Eat Right & Live Longer

– An age-defying diet

Originator: Dr. Neil Barnard is the President of the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Claims: A vegetarian low-fat diet protects cells from disease, cleans the blood, boosts immunity and balances hormones. The diet will help you avoid contaminants in food, and a vegetarian diet is the best for weight control. Using this method will get you off diets forever.

Sustainability: It’s difficult for people who are not committed to a vegetarian lifestyle to follow. There is no meat or dairy, and people need more time to prepare food. The diet lacks vitamin B, and vitamin D and downplays their importance. Additionally, it doesn’t take into account the fact that your body produces less vitamin D with age.

Weight loss: If you follow it accurately, you should lose weight.

Research: Studies indicate this type of diet can decrease the risk of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancers.

Quick take: A low-fat vegetarian diet with organic produce to boost immunity, balance hormones and protect cells from damage.

The Okinawa Program

– An age-defying diet

Originator:  Identical twin brothers Bradley and Craig Wilcox are both Assistant Professors at the University of Hawaii and Okinawa University in Japan.

Claims: A low-fat, low-calorie and high fiber diet from plant foods with a strong emphasis on exercise, family relations and spiritual connectedness will result in substantial weight loss. The findings are from the Okinawa Centenarian Study showing that heart disease, strokes and various cancers are extremely rare, and people regularly live to more than 100 years old.

Sustainability: The diet contains 50 percent complex carbohydrates from 3 food groups consisting of foods rich in flavonoids and omega 3 fatty acids. The authors recommend avoiding foods with a high glycemic index. Based on such a dramatic change in lifestyle diet and your basic approach to life, it’s doubtful that the majority of people who want to lose weight are ready to make such a drastic change. The diet is low in calcium.

Weight loss: The Okinawa Program has no calorie count or portion control, but will result in weight loss if closely followed.

Research: Studies indicate that when the Okinawan adopts more of a western diet and lifestyle, their rates of overweight illness increases and life expectancy decreases.

Quick take: A total diet and lifestyle program based on Eastern philosophies with plant-based carbohydrates, fiber, stress reduction and support essential to longevity.