The Anchell Diet
 

In reply to a question by LOOPS in the War Zone...

This is the Anchell "Steak Lovers'" diet in a nutshell.

1. Two or three meals a day, as desired.

2. All the meat you like at each meal, as long as it doesn't contain hidden carbs (i.e., meat extenders, dextrose from "curing", etc.).

3. One "ordinary portion" of exactly one of the following foods: potato, sweet potato, rice, grapes, pear, banana, blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, grapefruit. An "ordinary portion" would be, for example, a half grapefruit, a medium-sized banana or spud or sweet potato or pear; about 3/4 cup of berriess, cooked rice, or grapes; a slice of watermelon about the size of his book (an ordinary trade book, not particularly thick). That's it. No other "foods" are allowed.

4. Spices are okay, including mustard, hot sauce, etc.

5. Limited amounts of alcohol in the form of spirits (no beer or wine or sweetened liqueur) is allowed.

6. No artificially sweetened drinks.

7. Black coffee or plain tea are allowed. No milk, cream or sweeteners.

[Edit] 8. You can use any oil you like, including butter. And he allows mayo, if it has no sugar (some do).
That's it. If it's not on the list you can't have it.

I never "recommend" this diet to anyone, for the simple reason that I don't understand it. Anchell doesn't either, really. He presents a theory in the book, that the cause of obesity is circulating pyruvic acid, which interferes with lipolysis. This theory, and the diet itself, are based on clinical studies in the 1950s by Pennington, with a population of overweight DuPont executives. Atkins mentions these studies, I believe. The idea is that these non-meat foods are "low pyruvic acid formers." Well, that's what it says, but I have no idea why this should be so, since as far as I know *all* carbs are pyruvic acid formers. When I corresponded with Anchell briefly, I asked him if he had any idea why these foods, and not others, should work. He cheerfully admitted that he didn't, but simply repeated that in decades of using the diet with patients in his medical practice he found that deviations from it worked less well. Anchell was a general practitioner and psychiatrist at various times, not a bariatrician, but often patients had weight problems, and he prescribed this diet. He also has followed it himself since not long after it was published in NEJM.

I tried it just as an experiment. I was astonished. I lost 12 pounds the first week, and please note that this was after I had been doing various low-carb plans for over a year. Granted, much of that had to have been water, but who could've imagined I'd hold that much water ever after low-carbing? I lost 8 pounds the second week, and then settled into a steady rate of losing 2 pounds per week. When I tried all-meat, my weight loss was decent, but not as dramatic or steady. I have no idea why.

I know that not everyone gets the kind of effect from this diet that I got. But for anyone interested in something a bit different, it's worth a try. The daily carb content for me was probably 50-60g.

thanks for this info, Ubizmo.

Fascinating.

Looks like Dr Blake F Donaldson's «Strong Medicine» maintenance diet, when the patients had reached their goal weight.

Fat meat, some rice OR vegetable OR fruit, with black coffee and butter or suet.

The weight loss part for severely overweight patients was fat meat, coffee, water, butter and/or suet only.

His diet was also inspired by Steffanson's studies and experiences.

I am going to order Anchell's book.

I just read this book, and I think you're right. In my opinion, Anchell is not much of a writer. I was enjoying the first part of the book, and then once he presented his diet, the rest of the book seemed really disjointed and flimsy on facts.

So, if you want to try the diet, all you need is the basics of what to eat, because the rest of the book doesn't really convincingly explain much at all. I'm glad I got it used at Amazon for only $3. But if you want to understand why it works and feel confident that he knows what he's talking about, the book doesn't help.

The first course of each meal is 1/2 lb or more of fresh meat with fat, and the second course is an "ordinary portion" of one of the following:
white potato
sweet potato
small bunch of grapes
slice of watermelon
rice
half grapefruit
banana
pear
raspberries or blueberries

Then you can proceed to drink "up to several cups of black coffee or clear tea." Water is the only other thing to drink. Spices and herbs are fine, but no condiments with added sugar. Butter is recommended a lot.

He says: "Just a crumb of any food not listed on the diet - even a sugarcoated medicinal tablet - will convert some of the food you've eaten into fat." The list of specific carbohydrate foods listed to choose from at each meal, he says, were "selected by Dr. Pennington ... and I have verified them clinically. Whenever other carbohydrates are used - cantaloupe instead of watermelon, for example - weight loss stops or is lessened."

I noted that his sample menu plan includes a lot of spuds, usually twice a day. One day even listed potato chips! Yikes! And some of the fruits are higher on the glycemic index that I think is advisable.

Anyway, for what it's worth ...

So no eggs then?

Thanks for this info ubizmo.

Interesting! I might give it a try. Maybe it'll help with my recent spate of carb cravings.

I think that sums it up. This probably why I didn't stay on the diet. It's a good excuse anyway.

Incidentally, there's now an online edition of Anchell's earlier book at http://www.36000pounds.com/ I haven't read it. I've been told that there are some slight differences.

ubizmo,

Would it be possible to provide another copy of the summary, similar to the following format:

http://www.lowcarb.ca/atkins-diet-and-low-carb-plans/

This way we can add it to other plan summaries, with credit to you as the author of the summary.

Wa'il

No eggs, no cheese.

He has a "maintenance plan" that includes eggs and cheese, but he claims that this will cause 5 lbs to be regained. But the regular diet excludes both.

I'd be happy to.

So you can have meat and 1 of the other foods at EACH meal?

Is that right?

Probably why this diet may work is that he has eliminated the big 4 food groups that cause people the most problems: Grains (except rice), diary (except butter), soy and corn. There are also no legumes or nuts allowed. Notice also that all the foods recommended are basically all natural, whole foods. Almost like a paleo diet with hardly any veggies, nuts or seeds and only selected fruits. This would work for those who love their potatoes and/or fruits as long as they didn't trigger huge cravings. In those portions recommended, you would have a hard time going over 75 grams of carbs a day anyway. Besides 1/2 lb of fresh meat at each meal with fat would leave you quite satiated.

One question: So I suppose seafood is not allowed?

To bundle a couple of answers together...

Seafood is allowed. I guess the word "meat" is used in its most geneal sense of "edible animal tissue". So any kind of fish or seafood are fine.

And yes, you have the meat and ONE ordinary portion of ONE non-meat food per meal.

Yes, the white potatoes and rice are the only non-paleo items on the list--and butter, come to think of it.

It's voodoo lowcarb!

Anchell Diet
 

But NO green/non-starchy veggies are allowed. It has to do PURPORTEDLY because they are pyruvate forming. There were several threads about this diet at paleofood.com For some, it worked like a charm -- for others, not so dramatic results. Some dropped out because they truly missed veggies + variety. Potato and Yam are the ONLY veggies allowed... Great plan for a meat and potatos kind of guy.