Making Sense of the Diet Circus

Jean Feeney is a loser. Finally.

After years on the diet roller coaster--Weight Watchers, Optifast, an all-vegetarian diet--Feeney lost 40 pounds following the high-protein, low-carbohydrate eating plan described in Barry Sears’ best-selling diet book “The Zone: A Dietary Road Map” (HarperCollins/ReganBooks, 1995). Best of all, Feeney, a stockbroker who lives in Hermosa Beach, has kept the weight off.

“I tried Weight Watchers,” Feeney says, “but I didn’t like the meal plans. I lost 30 pounds on Optifast, the one Oprah went on, but I gained it right back. When I tried a vegetarian diet, I gained. I’m a grazer.”

Counting and balancing grams of protein and carbohydrates on the Zone keeps her honest, she says. And it fits her nature; she likes working with numbers. If Feeney has a craving for ice cream (a carbohydrate), she eats some and balances it with a little cottage cheese (protein). She enjoys a piece of chocolate but follows that with a little tuna.

“I don’t feel like I’m on a diet,” Feeney says. “I don’t cook much but eat in lots of restaurants. Once you understand how to balance protein and carbohydrates, you can play with it. Sears is pretty strict, but I can live with this diet.”

Judy Halpert thought she was a loser too.

Over the years, she tried the Stillman and Beverly Hills diets; she counted fat grams, then calories; she fasted, ate vegan and went on liquid diets. In the ‘80s, like many others, she ate a mostly low-fat/high-complex carbohydrate diet. Nothing worked.

Finally, the 42-year-old talent agent from Sherman Oaks started adding more protein and--yes--fat to her meals, along with high-fiber, non-starchy vegetables, after attending a lecture in Los Angeles last summer by physicians Michael and Mary Eades, the authors of “Protein Power” (Bantam, 1996). Twenty pounds fell away, and Halpert thought she’d finally found the perfect diet.

The high-protein diet, she said, provided clear limits, no fussy recipes, specific authorized foods and no guesswork with portions. For the first time, Halpert says, she felt a sense of control.

“I love bread, but high-carb diets didn’t work for me,” Halpert said a few months ago when her weight was at its lowest. “Unless I really got into exercise, jogging and aerobic classes, I just couldn’t lose weight. When you’re told to eat pasta and bread, the boundaries go.”

The strict boundaries of the Eades plan, however, turned out to be a problem for Halpert. Three weeks ago she reported that she’s regained the weight she lost. As many have found before her, no diet is perfect if you can’t stick to it.

“I couldn’t live with the diet,” Halpert says. “I missed fruit and pasta. The diet didn’t work with my lifestyle. It was anti-social.”

The lesson here isn’t that the Zone works and the Eades plan doesn’t. Not everyone who follows the Zone loses weight, and there are plenty of “Protein Power” success stories. What’s more, the general idea behind both eating plans--more protein and fewer carbohydrates--is similar.

Rather, to an outsider looking in, the difference is that Feeney found a diet that fit her lifestyle while Halpert is still searching for hers.

Certainly, there are plenty out there for her to try. Each year new diets are introduced, new nutritional gurus are anointed and conventional wisdom gets turned on its head.

Through the years, Americans have embraced the Grapefruit Diet, the Drinking Man’s Diet, the Air Force Diet, the Mayo Clinic Diet, the Scarsdale Diet. Some emphasize eating certain foods and avoiding others; others just specify the kinds and amounts of foods to eat. Should it be more protein and fewer complex carbohydrates or more carbohydrates and less protein? How much fat?

In the ‘70s, researcher Nathan Pritikin preached a diet high in complex carbohydrates and fiber and low in fat and protein to fend off cardiovascular disease. Eyebrows were raised when he whittled fat and protein each to 10%. Pritikin followers would stuff themselves, add regular exercise and watch their weight and cholesterol levels drop. But heart disease prevention, not weight loss, was Pritikin’s primary mission.

Over time, a modified version of Pritikin was accepted by many nutritionists. And during what some are now calling the fat-phobic ‘80s, we were told to eat foods that were low in fat and high in carbohydrates. Many adapted the diet of marathon runners and triathletes, even if the most exercise they got was walking from the front door to the car door each morning.

Now the hot diet advice is to cut out carbohydrates, add more protein and don’t worry so much about eating fatty foods.

The appeal of the current high-protein diets is fast weight loss. When carbohydrates are restricted, stored water is liberated and weight loss in the beginning is often dramatic.

“Why [the diets] work is nothing revolutionary,” says Dr. Michael Bush, an endocrinologist and director of Cedars-Sinai Weight Control Program. “Calories are restricted.”

And calories do count. It’s an old message that’s been preached before in other diets, including Stillman, Atkins and Scarsdale. But it’s a message that was forgotten by a lot of us in the ‘80s and early ‘90s as we carbo-loaded and sought out low-fat and nonfat foods almost exclusively.

“People lose sight of how much they’re eating, especially if the label reads low-fat or nonfat,” says Jean Eis, a dietitian and director of the weight-control program at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. “Those foods have calories. When fat is removed, they have to add something, and it’s usually sugar and sodium. Sometimes the nonfat products have more calories than the low-fat ones.”

“The message [of the ‘80s] was basically a good one,” says Bush. “But let’s face it: Carboholic Americans did not hear the whole prescription. We just ate too much.” We lost sight of the basics, he says, such as portion control. And many ignored how much aerobic exercise was necessary to burn off all that pasta.

The problem with most fat-free foods, says Culver City dietitian Carrie Wiatt, is their lack of taste and satisfaction. “They turn some people into cravers,” she says. “If you love real chocolate chip cookies, the low-fat ones leave you unsatisfied. Then you hunt for the real thing. What replaced the fat was usually sugar, and by the end of the hunt, you’ve eaten extra calories anyway.”

So are high-protein diets the answer?

Not necessarily. The answer for most people may not come down to a single diet but rather to the obvious: moderation. A balanced diet and a regular exercise program will keep us fit and keep our waistlines in check.

If you want to lose weight, government health experts and medical professionals advise a nutritionally balanced diet with a minimum daily caloric intake of 1,200 to 1,500 calories for women and 1,500 to 1,800 calories for men, depending on age, build and activity level.

A safe weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds a week, and exercise--three to five times a week for at least 30 minutes--is important.

But what’s the best way to lose those 1 to 2 pounds a week?

The Eades and Sears plans both recommend that the ideal meal should be 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. The American Heart Assn. Dietary Guidelines prescribe 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 20% fat. Meanwhile, other nutritionists, including Wiatt, favor even less protein, bringing the equation to 65% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 15% fat.

With all this contradictory advice out there, what’s the average dieter supposed to do?

Perhaps a little common sense is called for.

It was a year ago that Phil Brock finally got his weight under control--on his own terms. The 43-year-old talent agent in Santa Monica had been battling middle age spread after a couple of surgeries derailed his sports activities. As the years chugged along, the pounds piled on and saying no to snacks on movie sets--ice cream and bakery goods--became harder.

But he missed feeling fit and decided to do something about it. “It took me a year but I lost 40 pounds,” says Brock. “And I kept it off.”

He refers to his diet as the “Retro Diet” because he essentially returned to his student habits. He cycles to work instead of driving, walks on the treadmill and hikes on the weekends.

“It’s the diet that my grandmother preached 35 years ago,” he says. “Eat less and move more.”

Diet success stories like Brock’s fascinate Minnesota-based nutritionist Anne M. Fletcher. In her work in obesity treatment, Fletcher began studying what made successful dieters different from yo-yo dieters. What started in 1989 as research for an article on dieting success planted seeds for a book, “Thin for Life: 10 Keys to Success” (Chapters, 1995).

“After that book,” Fletcher says, “I still had questions. What did they actually eat, what did they cook?” That research evolved into “Eating Thin for Life: Food Secrets and Recipes” (Chapters, 1997).

For both books, Fletcher interviewed more than 200 people she calls “masters of weight control,” not doctors or dietitians but dieters who actually lost more than 20 pounds and kept it off for more than three years.

They related real experiences about dieting and coping with various situations, such as what to do with your old food buddies when your eating habits are different, what to do with family and friends who applaud your loss then predict your downfall or force a second helping or the mixed feelings a newly successful female dieter experiences when she learns she’s pregnant.

From the masters’ experiences, Fletcher devised her own 21-day low-fat weight-loss plan that includes menus and recipes.

“What’s significant is that most people did not follow a fad diet. They individualized what basically was a low-fat style of eating. Lots of fruits and vegetables, small portions of lean meats or none at all, lots of water. They avoided fast foods.

“Once they reached maintenance, they continued to eat the same foods that got them thin but increased the quantity,” Fletcher says. “All were yo-yo dieters and had tried four to five diets before becoming successful. They had fantasy weights, but along the way they made peace with a comfortable weight and their body image. They also kept in mind the image of their former selves and the trials of being fat: the difficulties in fitting into an airplane seat, crossing your legs or feeling uncomfortable in tight-fitting clothes.

“En route to their weight loss, they celebrated small successes. Instead of being unhappy when, at the end of the week, they didn’t lose a pound, they focused on the fact that they didn’t gain.”

Fletcher observed that none of the successful dieters was fanatical about counting calories or fat grams. “But they were mindful of calories, fat and portion sizes,” she says. “Most weighed themselves weekly and disciplined themselves to nip a small weight gain before it got big. Each established his or her own buffer zone of five to 10 pounds above the optimal weight. If they hit that number, they took action. They were successful overall because they got to that point where feeling good or thinner became more important than eating the wrong food.”

Despite these success stories of slow, steady weight loss, what many people are looking for is the quick fix, the magic bullet. That’s why fad diets will always have a niche. Many of the buyers of this year’s hot diet book will be back in line for next year’s. In “The 5-Day Miracle Diet” (Ballantine, 1996), author Adele Puhn recommends “hard-chew” vegetables and soft fruits to be eaten at certain times. And for those who would rather drink than read, there are an array of Slim Fast clones.

“People want to get thin without any effort,” says Michael Lowe, a professor of clinical psychology at Allegheny University of the Health Sciences in Philadelphia. “Any diet that is so specialized and rigid has a certain appeal, but tinkering with a macronutrient, such as fat, is a false hope.”

“Anything dramatic works until the novelty wears off,” says Fletcher, a Minnesota-based nutritionist. “Then you realize changing habits is hard work.”

Wiatt says the futility of fad diets is that they take people away from foods they love. “They’re not realistic. Within a year the majority of dieters go back to their favorite foods. If those [foods] are goat cheese pizza or brownies, you’ve got to include them with exercise in a weight-control program. It’s got to fit into the lifestyle, or else people are doomed.”

There’s more to the appeal of fad diets than simply instant gratification. Just as favorite foods provide comfort, so does a rigid diet, maintains psychologist Lowe.

He says that’s why fad diets seem to work for people at first.

Halpert liked the high-protein diet for the limits it imposed and the lack of guesswork with portions. But it was that same rigidity and the boredom factor, she maintains now, that derailed her.

“Going on a diet gives a person instant relief from the distress that caused him to overeat in the first place,” says Lowe. “Dieting makes you feel back in control. It’s an escape, of sorts, and losing pounds fast reinforces it. Dieting is seductive because it gives people structure. And morality. You are either good or bad.”

The message of moderation does seem to be sinking in slowly. Many diet books don’t use the word “diet” anymore; they talk of “meal plans” or “eating programs.” And an emerging diet trend may actually be the un-diet. Consider that Jenny Craig’s newest cookbook is called “No Diet Required: Recipes for Healthy Living” (Oxmoor House, 1997).

Certainly Los Angeles printing machine salesman Brad Northrup lost weight without a diet. After he gave up smoking six years ago, he reached for muffins, cookies, ice cream bars and potato chips to replace his cigarettes. The pounds piled on and so did the comments from his buddies and girlfriend about his expanding silhouette. Last year he vowed that before his 40th birthday, he would change his ways and drop 21 pounds.

Over the next five months he began playing twice-weekly basketball games at the YMCA and returned to jogging, something he had dropped after college.

He cut down, but not out, on his favorite foods.

“I’m not the diet type,” Northrup says. “I hate low-calorie beer and I haven’t read ‘The Zone.’ I love bread and pizza and glazed doughnuts, warm.”

A real carbo junkie, Northrup continued to eat starches, but in smaller quantities, and he made some substitutions to reduce fat--bagels for high-fat muffins and doughnuts, pretzels for potato chips and vegetarian pizza with low-fat cheese for double-cheese sausage pizza.

In January, Northrup celebrated his 40th birthday--and the loss of 21 pounds. These days, he’s no longer dieting but is maintaining his weight by being careful.

“I still pig out,” he says, “but the regular exercise helps. As long as I watch it and don’t get nuts, I can eat without gaining.”

Maybe it all comes down to the advice of Phil Brock’s grandmother: “Eat less and move more.”

BROCCOLI AND MUSHROOM SALAD WITH HONEY AND WALNUTS

Cooking teacher Diana Armstrong developed this salad for a class she taught in “The Zone Diet” at Let’s Get Cookin’, Westlake Village. The rich taste comes from cottage cheese and buttermilk.

4 to 5 cups small broccoli florets

Salt, pepper

3 cups sliced mushrooms

3 green onions, including tops, chopped

1 1/2 cups low-fat cottage cheese

3/4 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

1 tablespoon light mayonnaise

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

2 kosher pickles, chopped

1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

3 tablespoons chopped walnuts or almonds

Steam broccoli florets over boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Arrange broccoli in large shallow bowl and season to taste with salt and liberally with pepper. Add mushrooms and sprinkle green onions over mushrooms.

Combine cottage cheese, buttermilk, mayonnaise, parsley, honey, celery salt, Italian seasoning and pickles in bowl. Stir together.

Pour over vegetables, mixing to coat lightly. Dust with paprika and top with nuts. Cover with plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours.

Remove from refrigerator about 30 minutes before serving.

6 servings. Each serving.

145 calories; 939 mg sodium; 5 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 1.50 grams fiber.

GRILLED SALMON WITH MOROCCAN ROASTED BELL PEPPERS

Lemon juice, cumin and hot pepper contrast with the cucumbers’ coolness in this North African entree created by teacher Diana Armstrong for her Zone cooking class.

PEPPERS

1 (7 1/4-ounce) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon grenadine or pomegranate molasses

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon olive oil

Hot pepper sauce

CUCUMBERS

2 pickling cucumbers

Salt

1 cup plain yogurt

White pepper

SALMON

4 (1/4-pound) skinless boneless salmon fillets

Salt, pepper

PEPPERS

Pulse red bell peppers, walnuts, grenadine, lemon juice, salt, cumin, olive oil and hot pepper sauce to taste in food processor just enough to grind; do not over blend. Chill 24 hours but bring to room temperature before serving.

CUCUMBERS

Sprinkle cucumbers with salt and set aside for 1 hour. Rinse and pat dry. Chop.

An hour before serving, combine with yogurt and season with salt and white pepper to taste. Chill until ready to serve.

SALMON

Season salmon with salt and pepper and place on foil-lined pan. Broil on each side for 3 minutes or until desired doneness.

Top each fillet with Peppers and serve Cucumbers on side.

4 servings. Each serving:

232 calories; 393 mg sodium; 43 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 24 grams protein; 0.58 gram fiber.

SHRIMP AND GOAT CHEESE PIZZA

This recipe comes from “Eating by Design” by Carrie Wiatt (Simon & Schuster Pocket Books, 1996; $14). Although the recipe makes enough for a large pizza for 8, the topping recipe can be reduced to single-pizza size and leftover crust can be frozen until another time.

CRUST

Water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 (1/4-ounce) package dry yeast

2 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray

SHRIMP AND CHEESE TOPPING

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray

2 dozen jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1/2 pound goat cheese

24 leaves fresh basil, chopped

24 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in hot water until soft and sliced thin

1/2 pound part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

CRUST

Combine 1/4 cup warm water, sugar and yeast in bowl of electric mixer fitted with dough hook and mix to combine. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add yogurt, salt and 3/4 cup water. Mix with dough hook at medium speed and gradually add flour. Continue mixing, adding flour as needed, until dough pulls from side of bowl and is velvety.

Turn dough into clean bowl and lightly spray surface with cooking spray. Cover and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

For individual pizzas, divide dough into 8 balls and stretch or roll into rounds. Or roll whole dough into one large round and place on prepared pizza pan. Spray surface lightly with cooking spray. (Note: Dough may be frozen before or after rolling or stretching. Stretched dough can be baked directly from freezer. Thaw unrolled dough 24 hours in refrigerator.)

SHRIMP AND CHEESE TOPPING

Spray nonstick pan with cooking spray. Add shrimp and garlic and cook briefly. Shrimp does not need to be fully cooked.

Remove shrimp from pan and cut in half lengthwise. Toss with goat cheese, basil and tomatoes.

Bake crust at 400 degrees 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from oven and spread topping over crust. Top with mozzarella cheese and continue baking until crust is golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes.

8 servings. Each serving:

354 calories; 472 mg sodium; 60 mg cholesterol; 12 grams fat; 38 grams carbohydrates; 23 grams protein; 0.18 gram fiber.

CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEECAKE

Dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Carrie Wiatt advocate low-fat diets and foods that taste rich but aren’t. Both advise using smaller amounts of genuine ingredients. This recipe is from “Healthy Homestyle Desserts” by dietitian Evelyn Tribole (Viking, 1996).

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup nonfat sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray

1 tablespoon light butter, melted

2 tablespoons quick rolled oats

Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Add nuts, stir and set aside.

Combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl; set aside.

Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually beat in sugar until soft peaks form. Beat in applesauce. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. Add half flour mixture and beat until blended. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until blended.

Spoon half batter into 8-inch-round springform pan lightly coated with cooking spray. Add half (about 1 cup) of streusel mixture.

Drop remaining batter by tablespoons in pan over streusel and carefully spread batter evenly, using back of spoon.

Add melted butter to remaining streusel mixture and stir with fork until blended. Sprinkle over batter. Sprinkle oats over top.

Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted near center of cake comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

8 to 10 servings. Each of 10 servings:

350 calories; 152 mg sodium; 3 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 67 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.66 gram fiber.

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Diet Tips

These suggestions come from the medical professionals interviewed for this story:

1) Got a craving? Go for it. Substituting a low-fat or nonfat brownie for a real brownie usually fails to satisfy. It can trigger a binge or further “research” for the right taste to satisfy the craving.

2) Are you really hungry? Put hunger on a scale from 1 (I’m starving; I’m going to die) to 10 (I’m stuffed; my clothes feel like shrink-wrap). Stay around 5. Being in the 6/7 zone (“I feel like eating but don’t know what I want”) usually signals boredom, not hunger. Get busy, go for a walk, grab the phone--not the chips.

3) Remember that restaurant portions are unisex. Whether you’re a 6-foot-3 male or a 5-foot-3 female, you get the same amount.

4) Don’t wait for a hunger pain. Eat something every four to five hours. Skipping meals slows the metabolism, which makes it tougher to burn calories and lose weight.