Nathan Pritikin and a Healthy Body

[Aaron Franco]

CrossFit actively supports a Paleolithic diet plan and some of the crossFit nutritional advocates support the Zone Diet. I myself have been doing the Zone Diet for about 6 months now, and loving it. But, after much research, I'm no longer convinced it is the best diet for longevity.

It concerns me that the only things I've seen written about Nathan Pritikin here are negative and some say he committed suicide. This is not true. According to the autopsy report Nathan Pritikin died of complications during cancer treatment.

It is also said that Nathan Pritikin's high complex-carbohydrate diet gave him cancer. This is also not true. In 1955 Mr. Pritikin was diagnosed with a cholesterol level of 280.
According to the clinical report

In February 1958, the dagnosis of asymptomatic coronary insufficiency was made during a comprehensive medical evaluation.

Also in 1958, his cholesterol was 210, BEFORE he started his diet! That same year, 1958, before his diet, he was diagnosed with a malignant lymphoma. This is substantial proof that his cancer was in no way related to his diet.

And to make the argument for the Pritikin Diet final, he actually reversed the aging of his heart. His cholesterol was only 94 at his death and the doctors doing the autopsy reported:

"In a man 69 years old, the near absence of atherosclerosis and the absence of its effects are remarkable."

On the other end of the spectrum, is Atkins, a man who died of cardiomyopathy and had a history of heart trouble. On top of that, he did not release an autopsy.

After 6 months of research and reading several books, The Omega Plan is still in the mail but I will read it soon, I have reason to believe that Pritikin's Diet is in fact the best diet for the body and the popularity of the high fat diet is a result of human laziness / lack of discipline. Pritikin's Diet requires much more discipline than the high fat diets but when followed strictly, the results speak for themselves.

Source:
PDF:
http://www.pritikinca.com/images/pdf...insAutopsy.pdf
The New England Journal Of Medicine, July 4 1985 issue
Written by:

Jeffery D. Hubbard, M.D.,
Bender Hygienic Laboratory

Stephen Inkeles, M.D., M.P.H.
Ocean View Medical Group

R. James Barnard, Ph.D.
Pritikin Research Foundation

[Steven Low]

Well, you're off base.

If you're into LONGEVITY you should do a calorically restricted diet. They're proven in mammals to increase lifespan.

Nutrition for CF is about performance. Not longevity. People do Paleo for quality of foods & Zone for portions. But even then if you find your body operates differently and you need other foods and they mesh with will your body then go for it.

[John S Park]

popularity of the high fat diet is a result of human laziness / lack of discipline.

lol.. so if i say, a high carb diet is a result of human lack of discipline blah blah blah, does that make it true?

I believe Sears died from a head injury sustained from a fall actually.

<Never mind, that was Atkins>

[Aaron Franco]

Camille Lore : If you dig deep enough you will find Atkins died of cardiomyopathy while in a coma after his fall. The fall didn't kill him.

John S Park : I didn't mean this as an attack on the diet themselves but as an observation on dieting and well being. People complain about the Zone being too carb heavy. But, it isn't if you follow it strictly, same goes for Pritikin. I'm just observing that most people continue to eat simple carbs and then complain about the diets being carb heavy.

Steven Low : I'm aware that crossFit is about performance but they also promote fitness and I feel that well being should be included in that. I'm a huge fan of Crossfit but preaching fitness then dieting for performance doesn't really seem right. Not to me anyway.

And, most diets are calorie restricted in their strictest form. The problem I'm approaching is the lack of education to the crossfit community on the benefits of a Pritikin diet. Obviously, it is effective and if you are not a professional athlete then why would you favor performance over long life?

[Steven Low]

Because generally optimizing performance with your diet through good quality selection of foods (a la something like Paleo) will let you live "long" anyway.

At least without the affliction of "modern" nutrition like obesity, diabetes, etc.

[Aaron Franco]

I agree with you Steven, and a strict Pritikin diet follows that theory. And, in the tradition of CrossFit, the proof is in the numbers, and the Pritikin numbers are amazing ( for wellness ).

From all the research I've done, Paleo / Zone diets have no conclusive evidence that they are effective in longevity and wellness.

If you have found conclusive results of this, please direct me to the source, but from what I've seen, these diets are based mainly on short-term loosely controlled research experiments.

[Matthew Stafford]

I should point out that basing the quality of a diet on it's creator is not sound logic and a poor way to argue for the merits of a diet. More to the point, the plural of anecdote is not data.

[Mike ODonnell]

Keep your fasting insulin low....eat less calories....avoid sugar and excessive rancid/unstable (PUFA) fats.....reduce oxidative damage from internal and external sources.....activate autophagy more often at the cellular level.....and then don't stress out over what % of carbs/protein is most ideal.....probably will live a long and happy life.

BTW calorie restriction (and in that sense forms of IF) calories is the ONLY proven way so far to extend life in most all animal trials.....as for humans, well I don't have 100 years to wait for the results.

[Brian Bedell]

I did some very preliminary research into this Pritikin diet and really don't see the huge difference from Paleo/zone.

The "proof" that the CF prescribed diet (what I would call "Zone with paleo foods for athletes") works is in the CF athletes raves, reviews, and performance data.

And I don't feel as though the OP has been using any diet long enough to judge "longevity." How much longer do you think someone is gonna live by choosing Pritikin over Zone or the "CF version?" IMO, there would be so many other variables to longevity that a true comparison would be impossible.