Enjoy eating for health with the Sonoma Diet....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 12-27-2012

Because the most important guide to eating for health is to simply stop eating and drinking virtually all the foods and drinks that are harmful, it can seem depriving.

Similarly, the two most important guides to losing excess fat and keeping it off are to stop eating and drinking virtually all the foods and drinks that are harmful and to find a way to cut back calories a bit too.  Same deal. It can seem a bit depriving.  (Most of the harmful stuff is super fattening too and why waste limited calories on the other harmful stuff!?)

BUT, there IS much better news.

There are literally hundreds of foods that neither fatten you nor harm you.  And, there are thousands of recipes using these foods that are really good.

Even better yet, a slightly upgraded Mediterranean diet using these foods is precisely that. 

The Mediterranean diet using these foods also uses recipes that taste really good in recipes from cultures that love good food.

What if there was a book on these exact subjects written about the United States version of the Mediterranean diet using these foods?

1.  There IS one!

The Sonoma Diet:

Trimmer Waist, Better Health in Just 10 Days! by Connie Guttersen and Stephanie Karpinske (Dec 27, 2005) was the original version.

& the new version is: 

The New Sonoma Diet:

Trimmer Waist, More Energy in Just 10 Days by Connie Guttersen (Jan 4, 2011)

Both are available on Amazon right now.

The focus is on what TO eat and how to enjoy it.

The Sonoma Diet spends very little time on what not to eat, though it’s clear the author knows the health benefits of dropping that stuff.

Most of its focus is on what foods are best for you that fit in the California, or Sonoma in Northern California, version of the Mediterranean diet.

It’s particularly strong on a large variety of dishes using foods most people can go to the store and buy.  And, its very large list of sauces and salad toppings of many flavors is even better.

If you need a good tasting version of any Mediterranean food but haven’t found one you like yet or you need some variety once or twice a week to be comfortable eating right all the time, the Sonoma Diet may be just what you’d love to have!

2.  And one of its drawbacks might be a strength for you.  And it is for sure for some people who insist on continuing to eat bread and other grain foods. 

Except for quinoa and using nut flours and the like, even 100 % whole grain breads and other whole grain foods are nearly as high glycemic as the clearly harmful refined grain foods.

But the take of this book is that 100 % whole grain foods can be OK if they are consistently a minority of your overall meal and eaten with health OK protein foods and nonstarchy vegetables.

3.  The second drawback the Sonoma Diet has is also a strength for some people.  They include ham and chicken etc from grain fed animals.  They do suggest the leanest and most fat trimmed versions and eaten in small moderate servings along with nonstarchy vegetables.

Eating these foods from animals fed only their natural diet or eating wild caught fish or beans IS better for you than ham and chicken etc from grain fed animals.

BUT, using the leanest and most fat trimmed versions of ham and chicken etc from grain fed animals IS doable by people who don’t have access to those foods from animals fed only their natural diet.  And, some people are allergic to beans or fish or dislike them.

4.  The other concern I have is that they use Splenda as a sugar substitute in some recipes.

It’s an artificial sweetener that can continue the sugar addiction for some people.  Artificial sweeteners tend to act as drugs increasing the desire for sugary foods.

But my main concern is that Splenda, sucralose, contains chlorine which is otherwise used in chlorine containing compounds in pesticides and nerve gasses. It seems safe so far; but with chlorine in it will long term safety show the same?  My bet is that it will not.

The two strategies I prefer are:

To mostly avoid recipes with any sweeteners or to use real sugar but rarely –

OR to use one third of the amount in the regular recipe of a flavored sugar such as honey, brown sugar, or dark molasses and one third erythritol so the food is almost as sweet but with one third the sugar and it has that extra flavor associated with sweet foods.

(From Wikipedia:

Erythritol ((2R,3S)-butane-1,2,3,4-tetraol) is a sugar alcohol (or polyol) that has been approved for use as a food additive in the United States[1] and throughout much of the world. It was discovered in 1848 by British chemist John Stenhouse.[2] It occurs naturally in some fruits and fermented foods.[3]

At the industrial level, it is produced from glucose by fermentation with a yeast, Moniliella pollinis.[1]

It is 60–70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost noncaloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is partially absorbed by the body, excreted in urine and feces.

It is less likely to cause gastric side effects than other sugar alcohols due to its unique digestion pathway.

Under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements, it has a caloric value of 0.2 kilocalories per gram (95% less than sugar and other carbohydrates....)

5.  Their fat loss program is to eat the foods on smaller than usual plates and eliminate the moderate use of red wine for a phase one to create fat loss.

Since the food is good and you can have extra vegetables this is decently workable and likely does produce fat loss.

Based on what I've read, it might be better to eat this slightly calorie reduced way two non-consecutive days a week all the time.  And, then to gradually add a lot of moderate and vigorous exercise each week.

That would be less likely than their all the time version to trigger the famine response but keep the fat loss going forever instead of just the initial every day restrictive period.

But if you love good foods and want a really good tasting way to go, for sure the Sonoma Diet is something you will enjoy having and using in every other way.

Other than these few reservations which may or may not fit or worry you, I strongly recommend the Sonoma Diet.