There’s a new diet in town and it comes from the hall of myth, but not really. The Shangri-La Diet was created by a Professor from the University of California at Berkeley named Seth Roberts. Dr. Roberts named his diet after the mythological place from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. Shangri-La is described as a place of peace and tranquility. Dr. Roberts designed the diet through personal experimentation.
The diet is new and it’s definitely generating buzz on the Internet. I’ve seen it mentioned at eDiets.com and a few other places. Two things about the Shangri-La Diet that I already like is that it denies no foods and it does not require you to follow any specific menus or to count calories.
In that, I’m a huge fan already. While I’m waiting on my copy to get here to review more properly, I’ve done some research and here’s what I’ve turned up about the Shangri-La diet:
- Roberts is not a physician or weight loss expert, but he is a trained scientist.
- The diet recognizes that the body has a desired weight it wants to be.
- The diet identifies that certain foods encourage the body to increase or decrease what that set weight is.
- It compares itself to other diets in the sense that it encourages weight loss by retraining the body’s set weight
- The diet works by lowering the set point so that you can lose weight without feeling deprived
- Dieters are encouraged to consume 100 to 400 calories of flavorless edible oil or sugar water every day
- The sugar water or olive oil should be consumed an hour before or after eating
- Sugar water and olive oil are considered to be zero-set-point foods and will help lower the body’s set point for weight
- The diet is not meant as a license to eat an unhealthy diet, but a guide to help accentuate the positive aspects of a healthy diet
You can learn more about Seth Roberts, PhD by visiting his website and look for a formal review of the diet over the next few weeks after I get a chance to read through the book. On the surface, it sounds good and it seems to offer positive methods for adjusting lifestyle – I’m not keen on the drinking olive oil idea, but we’ll have to see how that goes.