly attribute symptoms of fasting such as “headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping, stomach pains, sweating, a swollen tongue, bad breath” as a “good thing” because the body is “digesting and expelling poisons, toxins, and bad cells – and it feels crappy.” Hello! Do you think that symptoms of headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping and the like are a good thing? It’s your body’s way of telling you that fasting is a really bad idea. There is no “detox” in fasts. In fact, fasts cause a build up of toxins because, nutritionally deprived, your body is getting sick. Any notion that practitioners feel their bodies are being “detoxed” by a fast is probably some form of fast-induced delirium. If you want to “detox” your body, eat more fruits and veggies to help rev up the most important detoxifying organ in your body which is your liver.

The authors also claim that fasting “has been used as a healthy method of weight loss. ” Another piece of bad advice. Fasting will result in weight loss because you’re basically starving yourself. But very low calorie diets also result in a substantial loss of metabolically active muscle which causes your metabolism to crash. So when you go off your crazy fast, your body has become a finely tuned fat making machine. You have just starved your body, and with your wreaked metabolism it will convert more calories into fat, so you regain weight but now you have become proportionally fatter. Welcome to the world of yo- yo dieting.

While their misguided advice on fasting and detoxing prevents me from being more enthusiastic about their book, their bad girl “skinny bitches” approach to dieting makes Skinny Bitch an entertaining read.

The Volumetrics Eating Plan is written by Barbara Rolls a leading authority on weight management and eating behavior at Penn State University. She is best known for her work on “energy density” which is simply calories per given weight of food. What’s so important about energy density you ask? It is the key to understanding how you can eat more and weigh less. Sound too good to be true?

Volumetric Diet Plan
The Volumetric diet plan is all about eating low energy density foods. Since we eat about the same amount of food per day, filling up on low cal, high volume foods will curb your hunger as you lose weight. Hence the term Volumetrics! It’s an eat more, weigh less strategy. So what are these low density foods that are going to make you lose weight? Before I get to that let’s talk first about how to calculate energy density. First look on the nutrition facts panel and locate the number of calories per serving as well as the serving size. For example looking at a can of chick peas in my kitchen I see that it has a serving size of 125 grams and and 124 calories per serving. This gives an energy density of about 1. This is good as foods with an energy density less than 1 will help you lose weight. Foods such as crackers, that have an energy density of 4.5 have four and half times as many calories as the chick pea example. This is not so good and you need to careful about portion control here.

How to eat more weigh less
So here now is the secret to losing weight. Eat more unprocessed fruits and veggies! Fruits and veggies have a low energy density and are great for weight loss because they contain a lot of water per weight. The more water a food contains the lower the energy density. Lowering the fat content will also lower the energy density, but it will not have as dramatic effect as water does. As an example, grapes weigh in at only 50 calories per cup but the dried version, raisins, weigh in at 400 calories per cup! The lesson here is that the more refined and processed a food is, the higher the energy density and the more likely we are to gain weight. Please see my earlier post on what happens to the calorie content of corn as it gets dried pulverized and fried. Corn’s calorie content for a 4 ounce serving sky rockets from 90 calories for boiled corn to 627 calories for corn chips!

The energy density concept highlights what we have known all along about weight loss. More fruits and veggies, less refined products are the key to sustainable weight loss. To get you started on your “weigh” to weight loss, Volumetrics offers 125 low energy density recipes packed with veggies and fruits. In a field littered with false promises of quick and easy weight loss, Volumetrics delivers. It’s a well written, well organized book that offers practical and effective strategies for weight loss.

Harley Pasternak is a celebrity trainer who has penned Hollywood’s hottest diet, The 5 Factor Diet. Some of his clients include Jessica Simpson, Alicia Keys, Eva Mendes, Kanye West, and Mandy Moore. So why 5 Factor?

5 is the unifying principle for the book: 5 meals a day, 5 “elements” at each meal, 5 is the maximum number of ingredients in each recipe, 5 workouts per week, 5 types of food to keep in your kitchen… you get the idea.

5 Factor Diet
According to Harley, the benefit of frequent small meals throughout the day is to keep insulin levels low so less food is converted into fat, keep your metabolism up, improve your mood, and reduce stress. The 5 “elements” you should have with every meal include

1. Protein: Protein has been shown to satisfy hunger more effectively than carbs and fats. It is also not as efficiently converted to fuel or fat, as carbs and protein.
2. Carbohydrates: Low and moderate glycemic carbs will tend to keep blood sugar levels lower which helps reduce insulin levels and conversion of calories into fat.
3. Fiber: Between 5-10 grams of fiber with each meal will help keep you full, lower blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol.
4. HealthyFats: Good fats are monounsaturated (olive oil, peanut oil) and polyunsaturated fats (fish, sunflower, canola and flaxseed oils). Bad fats include saturated fats (primarily found in animal products such as butter, milk, poultry skin and meats as well as coconut and palm oils) and hydrogenated or transfats (found in processed commercially prepared baked goods, margarine, and shortening)
5. Sugar Free Beverages: To help keep you from feeling thirsty so you don’t confuse hunger for thirst.

5 Factor Workout
There are 5 workouts a week, each 25 minutes long. Each workout is broken up into 5 phases:

1. Phase 1: 5 minutes of cardio-warm up
2. Phase 2: 5 minutes of upper strength training
3. Phase 3: 5 minutes of lower strength training
4. Phase 4: 5 minutes of core training
5. Phase 5: 5 minutes of cardio.

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in…
The “5″ in 5 Factor is a little gimmicky and seemed contrived at times. On the plus side the menu plan is clear and well laid out. With only 5 ingredients each, the recipes are really easy to make although I can’t vouch for the taste.

There are a couple errors in the book including the suggestion that dairy will help with weight loss. As the FDA ruled against the dairy council earlier this year, we should stop perpetrating this myth. Dairy will not help you lose weight. Think about it. Do you think milk, which is created so calves can double in size every couple of months, is going to help you lose weight?

So what’s it going to take to get you looking like a Hollywood celeb? Portion control is going to be the key to making this diet work, although he does not really address this in the book, as well as the workouts. Harley Pasternak claims that what sets his diet apart is the use of the glycemic diet. Considering that the South Beach Diet and the GI Diet have already popularized the glycemic index concept, this is really nothing new. Personally I think what sets his diet apart are Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Eva Mendes…

Alli, “the poop and fart your way to weight loss pill,” now has a diet plan. Written by Caroline Apovian, a physician who is the Director of the Center for Weight Management at Boston University Medical Center, it’s aptly titled “the Alli Diet Plan.” I can sum up the purpose of this book by saying…

- it was created to help minimize the pill’s “treatment effects.” The Alli Diet pill works by blocking absorption of fat and that fat needs somewhere to go. Unfortunately that usually means your pants and a lot of time on the toilet. In case you didn’t see my earlier post on the Alli treatment side effects, here are some recommendations regarding these “treatment effects” taken directly from the myalli website:

“You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work.”

“You may not usually get gassy, but it’s a possibility when you take alli. The bathroom is really the best place to go when that happens“

The Alli Diet Plan
The Alli Diet Plan is divided into 3 phases, no doubt to help minimize pant soiling and time spent in the bathroom. You start off in phase 1 in which 15% of your calories come from fat. In phase 2, 20% of your calories come from fat and in phase 3, 30% of your calories come from fat. My assumption here is that by phase 3, you’ll be less likely to experience “problems” with the Alli diet pill. The author recommends that you also take a multivitamin while taking Alli, since you’ll have trouble absorbing the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. The bulk of this book is devoted to menu plans and recipes, so if you’re looking for nutritional and diet information you’ll be disappointed. For those who are committed to the Alli diet pill and want to minimize these embarrassing “side effects,” this book can help.

You should also be aware of safety concerns raised regarding the use of Alli, over a possible link to pre-cancerous growths in the colon. Personally, I recommend that you skip the pill and these “treatment effects” entirely, and just follow a sensible low-fat diet.