[tman_ndsu08]

Personally I think all the Atkins, raw food, etc. is all nothing but fad diets. Really, it's all just clever marketing. Think of how much more you're spending to maintain such a diet. Just what the supermarkets want.

As far as diet goes: there are 7 things that the body needs to consume in order to function optimally: water, glucose, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

Water is the most important because it's required for virtually all chemical reactions in your body. If you don't get enough water, then everything goes to hell.

Glucose is what gives your muscle the energy needed to contract and when metabolized creates the heat that keeps your body around 98 degrees. You can get this in a wide variety of forms. Usually, glucose is consumed in some sort of polymer form (meaning many glucoses connected together). The bigger the polymer, the longer it takes to break down in your stomach. It shouldn't matter what form you get your glucose in so long as you get enough of it. Glucose needs to be about half of your daily calories. However, there is a theory that people who are genetically predisposed to getting adult onset diabeties should stay away from short polymer glucose as it tends to enter the blood stream much faster than longer polymers which in turn can be bad for the pancreas (not sure why exactly). Anyway, if you think you might be predisposed, check it out. I think it's called the Gl index or something.

Essential amino acids are amino acids that your body can't make itself. You can also get these from a wide variety of things. Animal flesh is a very good source as well as many beans (soy, peanut, etc.). Overall, amino acids combine to form proteins which are what all tissues in your body are made out of. So they're important for tissue repair and and new tissue creation. Try to get 20-30% of your calories from protein.

Essential fatty acids are very long polymers of carbon. These are, again, things the body can't make on it's own and have a variety of purposes. You can get these fats usually from animal fat and beans. Overall, you need to consume 20-30% of your calories from fat. There really isn't any good reason in our age to consume any fat other than essential fatty acids, BUT if you don't your body thinks it's starving (from caveman days when you might go a long time without food) and lots of bad things happen.

Vitamins and minerals are substances and earth elements that the body can't make on it's own. It's reccomended that you consume a certain amount of them each day. You won't die from not consuming them but there are a number of side effects. I think the easiest way is to simply take a multi vitamin/mineral pill once or twice a day. Then you don't have to worry about eating a certain amount of certain foods to get your daily need.

Fiber is anything you consume that can't be broken down. Most fruits and vegitables are mostly fiber. Again, you don't die if you don't get this but a theory is that this pushes the waste out of your colon faster. And since it leaves faster there is less chance that it will cause colon disease.


There is no such thing as a widesweeping miracle diet that works for everyone. All people are different enough so that some things work for some people while other people react to those things negatively. You need to experament with different forms of the above to order to find out what works for you. I've heard of people who swear by the atkins or the raw food diets and claim that they worked for them better than anything ever before. The problem is, they think that *everyone* should do them when the fact is that those diets are expensive and simply won't provide most people with the dramatic changes that they might be seeking.