Hanneke van den Berg
You have to hand it to them, all those diet creators: they always know how to come up with catchy names. Also: A Lifelong Fit. We all want that, don’t we? You just feel fit all your life, preferably without having to do too much for it and especially let it go.
However, that is not the case with A Lifelong Fit. This diet is hard work, a lot of research and study, paying attention to what goes on your plate and what you don’t put on it, because this program is about not being allowed to combine food. Many things together on a plate would lead to the formation of toxic waste and therefore weight gain.
The diet was developed in 1985 by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. They don’t see it so much as a diet, but more as a new lifestyle, because you have to persevere for the rest of your life to not gain the lost pounds.
During the Lifelong Fit diet, proteins and carbohydrates are consistently separated and you should not eat them together during a meal. A sandwich with cheese or a meal of potatoes, vegetables and meat is therefore not allowed here.
According to them, the ideal combination is 70 percent fruit and vegetables and 30 percent other foods. Raw and fresh fruits and vegetables are recommended. Meat isn’t, but it isn’t forbidden either. Seasonings such as garlic, onion and flavor enhancers are not recommended. Water, coffee and herbal tea may be used without restriction. If you are hungry, you can eat fruit in between.
There is no scientific evidence for this, according to the Nutrition Center. A person loses weight if he or she consumes fewer calories, and not by avoiding ‘toxins’.
What do our experts think of this diet?
Positive:
Martine Dogger of Dieet&Co: “There are quite a few good things in it, such as the advice to eat a lot of vegetables and fruit.”
Jet Timmer of The Feelgood Company agrees: “Drinking a lot of fruit and vegetables and also a lot of water is of course good advice.”
But according to them, the positive points have been mentioned.
Negative:
Martine Dogger: „I do not recommend this diet. For example, people who follow this eat a huge bowl of fruit for breakfast. That amount ensures that your blood sugar level can rise and fall quickly. It is precisely by combining it with proteins that your food will digest more slowly and you will therefore be less hungry again.”
Jet Timmer: “To be able to follow this you really need to have a lot of knowledge of nutrition. You need to know what carbohydrates are in and what proteins are in. Moreover, many products contain both carbohydrates and proteins and you should not eat them anymore. That’s weird. Nor does it seem logical to me that nature produces edible things that humans cannot digest.”