Is The Idiot Proof Diet (India & Neris) 'bad' for you?

[erebus]

I recently read the book, liked what I saw BUT the simple fact is, the diet seems to fly in the face of all the ingrained stuff we've 'learned' about red meat and protein consumption. I've been overweight all of my adult life- not massively so, but sufficiently to have taken an interested in dieting matters, and, as such, spent years believing the way to permanent weight loss was heaps of fruit and veg, little white meat, small amounts of cheese and nuts, no red meat, but yes to wholemeal bread, pasta and porridge (as it was assumed to 'fill you up'). It's quite hard to ignore all that -ahem- wisdom and eat what the papers tells you is BAD FOR YOU as your weight loss diet, isn't it?

Did any of you struggle mentally with that at all?

Nope, think of what ancient humans ate, your body evolves very slowly (over millennia) - what they recommend is much closer to a caveman diet of natural, unprocessed, food.

No.
The massive over consumption of crap carbs and sugar is bad for you.
And the low fat shit diets that are a disaster.

But you actually need to do it properly, not think "oh yeah, loads of protein and fat. Sorted"

The diet is healthy if you actually do it properly. Good protein good fats low carb. All good.

I find that eating lots of protein and leaves/veg, not too much fruit and no potatoes is fine for me and keeps my blood sugar stable, I get the shakes on porridge. I eat very little carb (other than wine), never pasta and usually homemade wholemeal bread.

I did lose lots of weight after reading Idiot proof, but not on their high fat diet, more the book side motivated me to sort out portion sizes and realise that pizza is not an everyday option. 'good' fat is natural (including red meat). margarine and anything fucked about with is a bad idea. Diet drinks I think really do mess up your metabolism and appetite hormones.

Here

The principle fat in beef is not saturated, but rather the same monounsaturated fat found in olive oil (oleic acid). The other fat in beef is saturated, but a third of it is stearic acid (which is metabolized in the body as oleic acid), so it will raise both HDL and LDL cholesterol in equal amounts (the effect on total cholesterol being neutral). In sum, more than 70 percent of the fat found in beef will improve relative levels of HDL and LDL. Now compare that to the metabolic effect of high-glycemic carbohydrates, which will lower HDL, incease triglycerides, and cause the LDL to be comprised of small, dense, highly atherogenic lipoproteins.

Thanks everyone- anyone else got any thoughts as well?

Would you say that the stuff I 'learned' about dieting comes from a time when we understood a lot less about food, metabolism etc? I mean, it's only relatively recently we discovered that there are 'good' fats, isn't it?!

Well it now seems fairly clear than white carbs - sugar, white flour especially are bad for you.

Personally though, I prefer the south beach diet approach - were the emphasis is on healthy fats over "less heathly" ones - so it advocates eating olive oil, nuts, avocado and avoiding saturated fats - but allows fat free dairy.

Again the south beach diet allows healthy carbs, eg from vegetables, wholegrains. Not convinced that carrots and pulses both not allowed by IPD in phase one are unhealthy or a good thing to cut out (clearly not an issue is phase 1 is just for 2 weeks, more in point if phase 1 followed long term).

I tried the IPD but couldn't bring myself to add cream to food, and really missed fat free yoghurts. But I don't think its unhealthy though, and agree with the other posters that some fat from butter / beef much better than margarine / sugar.

I followed it and lost 15lbs. I am looking for something else now as I got fed up of cooking 3 meals a day.

If you have heard of the blood type diet it explains why some of us are good with with an Atkins type diet and some are def. not. My DH is O type and looses and is really healthy on the Atkins....

....Iam an A type and high protein gives me the shakes. We need plenty of veg,fruit whole grains etc. BTW you should all come over to Paul Mckenna he re educates yr attitude to food.

I am also O and loose well on low carb - but I loose even if I have dairy which the blood group diet doesn't recommend.

I agree about Paul Mckenna though, esp for maintenance.

D.H. gets asthma from dairy. The blood type is for health not nec. weight loss that why I'm on Paul Mckenna as well!