Food Philosophy: What's Your Faith? by John Erickson << Back There’s an internal crisis within the diet industry that is going to force us to change the way Americans think about food. The most fundamental model on which our scientific view of nutrition is based has come into conflict with a new way of eating. For traditional American society, nutrition was essentially founded on the notion of “calories in vs. calories out,” an understanding of food which makes no distinction between protein, carbohydrate or fat. By contrast, the food philosophy of Core Diets™ was founded on the idea that the type of calories you consume means everything. I inspire and encourage people to take an interest in nutrition rather than being turned off by the diet industry like so many are at present. For society to submit to Core Diets™ would mean the collapse of the whole fitness industry as we know it.

Society will be left with volumes of useless books, food products and companies whose entire stock value relies on counting calories to sell more ketchup. They will have to “catch-up” to the new trend set by Core Diets™ or cease to exist. This is whatevery rational person must come to accept, no matter how much angst it causes the retro-minded in the health and fitness industry. The first half of the 20th century (1901-1950) was considered the golden age of physics. The second half of the 20th century was called the study of biology, the 1990’s was the decade of the brain and we are currently in the age of endocrinology, which is the study of hormones and how they affect the body. Hormones are the chemical substances that careen throughout the bloodstream, sending informational signals to every cell, organ and tissue of the body. Society is extremely turbulent at this time in history because it’s like having the storm before the calm. We are leaving the 5000 year age of ignorance and entering into the age of enlightenment where proper nutrition precedes spirituality. Nutrition is a relatively young science. If the 3 million year human evolution was squeezed into a 24 hour period, nutritional science would have only occurred a few seconds ago. Human society is currently undergoing a phase transition in the diet industry similar to the transformation that took place when people discovered that the world is round and not flat. Eating is a life or death situation -choose your faith wisely.

Abs Diet By Rodale Publishing
Bob Green, Oprah’s Nutritionist
3 Hour Diet by Jorge Cruise
Duke Diet
Food Guide Pyramid
Michelle Obama
Jenny Craig®
“You on a Diet” book by Dr. Oz
Weight Watchers®
“Winning by Losing” Jillian Michaels

Calorie counting advocates give the same old dime-a-dozen boring diet advice that’s been regurgitated for the past 100 years. The philosophy of calorie counting fears fat, salt, cholesterol and calories in general. Their formula is simple: Burn more calories than you take in to lose fat. By contrast hormonal eating advocates like myself are primarily concerned with how food effects the metabolic process of your body. Please note I do not fully agree with the final advice of hormonal eating advocates such as Atkins and South Beach. I view these diets as the fringe of hormonal eating -they've gone too far.

Often fitness celebrities flip-flop on issues the same way as politicians go with the flow. Jillian Michaels and George Cruise are examples of fitness celebrities who became fitness celebrities too soon. Their first books were filled with calorie counting rhetoric and they openly back the calories in = calories out theory.

I wonder why they didn't discover hormonal eating concepts in the 1990's when it become popularized with the Zone Diet. Even the most prestigious personal training certification course (NASM) openly admits they totally back up the calories in vs. calories out equation.

Whenever I get into an arguement with a die-hard calorie counting theorist I often ask them if they counted the calories in their fingernails.