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 SOME POPULAR DIETS - and their DEFICIENCIES

Abstract:   Analyses of 11 included Demo diets with Life Ahead program version 2.08 - based on their quantified effects of up to 22 included dietary nutrients - shows that these different diets taken regularly in the future could produce 20 years of difference in the future Well-Days of an average man's life.  These results that assumed no use of diet supplements reveal that these and most other diets usually are deficient in antioxidants, folic acid, lycopene, omega-3 fatty acids, and/or minerals such as calcium and magnesium.  Many also provide insufficient amounts of polyunsaturated acids and fiber for best health.  The use of adequate dietary supplements probably can correct many but not all dietary deficiencies and is  a requirement for best long range health.  For most people today the above dietary factors can be far more important to future health than are the now usual differences in saturated fat and serum cholesterol. Note:  This analysis was made with Life Ahead Model 2.  Values from Model #3 will differ somewhat but are generally consistent.

Dietary Health Results from Multiple - and not just Single Nutrients:  Most diet programs concentrate on just one nutrient factor, as low fat, low saturated fat, low carbohydrate, or protein. In contrast, our diets may include more than 60 different nutrients, any or all of which might in part determine the progress of major life destroying disease.  Life Ahead version 2.08 quantified the effects of up to 22 of these nutrient factors, all of those found that appear well verified and adequately quantified by research, as reviewed in the accompanying Health Library. These various factors may be identified here with better quantitative precision than has been possible previously using conventional methods. The fact that the Life Ahead equations can forecast well the actually measured values of foods from population type research suggests that these 22 nutrients probably now identify the dietary factors of most usual importance to our long range health. The values following were based on Life Ahead Version 208.  Later versions of the program include added nutrients and use added research and may produce slightly different values for diets than those provided by this version.

Life Ahead reveals that nearly all diets that focus on a single factor - as Fat, Carbohydrates, etc - are seriously deficient in some other factors.  The diets of Low Fat proponents can be seriously deficient in fiber or antioxidants.  The diets of Low Carbohydrate proponents can be seriously high in the wrong fats.  Or a food with higher saturated fat can be low in omega-3 fats or certain needed minerals. It is difficult to design a diet that provides healthful values of all key nutrients. 

Dietary Fat is no Longer the usual Major Diet Problem: As orientation, review an example of the Life Ahead Diet Display:  Life Ahead Diet Analysis  and then come back to this article  "Some Popular Diets."  This is the diet analysis that is provided for every Life Ahead program diet entry.  The first group of factors as saturated and other fats and fiber for an average US 50 year old man determine serum cholesterol and its related risks of cardiovascular disease.  (Serum cholesterol is further determined in Life Ahead by other factors as exercise and genetics.)  The second group lists 4 key antioxidants that Life Ahead values from their combination that slow the progress of both cardiovascular diseases and cancer.  Other diet nutrients or groups that affect these key diseases are Omega-3 fats, Lycopene, Folic Acid, and various minerals.

The numbers at the right of each nutrient or nutrient group identify the increase in Well-Days that is potential for bringing this nutrient factor to the listed healthful value target.  Target nutrient values are nominal values adjusted for individuals' sex and weight.  The total potential in this example diet for gaining long range healthful life is 3090 Well-Days or 8.5 more years.  Of this, only 210 Well-Days can be gained by further improving intake of saturated fat and related dietary factors that are involved in affecting serum cholesterol. A far larger 960 Well-Days is potential from improving antioxidants, and amounts of 560, 490 and 360 are potential for improving omega-3 fats, lycopene or folic acid respectively.  

How can this be?  We have been deluged for decades about the harm of eating fat. This is cited as the BIG THING everyone should concentrate on.  It remains true that a high serum cholesterol that often results from unfortunate genetics can be very harmful. And as shown for diet #W3 in the table following, a junk food diet can raise cholesterol substantially and can be very unhealthful.  

But today our average person has a total serum cholesterol of about 213.  Two or three decades back levels commonly were above 230, and older women were measured at 250 or higher. The gains that now are potential to our average person from modifying usual dietary fats further are limited. This is partly because although cholesterol affects risk of cardiovascular disease, it is not involved in risk of cancer. High saturated fat and low fiber do increase risk of some cancers somewhat, but the contribution of this is included in the above noted potential benefit of 210 days. The risk associated with cholesterol also diminishes substantially with age and becomes rather small toward the end of life.  The good health habits that produced this gain of 210 would reduce total cholesterol from 213 to about 200.  A further reduction in serum cholesterol to 180 at age with corresponding reductions in LDL would increase outlook by less than another 200 Well-Days. These gains are smaller than gains from most of the above other factors.

In contrast antioxidants can substantially slow the progress of all cardiovascular diseases AND most or all causes of cancer.  And we have no evidence that their benefit decreases with age. These risks all are based on a most extensive-yet published global analyses of all useful population research found on these factors.  The cholesterol risk (including LDL and HDL) was based on results on about 400,000 persons. Results on 140 useful studies were involved in identifying the Life Ahead computed benefits for antioxidants and their supplements.  Those who find this result in conflict with present dogma should go back and review carefully what the research listed directly on this site now really shows. 

Antioxidants are Today's Major Key:  Look again in the Life Ahead Diet Analysis at the amounts of antioxidants in the usual diet vs. those needed to achieve lowest risks of cardiovascular diseases and cancer based on present research.  Only 9 actual vs. 430 needed for Vitamin E.  Only 170 actual vs 820+ needed for Vitamin C.  Only 2,410 actual vs. 16,400+ for Beta-carotene.  And only 80 actual vs. 190+ needed for Selenium. Although Life Ahead now accepts as needed only half of these amounts if all four of these nutrients are included, even this still is far more effective antioxidant than is included in most actual diets.

Sufficient antioxidant can reduce risk of both cardiovascular diseases AND most or all types of cancer in half.  See the actual research data provided for this on this Web Site.  Nutritionists' use of so-called RDA values of various vitamins and minerals that cite "Levels of sufficiency" has been confusing.  RDA values identify levels of sufficiency needed to guard against diseases of sufficiency such as anemia and can be of far lesser importance to life than are the much higher  amounts now shown to best reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. 

Other important nutrients include Folic Acid and Vitamin B6, Omega-3 fats, and Lycopene. Much has been done - but still not enough - to close the gap by the supplementing of some foods with Folic Acid.  But a usual 3 years of future Well-Days are potential for managing our intake of the Omega-3's and Lycopene.  Research now confirms benefits for these nutrients that should be more than adequately verified for action by health-interested persons. Few people today seem to be aware of the importance of these other nutrients or know what to do about it.  And the 'doing' needed to obtain these benefits need not be difficult.

The Life Ahead Demo Diets:  Eleven different illustrative demo diets are now included in the program.  First are three weekly diets, #1 a roughly average US one;  #2 observes general advice on health to include less meat, more chicken, some fish, and adequate fruits and vegetables; and #3 is a very poor diet strong in junk food that may reflect habits of many people today.  Eight daily demo diets include #1 as a very low fat one from Pritikin, and #2 that is a more usual low fat diet.  Numbers. 3, 4, and 5 are Dr R.C. Atkins diets recommended for induction, weight loss, and weight maintenance; #6 is vegetarian diet suggested by Scarsdale; and #7 and #8 are the popular DASH diets for day 1 and day 6 published by the National Institutes of Health.  Results are from simulations using the limited Life Ahead food library values as approximations.  

Table 1 appended shows in columns from left to right 1. Years of future likely Well-Days of life for a population for each diet eaten rest of life;  2 and 3,  Risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer from these diets in a next 10 years; and 4. Additional years of Well Days potential for improving at age 50 each diet to identified health targets. Next columns list the approximate Well-Days contribution for improving each specific nutrient areas of fats and fiber, antioxidants, omega-3 fats, lycopene, and folic acid to target values. This shows the areas of deficiency in each diet.  Next columns then identify % saturated fat and % carbohydrate in diet, diet calories, and weight loss expected from diet,  The next to final column shows the usual effect of each diet in producing average total serum cholesterol. All values in this table are direct results from Life Ahead version 2.06, and as program factors are revised and  improved these values will change somewhat. All Table 1 values except those in the column to the far right are for use of the diets with no accompanying diet supplements.

The Results: Best diet (without supplements) D8 provides nearly 36.8 years of Well-Days vs. the 16.8 of the poorest 'junk food' W3 for a difference of 20 years in days of useful life.  An impressive 18.5 added years of Well-Days is potential for improving the poorest diet W3 starting from age 50.  These are far larger benefits than have been estimated from usual single-nutrient health research that has not considered the total effects of Life Ahead's included diet nutrients.  Note in this first column how the various diets produce quite different values of years of Well-Days of future life.

A result most surprising to this author (the results were rechecked) and that will shock objective diet-heart researchers is the finding that Atkin's maintenance and weight loss diets produced 2nd and 3rd best health longevity of 35.1 and 32.4 years respectively. The two low fat diets produced lesser 31.7 and 27.4 years of Well-Days.  How could this be?  The higher saturated fat of the Atkins diet did produce a loss vs. target of 380 Well-Days vs. the lower 140 loss for the low fat Pritikin diet that was somewhat deficient in fiber.  But the Atkins diets included twice as much vitamin C and selenium and 50% more beta-carotene than did Pritikin, and its antioxidant debit was only 110 vs. that of 720 Well-Days for Pritikin.  Atkin's maintenance diet also had a substantial advantage vs Pritikin in lycopene and omega-3 fats.  Atkin's so-called induction diet did show the expected detrimental effect of very high saturated fat with a Well-Days value of only 21.7 years. But this quite unhealthful diet was recommended only for very short term use. Keep in mind that these results all assume no use of dietary supplements that easily could remedy the lack of antioxidants in included foods.

The final column in Table 1 shows the years of Well-Days potential for the same diets but with full use of recommended dietary antioxidant and mineral supplements.  The respective values of the various diets now change dramatically.  Pritikin ranks by far as the #1 with 42 years of future Well-Days.  DASH diet day 1 that was deficient vs. Dash day 6 by 8 years of Well-Days now becomes more healthful that DASH D8.  Yet if we take the diets as recommended by their authors, Atkins becomes by far the winner.  Both Pritikin and the DASH diets do not recommend any use of dietary supplements.  Atkins did recommend use of an extensive array of supplements. And for most individuals, Life Ahead shows that the effective use of dietary supplements often can become the single most important diet intervention that can benefit most health-interested persons. 

Risks of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD).  Risks of heart disease, stroke, and other CVD during a next 10 year period vary from 5.6% in diet D8 to 40.4% in diet W3, a seven fold difference for the differing diets.  Note that at similar probable total serum cholesterol, CVD risk for W1 at 14.9% is 2.6 times that of W8 of 5.6%.  And estimated CVD risk in diet D7 is near twice that of D2 despite similar estimated serum cholesterol values.  Life Ahead shows that dietary levels of antioxidants, omega-3's and other nutrients can change risk of heart and other cardiovascular diseases for a given serum cholesterol level by up to at 3 to 4 times.

Risks of Cancer:  Risks of cancer vary 4  fold for the different diets, with highest for poor diet weekly diet W3 and lowest for diet Diet D8.  Differences in amounts of fats, antioxidants and lycopene are key factors responsible for difference risks of cancer from diet.

Weight Loss:  The diets have widely variable levels of energy calories.  Diets D1-D4 and D6 were designed for weight loss, others were assumed as regular regimes.  Because Life Ahead now values diets based on their composition, this variation in energy does not affect computed health risks.  Life Ahead from now adequate available research verifies that diets low in carbohydrates increase the potential for losing weight.  But as noted for Diets D1 and D6, other diets also can produce useful losses of weight if calories are sufficiently restricted. Note that Life Ahead estimates of weight loss are for long range losses.  Short term losses in weight per week that include reductions body water can be higher.

The DASH Diets are Interesting:  The DASH diets were developed on the theory that salt and other diet factors can help control blood pressure.  Their design also used presently accepted ideas of dietary advice for health. As for most diets, they are oriented to value a limited number of health factors.  The DASH research suggested that these diets could reduce blood pressure by perhaps 5.0/2.5 mm.  Life Ahead computes that this improvement in blood pressure per se if maintained life-long should add about 250 Well-Days to healthful life. The DASH research showed that reductions in blood pressure were obtained in part by reductions in amount of sodium included, and in part because of the differing foods in the diets.  These effects are reflected in Life Ahead via its included effects of both salt and of dietary fat and fiber on blood pressures. Life Ahead research analyses also noted a probable favorable effect of Vitamin C on blood pressure, but now includes this as a part of the benefit of antioxidants.  

Yet in contrast to this modest benefit from blood pressure, Life Ahead multi-factor analysis reveals that the seven different daily DASH diets proposed may produce differences in their respective health benefits of up to a ten times larger 2500 or nearly 7 years of Well-Days from the multivariable effects of other included nutrients.  This is illustrated via the comparison of results for DASH diet D7 and D8 in Table 1.  The estimated health benefits of the other daily DASH diets varied intermediately between these values.  Interestingly, the DASH diet day 6 was the only specific diet of foods analyzed here in tests of various diets by Life Ahead that produced a near optimum health value without use of dietary supplements. Practically, it usually appears near impossible to develop diets of maximum health value without using some dietary supplements.   

Using Life Ahead:  Life Ahead will produce a valuation as above for any user diet entered.  Download and install the computer program from Download Life Ahead.  The Demo program includes the eleven diets cited above, you can easily run one or more of these diets to view the comparisons of diet nutrients with healthful targets needed. Enter your own habits and factors, and try entering a usual daily or weekly diet, and compute your outlook as detailed by the program.  From the result display, access 'Actions for More Well-Days' and then  'Diet Analysis' to bring up the listing of diet nutrients for healthful targets.  This will display your intake of total omega-3 fatty acids vs. targets from both fish and linolenic acids. 

                                                                                                TABLE 1

Future Well-Days and risks of major disease for an average US population of non-smoking men of age 50 that initiates taking differing diets at present age and continues these diets for future life. Values from Life Ahead #2