Looks interesting, but I don't see legumes anywhere. The world would be a better place if we all ate more beans.

I agree on the legumes! Alton's diet certainly cuts back on the meat (including fish), but the daily eats are really just fruits/veg and grains (plus nuts, I guess, but given their calorie count, he's probably not eating huge amounts of nuts). What about eggs? I

f this worked for him, that's great, but I think it is more restrictive than it needs to be.

http://www.vegrun.blogspot.com/

It just so happens I also spent last year losing weight, 65lbs to be exact, and I did it with a very similar method! I didn't make myself lists to stick to, but followed a very similar philosophy. The good for you stuff all the time, and the not so good for you stuff one day a week. Also, making sure the good for you stuff tastes so good you might think it's bad for you. Hehe.

I tried his sardines and avocado on toast and it was positively delicious! My first time eating sardines, so thanks Mr. Brown for broadening my horizons, yet again!

Forthright Fattie, I second your comment! I don't get very good fish where I live, and I get burnt out on chicken and pork, so I like to keep things meat light some weeks and opt for beans and lentils instead.

No kidding! I noticed that poultry, pork, non-oily fish and seafood are mentioned nowhere, too! And what about other veggies that don't fit so easily into these categories like every other root vegetables besides carrots and sweet potatoes? Not to mention cheese and tomatoes! Where would we be without them?

*sigh* He's trying, but it's awfully simplistic. Plus the average American is going to seriously balk at eating red meat just once a week. I figure if we can cut all meat consumption down to one meal per DAY, we're doing pretty well in this country.

As for my diet? I do eat a lot of fresh fruits and veg and whole grains. But I also eat a lot of cheese, and I love chicken, pork, and sausage. I think he's forgetting a key ingredient: EXERCISE!

I do like that fast food and soda make the "never" category though. : )

I'm a huge Alton Brown fan, but starting the showing saying it wasn't a diet, and then listing all these rules felt odd. And then the recipe for a smoothie? With weighing all the ingrediants and the timing of the blender speeds? I'm all for detailed instructions, but I think most people could figure out a smoothie.

You guys, I'm pretty sure he's not saying to only eat those foods listed.

Good "guidelines" but it's really simple, calories in should be fewer than calories out. You can do that practically any way you want. It's good to eat healthy, but the way he posted certainly isn't the *only* way to lose weight.

I am really glad to see the "Fast Food, Soda, Processed Meals, Canned Soups and "Diet" Anything" as something you should eat zero times a week.

America's biggest mistake when it comes to dieting is buying diet products - we would be better off not buying processed anything. Eating real food is always the way to go - and more cost effective, too.

See that's the thing right there Tristanc - it isn't a "diet" the way we've come to understand, as something done until you're at the weight you want. It's a change in how you live day to day. And when was the last time anyone taught you portions, good foods from bad, what to eat and how much?

We used to discuss the "food pyramid" in school, and proper nutrition, but it seems that's been abandoned, and what seems like it should be common knowledge is pretty hard to balance after years of eating so unhealthily.

So it's not a diet, but you still have to know how to properly eat, so you need "rules" or else he's not teaching you anything.

what's so bad about canned soup?

Most (not all) canned soups are filled with preservatives, trans fats, sodium and additives that can be avoided when you opt to make them at home.

I'm all for these healthy eats, but I think we also forget an integral part of food and the activity of having a meal, and that's enjoying a meal. Sure people can eat all that stuff, but I think cutting out some things we enjoy like fast food isn't really healthy. For me eating healthy consist of eating healthy, but also enjoying what I eat, and sometimes I just want to have fast food, it isn't all the time, just maybe once every once in a while. Yes some people can find joy in just eating all these healthy items, and good for them, but seeing these scares people into thinking they're losing their hamburgers and pizza. The whole reason lots of people have problems with their diets, is it's just too much. Cut back, eat healthier, and just have fast food every once in a while, and you'll be a happy camper, being healthy, and still enjoying your own delights. That's my philosophy behind my own diet.
Just wanted to also add, that there isn't any shortcut, sure a healthier diet is better, but exercise should be included in any diet regimen. Also eating things that say diet, and calorie free isn't a shortcut to losing weight! The only way is controlling your own diet and exercise, imo. :) Remember part of health is still being happy with what you do with yourself too! :)

sdreams - I have completely eliminated fast food from my diet, but I understand that you're cautioning against telling someone they can never eat a certain food item. I would like to point out that Alton doesn't say you can't eat hamburgers or pizza...Just not the fast food versions. We eat burgers and pizza all the time at home, but we make them from scratch, which doesn't bother AB at all.

Wow, he looks great.

sdreams--well said!!!

I have tried so many diets in the past but have always, always failed because I was no longer able to eat anything I truly enjoyed.

I had a baby last July and gained 70 lbs through the pregnancy. I made the decision to drastically change my eating habits while still being able to enjoy the things I crave (every once in awhile). I combined that mindset with regular exercise and have since lost every single pound. Alton Brown's method mentioned above is what worked for him and the mindset that he had to place himself in. It's going to be different for everyone but you must be able to enjoy it as well.

Yes Alton! And woot for cutting way back on meat!

Avocado nom nom nom.

I'm good on #4 (I don't eat any of those things), but sadly I seem to have reversed the "eat daily" and "eat once per week" lists. Oh well!

I definitely would not call this a diet. Diets have a philosophy of restriction, whereas this follows a philosophy of balance.

A diet is a temporary state of being, whereas Brown's guidelines are an attainable lifestyle.

My attainable philosophy on food -- and life -- is that unless I have a good excuse, I must take the healthy option.

Good excuses for eating unhealthy foods include holidays, celebrations, trying new things, and being sick (for a time last year I had to eat only soft foods, and what can I say, mac and cheese featured heavily). Bad excuses for eating unhealthy food are being tired or being in a bad mood. Neither of those problems are solved by the food.

And I like Brown's one-time-per-week idea. Not having had dessert for a full week qualifies as a good reason to have some dessert in my book :)

I can honestly say that after adopting a similar diet a year ago I've never looked or felt better. It's way easier to only eat veggies and grains than you think. I honestly don't miss meat that much at all (well, save for when my boyfriend cooks it, but it helps remembering that it smells better than it tastes--to me anyway). I do have to agree with several commenters though---I can't give up everything. Me and pizza will never break up forever. And avocado three times a week? Try three times an hour.

I am doing really really good if I can limit dessert to once a day.

I'm a decent, normal person who's really into food, but I find him annoying. Good diet ideas, though.

I do really well on the "never" section, but I eat pasta and drink alcohol several times a week -- though I did switch from beer to wine and noticed a drop on the scale immediately. :)

He does look great though -- good for him!

I depart on a couple of fronts.

Must. Have. Dessert. (Once a day.) It's always homemade (or it's a chunk of chocolate).

I imbibe (wine, mostly) much more than once a week. (Dinner only.)

I don't like other people telling me that what worked for them should work for everyone. The year of intestinal problems, faintness and hunger headaches before I got it through my head that I was eating too much fiber and too little carbs and fat may have made me a little sensitive on this one.

Eat when hungry, stop when full. It's a lot easier to listen to what your body actually needs without the noise of what you "should" be feeding it.

Here I am! Here I am! I don't love Alton Brown. In fact, because I don't have cable tv, I never saw him before watching the clip above.

His 7-3-1-0 approach feels like it might be a simple way to guide decisions about food (...remember the post about those food decision trees?!...) without it being a chore that sucks the joy out of eating.

On the other hand, I think its really misleading to suggest that these guidelines will have you dropping 50 lb in nine months.

bout the canned soups, the main danger, EVEN in the "healthy" ones like amy's organic vegetarian soups is the sodium.

i'm in nursing school, and we are studying hypertension and heart failure. we had a patient recently who our professor said basically had "death by soup and snapple."

hidden sodium is everywhere in processed foods, and even thin, seemingly fit young people can have uncontrolled high blood pressure. sounds like no big deal, except that they are wrecking their kidneys and just about every other major organ and will likely not realize it until it's too late.

we learned to teach patients about a rule of 8's for sodium - only eat a food that has 8% or less RDA of sodium.

btw, i also don't care for alton brown, but i do kind of like this eating plan.

Good on him for losing the weight, but the way he talks is incredibly annoying! Unless this is pitched at an audience of five-year-olds?

I have begun drinking purple juice in the morning and an ounce of almonds a day from that show! For me the rules are too much for the long term, but the show did inspire me to eat more fresh and stay away from fast food. And I plan to make the brisling/avocado toast soon.

i think you guys only watched the clip above and forgot that it was an intro to a whole informative show.

my beef is with acai being in everything these days.... acai is a very important and cheap food for some very poor populations in south america, but since the acai craze here in usa, a lot of this important food is leaving those areas for overfed westerners and their fad diet crazes.

also "diet" isn't what you do to lose weight... "diet" is the sum of food consumed by an organism or group---not necessarily a weight loss plan.

wait... do most americans really eat red meat once a day on average??? really??? even in the midwest i find this hard to believe.

Yes, there is a correlation between being obese and certain health problems, but I hate the fact that we seem to have latched onto weight as a proxy for health in any and all cases. People of all shapes and sizes can be unhealthy, even skinny people. I'm all for eating a healthy, varied diet heavy on fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and light on meat, processed foods, and refined sugar. Some people may lose weight, as Alton did, by retooling their eating habits along these lines. Others, if undernourished to start with, may actually gain some. And others may have no noticeable weight changes, but see improvement in the numbers we really should be focusing on if heath and not appearance is the true concern - HDL, LDL, blood pressure, etc. Alton's story would be more compelling to me if he just focused on actual health and left the "weight loss journeys" to those Kardashian sisters and the diet pills they shill (but the pills helped them lose weight so they must be, like, totally healthy, right?!?)

Ohhh! He lost 50 lbs. I thought he looked that way because he was ill. I must have missed these shows!

I actually really liked the episode. I've taken some of his rules to heart such as cutting back on pasta and wine, incorporating more oily fish into my diet (which is highly convenient given that sardines are my favorite fish to eat) and having almonds handy in my office's freezer, and along with exercise a few days a week I've felt a significant difference in both how I look and feel. His smoothies are now my weekend breakfasts or lunches, and the avocados and sardines on toast has become a weekly meal.

LiaBia, I live in the mid-west too, and people around here definitely eat red meat at least once a day.

When I mentioned that I couldn't go a week without red meat to my grandmother (who is slim and trim) because I love beef too much, she was shocked. "I can't go a day without meat!" she said. My sister-in-law, who heard me say the same thing, asked me if I was turning into a vegetarian. :P

And I have other examples with non-family members, too. I think it just depends on where you live and what's the norm in that area.

I didn't see this mentioned yet, but people commented on it and I wanted to point it out. He's not saying eat ONLY the stuff on the lists. He's saying:

For the daily list, get at least one serving of those items a day, either alone or incorporated into other meals (meals that have nothing from the 0x list and are sensibly portioned). So yah, you could eat pork, chicken, beans; etc. The other lists work the same way only 3x/1x a week, save the 0x list which is self explanatory.

What he's describing is a good diet-using diet in the scientific sense of the word. If everyone ate along these lines, we'd probably be a lot healthier. I know I shed a good amount of weight just by cutting out processed food, eating more "real" food that wasn't overly processed, and getting portioning under control. I didn't even really count calories or exercise that much. I think being in mind of portioning was the hardest bit (but it wasn't really that bad once I got in the habit).

AB did describe a healthy and balanced diet, but not a diet plan. This is kind of how we're supposed to eat.

Or to put it another way, like Michael Pollan said in his book "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto"

"Eat food. Not to much. Mostly plants"

but what is a purple breakfast?!

I don't have cable so I didn't see this episode. Why is he limiting broccoli to 3 times a week? I have a little broccoli every day with a salad, a soup, a meal, a side. I just can't seem to escape it.

graciela - he is not limiting it to three times a week, he is saying at least three times per week.

His weight loss and even voice tone reminds me of Rick Bayless's similar epiphany. He reminded me I should stock my office with green tea. And I'm definitely trying the sardine/avocado combo for lunch. Still not eating breakfast, though. bad me.

Oh, I see. Thanks Syrup!

I had tried a smoothie-a-morning before but I ended up gaining a couple pounds due to my sugary recipe. I've started AB's smoothie-a-day using his updated smoothie recipe, you can check it out here:

http://www.paultuorto.com/giustogusto/?p=449

It's always refreshing to see someone giving sensible advice on how to eat healthily in the real world. "Diets" are impossible to keep up, but if you generally eat real, nutrient-rich food without too much junk added to it, you can pretty much eat whatever you like.

Oh, except for the alcohol once a week thing. I never could stick to something like that. Red wine's good for the heart, and beer has loads of vitamins. Come on!

I've been doing this for a week now and it is suprisingly easy! I've got three kids and my hubby to cook for too.

Here is what i have found:

*You are not LIMITED to the things on the list. You can also have legumes and lentils and other veggies he does not list. This is just a simple list to give you the idea. I've just used my own judgement.

*He says in the video that the things on the 3x list are "at least 3x a week".

*The main thing for me was cutting out the convenience foods and soda (my kids didn't have the soda, I did for a pick me up!). I thought it would be hard but replacing it with green tea I haven't had any of the sugar or caffeine withdrawel I had thought I would (which I have had in the past when I tried this).

* The lists have actually made things easier for me because before my mind was all over the place about what to plan to eat and this often resulted in my buying a "ready meal" or throwing on some pasta. The lists makes it easier for me to focus and think what to eat.

* We already ate a lot of the things on the list anyway, and I don't eat a lot of meat, so red meat once a week is not hard for us.

* We already ate a lot of wholegrains, but I have replaced any bagels, buns etc with wholegrain pitas (cheaper too), whole grain bread and wholgrain buns.

*Cous cous, veggies and salad makes an easy lunch. It is also good as a side at dinner. It is wholegrain.

*The green tea has been great! I am still getting a little bit of daily caffeine but I feel much better having this rather than sugary drinks or coffee loaded with milk and sugar.

* The black and whiteness of "Yes you can have it" or "Once a week" or "Not at all" works well for me (I know it might not for everyone). If I have one cookie I have to have more. If I have a couple chips I finish the bag. It might be for everyone but the lists feel liberating to me.

I don't have 50lbs to loose, but am hanging onto some baby weight 18mths on from baby number 3. I have seen some of that studdorn weight go already this week. It is really working for me. :)

This is a great start for Alton Brown. I like that he was specific and deliberate about making his weight loss a lifestyle change. I work at a non-profit that is promoting healthy eating and active living and it's hard work. I'm going to share this with our program officer, though. Unfortunately, I wish Alton would have talked about the exercise plan even if was as simple as walking each day.

I tried the avocado & sardine on sourdough, it was good! I really like fish and I bought a higher priced can of sardine (nothing fancy, just from the grocery) and it wasn't far from tuna in olive oil and similarly priced. :)

I too live in the Midwest and we keep our red meat to 1-2 times a week! I just prefer the variety of changing the meat or meatless 1-2 times a week too.

I'm a little concerned about calcium intake here, especially for women. Yogurt three times a week, plus the vegetables, won't be enough.

Note that I am not against sweets, but I found it sad that this posting (or any posting on this blog site) had a Smuckers Uncrustable ad on the side!

You also get calcium from bones in small oily fish, such as mackerel and sardines; almonds; leafy green vegetables; and broth/stocks. Also, like others have said, this is not an 'exclusive list of foods to eat' but foods to incorporate into your diet X times per week. That said, studies have shown that Asian populations who traditionally eat little to no dairy have less osteoporosis than Americans who consume a plentiful amount of dairy.

Great post! I can't wait to try the sardine-avo sandwich! And I love Alton. Proud of him!