Fit for Life
Encyclopedia
Naturopathic medicine
Naturopathy, or Naturopathic Medicine, is a form of alternative medicine based on a belief in vitalism, which posits that a special energy called vital energy or vital force guides bodily processes such as metabolism, reproduction, growth, and adaptation...
. It is promoted mainly by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writers Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. As the title of the 1985 book suggests, Fit for Life claims that one can lose excess body weight and maintain good health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
via long term dietary
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
and lifestyle practices, rather than short term dieting
Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
. In the Fit for Life book series many dietary principles are recommended including eating only fruit in the morning, eating predominantly "live...high-water-content" food, and if eating animal protein to avoid combining it with complex carbohydrates
Polysaccharide
Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...
.
While the diet has been praised for encouraging the consumption of raw fruits and vegetables, several other aspects of the diet have been disputed by dietitians and nutritionists, and the American Dietetic Association
American Dietetic Association
The American Dietetic Association is the United States' largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, with nearly 72,000 members. The American Dietetic Association is officially changing its name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The announcement was made Saturday, September...
and the American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Family Physicians
The American Academy of Family Physicians was founded in 1947 to promote the science and art of family medicine. It is one of the largest medical organizations in the United States, with over 100,000 members...
list it as a fad diet.
Description
The diet is based on Diamond's exploration of Herbert M. SheltonHerbert M. Shelton
Herbert Macgolfin Shelton was an American alternative medicine advocate, author, pacifist, vegetarian, and supporter of raw foodism and fasting cures. Shelton was nominated by the American Vegetarian Party to run as its candidate for President of the United States in 1956...
theories of food combining
Food combining
Food combining is a term for a nutritional approach that advocates specific combinations of foods as central to good health and weight loss...
. Both authors claimed to be able to bring about weight loss without the need to count calories or undertake anything more than a reasonable exercise program. In the first version of the program, Diamond claimed that if one eats the foods in the wrong combination they "cause fermentation" in the stomach. This in turns gives rise to the destruction of valuable enzymes & nutrients. Diamond categorized foods into two groups : "dead foods" that "clog" the body, and "living foods" that "cleanse" it. According to Fit for Life principles, dead foods are those that have highly refined or highly processed origins; while living foods are raw fruits and vegetables. The basic points of Fit for Life are as follows:
- Fruits are best eaten fresh & raw. Where possible they should be eaten alone.
- Carbohydrates & Proteins should never be combined in the one meal.
- Water dilutes stomach digestive juices & should never be drunk at meals.
- Dairy foods are considered of limited value & due to their allergic capacity, should seldom, if ever, be eaten.
In the 2000s, the Fit for Life system added the Personalized FFL Weight Management Program, which employs proprietary protocols called Biochemical "Analyzation", Metabolic Typing and Genetic Predispositions. The Diamonds claim that these protocols allow the personalization of the diet, which thus customized is effective only for one individual, and can be used for that person's entire life. This version of the diet also puts less emphasis on "live" and "dead" foods, and instead talks of "enzyme deficient foods." The Diamonds posit that enzymes that digest proteins interfere with enzymes that digest carbohydrates, justifying some of the rules above. They also began to sell nutritional supplements, advertised as enzyme supplements, many of which are strongly recommended in the newest version of FFL.
Publications and marketing
The diet came to public attention in the mid-1980s with the publication of Fit for Life, a New York Times best seller which sold millions of copies, over 12 million according to Harvey Diamond. Harvey Diamond has also appeared on dozens of television talk shows promoting his theories. In Fit for Life II (1989) the Diamonds warned against eating artificial food additives such as hydrogenated vegetable oil, which at the time was being promoted by the food industry as a healthy alternative to saturated fatSaturated fat
Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids have no double bonds between the individual carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain. That is, the chain of carbon atoms is fully "saturated" with hydrogen atoms...
. Tony Robbins
Tony Robbins
Anthony "Tony" Robbins is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within...
promotes the Fit for Life principles and veganism
Veganism
Veganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
to increase energy levels in his book Unlimited Power
Unlimited Power
Unlimited Power is a self-help book by author and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins. In the book, Robbins discusses how to use one's mind to achieve goals and success. This book also has a significant amount of NLP material....
.
Book series
- Fit for Life (1985) - by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond ISBN 0-446-30015-2
- Fit for Life II (1989) - by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond ISBN 0-446-35875-4
- Fit for Life: A New Beginning (2001) - by Harvey Diamond ISBN 1-57566-718-5
- Fit for Life Not Fat For Life (2003) - by Harvey Diamond ISBN 978-0-7573-0113-1
- Living Without Pain (2007) - by Harvey Diamond ISBN 0-9769961-0-3
Nutrition related
Harvey Diamond's competence to write about nutrition has been contested because his doctoral degree came from the American College of Life Science, a non-accredited correspondence school founded in 1982 by a high-school dropout. FFL's personalized diet program has been criticized for providing a "Clinical Manual" that is heavily infused with alternative medicineAlternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
claims about how the body works, which are scientifically inaccurate and not accepted by conventional medicine.
Despite the fact that FFL web site mentioned "clinical trials", the principles and benefits of FFL diet are not supported by scholarly research, and some of the claims have actually been directly refuted by scientific research. In particular, the banning of dairy products makes it difficult to meet the recommended daily allowance of calcium
Calcium
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
. Furthermore, a dissociated diet as that advertised by FFL is no more effective for weight loss than a calorie-restricted diet.
Financial controversy
Bradenton, FloridaBradenton, Florida
Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833...
, attorney Andre Perron filed civil suit in July 2009 against Diamond and his son, Beau, complaining that Beau operated a Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
based on foreign currency exchanges (Forex), alleging the squandering $38 million of investors' money. Harvey Diamond has contended he has no connection with any wrongdoing, and that he himself has been a victim, having also lost money in this case.