This weekend I read The Longevity Diet by Brian Delaney and Lisa Walford.  This will be the first diet in my twelve months of twelve different diets.  I am looking for similarities, differences and universal truths across a broad spectrum of diets.

Here’s 6 things I took away from the Longevity Diet:

1.  They are correct, it is a thinking person’s diet.  You have to think about what they write, you have to think about how to apply it and, in the final analysis, you have to think about what you eat.  A true mind-body experience.

2.  It is based on calorie restriction, not food restriction.  This is an important distinction because you are not merely limiting the amount of food you eat.  You are limiting your calories to those that are most nutrient packed.  In other words, a diet consisting of 1500 calories of Snickers bars (like my former co-worker Roxanne was so happy with, waving her candy bar on the way to the break room, swaying her hips until she almost toppled out of her high heals) is not the same as 1500 calories of high ORAC (total antioxidant potency) and low-energy density foods (filling AND low calorie). 

3.  How many calories you should have is never discussed; perhaps that’s because it’s different for everyone.  This is where Google or, Bing or, Yahoo or, Ask Jeeves comes in.  I found a website that gave me a formula for determining my Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) - how many calories I would burn if I stayed in bed all day - and then I took it from there.  I have decided that I will start this week at 1450 calories per day, decreasing by 50 calories per week for 4 weeks until I arrive at 1300 calories per day.

4.  What you should eat is only provided in terms of food lists with nutritional values.  Sorry, but I need more help than that.  So I turned to a book called the Seven Pillars of Health by Jay Solomon.  It’s over 10 years old but it talks about antioxidants, fiber, low-cholesterol cooking, protein myths, power eating, etc. And, it has recipes.  Here’s what I will be eating this week

For breakfast I will rotate between: steelcut oats w/ raisins and soy milk; an egg scramble with spinach, tomatoes and feta cheese, and; soy yogurt w/ Verry Berry Cornbread.

For lunch I will rotate between:  bean and rice dishes; slices of meat w/ soy cheese; tuna salad.

For dinner I will rotate between:  a meat-based dinner; a fish-based dinner and a vegetarian dinner.

For snacks, well raw veggies and lots of them.

5.  The cost is doable.  I spent $71.00 at Trader Joes and $53.00 at Market of Choice.  So that’s about $124 for groceries for the week to feed me and my husband.  Nearly everything I purchased was organic, all the way down to the spices.  That’s my own bent, the book didn’t say a peep about eating organic.

6.  You have to keep a food diary.  The one in the book is too cumbersome.  You track your foods in one place and then transfer them to another page.  Bah humbug.  My VitalityCheck will do the trick.

Do you think it’s important to eat only organic foods or is it just a fad?  Tomorrow I will tell you how I liked the recipes I tried and whether I got by with just 1450 calories.