The Best Diet: Volumetrics

Consumer Reports has just released the results of their research on diets and diet books. They have awarded Volumetrics the prize for being the best diet plan.

The Volumetrics Eating Planwas developed by Barbara Rolls, a professor in the department of nutritional sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.

The main point behind the Volumetrics Eating Plan is to focus your eating on foods that have fewer calories per bite, or low 'energy density' foods. The idea is to eat lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.

It's been shown that people who eat a low energy diet end up consuming several hundred fewer calories per day than those with a high density diet. Yet they eat a much greater amount of food in total. It's all about feeling full on fewer calories.

In the picture here, the first small dish of macaroni and cheese has more calories than the second much larger portion. The second dish replaces regular pasta with whole-wheat pasta, uses less cheese and butter and piles on the vegetables.