Dr. Seth Roberts was traveling in Paris when he noticed that he was never hungry. Although he was walking more than usual, he always felt full and was actually skipping meals. This phenomenon interested him because he was always looking for ways to lose weight. Dr. Roberts finally decided that it must be the unusual soda waters he had been drinking that somehow killed his appetite.
He began to experiment with drinking plain sugar water (one tablespoon sugar per one cup plain water) and found that this simple procedure killed his appetite.As a psychologist, Dr. Roberts hypothesized that the lack of flavor in the sugar water prevented his mind from creating an association and a new craving for it, the way people learn to crave soft drinks (which are essentially sugar water).
Then Dr. Roberts experimented with flavorless oil. Instead of sugar water, he tried taking one tablespoon extra light olive oil a few times a day. Again, he lost his appetite and even more weight. Simply by consuming sugar water or extra light olive oil, Dr. Roberts lost over 50 pounds and has kept his weight off for years.
Dr. Roberts calls his diet the “Shangri-La Diet” because you finally make peace with food. You lose weight easily without counting calories, limiting carbohydrates or fats, cutting out certain foods, or otherwise struggling with food choices.
The key to the Shangri-La Diet is lowering your body’s “set point,” or the weight that your body naturally wants to be. Dr. Roberts compares the set point to a thermostat. If you set a thermostat at 70 degrees, the heater goes on when the temperature in a room drops below 70 degrees. Likewise, your body tells you (through hunger) to keep eating until you reach a certain set point.
Certain foods are “high-set point foods” and push your weight up higher. Others are low-set point foods. Dr. Roberts believes that when a person says she gained 10 pounds by eating a one-pound box of chocolates, it could be the truth. The chocolate pushed the person’s set point up. On the other hand, since the body cannot identify flavorless sugar water or oil, these products lower your set point. Dr. Roberts believes that the more flavor in a food, the higher it pushes up your set point.
See: Roberts, Seth (PhD). The Shangri-La Diet (New York: G.P. Putnam), 2006.
Created:
2006
Categories:
Fad
Website:
Meetings:
No
Books:
No
Expert Review:
Not backed by scientific evidence. This is the type of one-person diet that might work for him but not necessarily anyone else.
Sample Menu:
Here are the rules of the Shangri-La Diet:
1. Drink your sugar water one hour before or after meals.
2. You may substitute canola or safflower oil for extra light olive oil.
3. If you have less than 20 pounds to lose, take one tablespoon sugar in water and one tablespoon oil per day (equals 165 calories).
4. If you have between 20 and 40 pounds to lose, take two tablespoons sugar in water and two tablespoons oil per day (equals 330 calories).
5. If you have more than 40 pounds to lose, take three tablespoons sugar in water and three tablespoons oil per day (equals 495 calories).