Todd,  here is another diet for you to try.  You have
mentioned several times how you like peanuts. ;-)

Peter

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8 Oct 2002 22:06 GMT
ALBANY, Ga., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ --"Fight Fat with Peanut Butter -- Real
Life Success Stories" is highlighted on the cover of the November issue of
Prevention Magazine. Successful dieters are profiled who lost up to 27
pounds and are keeping it off by following the Peanut Butter Diet during a
special field trial.
Colleen Pierre, a registered dietitian and an associate professor of aging,
nutrition and fitness at Johns Hopkins University, put the diet to the test.
Ten women, plus Pierre herself, followed the diet for five months. The
results? "Astonishing!" according to Pierre. "Collectively, we have lost a
total of 140 pounds and not one person is tired of eating peanut butter.
Over the past twenty years, I've counseled thousands of weight loss clients,
but I've never before seen success like this," she enthused. Not one person
dropped out, which is surprising for a program of this duration.
This group of women proved what researchers at Harvard and Purdue
Universities have been finding in scientific studies -- peanut butter and
peanuts are satisfying snacks that can help people stick to weight loss
diets. By counting calories and watching portions, each woman spread up to
four tablespoons of peanut butter into her daily diet. Although
portion-control was stressed throughout the study (one serving, or two
tablespoons, is about the size of a ping-pong ball) dieters looked forward
to their daily doses of peanut butter or peanuts. Favorite snacks of the
dieters included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and hot oatmeal with
melted peanut butter swirled through it.
As an added benefit, many of the dieters saw their cholesterol levels drop.
These findings are consistent with previous research at Pennsylvania State
University, which shows that including peanuts and peanut butter in a
healthful diet lowers bad LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and total
cholesterol by 14 and 11 percent, respectively.
The Peanut Butter Diet may sound like the latest fad diet, but its diet
profile gets high marks. About thirty-five percent of calories in the diet
come from fat -- mainly healthy monounsaturated fats -- and it is low in
saturated fat and cholesterol. Fifteen percent of calories come from
protein, including the cholesterol-free plant protein in peanut butter, and
the remaining 50 percent of calories come from carbohydrates. The diet also
contains almost 30 grams of fiber and nine servings of fruits and vegetables
per day. This diet is consistent with the latest dietary guidance from the
National Cholesterol Education Program, American Heart Association, and
National Academies of Science.
When first promised that they could lose up to 25 pounds a year, while
including four tablespoons of peanut butter a day (six tablespoons for men)
into a healthful diet, dieters could not get enough. Moving quickly,
nutrition editor, Holly McCord, MA, RD, expanded a March 2001 Prevention
article into a top selling diet book, now in its fifth printing.
Prevention's Peanut Butter Diet, published by St. Martin's Press in August
2001, contains 28 days of diet menus, plus recipes and an in-depth summary
of nutrition research that provides the basis for the diet.
Peanut butter and peanuts can be labeled free of trans fat and are rich in
good unsaturated fat. Peanuts and peanut butter also provide plant protein,
fiber, vitamin E, folate, potassium, magnesium, and zinc, all of which are
thought to be important to health. Peanuts also contain bioactive components
such as phytosterols, flavonoids, and antioxidants, the benefits of which
nutrition scientists are only beginning to discover.
Visit http://www.peanut-institute.org to learn more about peanut nutrition
and the Peanut Butter Diet. A variety of healthy recipes are also available,
as well as a link for ordering the Peanut Butter Diet Book.