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CNN Live Today
Look at Change One Diet
Aired January 29, 2003 - 10:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you're looking for a way to change your eating habits and lose some weight, and we're not talking about that little baby, chances are you've come across a lot of different diet plans, and that's what is best to eat, drink and be healthy. One health official has proposed what he calls the Change One Diet. Is it right for you? And we've sent our Elizabeth Cohen going through the shelves of diet books all week long, and today, she's looking at this one, in our "Diet a Day" report.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I couldn't believe it, yesterday when I was at that Barnes & Noble, 500 diet books. I mean, how are you supposed to choose?
Now, this Change One Diet, what makes it kind of stand out is that it is very straightforward. Let's go over the basic tenets of the Change One Diet.
First of all, they say, don't make radical changes. You can't keep it up. Make one weekly change at a time, slowly but surely, and eat smaller portions. For example, a typical breakfast would be four silver dollar pancakes, a little bit of maple syrup, half a cup of strawberries and a glass of skim or low-fat milk, and a typical lunch would be a veggie wrap, a green salad with some fat-free dressing, and half a cup of melon. A typical dinner would be a one-inch thick slice of meatloaf, and they're very particular about the portion sizes, 2/3 cup of egg noodles, and unlimited amounts of zucchini. You get to eat unlimited amount of veggies.
Now When they talk about the weekly changes, this is a very important part of this book. For example, if you are used to for breakfast having a three-egg omelet with ham and cheese, spend the week trying to get into a smaller breakfast. Spend the next week trying to do smaller lunches. So take it very, very slowly.
KAGAN: And as you were looking through it. I know you didn't have a chance to look through all 500 books. But the ones you have looked through, what stands out about this particular diet to you?
COHEN: What stands out about it is that there's no gimmick. A lot of diets say only eat protein, or only eat carbs or only eat tuna fish every other Wednesday while standing on your head. I mean, this book does not have any of these tricks. What it tries to do is it tries get you to do portion controls, tries to teach you how to just say no to big portions. ' Now they have a couple of tricks, and that's what makes this big stand out. For example, right here, they say, if you are going to eat a piece of chicken, make it the size of a checkbook cover. We have a Dilbert checkbook cover here. Make it this size and no bigger. If you are going to eat pasta, this should be the size of the pasta portion, the size of a baseball. This is how big a roll ought to be, if you're going to eat a roll for dinner, let's say, and two golf balls for something like oatmeal, and they try to give you all these visual clues to help you control your portions.
KAGAN: For oatmeal? Two golf balls?
COHEN: For oatmeal, I know. I eat like five, yes, I know.
KAGAN: Oh my goodness, I'm more like a football size. And again, might seem obvious, but also check with your doctor before you do any kind of...
COHEN: Of course. Of course. And this diet, in and of itself, is pretty obvious. When I first picked up this book, the word that came to my mind was, duh, eat less, you're going to lose weight.
KAGAN: This just in.
COHEN: This just in, exactly.
So the key to this book is do the cute little tricks like eat a baseball-sized portion of pasta. Does that work? And if it works, it's a fabulous book. If it doesn't works, it's all pretty obvious.
KAGAN: When maybe we can get a little more insight next hour. You probably want to stick around, because we're going to have a chance to actually talk with the author of the book.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 29, 2003 - 10:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you're looking for a way to change your eating habits and lose some weight, and we're not talking about that little baby, chances are you've come across a lot of different diet plans, and that's what is best to eat, drink and be healthy. One health official has proposed what he calls the Change One Diet. Is it right for you? And we've sent our Elizabeth Cohen going through the shelves of diet books all week long, and today, she's looking at this one, in our "Diet a Day" report.
Good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I couldn't believe it, yesterday when I was at that Barnes & Noble, 500 diet books. I mean, how are you supposed to choose?
Now, this Change One Diet, what makes it kind of stand out is that it is very straightforward. Let's go over the basic tenets of the Change One Diet.
First of all, they say, don't make radical changes. You can't keep it up. Make one weekly change at a time, slowly but surely, and eat smaller portions. For example, a typical breakfast would be four silver dollar pancakes, a little bit of maple syrup, half a cup of strawberries and a glass of skim or low-fat milk, and a typical lunch would be a veggie wrap, a green salad with some fat-free dressing, and half a cup of melon. A typical dinner would be a one-inch thick slice of meatloaf, and they're very particular about the portion sizes, 2/3 cup of egg noodles, and unlimited amounts of zucchini. You get to eat unlimited amount of veggies.
Now When they talk about the weekly changes, this is a very important part of this book. For example, if you are used to for breakfast having a three-egg omelet with ham and cheese, spend the week trying to get into a smaller breakfast. Spend the next week trying to do smaller lunches. So take it very, very slowly.
KAGAN: And as you were looking through it. I know you didn't have a chance to look through all 500 books. But the ones you have looked through, what stands out about this particular diet to you?
COHEN: What stands out about it is that there's no gimmick. A lot of diets say only eat protein, or only eat carbs or only eat tuna fish every other Wednesday while standing on your head. I mean, this book does not have any of these tricks. What it tries to do is it tries get you to do portion controls, tries to teach you how to just say no to big portions. ' Now they have a couple of tricks, and that's what makes this big stand out. For example, right here, they say, if you are going to eat a piece of chicken, make it the size of a checkbook cover. We have a Dilbert checkbook cover here. Make it this size and no bigger. If you are going to eat pasta, this should be the size of the pasta portion, the size of a baseball. This is how big a roll ought to be, if you're going to eat a roll for dinner, let's say, and two golf balls for something like oatmeal, and they try to give you all these visual clues to help you control your portions.
KAGAN: For oatmeal? Two golf balls?
COHEN: For oatmeal, I know. I eat like five, yes, I know.
KAGAN: Oh my goodness, I'm more like a football size. And again, might seem obvious, but also check with your doctor before you do any kind of...
COHEN: Of course. Of course. And this diet, in and of itself, is pretty obvious. When I first picked up this book, the word that came to my mind was, duh, eat less, you're going to lose weight.
KAGAN: This just in.
COHEN: This just in, exactly.
So the key to this book is do the cute little tricks like eat a baseball-sized portion of pasta. Does that work? And if it works, it's a fabulous book. If it doesn't works, it's all pretty obvious.
KAGAN: When maybe we can get a little more insight next hour. You probably want to stick around, because we're going to have a chance to actually talk with the author of the book.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
