Comparing Apples to...Rib Roast

As I'm gearing up for this project, I thought it might be helpful to review the different diets' rules and restrictions, to make the comparison between them a little more straightforward. The table below lays out the 6 different diets I'm planning to test out, and their basic rules about various food categories. 

I didn't include fruits or vegetables as a category because consumption of these food groups is almost totally unrestricted in all of these diets. Some of the low-carb diets, like Paleo, caution against eating too much fruit, and dried fruit is meant to be limited, but otherwise, you're free to go to town. No one ever got fat eating too many carrots.

One caveat here: I haven't researched all of these diets in detail yet, so some may be off. If you see something that needs to be changed, please let me know and I'll fix it.

Diet Comparison Chart

These diets share some similarities- the chart below makes that a little easier to see. The green boxes show food categories that the diet doesn't restrict at all, yellow boxes show food categories that a diet allows with conditions, and the red boxes indicate food categories that the diet rules out entirely. Verbotin!

The Paleo Diet is the only diet on the chart that allows pretty much unrestricted consumption of (non-processed) meats. It does caution limiting intake of meats high in saturated fats, like some cuts of beef (and bacon- quelle domage) but otherwise is fairly flexible. It allows unlimited consumption of most fruits and vegetables, as well. It gets more restrictive towards the middle of the chart- no dairy, grains of any sort, or, somewhat weirdly, legumes. It redeems itself at the tail end with booze. In addition to what I detailed above, Paleo stipulates no added sugar and no added salt. WHAT??? Sad. Salty is my favorite flavor. 

The Maker's Diet seems the fussiest to me. For pretty much every category, the answer is, "Yes, but..." I haven't read the book (or the Book) yet, but the tenets are based on the foods available during biblical times, as well as biblically-mandated restrictions (ie, pork and shellfish). I wonder if other kosher rules will apply- are cheeseburgers out? Maker's Diet also eliminates refined sugar and places a special emphasis on organic produce.

The Mediterranean Diet is by far the most forgiving and flexible, despite all that yellow. What it's really saying is, "Yes, you can eat that, but don't be ridiculous." Moderate. You'll notice that, if I stick to my timeline of about 2 months per diet, the Mediterranean Diet rolls into town just in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays. Praise Allah. Because the Mediterranean Diet is rad, the only additional caveat is an emphasis on olive oil. YES.

The Vegetarian Diet and the Vegan Diet both eliminate all meat from the diet plan. Yes, even fish. Nothing with a face or a mother, as every 16 year old with a vegetarianism-induced superiority complex says. 

Vegans take it one (giant) step further and eliminate all animal products, including dairy of course, but also honey, gelatin, and, if they're following the full vegan lifestyle, leather. 

I'm a bit torn about separating these two diets into different categories, but testing both will allow me to pinpoint the impact of dairy on my system. Dairy is much-maligned these days, but it's hard for me to believe it's truly making me feel so terrible when ice cream makes me feel so good.

When it gets closer, I may consider testing each of them for a month, or only testing out veganism, so I have time to work in another, more divergent plan. Maybe, if I have multiple readers by that point, I'll open it up to a vote!

Finally, there are the Raw Diets. Raw Diets can be either vegan, or include some uncooked meats (such as sashimi or steak tartare) and unpasteurized dairy. The sources I've seen online vary a bit in the threshold, but the basic gist seems to be that nothing is meant to be cooked above a temperature of somewhere around 110 degrees F. In contrast, the FDA recommends steak be cooked to 145F; medium rare would be somewhere around 135F. 

I'm interested in the research on this topic- raw foodists claim cooking the foods kills the healthful enzymes in them that aide digestion. It seems like craziness to me, but I can see that if you ate nothing but fresh fruits and veggies you'd feel pretty pure. Luckily, my raw diet will roll around next spring. As Ali said, when discussing this plan, "If you can't do smoothies, you're f*cked." Also because you're not allowed caffeine on the Raw Diet. Watch out world- when I'm eating nothing but leaves and water, and no caffeine, I won't be held responsible for my behavior. I can only control so many things at a time.