Pritikin DietPosted 9 years ago under Uncategorized
The Pritikin diet is a high carbohydrate, high vegetable, low calorie, low fat, and low protein diet. It was founded by Nathan Pritikin and was popularized by a book based on the diet published in 1979. This book was on the New York Times bestseller list for 52 weeks.
Nathan Pritikin was a nutritionist, inventor, and longevity researcher. Nathan Pritikin was diagnosed with heart disease in 1957. This motivated Pritikin to seek out an effective treatment plan. The Pritikin diet book was co-authored by Patrick M. McGrady, and the recipes in the book were written by June Roth. (1)
Nathan Pritikin committed suicide in 1985. He was in the late stages of leukemia. The cancer also caused him to suffer from other diseases such as diabetes, kidney failure, anemia and intense pain. Nathan Pritikin was 69 years old. Nathan Pritikin’s son Robert Pritikin took over Longevity Center enterprises after his father’s death. He maintained the core design of the original diet but he updated some of the diet’s practices with his new book. Robert’s new emphasis is on the caloric density of food. Robert Pritikin wrote his Pritikin diet book a while ago, publishing The Pritikin Principle: The Calorie Density Solution in the year 2000. (2)
Staying Active is Part of the Program
The program also includes an exercise regimen. The program is sometimes referred to as The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise. The Pritikin Program is said to be a straightforward easy to follow exercise regime. The program recommends 30 to 90 minutes of cardiovascular exercise six days a week; and seven days a week if diabetic. Strength training is also emphasized with weights of personal preference recommended. The style free weights, elastic bands, weight machines, are left up to personal preference. The exercise program also emphasis flexibility, recommending stretching ten minutes a day, and holding each stretch for 10-30 seconds.
The Pritikin diet is a diet program that happens to closely resemble government guidelines, just a little more restrictive. The Pritikin diet recommends less meat and even less fat than the 1980 USDA guidelines. It also recommends less in the way of processed foods.
The program outlines foods to avoid, and delineates which foods to eat. It suggests avoiding sugar, oils, white bread, corn syrup, refined grains, and salt. For these foods Pritikin says less is better. They also have a “GO” category of foods. These are the foods they encourgage their dieters to build their meals from. They recommend starchy vegetables, legumes, fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains like oatmeal, whole wheat pasta and bread. (3)
High in Carbohydrates
The Pritikin diet recommends five servings of carbohydrates, five servings of vegetables, four servings of fruit, two nonfat dairy or dairy substitutes, and only one serving of low fat animal protein per day. The updated version of the Pritikin diet recommends eating fish. The diet also stresses unprocessed foods, five meals a day and herbs to flavor meals.
Sources
(1) http://www.diet.com/g/pritikin-diet
(2) http://www.diet.com/g/pritikin-diet
(3) http://www.webmd.com/diet/pritikin-diet-review