Diet Plans That Make a Statement

With health and weight consciousness all the rage, and diet after patented diet plan topping the bestseller list, the pressure on doctors and nutritionists to develop and christen original diet plans is formidable. The pressure has, in fact, extended to laymen, with the result that many a timely tome testifies to an expertise on food that consists wholly of a lifetime of eating it. The regimens published to date, however, possess a disconcerting uniformity. Though their focus may shift from starches to vegetables to proteins, the diets of the day display a consistent lack of imagination.

Not so the sensational new thematic diets. Designed with a motif in mind, these innovative weight-loss programs are divided into four basic categories. Because shared traits are the basis for selection of foods in the Denominator Diets, scientists, mathematicians, and other logical types are inclined to favor them. As might be expected, egalitarians and assorted activists are attracted to the Democratic Diets, pedants endorse the Didactic Diets, and connoisseurs of the cutting edge gravitate toward the Daredevil Diets.

Denominator Diets
Among the most interesting of the Denominator Diets are the Alphabet, the Chromatic, and the Decibel Diets. The Alphabet Diet is a 26-day plan restricting the weight watcher to foods whose names begin with a particular letter of the alphabet, beginning with ?a? on the first day, ?b? on the second, and so on, with abstinence prescribed for the 24th day (or Ex-lax).

Day One
BREAKFAST
Apple turnover
Apple juice
LUNCH
Avocado salad
Alphabet soup (with Animal crackers)
Anchovy pizza
Apricot juice
DINNER
Antipasto
Artichoke, Asparagus, or Acorn squash
Alligator or Armadillo sauce piquant
Apple sauce, Almond ice cream, or Angel food cake
Amaretto, Absinthe, or Anisette

Similarly, the Chromatic Diet limits the participant's daily intake to foods of a particular hue, with a liberality in the interpretation of shades permitted. The progression from day to day is not ordained, as in the Alphabet Diet, but prismatic, or rainbow, order is recommended.