The Universal Diet

Arlene Gryfe is a Toronto-based professional nutritionist and home
economist.

No group of people has been so preoccupied with losing weight as present-day North Americans. Since the turn of the century, the average weight has slowly increased over the years. Caloric intake of sugars and fats has increased, while energy expenditure, due to labour-saving devices, has simultaneously decreased. Nonetheless, the idealized body shape, especially female, is excessively thin, and the desire to emulate this model has progressively influenced our society.

However, losing weight permanently is a slow process, requiring a change in lifestyle and eating habits. Since most people would like instant change, any book which promises this is bound to appeal.

The Universal Diet, written by the unknown Dr. Maplesden (no initial, no biography, no known qualifications), promises “real weight loss of fat in just three days” provided that one does “not vary or substitute any of the foods” and has “absolutely no snacks.” Then follows 2½ pages of forbidden snacks. This surely must create a negative feeling in dieters.

The diet has an initial three-day “Dietary Adjustment Period” followed by 13 days, to be repeated indefinitely until the desired weight is reached. The diet possesses both desirable and undesirable features. In its favour, it recommends three meals per day of mainly nutritious foods, eating slowly, and keeping a daily record. However, no substitutions are allowed, the milk intake is low, and many recommendations are vague (one “container,” one “piece” of fruit, a sandwich “of choice”).

Subsequent chapters on metabolism, vitamins and minerals, and liquids contain excessive information for a diet book. The author attempts to include too much on these topics, resulting in oversimplification of some facts, and inclusion of terms without adequate explanation (e.g., “10 mg per dl,” “acid-base balance,” “osmotic pressure, “ “hematocrit”).

The final chapter contains a collection of unimaginative low-calorie recipes with quantities expressed in words rather than figures.

There are many better diet books on the market. This one only serves to confuse a vulnerable public.