"The Hamptons Diet"

Review by Billy Hofacker

I've thought about writing a new diet titled The Lindenhurst Diet. Do you think it'll sell millions or what? A name like The Hamptons Diet is simply a marketing gimmick which arrives on the coattails of the brilliantly marketed South Beach Diet. Right on the front cover of The Hamptons Diet it says, "Diet secrets of the rich, famous and thin." Did Dr. Fred Pescatore, creator of The Hamptons Diet, come up with a new and miraculous way for his patients to lose weight? Not quite.

A Brief Overview of The Hamptons Diet

The Hamptons Diet is a low carb spin-off of the highly successful (financially) Atkins diet. I was expecting to read another confusing diet book, but this diet did seem to paint a much healthier picture than the Atkins diet.

There is a huge emphasis on consuming the right kind of fats. Dr. Pescatore refers to it as being "monounsaturated rich." Macadamia nut oil is the king of all oils according to Dr. Pescatore due to its high smoke point and because it's 80% mono-unsaturated.

The Hamptons Diet takes more of a "middle ground" approach and distinguishes good carbs from bad carbs instead of eliminating them altogether. There aren't too many restrictions as even moderate alcohol consumption is recommended.

My Two Cents:

In case you don't know, Dr. Pescatore was a long term medical director of the Atkins Center. In order for Dr. Pescatore's diet book to sell, he needed to make his diet have a secret ingredient. After reading The Hamptons Diet, you would think that Macadamia Nut oil is the solution to your fitness/weight loss and perhaps any other problems you have as well. Dr. Pescatore recommends Macadamia Nut oil in just about every diet recipe. I later found out that he has commercial interest in the oil. The new Hamptons Diet website is registered by a macadamia nut oil company.

On page 98 Pescatore says, "Many of my patients have lost up to fourteen pounds in the first two weeks." Then he goes on to explain that the weight loss will begin to slow down. Too bad he doesn't explain why this phenomenon occurs. These first two weeks are basically a no or very low carbohydrate phase. When carbohydrates are avoided for more than a few days, muscle glycogen becomes depleted. Glycogen is your stored fuel which is held in both your muscles and your liver. Normally, we replace our glycogen stores as we eat our much needed carbohydrates.

When you cut back on carbs, you fail to replace your glycogen stores and since glycogen attracts water, you lose water. The problem with this is that people start to believe that the diet is "working" and then when the weight loss stops; they usually blame themselves and resort to poor dietary habits that they find comfort in.

Believe it or not, even with my negative comments, I do have some positive things to say about The Hamptons Diet:

Pescatore sends a strong message that we should be doing our best to consume REAL FOOD. The less refined and processed, the better. He encourages the good fats instead of saturated, hydrogenated, and trans fats. He also recommends good carbs as opposed to simple sugars and refined carbohydrates. He uses his own set of food pyramids to demonstrate this. He uses a different pyramid for each type of food. For example, the carbohydrate (grains) pyramid has whole grains at the bottom, beans and legumes in the middle, and simple carbohydrates and processed foods at the top of the pyramid. The part of the book I applaud Dr. Pescatore for the most is his mention of the thermic effect of food. Although he doesn't go into enough detail, it's a very positive step that it was mentioned.

Although this particular diet book is a step toward a better understanding of healthy nutrition, anaerobic and aerobic exercise must be in place as well as a flexibility program, for optimal health. Many times, diets wind up making people calorie deprived and metabolically slowed. I believe the main points are to not judge progress by what the scale says and to focus on developing effective long term nutritional strategies instead of trying to follow a diet.

I prefer to work "by referral only." Please tell your family friends, and associates about me if you think my services would be helpful to them. As a "thank you", I'll send you a $50 restaurant gift certificate if your referral enrolls in one of my programs.