q&A with John Erickson
By Peter Hendrickson

What is the USA Diet? The USA Diet is a system of eating that teaches people how to eat for the rest of their life. No matter where you are we arm you with the tools you need to tackle any restaurant, any barbeque anywhere, anytime. The USA Diet is like getting your black belt in the art of eating. .

What are the goals of the USA Diet Plan?
To teach America an entire new way of thinking about food so they can grow and evolve within themselves. To me this illustrates the difference between giving someone a fish and teaching them how to fish.

What is the difference between the USA Diet Plan® and Weight Watchers? They count calories and we count in grams. They sell ketchup on the side and we sell fish oil on the side. Their science of calorie counting is primitive considering the food technology that we have. This is not my particular view of things, it's is basic endocrinology. Weight Watchers was formed in 1963 when nutritional theory was in its infancy. The story of a group of people in a Long Island basement who developed Weight Watchers is an inspiring story but not a very scientific one.

What is the difference between USA Diet Plans and Jenny Craig? I was over my friend's house the other day and his girlfriend told me she was on Jenny Craig and asked me what I thought. I held me ears shut and said "I don't know no logo, let me see the box." I put my hand out and waited until she got me the box. I teach people to look past a familiar logo and make decisions based on nutritional quality alone. I mean, you are not eating the logo. As a 40/30/30 nutritionist I am trained to immediately look at the protein to carbohydrate to fat ratio. This Jenny Craig macaroni and cheese had 12 grams of protein, 30 carbohydrate. I did not approve of this food product because the protein to carbohydrate ratio was not close enough. In addition, there was partially hydrogenated fat listed on the ingredient label. The USA Diet Plan has a zero tolerance rule with trans fats.

What are your thoughts about the Atkins’ Diet? There are certain concepts in nutrition that you can not overlook. Atkins’s wants you to eat no more than 20 grams of sugar per day for 2 weeks and from week to week you should increase your carbohydrates by 5 grams. Eating such a small amount of carbohydrates for an extended period of time will decrease your metabolism, put your body in the starvation mode and give you a rotten temper. Most people know this by now.

What to you feel about South Beach Diet? When analyzing South Beach diet recipes I found large variations from meal to meal. For example, one phase I lunch contained 183 calories and another phase I lunch had more than 500 calories. Another phase I lunch had only 4 grams of carbohydrates and another had 56 grams of carbohydrates. A person may be hungry on one day eating 183 calories as opposed to another day where you ate 503 calories. South Beach offers healthy food but they are not portioned. Any diet that promotes the use of omega-3 fish oil and no trans fats has good intentions and means well but the South Beach diet may be the most consistantly inconsistant diet available on the market.

Nutra System? Nutra system comes in a box, does not need refrigeration and some of their meals also contain trans fats. Dan Marino can testify all day how he lost weight on Nutra System but if you take a biopsy of his cell membranes you will find trans fats. Like I stated previously there is an obvious difference in America between a weight loss company and a wellness company. The USA Diet Plan combines wellness with weight loss, or a healthy way to lose weight.

In your new book "The USA Diet," why do you continue to say the large corporate diet companies are suppressing Hormonal Nutrition? Because it does not fit into their scientific framework. It will blow their whole theory. There are many articles written by professionals in the field denouncing Hormonal Nutrition as well as the glycemic index. Nobody in their right mind would continue to say this unless they were hired consultants for some large corporation.

What are your goals for the future? A nutritional revolution. The world would be a much happier place with stabilized blood sugar. People won't wake up so grouchy in the morning, they will be more content with themselves and not have the need to drive so fast, they will pay attention more, cause less car accidents, companies would be more productive, their stocks would go up and people overall would be more peaceful.
For right now the United States is a sink hole for a health care disaster that is operated by foreign countries who own all the stocks, it is going to literally take a nutritional revolution to remedy the situation.
John Erickson Q & A
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Why are Americans so unhealthy and overweight?
They lack the proper eating technique. Essentially there is a one-party system in America. 99% of Americans base their beliefs on the calorie counting orthodoxy. Currently only 1% of Americans adhere to USA Diet Plans® concepts. Comparing USA Diet Plans® to the calorie counting orthodoxy is like comparing two different religions.

Why the name USA Diet Plans®?
I am not important enough to put my name on your food plan. The last I thought Mother Nature created food: All I do is portion your food.

How is USA Diet Plans® different than the other diet companies across America? USA Diet Plans® can not be compared to any other diet organization in America because USA Diet Plans® is not a "style" of eating. I simply manufacture food charts that show you how to portion your food. After you learn how to portion your meals, then you can move on and live happily ever after.

How can USA Diet Plans® help American society?
A nutritional revolution is the only solution. Hospitals will emptied and health care will be reformed. The pharmaceutical companies will be able to focus their loving attention and care on treating the more problematic genetic disorders, spinal injuries, viral infections...

America will increase its self happiness rating. Emotionally, it's not fun being fat. There's a lot of shame and guilt involved. How do you think a smoker would feel if they had to wear their lungs on the outside?

America's children will become more competitive in the world economy. Children from China eat balanced breakfast of protein, carbs and fat, study hard and worship Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. Children from America wake up to Pop Tarts and orange juice, worship the television, and no longer have family traditions and religious values to fall back on.

USA Diet Plans® will make Americans more spiritual. Stabilized blood sugar goes a long way. USA Diet Plans® will end road rages, sexual assalts, suicides, fist fights...people can't respond spiritually to stressful events because their state of mind is out of control. People pick fights with others because their poor diet causes blood sugar crashes and cortisol. You have to ask yourself which came first? The cortisol or the stressful event? The USA Diet, the Official Food Plan of the United States of America.

All the gyms across America will overflow with people. USA Diet Plans® gives people the energy to work out and the USA Fitness Plans™ method will keep everyone’s workouts fun, challenging, progressive and exciting. I can go on but it's going to be more time than you want to listen.

Where did you get your drive?
Watching my father suffer from M.S. for 30 years, seeing the NY mafia destroy the zone diet industry, seeing how the television distorts the collective reality, being shunned by my college professor for my “radical” nutritional advice. I laugh about it now that my college professor considered me a radical for promoting a diet consisting of scrambled eggs & oatmeal, tuna sandwich with a side fruit, grilled fish, red potato and sour cream, string cheese & fruit, yogurt...

What disordered eating patterns do you see as being caused or worsened by the economy? I see an increase in carbohydrate consumption, in particular sugary or crunchy snack foods during a bad economy. A poor economy breeds carbohydrate addicts because people use carbohydrates to combat their emotional stress. Carbohydrates increase serotonin levels in the brain which decreases information overload (stress).

Why do you believe people turn to food or, most interestingly, turn away from food when stressed? People turn to food when they are stressed for the same reason they turn to drugs such as marijuana or alcohol. The taste of good food causes pleasure chemicals that flood your brain. The moment you sink your teeth into your favorite cheat food, there is no time to think about your bills. People turn away from food when they are stressed because stress masks hunger. The well known stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol shut down hunger signals as part of a survival mechanism. When people claim to be “addicted to stress,” they are truly in love with the adrenaline rush.