DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Seth Roberts, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.  He serves on the editorial advisory board of the scientific journal Nutrition, and has published dozens of scientific articles on topics that include health, nutrition, and weight control.

Articles about his work have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's and such major scientific journals as The Lancet and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. His latest book is THE SHANGRI-LA DIET: The No Hunger, Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan (G. P. Putnam’s Sons; ISBN: 0-399-15364-0; Price: $19.95; Publication Date: April 25, 2006). You can visit Dr. Robert’s website at www.sethroberts.net/. 

Birthday: August 17

Location: Berkeley, CA

There aren’t any days like that. No kidding. My diet doesn’t involve trying to eating less of anything. No calorie counting, no calorie limits. The crucial change is to eat more of certain foods, in particular unflavored sugar water and/or flavorless oils. You become less hungry than usual and, when you eat, feel full more quickly. Because you’re less hungry, you eat less and lose weight. I’ve followed it without difficulty for almost six years.

Question: If you could eat one forbidden food whenever you wanted without gaining weight, what would it be?

There are no forbidden foods on the Shangri-La diet. Since I started the diet I have eaten more of the foods that other diets forbid – more bread and chocolate, for example.

None. I eat whatever I want. After I started the diet, it became so easy to weigh whatever I wanted that I started eating more dessert. I’d pretty much avoided desserts for years. My favorite desserts resemble taste tests: four kinds of blue cheese with honey and walnuts, three brands of vanilla ice cream with crunchy cookies, three orange marmalades with three dark chocolates.

I eat lots of baked/roasted vegetables. I spice and salt them, wrap them in foil, and cook them in my toaster oven. The theory behind my diet says that the less familiar the flavor, the less fattening the food, so I vary the spices each time I make them. I have lots of spice blends and I sprinkle on more than one. Adding different spices each time keeps the flavor from becoming familiar.

Hmm. Is this a trick question? Failure on a diet is not losing weight.

I can’t answer that question for other diets. For the Shangri-La diet, it helps to have a routine that connects with drinking the oil or sugar water. For example, you drink the oil just before you leave for work. Or before you walk your dog. Or during your morning break. Or before you go to bed. You need to drink the oil or sugar water between meals.          

My conclusions come from a big dose of science and a big dose of self-experimentation. The most important science came from the labs of Michel Cabanac, a Canadian physiologist, and Israel Ramirez and Anthony Sclafani, two American psychologists. I tested and extended their ideas with 15 years of self-experimentation. I came up with a new theory of weight control. My theory led me to surprising new ways of losing weight.

Yes. During my self-experimentation, I tried many things that didn’t work. I wouldn’t say I struggled, but I would say I often failed. When I finally discovered the weight-loss methods that are behind the Shangri-La diet, I knew they were far better than other methods because I had tried many other methods – including other methods that are now popular, such as eating food with a low glycemic index.

Not really. I was slim until my twenties. Eventually I reached 200 pounds, which was a bit much. At that point I tried to lose weight. Using my early weight-loss ideas, I got down to 185 pretty easily, but couldn’t go much further. I was at 185 for many years. That’s not slim, but it’s not a serious problem, either.

Question: What’s the best book about health that you’ve read?

Eat Drink and Be Healthy (2001) by Walter Willett and others. Skip the “Healthy Weight” chapter, however. 

Question: What are your two favorite health magazines?

Sorry, I rarely read them. Saveur is my favorite food magazine.

The best foods are those with many diverse ingredients. For example, Cobb Salad, Salad Nicoise.

I walk a lot, mostly on a treadmill (watching my favorite TV shows). I also do resistance exercises with a rubber band (while watching my favorite TV shows).

Question: Do you have a favorite healthy recipe or cooking tip? If so would you share it?

The theory behind my diet says: more flavor variation = less fattening. So my weight-loss cooking tip is: Vary the spices. Don’t use the same spices again and again. I do this myself (see roasted vegetables, above). It’s kind of the opposite of having a favorite – I try not to repeat.

Question: Do you have a Calorie Bargain? What food did it replace? Was that an important food in your diet, since you ate it so often?

No, no Calorie Bargains. After I discovered my diet, I stopped worrying about calories. To be more precise, I stopped trying to eat fewer calories. I do try to save my calories for interesting food. I am always in danger of spoiling my appetite by eating a little of this or that. My appetite is fragile, you could say. A couple of foods help me preserve my appetite. One is tea. I often want taste but no calories. Tea is a good source of that. Sliced cabbage is also helpful – it supplies crunchiness without (many) calories. I slice the cabbage, heat it in the microwave, salt and flavor it. There’s a lot of great food in the world. I want to be hungry enough to enjoy it.

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