What is THE best diet?

Question
Dear Tanya,

Is there one general diet as in more of a "general dietary way of life" as opposed to a short term diet that you would say comes closest to what you believe in your opinion is our optimum diet for life and living?

Do you give private consulting for clients who want individual diet and exercise plans developed for them?

With Regards
James

Answer
Dear James,

There can be more than one answer to your question. I can give you my opinion based on research papers analysis and professional experience, or medical establishment opinion, or just refer to common sense such as "everyone is different" etc.

My opinion is, we people as a species should try to understand our own biological makeup and choose the way of eating accordingly. Research showed that we have several points in common within the species as well as within the animal kingdom.

Generally, we are *programmed* to overeat and so do animals. Calorie restriction results in life span increase in animals and slowing the aging process in humans (judging by biological markers of aging) -- but how do the restriction usually estimated? Often, comparing with calorie consumption when the food is free available (ad libitum), and this happens so seldom in real nature where there are more periods of food shortage than food abundance, so it's a good thing to overeat when possible. Not any longer in 'civilized鈥?societies!

However, we mostly overeat when there鈥檚 a lot of a carbohydrate-rich, sweet-tasted food. If there isn't, we (and animals) tend to eat much less.

Another thing is, the meal timing the doctors taught us to be the best  -- 6 small meals a day -- is good only if you are able to burn a lot of calories through hard physical efforts. If you cant, you'll overeat. There's a growing body of evidence that the intermittent fasting (you eat all day long then you fast 24 hours) works similar to calorie restriction.

Now, there's a point of view that the two main dietary extremes - low carb and low fat - can in fact converge. Please read my article "Diet ideas converging?" at:

http://atkinszone.com/diet-ideas.html

More about intermittent fasting you can find at the "Every Other Day Diet" site:

http://tinyurl.com/29l5ll

If you are not familiar with my Banta Diet you might want to take a look at http://bantadiet.com/banta

I did my best trying to answer a very tough question :)

Tanya Zilberter


PS. Oh, and I'd be happy to help you individually, this is what I do for the Banta Diet paid members. You might want to contact me for details at:

http://bantadiet.com/banta/?p=67

1. Prev:Im 116 pounds and want to lose 7 more
2. Next:Grain based foods and the Paleo Diet