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The Schwarzbein Principle

Every diet and nutrition plan presents itself as the new solution and the easy way to lose weight and be healthy. Don't always trust the information that you read in these diet books however. There are a number of diets which can produce real benefits, including the Origin Diet and the Eat Right, Live Longer diet, but many can actually be bad for your health. This is especially true for certain fad diets.

One diet that we strongly suggest to avoid is the Schwarzbein Principle. The title of the book that contains this weight loss plan is “The Truth about Weight Loss, Health, and Aging.” The stated goal of this diet is to help you lose weight, reverse or soften the effects of aging, and strengthen the body's resistance to disease through changes in diet. We are going to explain why this diet is a bad idea.

The Schwarzbein Principle at a Glance

• High fat, high protein diet

• Denies foods with a high glycemic-index, including processed carbohydrates

• Purports to be able to balance Hormone Levels in the body

• Places an emphasis on foods that you could hunt, gather, pick, milk, or fish for

Who Should Consider the Schwarzbein Principle

No one should consider this diet.

Who Should Avoid the Schwarzbein Principle

Pretty much everyone should avoid this diet.

The Basics of the Schwarzbein Principle

The Schwarzbein Principle is a diet that was invented and proliferated via an Endocrinologist named Diana Schwarzbein. Her diet is a variation on diets like the Origin Diet in that it is both Low-Carb and High Protein, but there are a number of differences between the two diets as well. She claims that the diet has the ability to control Insulin.

Avoiding high insulin levels is the central tenet of the Schwarzbein Principle, and she considers high insulin levels incredibly dangerous, leading to a number of different adverse medical and health issues, including weight gain, low metabolism, mood swings, and accelerated aging. It also increases the intensity of food cravings. She says that elevated insulin levels are directly the result of the combination of a low fat and high carbohydrate diet.

Many diets, as well as the diet recommended by the USDA, utilize a food pyramid, but Schwarzbein's diet revolves around a food box which includes four classes of foods – carbohydrates, non-starch vegetables, fats, and proteins. She believes that these four groups need to be eaten simultaneously in particular amounts in order to properly balance the hormones of the body to encourage longevity and promote Anti-Aging.

Schwarzbein is also an adamant believer in the idea that refined sugar is both addictive and dangerous. In addition to her diet plan, she also advocates heavy use of supplements, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids, 5-hydroxytryptophan, calcium, magnesium, and a multivitamin.

The Rationale of the Schwarzbein Principle

The principal idea behind Schwarzbein's nutrition plan is that a diet that is high in healthy fats and proteins while low in carbs helps to balance insulin and prevent insulin spikes as well as regulate levels of Glucagon. Glucagon is a peptide hormone secreted by the pancreas that directly stimulates an increase in blood sugar. Increased Glucagon Levels lead directly to increased Insulin Levels, which can be a terrible cycle is your Insulin Levels spike too often. The author of the diet believes that by controlling and balancing the body's hormones, it is possible to limit cravings for food and increase metabolism through diet.

There are a number of ways that she claims that it is possible to reduce hunger pangs and food cravings. A big part of balancing hunger under this system is to eat lots of fiber and “good” fats and oils. Balancing serotonin levels also plays a role in Schwarzbein's diet, and serotonin levels can be controlled by avoiding sugar, chocolate, refined carbs, caffeine, and alcohol. She claims that regulating serotonin can reduce cravings.

The Schwarzbein Principle calls for regulation of Carbohydrates, because the diet revolves around the belief that there is no way to overeat “good” fats and proteins. Only carbs have the ability to spike insulin levels, which she believes is the leading cause of weight gain. She believes that sugar is the culprit of most of the physiological ills related to aging, because it causes Insulin production to stay high and it prevents the body from utilizing nutrients with maximum efficiency.

The Meal Plan of the Schwarzbein Principle

The book that accompanies this diet plan includes a month's worth of daily menus in order to show how to institute a “healing” program which claims to balance hormones and encourage health and weight loss. The goal of this first month of meals is both to enhance your metabolism and to increase your insulin resistance. She also includes a month of daily menus and recipe options for vegetarians.

The primary goal of these menus is to balance Insulin and Glucagon production while balancing the glycemic index. It attempts to accomplish this by only including fifteen grams of carbs with each meal and including meals from her four specified food groups provided in her recommended portions.

Under the Schwarzbein Principle, a days breakfast would be along the lines of oatmeal with cream and butter, sausage, sliced tomatoes, and scrambled eggs. Lunch would consist of an olive oil-dressed cobb salad and an apple. Finally, an example of a Schwarzbein dinner would be roasted pork loin, asparagus and brown rice topped with butter, and another salad with olive oil. This diet does not recommend snacking, but allows it, providing examples such as almonds with string cheese and sunflower seeds.

Expert Opinion on the Schwarzbein Principle

The diet outlined with the Schwarzbein Principle shares a number of similarities with other diets. There are a number of effective and safe weight loss and anti-aging diets that suggest both low-carb consumption and high levels of protein.

One thing that experts are very quick to point out with regard to this diet is that hormone manipulation plays no role in any weight loss that occurs as a result of this diet. Any weight loss accomplishments earned while on this diet would explicitly be the result of caloric restriction, no thanks to the increased fat consumption and severely limited carbs. Although it is healthy to be conscientious with carbohydrates, it can actually be counterproductive and even bad for your health to limit them to the extent outlined in this diet plan. One of the major issues that people on this diet would face would be fatigue and exhaustion, because a diet with severely limited carbohydrates would not provide sufficient calories for day to day activity.

Besides the issue with severely limited carbs, the other major issue with this diet is that it recommends far too much saturated fat and cholesterol. Nutrition experts and medical professionals are quick to caution that there is no significant evidence that severely limiting carbs and eating a lot of fat will exert any positive pressure over your hormone balance. Even more specious is the idea that this diet will be able to enhance weight loss gains or have any Anti-Aging effect.

There is No Guarantee that You Will Lose Weight with the Schwarzbein Principle

It may be possible to lose weight on this diet if portions are controlled effectively, but the Schwarzbein Principle does not include any discussion of portion control as a means to lose weight. The example menus don't include calorie counts or portion sizes, and they usually include a lot of butter and other fatty ingredients with a lot of calories. The author simply does not place sufficient emphasis upon the link between caloric consumption and weight gain (she actually claims that the link is exaggerated), which is significantly if not infinitely more important than balancing hormones through fat consumption.

While it may be possible to lose weight with this diet if portions are tightly regulated, based specifically on the nutrition plan provided, it would actually be very easy to start gaining weight on this diet, if one ate portions that were too large. Even if you did manage to lose weight on this diet, you would lose weight very slowly, even if you ate a sensible number of calories each day. This is because the diet actually limits the consumption of a number of foods which are nutrient dense and can help with weight loss, and can lead you to be deficient in a number of vitamins and minerals, including Fiber, Folic Acid, Vitamin D, and Calcium.

What Type of Calorie Count is Recommended on this Diet?

With the information provided in the Schwarzbein Principle, there is no real limitation on caloric consumption. Because there are no recommendations with regard to serving size, there is absolutely no way to estimate the number of calories that you would be consuming with this diet.

Recommendations of the Schwarzbein Principle

Range-Fed Poultry and Meat Untreated with Antibiotics or Hormones, Limited Starch Vegetables and Whole Grains, Foods High in Fat and Protein

Things to Avoid on the Schwarzbein Principle

Foods with Hydrogenated Fat, High Sodium, Processed Sausage, Vegetable Oils, Foods with a High Glycemic Index, and Processed, Refined Carbohydrates

The Truth About the RealAge Diet

The RealAge Diet is another diet which claims to both help you lose weight and help you age more slowly. The full title of the diet is “The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat.” The man that created the diet is Doctor Michael Roizen, and he believes that if you follow his advice, you will be able to actually make yourself biologically younger as long as you eat conscientiously. He places a strong emphasis on the idea that his nutrition and lifestyle plan is explicitly not a diet, although it will have the same impact on your health as a diet.

Rather than give you a complex diet plan to follow, it simply encourages healthy eating, which helps you achieve a healthy weight. Eating well and losing weight will not only increase your lifespan but help you make sure that those extra years are healthy years.

The RealAge Diet at a Glance

• Encourages the enjoyment of nutritious food in a relaxing setting

• Promotes optimal health and minimizes mortality risk through diet

• Places an emphasis on whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, and soy foods

• Allows wiggle room: Wine with dinner is acceptable, as well as a treat from time to time

Who Should Try the RealAge Diet?

This diet is for men and women that have motivation and are willing to make the effort to alter their diet for the good of their health. The goal of this diet plan is to teach you how to live healthy with quality information regarding nutrition and food.

Who Should Try a Different Diet?

People that are looking to simply lose weight should consider a different diet. The RealAge Diet is created for individuals that are willing and ready to make enduring changes in both their eating habits and their lifestyle with the explicit goal of adding good years to their life. The diet will encourage weight loss, but other diets may achieve that end more quickly.

The Specifics of the RealAge Diet

The central concept behind the RealAge diet is that simply by choosing the correct foods, you can effectively mitigate the risks of a number of dangerous and deadly diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. The benefits of changing one's diet and lifestyle do not only relate to chronic illness however. The diet also claims to help you both feel and look younger. The RealAge Diet can be explained quite simply, and Roizen explains the basic principles of the diet succinctly: Eat nutrient dense, low calories foods that you enjoy.

One interesting addition to the RealAge diet is that one of the first steps of the diet is to figure out what your biological age truly is. Roizen accomplishes this through an extensive quiz that spans more than twenty pages. It goes through all aspects of your health status, diet and lifestyle, explaining how these factors are all interrelated and how good diet and lifestyle impact your life.

Unlike many other diet plans, Roizen does not point to any supplement or pill as the answer to your health problems. He also explains that there is no magic ingredient or food group that will make you grow old more slowly or lose weight more quickly. He also recognizes the connection between stress, psychology, and eating, so he recommends eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in enjoyable and stress-free environments.

What is eating on the RealAge Diet like?

The RealAge Diet does not involve any silver bullets or “surefire” gimmicks, it simply outlines various guidelines for healthy eating. There are a lot of basic principles that can help you live longer that are simply ignored by many in 21st century America.

Among the recommendations that Roizen makes is that you avoid empty calories, simple sugars, trans fats, saturated fats, and red meat. These are all things that many people have heard before, but Roizen goes through the scientific principles behind why these foods are bad and helps you figure out ways to effectively avoid them.

In general, the RealAge Diet strongly cautions against the consumption of foods that have a high glycemic index. These foods are terrible for health because they lead to sudden spikes in insulin levels which have a negative impact on hormone balance.

There is strong evidence that High Glycemic Foods and Drinks encourage obesity, diabetes, and weight gain. The RealAge Diet provides fourteen days worth of example menus as well as twenty recipes, all of which give you a general idea how to shape your own dietary preferences and habits to fit the needs of your body.

RealAge Diet Meal Examples

Breakfast – Orange juice, soy milk, blueberries, kashi

Lunch – Soy milk, a plum, and whole-wheat bread with whole fruit spread

Dinner – Salad with olive oil, nuts, avocado, and canned tuna, red wine, and whole grain crackers

Dessert – Strawberries lightly dipped in dark chocolate

Snack – Whole Wheat Pretzel

RealAge Diet Largely Freeform

While the author provides example menus and recipes as a means to help you conceptualize a healthier diet, there is no explicit system for developing your own diet. The RealAge Diet provides you with a lot of freedom to arrange your diet around your personal preferences.

The RealAge Diet encourages healthier eating through education, and as you take the RealAge Test, the author explains 127 elements which can impact the aging process, causing you to grow and feel older more quickly. Of the 127 elements, 25 of the factors are related to diet and exercise, and he vividly explains how you need to alter your lifestyle in order to improve your health and reduce your mortality risk.

The Expert Opinion on the RealAge Diet

This diet is strongly influenced by modern scientific research, and is widely agreed to be an incredibly healthy diet. Experts also appreciate that Roizin encourages the consumption of plant foods high in phytochemicals, which have been proven to prevent and safeguard health by helping to prevent disease.

Although the diet is believed to be incredibly healthy and effective, the RealAge test is obviously very approximate, because there is no real way to really tell how long you will live based on the way that you score on a health test. Mortality risk is a probability equation, so your RealAge has more to do with your odds of reaching a particular age than a concrete measure of age based on a scoring system and questionnaire, no matter how complex.

For example, Roizen says that consuming foods high in phytochemicals known as flavonoids, including grapes, chocolate, garlic, broccoli, onions, and apples, have the ability to make your body 3.2 years younger exactly. Roizen claims that every suggestion he makes in his diet plan is confirmed by scientific research. On the other hand, although there is research proclaiming that flavonoid-rich foods are very healthy for you, there is no way to confirm how much longer or shorter that you will live based off of your ability to follow any particular health rule.

In spite of this, the questionnaire does achieve worthwhile goals in spite of only being an approximation, because it teaches you exactly how making worthwhile changes to your diet and lifestyle has the ability to powerfully impact your long term health.

With regard to the diet itself, there is very little to complain about in any facet. The diet is high in whole grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits. It does not rely on the use of supplements, but the author does wisely suggest taking a mineral/multivitamin supplement just to make sure that you get all of the nutrients that you need. He does not recommend that you turn to any high-volume supplement with the hopes that it will vastly improve your health.

Another thing that experts really like about the RealAge Diet is the level of emphasis that it places upon both physical exercise and general activity level. Many other diets neglect discussion of good exercise and activity habits, making it seem like it is possible to easily lose weight and stay healthy just through diet alone.

There are also two nutrients that the RealAge Diet pays particular attention to, that other diets tend to neglect: Calcium and Vitamin C. He even takes it a step further, he believes that Vitamin D is likely one of the most essential vitamins needed in order to improve one's resiliency to the aging process.

What Are the Calorie Requirements of the RealAge Diet?

The RealAge Diet doesn't place an emphasis on calorie counting, but it still asserts the importance of being calorie-conscious. He even provides serving sizes and calorie counts for a number of basic foods you will be eating in your diet.

Although he doesn't discuss caloric restriction in depth, he does provide a calorie chart, which suggests recommended calorie consumption based on weight, activity level, and height. The book also includes a chart listing the number of calories burnt off by engaging in various forms of physical exercise.

RealAge Diet Recommendations

Vegetables, Fruits, Low-Glycemic Index Foods, Lean Meats, Solid Multivitamin, Eating in a Relaxing Atmosphere

RealAge Diet Things to Avoid

Trans Fats and Foods with a High Glycemic Index

The Truth About the Origin Diet

The Origin Diet is one of a number of diets that belong to the trend of Paleolithic Dieting. The central idea of this diet and others like it is that the best way to increase longevity through diet is to consume a diet that is similar to that which our ancient ancestors would have eaten in the Stone Age. Today, we eat and drink many things that our bodies are not optimally designed for. This is actually one of the reasons why obesity has become such a major health epidemic in the United States.

Our bodies are designed to store calories more efficiently than we can burn them off in order to help us survive periods where food availability is scarce. Now that we live in a country where food is plentiful, we still crave the foods that help us survive when things get tough, but we no longer have any appreciable risk of starvation, and many people actually suffer from malnutrition while simultaneously being obese.

The Origin Diet at a Glance

• The Origin Diet revolves around taking up habits in diet and nutrition which attempt to replicate those of our ancestors from the stone age.

• This diet avoids processed foods and is heavy on whole grain foods.

• Exercise is central to the Origin Diet.

Who Should Try the Origin Diet?

This is actually an incredibly safe diet which is suitable for any person with the drive and desire to institute significant changes in both their lifestyle and their diet. This health plan could work for nearly anyone.

Who Should Not Try the Origin Diet?

Unlike many other fad diets, there really is no common group that this diet is not recommended for. The primary barrier with regard to this diet is price tag. The types of foods recommended with this diet are a bit more expensive than the common processed foods which flood our grocery stores. Before starting this plan, make sure that you have the budget to fulfill the requirements of the diet.

Also, this diet is fairly strict, and if you are the type of person that can't resist temptation, you may need to look elsewhere for a diet plan which gives more wiggle room when it comes to cheating.

The Specifics of the Origin Diet

The author of the Origin Diet is a dietitian named Elizabeth Somer. She explains that two of the main reasons that Americans are getting sicker is because they don't engage in enough physical activity and they eat too much unhealthy food. She argues that these two facts alone are responsible for at least half of the cases of heart disease and over two thirds of the cases of cancer in our society today.

She believes that the weight gain that occurs in middle-aged men and women in America is not primarily the result of hormone imbalance or factors associated with aging, but to the increasingly sedentary lifestyles of people in the United States today. Human Growth Hormone and Testosterone Levels do decline slowly over time, but this alone is not responsible for weight control issues in American society, although it does play a role, and poor diet and exercise habits do have a negative impact on healthy hormone production while increasing the concentration of hormones like cortisol that are associated with increased mortality risk.

Somer believes that by engaging in a diet which follows the patterns of our ancestors, we enhance our health and hormone balance and keeping our bodies stronger and healthier deeper into the lifespan. She goes on to site specific risks that the Origin Diet serves to mitigate. It reduces the risk of cardiovascular issues such as high blood pressure and heart disease, and it reduces the risk of psychological issues such as depression and memory loss.

There is even evidence that such a diet can encourage bone health and help prevent cataracts. Finally, the Origin Diet increases metabolism, which both burns excess fat and increases metabolism which vastly increases energy levels and reduces fatigue. All of these benefits come together in order to help individuals live longer lives and drop pounds more effectively.

It is important to note, that, like the Eat Better, Live Longer Diet, this is not explicitly considered a weight loss diet, although it can easily encourage weight loss through healthier eating choices. This diet is designed primarily to optimize your health and the processes of your body so that you can live longer and healthier.

The Idea Behind the Origin Diet

Most of the nutrition recommendations of the Origin Diet are deeply rooted in scientific research. Somer's diet plan places an emphasis on the consumption of unprocessed foods eaten in their purest forms. There is strong evidence that foods like these provide nutrients optimally, especially compounds known as phytonutrients which have the capability to ward off illness and disease.

The Origin Diet also includes a lot of nutrition options which are high in fiber, because these foods have the ability to both control cholesterol and balance blood sugar, reducing the prevalence of Insulin spikes and reducing the risk of Diabetes significantly.

The Origin Diet is not only a nutrition plan, however, it is a way of life. Somer relates Five Stone Age Secrets that have the ability to supplement and amplify the benefits provided by this diet. She argues that this diet is healthier for human beings because it works better with the way that our bodies have been designed over thousands of years. The Origin Diet also gives you the opportunity to adapt to its precepts over time. These five principles when combined help develop your body into the finely tuned machine that it was designed to be by evolution.

Exercise is vitally important to this diet, because we were historically hunter-gatherers living off of the land. If we wanted meat we had to hunt down wild game or herd domestic animals. If we wanted other foods, we had to forage for them. Our Stone Age lifestyle was an incredibly active lifestyle, and the Origin Diet seeks to replicate this high level of physical activity.

The Specifics of the Origin Diet

The Origin Diet places a powerful emphasis upon natural foods that one would find in the wild, and foods which are nutritionally similar to these foods. Although this diet is highly Paleolithic, you won't be rooting and foraging yourself. Canned foods will often suffice for your diet, and just because a food is frozen, doesn't mean that it is bad for you. Some processed foods are even allowed, as long as they meet certain guidelines. Even fat-free salad dressing is okay in moderation

In her book, Somer provides a number of suggestions for meals, which can be prepared to meet the daily requirements of the diet each day. The book also provides recipes to make a number of dishes which fit the specific needs of the diet.

Unlike many other forms of diet, there is no explicit nutrition plan and there are no complicated dietary exchanges. As an alternative, the Origin Diet provides a set of specific guidelines for you to follow in order to change the way that you eat.

The Origin Diet suggests the following every day:

• Two servings of lean protein

• Three servings of starch from vegetables

• Three servings of foods rich in calcium

• Six servings of whole grains

An acceptable dinner would be something along the lines of chopped walnuts, raisins, wheat germ, and soy milk. A typical lunch would be nonfat milk, green salad with no-fat dressing, and a whole wheat grilled chicken sandwich. Dinner would be nonfat milk, broccoli, baked potato, and baked salmon with veggies.

One of the central tenets of this diet is to limit the intake of unhealthy fats. The primary sources of meat-protein should be wild game, shellfish, fish, and poultry breast. Another thing this diet shares with many other successful diets is a concept she refers to as grazing. She believes that it is generally better to eat five or six modest meals and snacks across the entire day, rather than packing all of the calories into breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Expert Opinion on the Origin Diet

Nutrition specialists pretty much universally agree that the Origin Diet is an incredibly healthy diet, although they do have some concerns regarding the viability of the diet for some people. Avoiding overly processed food is very important, and if you don't have time to prepare your own meals or you have to eat conveniently this may be hard to do.

Also, some may find it hard to switch from beef and pork to wild game, either because of a lack of availability or because of the increased cost added to the food budget. On the other hand, many experts believe that you could replace wild game with lean cuts of beef and pork and still have a successful and workable diet. If you can work with the restrictions of this diet, you will inevitably have success in improving your health.

Like most other effective diets, the Origin Diet does not only concern nutrition, but also stress control and exercise. The Origin Diet includes a variety of suggestions regarding ways that you can include physical activity into your everyday life, and also provides a list of suggestions regarding ways that you can alleviate stress and take the time to relax.

Overall, this is a very balanced and healthy diet. It revolves around the consumption of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and places a high emphasis on healthy soy products. Overall, there are really only two ways that this diet is deficient: Vitamin D and Calcium. If you are under the age of fifty, Vitamin D won't be a problem, because you can easily get what you need with a little bit of healthy and conscientious sunlight. On the other hand, you may need to start looking for fortified foods and supplements if you are over fifty years old, because our bodies start to make Vitamin D less efficiently.

The Origin Diet only recommends up to three servings of dairy each day. This is more than many other nutrition plans, but this is still not enough to meet your Calcium needs for the day. Men and women over the age of fifty need between 1,200 and 1,500 mg of Vitamin D and Calcium every day.

The best ways that you can get Vitamin D without turning to supplements are through fortified yogurts and milk. If you start trading dairy milk for soy milk, make sure that your soy milk is properly fortified with Vitamin D and Calcium, because this is not always the case.

The good thing about this diet is that there isn't a real necessity to compulsively count calories throughout the day, because the basic rules of the diet limit your ability to overeat, because of a focus on nutrition dense rather than calorie dense foods.

This diet is also great because the foods that you eat will both have a high fiber content and will for the most part be unprocessed or lightly processed, meaning that your hunger will be abated more quickly which will also help you eat more reasonable meals. This, in combination with the required exercise of the diet, will make you be sure to lose weight as long as you follow the diet appropriately.

What is the Calorie Count for the Origin Diet?

Unlike a lot of other diets, there is no explicit calorie count for the Origin Diet. The main thrust of this diet is learning about the foods you eat and choosing foods that are densely nutritious and high in fiber. Also, the strict limit on processed grains, sugar, and unhealthy fat will also go a long way to naturally curtail your daily intake of calories, even without explicitly trying to cut calories.

The Origin Diet Diet Recommendations

Wild Game, Seafood, Chicken Breast, Legumes, Fresh Vegetables, Fresh Fruits, Whole Grains, Canola Oil, Olive Oil, Exercise

The Origin Diet Things to Avoid

Fast Food, Whole Fat Dairy, Fatty Meats, Refined Foods, Processed Foods, Inactivity