With Diet Plans, There's No Free Lunch

Did you hear the one about the writer who discovered a magic lamp?

When the genie told him that he had three wishes, he asked for wealth, fame and to write a book that would be on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 years.

Suddenly there was a puff of smoke, the sound of thunder and --shazaam--the writer was holding a hardcover book with his name on it titled "How to Lose Weight Without Any Effort Whatsoever or Without Giving Up Anything You Like to Eat."

Then the genie roared with laughter. "You were very foolish. You wasted two wishes. Everybody knows that if you just think up a new diet plan, you will automatically have a bestseller and become rich and famous."

"But genie," the writer cried, "what happens when the people find out the plan doesn't really work?"

"Simple, my friend: Hire some celebrities and have them give testimonials on television. It gets them every time!"

And thus it happens that every so often, in this land of compulsive dieting, the people will succumb to anything that promises a quick fix for a lifetime of bad habits.

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The list of books and programs and machines and pills put before the American public is mind-boggling, confusing and often dangerous: The grapefruit-only diet; the anything-but-grapefruit diet; the everything-including-grapefruit diet; the lose-weight-while-you-sleep diet; and the magic pill that will melt pounds off if it doesn't kill you first.

And then there are "Protein Power," "The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet," "The Zone" and "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," which is really a rehash of the old diet revolution he published in 1972.

This stuff is like fingernails on a chalkboard. "Lose weight with a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet!" Sounds great, but, unfortunately, the principle runs completely counter to everything the scientific and medical community has been saying for decades about diet and dieting.

Or how about this one? "Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type." The best thing you can say about this scheme is that it's original. Beyond that, it is born entirely of fantasy. Dr. Peter D'Adamo, who wrote this bestseller, postulates that each blood type (O, B, A, AB) has different nutritional needs and forbidden foods. Type As, for example, cannot eat oranges; Type Bs have to give up pinto beans and wild rice; Type Os should never eat corn.