The Changing Diet Landscape

In the last post we introduced the idea of Weight Watchers as a health care company. The introduction of their new Momentum Program brings with it a focus on both fiber and water content of food. Which means more plants in the diet.

This particular focus of increasing higher levels of plant based foods in the diet has been at the core of the work that people like T. Colin Campbell and Joel Fuhrman have been doing for years. In fact, there is a lot more these guys are saying about both animal protein and dairy that is still out of the mainstream and roundly attacked.

But the landscape appears to be changing, and now you have Weight Watchers moving towards the recommendations put forth by Campbell and Fuhrman. What is interesting about their work is that they assert that high levels of animal protein are highly correlated with all sorts of disease, not just weight loss.

Their basic thesis is that when you increase plants in the diets, you decrease your health risk. The fact that Weight Watchers is embracing elements of this thesis bolsters my assertion that they are now a health care company.

The Weight Watchers "POINTS" System

Despite needing a major overhaul to reflect the latest scientific research, Weight Watchers remains the most popular and most effective diet. This is a link to a summary on how the program works. The bottom line on Weight Watchers is that it is a great starting point for anyone who needs to lose weight. They will teach you portion control, and demonstrate the power of group support as well as peer pressure.

The glaring weakness of their approach is that they sell foods that are very poor in nutrients. They focus on food restriction, and simple fat reduction. A food can be low in fat but still contain little to no nutritional value. Which is why Weight Watchers is a lifetime kind of thing. You can only restrict your food for so long. It is only through a diet high in nutrients that you can achieve a healthy weight without dieting. We will be blogging about that more in the future!