The Asian Diet has been named a Top Diet by US News and
World Report
Every year, US News and World Report ranks the best
diets.
In 2013, The Asian Diet made it
on the list.
They refer to it as the “Traditional
Asian Diet” because there is not just one specific Asian Diet and because the
diet is Asia is changing lately as the Western diet is
creeping into their culture (with disastrous effects).
But my book,
The Asian Diet: Simple secrets for eating right, losing weight, and
being well, was a main source that US News and World Report consulted in
evaluating the Traditional Asian Diet.
22
experts evaluated 29 different diets.
Read
the whole article here at
http://health.usnews.com/best-diet
.
Here’s what they had to say about the
Asian Diet.
Overall, this diet plan was ranked at #11, but came in 4th
among plant-based diets. One reviewer
wrote “the nutritional balance is better than most other plant-based or vegan
diets”. Some of the negative aspects the
reviewers pointed out reflect their interpretation of the traditional Asian
diet and do not reflect the Asian Diet as it is explained in my book. I will discuss them later.
Will it help you lose
weight? Probably. Research suggests
people in Asian countries who follow this dietary pattern weigh less than their
Western counterparts. That’s likely because it’s high in healthy foods that
keep hunger at bay: whole grains, vegetables, and bean products, for example.
Is it good for
cardiovascular health? It’s likely.
Asian diets are low in fat, especially the saturated variety, and high in
fiber, due to an emphasis on fruits and veggies, whole grains, and rice. And
they’re in line with the medical community’s widely accepted definition of a
heart-healthy diet that keeps cholesterol and blood pressure in check and heart
disease at bay.
Is it good for prevention
or control of diabetes? The diet
appears to be a viable option for both.
Studies have shown that this type of diet can improve glucose tolerance as
well.
Is it safe? The experts found no possible harmful effects
of following this diet plan.
Is it nutritious? Absolutely.
Following the Asian Diet, you should have no trouble staying within the
recommended amounts for: Fat, protein, carbohydrates, salt, fiber,
potassium, calcium, vitamin B-12, and vitamin D. No supplementation is necessary when
following the Asian Diet.
Is it easy to follow? The authors said that if you don’t like rice,
noodles, legumes, and vegetables, then it may be hard. But, it is hard to be healthy if you are
avoiding vegetables. We don’t just feed
our tongues, so one of the things we need to do in order to improve our health
is to increase the variety of foods that we eat. If you don’t like vegetables, suck it up and
eat some anyway.
Will I be hungry? No.
With so many fiber packed foods, and with no calorie cap, you shouldn’t
go hungry.
A write-up of the reviewers work stated that you should eat
a lot of Asian vegetables in order to follow this diet. This is absolutely not what I advocate. One of the principles that all the Asian
cultures follow is that they eat locally-produced food.
Another problem is that they were not sure that this diet
could lead to sustained weight loss. But
they also said it is hard to follow and that Asians abandon this type of diet
when they come to America. When they do this, their incidence of
obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer all go up. The food marketers of America
have great influence and we need to be diligent to keep our diets good and
balanced. I have a lot of Asian patients who were raised
with an Asian diet, adopted the American diet for themselves and have suffered
the consequences. When they return to
the Asian Diet, they lose weight, feel better, and have fewer health
problems.
Another slight against this diet was that it can be more
expensive to follow. There is a great
Italian proverb that says, “It is better to pay the grocer than the doctor.” We literally are what we eat. Every day, millions of our cells die. We make new ones from the raw material we put
in (food). If you were building a house,
you would want to get the best lumber you could get, right? It’s the same thing with feeding
yourself. Invest in good building
materials and your body will be much stronger and more resilient.
Another negative was that it is not a clearly-defined
plan. I address this in my book. People love being told exactly what to do-
for a while. The South Beach Diet was
very popular for this reason. But after
about six weeks, people start resenting being told what to do and abandon these
very-prescriptive diets. The Asian Diet
is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It
gives you the principles and leave you free to figure out how to implement them. However, in the next edition of the book, I
may add a sample, suggested plan for people to model their own plans
after.
Overall I am thrilled that US News and World Report has
included the Asian Diet in their rankings and rated it well.
I am glad that more people will get exposed
to these principles; and I am grateful that they used my book in their
research.
If more people ate this way,
we would not have such grave concerns about the growing health crisis in our
country.
If you have not yet read it,
check out
www.theasiandiet.com today
and order your copy.
