Forget counting carbs and calories. Obesity
researcher Dr. David Katz says the way to lose weight
is to limit flavors.
Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research
Center, says people stop eating when the brain's appetite
center registers "full." But eating lots of flavors promotes
overeating because different sensors must register full
for appetite to subside, Katz says.
The typical American diet "is a mad cacophony of flavors,"
Katz said this week during a book-tour stop in Chicago.
Instead, Katz advocates flavor-themed meals — an
apple day, for example, or a sesame day, even an occasional
chocolate day.
The idea is perhaps less boring than it sounds. For example,
pineapple day features pineapple juice and cereal for
breakfast; pineapple-walnut chicken salad and crackers
for lunch; pineapple shrimp, bulgur, sauteed peas and
tossed salad for dinner; and caramelized pineapple rings
for dessert.
The theory and practice are detailed in Katz's new book,
"The Flavor Point Diet," based on a little-publicized
phenomenon called sensory-specific satiety. That is the
term used to describe the way food becomes less palatable
when enough of it is eaten. Adding a new flavor renews
the process, numerous studies have shown.
Katz, 42, the trim, youthful medical contributor to ABC
News and a nutrition columnist for
Oprah Winfrey's magazine, tested the diet on 20
people for 12 weeks and said they lost an average of more
than 16 pounds.
Jonathan Link, a 34-year-old information services specialist
from New Milford, Conn., was one of them. Link —
who was 5 feet 9 inches and 183 pounds, with high cholesterol
— was skeptical at first.
"I thought, `Oh, that's disgusting, you have to eat peaches
all day,'" Link said.
But Link said the diet was surprisingly varied. He lost
about 20 pounds early last year and has kept it off by
permanently changing his eating habits.
"By week two, I started getting stuffed. I couldn't even
finish dinner because I was feeling so full," Link said.
Katz recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise most
days. His flavor theme builds on the diets many nutritionists
advocate — lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains
and nuts; fish and poultry for protein; limited fat; and
healthy snacks.
Brown University researcher Hollie Raynor, who has studied
sensory-specific satiety, said many diets are based on
a more extreme interpretation of the concept, including
ice cream diets, soup diets and diets that severely restrict
carbohydrates.
Whether Katz's diet works because it limits flavors,
or because it promotes healthy eating and exercise, is
unclear, Raynor said. "If you're eating healthy and exercising,
you're going to lose weight," she said.
Susan Burke, chief nutritionist for ediets.com, a weight-management
Web site, said there is some validity to Katz's flavor
theory. "Jumbling flavors at any one meal can trigger
you to eat more," Burke said.
"Whether or not the science will bear out that this actually
is the cause of the weight loss" is unclear, Burke said.
But she added: "At the very least, this program you can
be assured is going to be nutritious.
