Jim Foster just wants to make a difference. He runs the award winning Diet-Blog.com. And according to Jim, one of his main motivations for the site is that he once paid both a nutritionist and a fitness instructor good money for advice. The nutritionist simply repeated (in parrot-like fashion) the nutritional advice of the day. It didn't really work for Jim and he continued to have hypoglycemic problems until he figured it out for myself. Diet and nutrition is an active science - it's always changing."  Read the interview with the man behind one of the number one diet blogs on the web.

Name: Jim Foster 

Birthday: June 5th

Website: www.diet-blog.com

Diet Detective: Hello Jim, thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview. Typically someone that starts writing about health has some passion--something that drives them. So what is it that drives you? Can you give us some details? What specifically in your background brought you to blogging about health?

Jim Foster:  Two things really. My own issues with hypoglycemia, and my wife’s eating disorder.  She struggled for many years and almost lost her life. They were dark days and through it all I wanted to focus on eating healthy but without falling prey to the obsessions of disordered eating.

Diet Detective: If I started to chat with you at a party (or in any casual setting), and I asked what you did for a living, how would you describe it (besides just saying “diet blogger”)?  Do you consider yourself a health journalist?  

Jim Foster:  I’m actually a software developer by trade. The Diet Blog is a part-time thing. A blogger is not a journalist and I certainly don’t pretend to be.

Diet Detective: Can you tell us about a diet phenomenon that surprised you in the last few years—something you didn’t expect?

Jim Foster:  Over the years of writing the blog I think I’ve seen it all.  One thing that stands out was the ‘ear stapling’ phenomena – people getting a staple inserted in their ear believing it would cause weight loss.   I blogged about it (under the weird and slightly farcical category). To my surprise I was inundated with emails from people asking where they could get the procedure done…

Diet Detective:  What do you consider the most outrageous diet gossip and information that you’ve heard? 

Jim Foster:  Recently I’ve tended to steer clear of outrageous diet gossip. It’s basically the same stuff endlessly recycled.  You often see gossip magazines publish reader surveys as research. They then make alarming headlines out of it (“9 out of 10 girls use meth to lose weight”)… of course what that really means is: “9 out of 10 girls who read [insert magazine name here...] use dangerous behaviors."

Diet Detective:I often wonder where we are going with all this: Atkins, South Beach, processed foods, organics, locally grown, etc…. Have you ever seen the Woody Allen movie, Sleeper, where he wakes up in the future to find out that junk food is actually good for you? Perhaps that will not happen, but I do wonder about the future of the “diet?” My question is where do you see the human diet evolving in the next 30 years? What about 100 years? 

Jim Foster:  I tend to believe we got fat because of an abundant food supply. As globalism increases we are increasingly dependent on our trading partners. It wouldn’t take too much to upset the apple cart (so to speak) and see some sort of disaster severely affect the food supply. At that point we won’t be too worried about who is doing the South Beach.

Sounds a bit gloomy but you just need to read the history of the last century to realize that civilization is a fragile thing.

Diet Detective: When someone you know asks for diet advice what do you tell them?

Jim Foster:  Eat more whole foods like fruit and vegetables. Eat less junk and fast food.

Diet Detective: Do you think we’re missing something about food, nutrition, fitness and health? How is the average person (or health expert for that matter) supposed to make informed decisions about health? 

Jim Foster:  Nutrition is entirely confusing. In any week I could pull up two completely contradictory items of research. The advice to eat less and exercise more is simple.   But ‘simple’ does not mean ‘easy’. We confuse the two words.

If there’s anything we’ve missed – it’s behavioral issues. All the diet advice in the world doesn’t help if food happens to be your coping mechanism in life.  We need to address some of the deeper isues.

Now a few more personal questions so readers can get to know about you.

Diet Detective: If you could eat one unhealthy food (candy, cakes, etc..) whenever you wanted without gaining weight, what would it be?

Jim Foster:  I really love Eggs Benedict – but it sure packs a wallop of energy – so it’s an occasional thing.

Diet Detective: What’s your favorite breakfast?

Jim Foster:  Apart from the above, oatmeal is my favorite day in and day out breakfast

Diet Detective: Do you have time to exercise? What do you do?

Jim Foster:  It’s not that I have time – it’s that I MAKE time.  I’m always changing my routine as I get bored easily.  It always includes free weights in some way (that’s what I have at home) – but I rarely spend a long time working out. I don’t have time for that. My workouts are usually short and intense.  I will also go walking with my kids whenever possible.

Diet Detective:What’s your favorite healthy ingredient? What’s the one thing you’d suggest people keep in their kitchen if they want to cook healthy meals?

Jim Foster:  Broccoli… I must have it every single night. The amount of nutrients in that stuff is amazing.

Diet Detective: What’s the one kitchen utensil or tool that you can’t live without?

Jim Foster:  The water filter.

Diet Detective: What do you consider the world’s most perfect food?

Jim Foster:  To me it’s the humble banana. Great source of energy if you are in a rush. Comes in it’s own eco-wrapper. Tastes good too.

Diet Detective: What person do you respect most, or who motivates you? And why?

Jim Foster:  To be honest it has to be my extraordinary wife. She’s conquered some incredible things in her life and now competes in Powerlifting competitions. She totally motivates me to keep moving and stay positive.

Diet Detective: What do you do to reduce stress/relax/center your mind? Do you participate in an organized relaxation activity such as yoga, meditation or tai chi?

Jim Foster:  To be honest, the workouts do this. I’m a great lover of the outdoors (especially the sunlight) – spending time in the garden is a wonderful tonic.

Diet Detective: If you had to pick one health book to recommend (or two) which would you choose? 

Jim Foster:  Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Diet Detective: What’s your favorite healthy recipe? Will you share it with our readers?

Jim Foster:  Jamie Oliver’s Pukkola Muesli. It’s a muesli recipe that you don’t cook but just leave to soak overnight. Beautiful. Here's the recipe.

Diet Detective: Do you have a Calorie Bargain?

Jim Foster:  I’m not really with this idea. Rather than eat nutritionally-poor diet food in the hopes of ‘saving’ calories – I prefer to eat the calorie-dense thing but in smaller amounts.  I eat it really slowly – thoroughly enjoying it – and don’t feel guilty. I do this with dark chocolate.

Diet Detective: What’s the most bodacious chance you've ever taken?

Jim Foster:  Quitting my well-paid job as an IT consultant and going to study Horticulture. Then spending a summer growing organic vegetables for market. My work colleagues thought I was completely crazy.

Diet Detective: What was your worst summer job?

Jim Foster:  Digging holes for planting fruit trees. Nearly killed me.

Diet Detective: What did you want to be at the age of 5?

Jim Foster:  Probably something completely out there, like an Astronaut.

Thank you!!!!

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