Nadeem The Pritikin diet was developed in 1970 by Nathan Pritikin who was a PhD and according to his recommended diet a person needed to consume only 10% of his total calorie intake per day from fats. Hence the diet is also known as a low fat diet. The basic concept of this diet recommends natural foods that are high on fibers and nutrients. He also recommends regular exercise as a part of the diet. The logic behind this diet is that when 10 % of your daily calories come from fat there is no need to count your calories as they would not add to your waist line anyways.
This diet recommends frequent eating of regular meals, say 6-7 times a day, to prevent feeling hungry and thus reduces the scope of binge eating. Eat unprocessed vegetables, unprocessed fruits, non-fat dairy products, egg whites, lean meat and whole grains as per your requirements and supplement it with a 45 minute walk per day and see your weight vanish in no time. You may also consume low quantity of omega-3 fatty acids (like in fish). Caffeine, white pasta, processed food, egg yolk, white bread and fats are completely off the diet chart.
You go to any supermarket and you are surrounded by “fat-free” foods. Have you ever bothered to see what exactly is there in these fat-free foods and whether the food really contained any fat before being declared fat-free? Take juices for example, they never had any fat, so where does the question of “NOW FAT_FREE” arise? Understand one thing as a consumer that marketers are targeting to capture your attention “no matter how”. And since it is in fashion to be diet-conscious and eat fat-free food they are claiming every second food to be fat-free.
Remember that in a low-fat diet you are basically targeting on “low cholesterol” and not on completely eradicating fat from your diet. Fats are also an essential nutrient that MUST be consumed for a healthy body and proper metabolism. The catch is only in limiting the intake to healthy limits. Read the fat-free label carefully to see if it is really fat-free or not. Fat-free foods are supposed to have less than 0.5 grams fat/serving. Low-fat foods are supposed to have less than 3 mg of fat/serving and reduced fat foods should have at least ¼ less fat than their counterparts. Some products make up for the lack of taste in fat-free foods by loading them with sugar, syrups and many such items that are high in calories but not on fat. So take care of what you pick-up from the shelves rather than going just by the “fat-free” label.
Nutritionists argue that it is not advisable to stay away from fat but eat “good fats” instead. The good fats include poly-saturated fats and mono-saturated fats. Focus on foods with low LDL i.e. the bad cholesterol and have food with high HDL i.e. the good cholesterol for a healthy fat-free body all your life.
