Re: New food pyramid coming

John <john9212112@xxxxxxx> wrote in part:

>Would you mind explaining your idea of where the lunacy enters the
>picture,

I *knew* I shouldn't have posted in this thread. :-)

> which would have to be somewhere between weighing everything
>(unless you're a lunatic too) and limiting the total daily weight of
>consumption to some value or another? Is it a gradual lunacy or is
>it a falling off the cliff lunacy? Or an "I don't like the source"
>thing?

It's not the latter. I try very hard to stay focused on the ideas
and facts rather than the bearer of the news.

Off the top of my head: The central problem that must be addressed
by a weight-loss or weight-control diet is that the quantity of
food consumed must be reduced/controlled. Mostly--almost entirely,
I would say--the calories consumed in food must be less than those
used by the metabolism.

The question is how to reduce how much (measured in terms of
calories) one eats over the long haul. In *theory* any
(survivable) diet that serves to restrict calories should work. In
practice, a weight loss/control diet only works as long as you
stay on it.

A diet composed of 1200 calories of whole grain and an orange
would probably do great for me, in theory, but not in practice. So
the trick is to find a diet (or diets) that one can and will stick
to that supplies the reduced number of calories.

I think there are some passable arguments and evidence that some
types of diets may reduce the appetite or cravings for foods, at
least in some people. So control of certain macronutrients may
help.

But fundamentally, no matter what anyone says, unless we are in
poverty or confinement, we are all on ad libitum diets. (We are
free to eat what and as as much as we like.)

One possible reason that people fail to lose weight and keep it
off is that they fail to measure what they eat. I guess the
"free-est" diet--the one that give the most freedom of choice
while restricting calories is a calorie-counting diet. But the
measurement process is laborious and tedious.

What Dr. Chung has done is to describe a diet that still requires
everything be measured, but in a very simple way. Its strength is
that the dieter will be more likely to keep with the program
because it is simple. Its most obvious shortcoming is that 2
pounds of daily food does not equate to any particular calorie
level or to any particular person's requirement.

People here have criticized the 2PD for allowing 2 pounds of jelly
beans or whatever a day, but I won't join them. Calorie-counting
diets don't, at their most basic, prohibit a 1200 calorie a day
jelly bean diet, either (though they are tailored to ones
individual caloric requirement). Neither does the Atkins diet
specify exactly how to get proper nutrition within its
macronutrient guidelines.

The "lunacy" comes from the Biblical connection, the notion that
we are all alike in our dietary "quantity" needs, and the claims
of huge amounts of data in support of the 2PD and the total
absence of dropouts.

>I've been weighing everything I eat for about the last 15 months and
>doing my best to keep the total at 2 pounds or less. I've been
>rewarded with a very significant weight loss, no trouble keeping it
>off.

Good for you! Quite seriously. If it works for you and you are
happy with it, then keep with it. I do hope you are eating a
healthful diet while you are at it. Though I do think that Dr.
Chung is correct about quantity being the main thing for those
with overweight problems.

>I gave digital food scales to all my best friends for Christmas. ;-)

I have one, too. But I convert (via software) the weights of the
things I eat to grams of carbs, protein, and types of fat, and, of
course, calories. :-) Measuring helps me, too.
--
Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA
.

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