Hawaii Diet Review

 

Pro Review

Sounds great, doesn’t it? We all want a quick weight loss fix – and some of us are willing to go to farther and farther lengths to get it. KristenNC is one such gal. She writes:

A little background on my body – I gained about 60 pounds while pregnant. Standing at 5’2”, I had to angle sideways to go through doorways, but I didn’t mind much because I was going to have a baby. Said baby arrived, and the weight came off quickly. Joy! I remember putting on a pair of jeans about 3 months after Elaina was born and thinking “well, that was easy.” Then catastrophe struck and my thyroid went on strike. I gained 30 pounds, though I was consuming about 500 calories per day and exercising. Six doctors later, I am diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease and told that most people with thyroid problems never lose the weight they gained. I am determined to avoid that statistic, and have dropped about 20 pounds. I still am not in the size I want to be, but I am working out and feeling good. During the 18-month interim between then and now, I tried a million weight loss fads. The Eat More, Weigh Less, HawaiiDiet was one.

What is it?

The concept behind the diet is relatively simple. First off, there are no “bad foods.” Eat whatever you want – in fact, eat a whopping 2500 calories per day (WOW!) Each food is converted using Dr. Shintani's “Eat More Index” and assigned a number value based on fat calories. The higher this number value, the better. Natural foods that are low in fat have the lowest EMI value. Therefore, you can eat lots of those and supposedly gain no weight. High fat foods (especially animal proteins) are the ones to avoid. There is a cut-off number at which the good doctor claims that unlimited amounts of food with EMIs higher than 4.1 will cause you to lose weight. Food with EMIs lower than 4.1 should be approached with caution. The purchase price (about $100) gets you a book about the diet, a cookbook based on its principles, 2 videos (one on cooking and one “motivational” show), an audio tape that talks about the basics of weight loss and weight related physical problems and the 21 day fast start packet. The “fast start” packet includes a little magnet chart for EMI conversion, another audiotape on the basics of the diet, and a pack of meal suggestion cards. The bottom line is, choose your foods based on the highest amount of nutrients per calorie – keeping with the low fat, high carbohydrate and moderate protein plan of the traditional Eastern diet.

Okay, sounds pretty self-explanatory…

Yes, it is. Basically, if you have a clear understanding of high-fat foods, you can figure out the types of foods this plan is pushing. Carbs are good, meat is bad. Fruits and veggies are okay, but mayonnaise is dreadful. (Some examples of the EMI chart – apples – 9.42, which is good. Butter - .76, which is awful. Bagels – 4.14, which is right in the middle and brown rice – 4.59 which is a little better.) This diet is based on the traditional food pyramid – with grains at the top (8 servings per day) and fats at the bottom (avoid those if possible.)

What is Hawaii about that?

Diet aficionados know that traditional Eastern diets seem to be pretty darn good things. The Japanese, for example, corner the market on healthy foods with a diet rich in carbs and low in high fat, processed food. The animal protein that is seen in a Japanese diet tends to be fish and also much smaller in proportion to a typical Western diet. Of course, Americanization is changing even that as fast-food claims more and more victims, but that’s another story. A traditional Hawaiian diet is very similar to a traditional Japanese diet. As Hawaiians are moving towards a more Americanized diet (read high fat – Americans consume up to 40% of the days calories from blubber), they are developing more health problems.

Okay, tell me something I don’t know…

Well, there’s the scrub. This diet is expensive for some pretty basic information – and it doesn’t really tell us anything we don’t know. If you follow nutrition at all, then you realize that nutritionists have been pushing high fiber, low fat diets for years. Doctors have known that high fat diets (combined with simple carbohydrates) are responsible for increasing diabetes, high blood pressure, colon cancer, high cholesterol and other obesity related health problems. The only big exception to this believe is in the high protein (see Dr. Atkins for information) camp… and even they admit that combining high carbohydrate food with high fat causes health problems – they just don’t feel that the fat alone is to blame.

Does it work?

That’s a hard question to answer. I personally didn’t lose any weight and neither did my mom, but we were eating a lot of food. We kept track of all the food we ate for three weeks, and stuck mainly to fruits, vegetables and whole wheat bread. We ate high fiber at night as suggested and we avoided fatty foods. We actually both ate much, much more often than usual in order to get up to the calorie requirement. It wasn’t difficult, don’t get me wrong, offer me food and I’ll usually take it. But it didn’t feel normal. We both weighed just about exactly the same after three weeks (my mom actually weighed 2 pounds less, but didn’t attribute that to the diet.) I don’t think my body is designed for 2500 calories.

I want to point out now that my mom bought the program – and sent it back after 3 weeks. Her money was cheerfully refunded. The Eat More, Weigh Less, HawaiiDiet comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and they do stand by that. In general, though, I think this is one of the healthiest diets around. Every principle it encourages is good common sense eating.

Do I recommend it?

I am going to say a very limited yes here, even though during the review it sounded like I was going to say no. I recommend it only for the information it contains. If you don’t feel like you understand healthy eating and why Frito’s are not a very good food choice, this book is simple and yet detailed enough to totally convince you. I also like this book because it provides some very interesting insight on other “fad” diets (though I do not consider this book a “fad” – like I said, it is good, common sense eating.)

What is the bottom line?

You can find this information for free with a little research. Or spend the money going to a good nutritionist who will tailor some diet ideas for your life style. You get a lot of general information and some interesting history on food and obesity. Visit the Hawaii Diet website to find out more (http://www.hawaiidiet.com) - which is also where I got these statistics as the original box and books were mailed back many months ago.

Also, I'm fortunate enough to have the BEST comment section on epinions (regardless of what that jar-headed joker tipu claims) and one of my readers was kind enough to provide a little more detail on Dr. Shintani's plan. Keith is from Hawaii and has heard the good doctor speak - and he is eloquent and concise in explaining the concept to me. See for yourself in my comment section, and drop by and say "aloha" to Keith as well!

Related

Con review of the Hawaii Diet