2008-09-02 Sound, straight forward advice but it might clash with your lifestyle

From many points the food doctor's diet is the perfect plan. It is healthy, the food is varied and it tastes nice and it does deliver results. Also it is a sane, common sense plan that can improve your relationship with food. If you tended to eat enormous quantities of food you will find it a bit hard in the beginning but if you found yourself pilling up the pounds due to careless eating habit it is great.

So why I did not gave it more than 3 stars? Because it takes effort and is not suitable for all. If you work at home or have the luxury to take snack breaks at your work every three hours it is wonderful. But for me it was impossible to sustain it, firstly because I travel a lot, I do not have a very standard schedule and somedays I do not have access to a kitchen. In this plan you have to cook your food carry it at work and store it in the fridge until there is time to take it out and reheat it. But what about some people who do not have fridges and microwaves at their workplaces and can not stop their work every 3 hours to eat? Yes, you might take on board the principles and I have copied some of the recipes that seemed nice but doing the whole plan is just impossible for me and most people that do not have a simple work routine.

Also it does involve buying a very large variety of things; if you are living with a family you can always serve them to them as well but if you are living alone you will find yourself with cupboards full with all types of food [from quinoa to bulgur wheat and red rice and corn etc] that will never finish because you are on a diet that allows you to eat quite small portions.

For the few days I found time to be at home and I followed the diet, I was throwing away food all the time. You cannot buy 2 spoonfuls of yogurt and 50 gr of spinach and 1 strip of pepper and 2 slices of cucumber. Plus, oatcakes and rice cakes do not store well once you open the package [following the food doctor's variety advice you need a month to go through a package of oatcakes]. So people who live alone [or have families that are not interested in oatcake and quinoa eating] have to throw out even as much as 75% of the expensive good quality food they buy or having an extra equipped kitchen with a massive freezer when you can put things until next month when you will need them again. Maybe a plan that is a bit less varied but addresses this problem as well is needed.