3/6/2006

Diet Book Review: The Flavor Point Diet

By Laura Moncur @ 5:00 pm — Filed under:

The Flavor Point Diet : The Delicious, Breakthrough Plan to Turn Off Your Hunger and Lose the Weight for GoodI picked up The Flavor Point Diet at the health food store. Somehow I thought it might have a grain of truth in it. The diet is based on the premise that if you limit the amount of flavors in a meal, you’ll feel full faster. The flavors in question are sweet, sour, salty and savory.

What I know for sure:

When I used to binge, I would eat for hours on end. I would constantly eat. How could I do that? Most people get full when they eat for five minutes straight, yet I could eat without stopping for hours. How did I do it?

I would start with whatever I was in the mood for, like potato chips. Once I started getting full of potato chips, I would move on to something sweet, like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. After I felt full enough of Reeses, then I would change to something salty again like french fries. Sometimes I would even combine them by dipping my Wendy’s french fries into my chocolate Frosty.

I would keep switching from salty to sweet and back to salty and back to sweet until I couldn’t eat another bite. I used to do this on a regular basis and I even had an episode of this over the last Christmas holiday. The only way I could consume a ton of food like that was to switch between flavors.

How does this translate to a diet?

I don’t know. The method that David L. Katz, the author, uses is to limit flavors by day (such as a lemon day) in the first phase. The second phase limits flavors by the meal (Lemon Lunch, Pineapple Dinner) and finally in the third phase, you should be able to limit your flavors as you see fit.

I am really uncomfortable with diets that map out what I should eat for the next six weeks. I prefer the freedom of choosing what I want to eat at the time of the meal. There is no way for me to follow this diet to see if it would work for me because the mere idea of limiting my food to a six week plan sends me heading for a binge. Dr. Katz had a lot of people following this diet, raving about its efficacy and ease, but I can’t be one of those people. I know in theory, it would be good for me to limit the various flavors in my meals, but there is no way I could possibly follow his plan.

What’s good about the diet?

It seems to be nutritionally very sound and the recipes will bring a variety to your diet that you might be missing right now. We tend to fall into ruts when we are eating healthy, and this diet has enough interesting recipes to really shake up your diet plan. If you consider this book just a recipe book, it’s worth the cost all by itself.

What’s wrong with the diet?

I find the paranoid insistence that the food industry is purposely trying to make you fat a little far-fetched. Sure, there is salt in sweet foods. What probably happened is they tested various recipes and the taste tests came back, puzzling the food chemists. I can just imagine them talking to each other, “Can you believe the one they all chose? They like the one with salt in it. Why would they want so much salt in their cookies? It doesn’t make sense.” The other scientist says, “It doesn’t need to make sense. It just needs to taste good.”

The food industry isn’t trying to make people eat more food by adding more flavors. They are trying to make food that tastes good to the largest number of people. That’s their job, to make the tastiest food. The paranoia is an unnecessary scare tactic.

Should I buy this book and follow this diet?

This diet seems nutritionally very sound with plenty of whole grains, lean protein and interesting recipes. If you’re the kind of person who can follow a regimented diet, this one will work for you. Otherwise, this book has some great ideas for new healthy recipes and some ideas to keep bingeing in check.

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6 Responses to “Diet Book Review: The Flavor Point Diet”

  1. You Can Do It ! Says:

    Interesting. However, I can no longer follow a diet program. The thought of a diet begins the thought of a binge. I go shopping every two days because I really have no idea what I am in the mood for eating. Shopping every two days and eating what I like along with an exercise plan helps me greatly. Oh, and some supporting words around the house on 4×6 index cards. I have lost 112 lbs. and at times find it very difficult to keep the weight off without a diet plan but I have been doing it for 3 years. When I diet, I put the weight back on that I lost plus some. No more diets for me. P.S. Today I didn’t want meat and veggs for dinner but a candy bar and chips. I had the candy bar and a 99 cent bag of chips along with milk. I don’t normally eat this way but when I want to I do……………no binges tonight. If I had the forced meat and veggs, I believe that I would have binged the remainder of the night on everything to prevent myself from having the candy bar and chips. People at my job are on all types of diets and everyone of them have lost weight, but, I have seen them all put the weight back on and try another diet. The summer is coming and they are getting desperate. I refuse to be apart of this cycle again. Best of Luck !

  2. anet Says:

    this is very interesting and consistant w/ article i read yrs ago about how if a candy comes in several colors we will eat more, becaues we seem to want to have some of each…so we’d eat more of a candy that came in say..red,blue,green,yellow,brown…than if it just came in one color (I am thinking of how this would benefit skittles and m&ms!!) i absolutely think its valid

  3. JJ Martin Says:

    Interesting, but I still believe in the -classics- like atkings diet.

  4. Hmmmm..... Says:

    This is the diet solution for binge eaters. One day you eat one kind of candy bar etc. (as much as you want.) The next day you just eat chips. The more you limit your choices and taste variety, the more it works. It is variety that is the problem, not quantity. You won’t believe how much this will kill your appetite.

    Of course, the next step is to have your cake and eat it too, i.e. binge on your favorite treats (one at a time, not one after another) and fulfill your nutritional requirements. This is what Dr. Katz is offering in his book.

    I guarantee that after a month of sundaes, you will want to eat your broccoli. I could probably make money with this bet.

  5. bonnie Says:

    I GUESS MY PROBLEM IS I COULD EAT NON STOP . WHTA CAUSES US TO FEEL THAT WAY. I HAD A SUB. TURKEY FROM SUBWAY ,FAT FREE CHIPS AND A CUP OF FRUIT BUT IN 1 HR. I FEEL LIKE I NEVER ATE …WHAT IS THIS? BONNIE

  6. Saphrym Says:

    “Specific” diets don’t help most people. A diet is a very personal thing. People have different tastes, different medical problems, etc. If you’re obese, you probably have a health problem. Talk to your doctor and find out if you do. Then ask the doctor what kind of diet you need to go on. Start there. I was diabetic and since being diagnosed I’ve lost over 70 pounds doing my OWN diet. My diet might not work for you though. Mine is based off of being diabetic and therefore limits my carbs.

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