Yes, by "light diet", I mean one which is low-fat (not no-fat), low in
purines (i.e., little dark meat), and relatively high in carbs.  I should
admit that I measure success on a diet more in terms of energy level than
weight; I'm happy that I've gained several pounds on my current primarily
meat and vegetable diet, but I'm much more enthused about my increased
energy level.  However, I agree that a weight problem is a common indicator
of illness.  Since I'm a social recluse, and don't spend a lot of time
asking people about their dietary history, my list of examples is not as
impressive as I would like, but here I go....

I'm surprised that a couple of people on this list have found that all of
the vegetarians they know are overweight.  I once attended a lecture hosted
by a local vegetarian society, and everyone in the audience was thin
(ironically, the speaker was the only person who was overweight).  I know a
lacto-vegetarian couple, whom I would not describe as either thin or fat;
the wife looks much younger than her approximately fifty years and has a
boundless store of energy.  When one of friends was a child, his family
tried a vegetarian diet (not to lose weight), but it was a dismal failure.
In his mother's words, they were "dragging their butts" for several months
and had no energy.  Within three days of adding meat to the diet, they
promptly recovered their energy.  Conversely, her vegetarian friend seems to
be doing quite well on her light diet.  Most of my fellow students eat a
(not particularly healthy) high-carb diet, as far as I can tell, but most of
them are not overweight (this may change for some of them as they age).

The (thin) fellow who works at the local organic food depot seems to do well
on a relatively light diet.  His diet is mostly vegetarian, but he becomes
ill if he doesn't eat chicken at least once every week or two; he suspects
that he needs the amino acid taurine, found in chicken and fish.  He can't
tolerate saturated fat, but needs large amounts of the essential fatty acids
found in safflower oil (mostly omega-6, I think).  Perhaps his ancestors ate
a light diet which included plenty of fish.  (Curiously, he's sensitive to
oats, but not to wheat.)

Robert McFerran's father used to eat a lot of red meat, but suffered from
coronary disease, hypertension, and diabetes.  Robert adopted a whole foods
vegetarian diet to protect himself from similar problems, but he developed
arthritis after a couple of years.  He now controls his symptoms with a
low-carb diet including plenty of fatty organ meats.  Dr. Stoll, one of
Robert's friends, uses a vegetarian diet to help to control his
insulin-dependent diabetes.

I think that my mother would thrive on the Paleothin diet, since she does
well on heavy foods; she was fooled into believing that emphasizing carbs is
better for weight loss, and was surprised when I told her that this isn't
necessarily true.  During the extended power outage from the recent ice
store, my mother cooked eggs for breakfast every morning on the campstove.
My dad said that eggs were fine for the first couple of days, but after a
while it was too much for him, and he had to go back to eating his muesli;
he has an excellent body awareness, and is healthy and thin; he seems to do
best on a balanced mix of light and heavy foods.

Also, keep in mind that there are entire countries where light diets are the
norm, yet where obesity is less common than in North America.  I would like
to make it clear that I don't advocate the standard American diet for
anyone, regardless of his or her metabolic needs.

Cheers,

-- Aaron Wieland

-----Original Message-----
From: John C. Pavao <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, March 26, 1998 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: [P-F] new to list


>Successful "light" dieters?  Do you mean "low fat" by this?  I don't mean
>to be facetious, but my definition of successful as regards dieting is
>taking the weight off and keeping it off.  By this definition, I have never
>met a successful low-fat dieter.  Hey, I've lost 75 lbs low-fat dieting
>twice in my life.  Gained it all right back though.  Seriously, I don't
>know anyone who ever had weight to lose, lost it, and never gained it back.
> And I'm the only person I know not on the standard American diet.
>
>Take care,
>John Pavao