Alternative Dieting

A new diet called "The Alternate-Day Diet" by plastic surgeon James B. Johnson has people talking.

The diet allows you to eat whatever you want every-other day as long as you cut your calories by 30 % the other days. So, on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday you can eat fish and chips, as long as you have soup and salad on Monday, Wednesday and Friday?

Sound dubious? Well, the book follows animal studies that show that mice and primates that are fed every other day experience profound health benefits. This alternate eating plan may alter the development or progression of age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alezheimer's, heart disease and more.

According to a study published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Lipid Research also revealed that fasting or even eating half as much as normal on alternate days may shrink fat cells and in turn could protect against obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

An extra bonus of the diet is that it activates a genetic mechanism callerd SIRT1. This "longevity gene" has been shown to promote the long-term survival of irreplaceable cells, which in turn contributes to extended life.

Here's how the plan works. On a typical non-diet day, you can eat whatever you want, up to about 2700 caolries. Then, on the following diet day, you would have half of a protein shake for breakfast and lunch, a piece of fruit as a snack and a salad with broth-based soup for dinner. This is roughly 500-600 calories.

Proponents of the diet say this could prevent boredom. Let's face it, most of us could get through a day of dieting if we knew we could eat whatever we wanted the next day.

Obviously, as with all eating plans, this one can be abused. Lets face it, if you eat 5000 calories on your non-diet days, there's no way you're going to be able to make up for those calories on your diet days, and you would probably be putting a lot of fat, sodium and cholestoral in your system. So the key with this, as with anything is moderation.

I'm not suggesting that any diet is perfect or a quick fix for weight loss, but I found this one interesting and thought it's worth reading about.