The Hauser Diet vs. Other Diets

THE MOST POPULAR DIETS IN AMERICA ARE:

• The Atkins Diet a high protein, low carbohydrate diet.
• The Zone Diet is 40/30/30 – an equal mix of carbohydrate/fat and protein.
• The Ornish Diet is mostly vegetarian diet.
• The Mediterranean Diet consisting of fresh food with emphasis on olive oil and whole grains.

As you can see, they are all very different from each other. Interestingly enough, everyone does not succeed on these diets, but some do. Why is that?

The answer to that question is this – there is no one single diet that fits for every person. These diets do not take into account individual variances in genetics, physiology, climate, as well as current health state of the individual.

The Mediterranean diet may work for a lot of people who live around the Mediterranean Sea and similar climate, but what about the rest of the human race?

The Atkins Diet originated in New York City by Dr. Atkins may work great for people who live in a colder New York climate, but what about people in California? They have the Ornish Diet which originated over there where it is very warm. Do you see the pattern forming?

These diets are often compared to one another in various studies. To me, this is a waste of time, because I could tell you the results ahead of time.

In my opinion, it depends on where the study is taking place. If it takes place in a colder climate, the Atkins Diet is going to win. If it takes place in a warmer climate, the Ornish Diet wins.

We will show you how through testing, a diet system can be created to provide you with an individualized plan for weight loss, energy, and feeling better! The Hauser Diet takes into account individual physiological variances that depend on the climate, the health of the individual, genetics, and everything else that affects a person’s individual physiology.

IS DIET TYPING THE SAME THING AS THE BLOOD TYPE DIET?

One question we get asked about quite often is, “Are Diet Typing and the Blood Type Diet the same thing?” The simple answer is no.

The Blood Type Diet bases a person’s nutritional needs solely on a person’s blood type, O, A or B. Diet Typing, done at Caring Medical, bases a person’s dietary needs on a Modified Glucose Tolerance Test and their Blood pH. Many people hear the words “type” and “blood” and assume that they these two methods of determining diet needs are synonymous. This is not the case. Diet Typing is extremely different from the Blood Type Diet.

WHAT IS THE BLOOD TYPE DIET ALL ABOUT?

This diet is pretty straight forward. You find out your blood type and then you’re told a list of foods that are best for “you”. The author of the Blood Type Diet book states that the foundation for this theory is based on three “legs”. Meaning, there are 3 factors that they have used to support this diet. The developers of the Blood Type Diet are in short, saying that 1 out of every 3 people have the exact same nutritional needs. If you are someone that is following the Blood Type Diet we would challenge you to go find 10 other people who have the same blood type as you (O, A, or B) and compare notes. The goal of a person’s diet is to provide energy and health. We would guess that out of those 10 people, you will find many of them do not get the same energy or feeling from certain foods as you do. One other issue to consider when looking into this diet is change. Our blood type does not change but we do. With a person’s blood type you would not be able to see how a change in the diet is affecting change in the body. Life is all about transformations, we get older, encounter different illnesses, stressors, hormone changes, and body changes, such as weight gain and loss. If we change shouldn’t there be a need for our nutritional intake to change as well? We think so.

Health Claims of the Blood Type Diet

According to this diet, following the correct blood type diet plan allows for a person to reach improvement in health conditions, weight loss, healthy digestive function, ability to handle stress, better energy, and improved mental clarity. Each blood type has a profile of foods to include and foods to avoid, creating a healthy diet plan for each person to reach maximum health.

The Hauser Diet vs. The Blood Type Diet

Diet Typing involves looking at two different variables that assess how the body is functioning, and what will help it function better. By analyzing a person’s blood sugars and blood pH, we can determine what foods will put a patient at an optimal health and energy level. The unique factor about these two tests, compared to blood type, is that they can vary. When you test blood pH you can objectively see what is going on. If we put someone on a specific Hauser Diet due to their blood pH being either too acidic or too alkaline, we can later test it again to see if the diet has helped to normalize the blood pH. The same is true for a Glucose Tolerance Test. If we are trying to lower or raise someone’s blood sugars we can see if and how the diet is affecting them. Once a patient has achieved their heath goals or has seen improvement, we can monitor the change and alter the diet accordingly.

This is not to say that someone won’t benefit from the Blood Type Diet and have success. But it may not work for everyone. The other consideration here is that a person who has success on the Blood Type Diet may just happen to be eating right for their Diet Type! If you’ve been on the Blood Type Diet and haven’t seen any changes, it may not be you, it may be the diet.


The Hauser Diet vs. The Raw Food Diet

The Raw Food Diet is one where at least 75% of a person’s diet consists of uncooked and unprocessed food from primarily organic sources. Most raw foodists tend to be vegetarians consuming raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains. Some people following this diet plan will include non-pasteurized dairy products and raw meat such as beef carpaccio and raw fish such as sashimi.

HEALTH CLAIMS OF THE RAW FOOD DIET

Since heating food can destroy some of the nutrients in food, raw foodists choose to consume their food raw in order to consume the highest amount of nutrients possible. Raw foods contain higher amounts of digestive enzymes that aid in digestion and bacteria that can provide the digestive tract beneficial bacteria. Therefore the Raw Food Diet claims that this diet plan provides more nutrients and is void of processed food in order to help prevent degenerative diseases, slow the aging process, provide better energy, and aid in overall health.

CRITICISMS OF THE RAW FOOD DIET

As with all alternatives diets, there are criticisms to the claims of the Raw Food Diet. For one, raw food increases the risk of food poisoning. It can lead to nutritional deficiencies, low in critical nutrients such as calcium, iron, vitamin D and vitamin B12. It is also true that cooking certain foods actually increases the bioavailability of nutrients. And although it claims many health benefits, recent studies have shown that a strict raw food diet leads to low bone density and amenorrhea among women. Lastly, the sustainability of this diet plan can be a challenge. Certain recipes are challenging to prepare, and social situations such as dinner parties and eating out create a lack of options.

COMPATIBILITY OF THE HAUSER DIET AND THE RAW FOOD DIET

Occasionally we will have a patient who wishes to follow a Raw Food Diet AND the Hauser Diet. There are some components of the Raw Food Diet that fit into the Hauser Diet with the Giraffe Diet Type being the closest match. Similar to the Raw Food Diet, the Hauser Diet encourages fresh organic foods in order to obtain adequate nutrients and eliminate processed ingredients. The Hauser Diet however recognizes that everyone’s body has unique physiological needs. Therefore we use Diet Typing as a way to discover what foods will best support a person’s physiology. Some people require a vegetarian diet and therefore could follow a Raw Food Diet if they choose. However, some people require a diet with a moderate to high amount of protein, such as the Bear, Otter, and Lion Diet Types. The amount of protein found on the Raw Food Diet would not be enough to support these Diet Types, hence, the health claims of the raw food diet would not be achieved.

With Diet Typing, a person’s unique physiology is supported through the correct healthy diet plan enabling the body to fight disease, slow the aging process, create better energy, improve digestion and improve overall health. A central tenet of the Hauser Diet is that there is not one healthy diet plan for all people. Once a Diet Type is prescribed, certain components of other diets can be incorporated to create a further individualized diet plan, such as consuming some, but not all raw foods. But the foundation of the diet plan must be one that supports healthy blood sugars and a balanced blood pH, which are the fundamentals of Hauser Diet Typing.


The Hauser Diet vs. The Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet is a low carbohydrate diet based on the theory that excess carbohydrates, specifically refined carbohydrates, white flour and sugar, lead to excess fat storage. Therefore, the Atkins Diet focuses on protein and fat in order to prevent excess fat storage in the body. The plan takes a person through four phases of diets, beginning with all meats and cheeses and slowly adding in other food groups. The maintenance phase of the Atkins diet is based on fat, protein and vegetables, with small amounts of fruit and complex carbohydrates and oils.

HEALTH CLAIMS OF THE ATKINS DIET

The Atkins Diet claims that a focus on high protein and fat intake with low carbohydrate intake causes the body to use glucose (the simplest carbohydrate) as energy instead of storing it as fat. The Atkins Diet has many success stories and scientific research studies showing that its diet plan leads to successful natural weight loss, improved cholesterol levels, better energy, and decreases in certain heart disease risk factors. It has also proved to control blood sugars in people with diabetes.

CRITICISMS OF THE ATKINS DIET

The main concern over the Atkins Diet is that the amount of fat and protein can lead to heart disease. While some studies show that the Atkins Diet improves heart disease risk, other studies have shown the opposite. The Atkins Diet is very different from the American Heart Association’s heart healthy diet plan and therefore many health care providers are skeptical of the high amounts of protein and fat. Another criticism is that the weight loss is not sustainable and leads to unhealthy fluctuations in weight. Additionally, people with diseases such as gout and kidney disease can have serious complications from a low carbohydrate diet plan. Lastly, certain unpleasant side effects such as muscle cramps, diarrhea, and general weakness have been associated with the Atkins Diet.

COMPATIBILITY OF THE ATKINS DIET AND THE HAUSER DIET

The theory of the Hauser Diet explains why there are conflicting studies regarding the benefits of the Atkins Diet. The main principle of the Hauser Diet is that there is not one proper diet plan for all people. Everyone has a unique physiology and therefore needs a unique healthy diet plan to support that physiology. A low carbohydrate diet works well for some people, mainly people who are fast oxidizers or have acidic venous blood pH, in addition to those who have an elevated Hemoglobin A1c level. These people need the Hauser Lion or Otter Diets, which are similar to the macrobiotic breakdown of the Atkins Diet. These people will experience natural weight loss, better energy, and improved heart disease risk factors on a low carbohydrate diet. However people with slow oxidation or alkaline blood pH need a more vegetarian diet plan, such as theGiraffe or Monkey Diets, and can actually have serious health complications if they follow a diet such as the Atkins Diet. Some people, Hauser Bear Diet Types, fall right in the middle and do best with a balanced approach, perhaps closer to the Atkin’s maintenance phase, but will not likely feel good during the other phases of the diet.


The Hauser Diet vs. The Mediterranean Diet

SHOULD EVERYONE BE FOLLOWING THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

I just read a very interesting article entitled, “Weight loss with a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean , or low-fat diet” from the New England Journal of Medicine 359:229-241 published this July 2008. The researchers in this study concluded that all three of the above diets can prove to be effective in reducing weight, cholesterol, triglycerides, high blood pressure, and waist circumference, among other things. The most significant results were found with the low carbohydrate diet, followed closely by the Mediterranean Diet, with the low fat diet producing positive results, but the least positive among the three. Two of the three groups of study participants were following calorie restricted diets – 1500 calories for women, and 1800 calories for men. The low carbohydrate group was not calorie restricted. Exercise was not a factor in this study. One meal per day was provided by the research center and dietitians provided education to the participants on how to prepare their other two meals outside of the center.

This study was very interesting in that it shows us that “it is not all about the calories!” In this study, two groups were following a calorie restricted diet, yet, the results revealed that those following the Mediterranean Diet lost more weight and lowered their lipids better than those following the low fat diet. This just goes to show that it does matter what types of food you put into your mouth. Hence the need to know your Diet Type.

The low carbohydrate diet is similar to the Atkins Type Diet or our Hauser Lion Diet. Those with Lion physiology can expect to see a lowering of lipids and weight when this diet is followed. The results were much more significant compared to the low-fat diet group, which is what we have suspected all alon g – that those with Lion physiology do better on a higher protein diet. We, of course, do not know the physiology of each of the study participants. But it would be interesting to find out if this study was conducted in warm or cold weather – because the pH factor would come to light.

Either way, we are very happy to see studies like this be published because they support the fact that each person has an individual physiology and that each person does better with a different breakdown of carb/protein/fat depending on their Diet Type.

WHAT ABOUT THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET?

Let’s talk about that for a moment. Despite the many variations of the Mediterranean diet, there are some common characteristics that are found in all versions. Regular consumption of olive oil is one of the key features of the Mediterranean Diet. For those of you who have been fortunate to travel to Italy , Spain , Greece , or other Mediterranean countries, you know that olive oil is used to enhance all the wonderful flavors of this cuisine and is part of what makes this diet so beneficial. Olive oil is the source of almost all fat in the Mediterranean Diet. They consume very little saturated fat (such as butter) and they don’t use much of any of the other vegetable oils either.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT OLIVE OIL?

Not only is olive oil a beneficial monounsaturated fat, it also provides many important antioxidants and fat soluble vitamins. I don’t know about you, but once you have tasted “real” olive oil, you will realize that it is simply one of the best tasting foods around! It is our contention that this is why those in Mediterranean countries eat so many vegetables – because they use olive oil on them and therefore they taste fantastic! Intake of broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, and many other vegetables and plants have been associated with lower rates of disease – especially heart disease and cancer. Italians in particular love these foods and specialize in making them irresistible. Take it from someone who has been to Italy – it’s true! However, you need to watch what kind of olive oil you purchase here in the US. What I learned when traveling to Italy is that it is best to purchase olive oil that has been certified D.O.C. and is extra virgin, cold pressed. You definitely pay for what you get.

But that’s not all. Legumes such as lentils, white beans, cannellini beans, and fava beans are used quite frequently in the Mediterranean Diet. Beans mixed with greens, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil make a very delicious and healthy meal. Nuts of all varieties are also included in the diet.

Interestingly enough, the Mediterranean Diet is not big on milk and butter, but cheese and yogurt are important parts of the diet. In Italy cheese is used largely enhance the other foods such as pasta, tomato sauce, and vegetables, making them even more delicious. Yogurt, which is found throughout the Mediterranean , which some studies suggest may lower cholesterol, enhance immunity and have anti-oxidant properties, in plain, organic fresh form is also part of the diet.

Protein sources on the Mediterranean Diet tend to come from fish and chicken, and meat to a much lesser degree. The diet is also loaded with fresh vegetables such as those mentioned above – broccoli, kale, spinach, garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, and the like. While some sweets are eaten, much of the sweetness comes from fresh fruits.

What about the wine? A Mediterranean meal, especially in Italy , would not be complete without red wine. Mediterraneans have believed for years that red wine in moderation appears to be good for your health. Each glass of wine contains phyto-nutrients and anti-oxidants of hundreds of grapes. Studies indicate that these substances seem to prevent cholesterol from doing damage and prevent blood clots from forming.

If we put the Mediterranean Diet all together, we have the olive oil, vegetables, legumes, fish, chicken, fruits, and red wine. What you also have is FRESH food. Those in the Mediterranean parts of the world typically shop at fresh markets a couple times per week. They are not consuming food out of boxes or cans. They are definitely not using microwaves to cook their food and are certainly not eating at fast food restaurants. On top of these facts, the Mediterranean ’s perception of life, food, and culture is very different than the American’s. Italians in particular have a reverence for food and good conversation. Meals are pleasurable. People enjoy their food and fellowship. We don’t. Period. We should!

SO HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE ABOVE RESEARCH STUDY AND TO THE HAUSER DIET?

Well, I know that some of you might be surprised to hear that we feel that most people could learn a lot about healthy eating from the Mediterranean culture. First and foremost eating fresh food is a principle that we at the Hauser Diet have been talking about for years. Learning how to cook and make “real” food is another concept that we have been trying to convey to our readers. Learning to enjoy food, slow down, cook from scratch, and make meal time a stress free time of togetherness is something that we could all work harder at doing. If most of us followed the basic tenants of this diet, we would likely all be a lot healthier. The consumption of carbs/protein/fats would just need to be adjusted a little for each of the five Hauser Diet Types- Lions and Otters consuming more protein and fats, with Giraffes and Monkeys going more vegetarian. But all in all, we have a lot to learn from the Mediterraneans!


The Hauser Diet vs. Weight Watchers

WHY NOT JUST HAVE PRE-MADE DIET MEALS SHIPPED TO YOU?

BECAUSE EVEN THESE DIETS OF CONVENIENCE DON’T WORK IN THE LONG RUN.

A patient was dependent on a diet where she had pre-packaged food sent to her. She liked this type of diet because she lacked the self-discipline to prepare the right food herself. Unfortunately, despite trying a few different versions of the “pre-made meals sent right to your door diet”, she had never had long term success.

Before you start on the 30 breakfasts, 30 lunches, 30 dinners, 30 snacks all for only about $10 a day type diets, consider why they fail.

QUALITY OF FOOD

Research and common sense tell us that fresh, whole, natural foods are best to put inside your body. It only takes a little bit of label reading to discover that a lot of products are full of chemicals and preservatives, especially the “diet” foods that are so popular. So if a diet encourages any food that is chemical-laden and far from fresh, shouldn’t you be a little skeptical? The Hauser Diet always encourages fresh, organic foods that will provide the nutrition necessary for optimal health.

FOOD ALLERGIES

On top of chemicals and preservatives, most diets encourage many foods that we find to be common allergens for a large number of people. A majority of our patients have anywhere from just a couple food allergies, to 20 or 30 allergies! Can you imagine a diet that doesn’t take into consideration foods that may be causing systemic inflammation through your body? Food allergy testing is a great complement to Diet Typing and we can work with you incorporate only the best food for your body.

SUSTAINABILITY

Another consideration when deciding on a diet is how long you can realistically follow the diet. Are you going to have pre-packaged foods sent to you for the rest of your life? What about vacation or holidays – is your diet easily transferable to these situations? Will you be counting servings until the day you die? The Hauser Diet allows you begin a diet that can last you a lifetime. And on those special occasions, it is simple to look at the meal provided and adjust according to your Hauser Diet Type.

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