This review is what happened after I obsessed for weeks over Fit for Life. Our research team focused on the Fit for Life foods and meals, potential side effects of this eating plan, and scientific studies supporting the claims. Finally, we summarized all of the pertinent data to give you the facts.
What is Fit For Life?
Harvey Diamond, along with Marilyn Diamond, crafted the Fit for Life diet plan, centered on the premise that a carefully chosen combination of foods can foster optimal health. The regimen advocates for a morning diet exclusively comprising fruits and emphasizes the consumption of predominantly raw fruits, vegetables, and foods with high water content throughout the day. An essential tenet of the diet involves abstaining from certain food categories altogether, particularly advising against the simultaneous consumption of animal protein and complex carbohydrates.
Furthermore, the Fit for Life diet places a strong emphasis on incorporating whole grains into one’s meals, gradually phasing out refined grains and processed foods. By prioritizing the consumption of nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods, the diet aims to support overall well-being through a strategic approach to nutrition.
- Advances in Nutrition – Unfortunately, this idea of eliminating refined grains may not be based on solid science. According to some research, “the recommendation to reduce refined grain intake based on results from studies linking a Western dietary pattern to numerous adverse health outcomes is contrary to a substantial body of published scientific evidence. Future research needs to better define refined grain intake to distinguish between staple grain foods and indulgent grain foods, and to better design randomized controlled trials to resolve discrepancies between results from observational studies and such trials with regard to determining the benefits of whole grains compared with refined grains.”
- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – In one clinical study, replacing whole grains for refined grains evoked some positive changes on gut microbiota, which could be a benefit to consider.
- The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – Another study published in this journal showed that whole grains actually affected resting metabolic rate and “may favorably influence energy balance and may help explain epidemiologic associations between whole-grain consumption and reduced body weight and adiposity.”
Food and exercise are the two critical aspects of healthy living. You are what you eat, so when you decide to get Fit for Life, you should research the many diet plans currently on the market.
We have compiled a complete Fit for Life analysis to understand the science behind the program and the food combining chart and meal plan.
Take your time to read this article before you follow this famous but controversial diet plan.
How Did Fit For Life Start?
The origins of the Fit for Life diet plan trace back to the Nature Cure movement and find their roots in Orthopathy or Natural Hygiene, asserting that fasting, dietary choices, and lifestyle adjustments suffice for disease prevention and treatment, as claimed by the plan’s proponents. Harvey Diamond and his wife, Marilyn Diamond, pioneers of the Fit for Life concept and co-authors of the eponymous book, delved into the principles of food combining, drawing inspiration from the theories of Herbert M. Shelton.
Central to their philosophy was the categorization of food into two distinct types: ‘dead food,’ characterized by high refinement and perceived as harmful to the body, and ‘living food,’ encompassing raw vegetables and fruits, believed to rejuvenate and cleanse the body. This foundational principle laid the groundwork for the development of the Fit for Life program. The diet gained widespread attention in the mid-1980s when the Diamonds published their bestselling book, “Fit for Life,” as it garnered recognition from The New York Times. Harvey Diamond further promoted the Fit for Life diet through numerous television talk show appearances.
In the sequel, “Fit for Life II” (1989), the Diamonds extended their dietary guidance, cautioning against the consumption of artificial food additives like hydrogenated vegetable oil. During that era, the food industry touted hydrogenated vegetable oil as a healthy alternative to saturated fat, prompting the Diamonds to emphasize the potential risks associated with such additives.
Fit for Life Customer Service
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Toll Free: 877-335-1509
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The Diamonds also offer various products to help your journey to a healthier life. Supplements, probiotic drops, food combining chart, pain relief kit, and urinalysis and review are all available on the official website.
The Basic Ideas For Harvey Diamond Fit For Life Diet Plan
This diet is all about the good and bad combinations of food. ‘Dead’ food is not a part of the diet.
Diamond believed that the wrong combination of food could cause the food to ‘ferment’ in the stomach. Here are the main points of the diet plan.
Dairy products can cause allergies and should rarely be eaten, if at all. They are not considered to contribute valuable nutrition.
Water is not an option during meals because it would dilute digestive juices.
Fruits should be eaten raw and fresh. And you must eat them without other food.
It is ill-advised to combine proteins with carbohydrates during meals.
The dietary principle involves consuming predominantly ‘live’ food with high water content.
When animal protein is eaten, avoid complex carbohydrates.
Fit for Life recipes Harvey Diamond offers to let us see what this diet offers each day.
Fit For Life Harvey Diamond – Breakfast
A typical breakfast in Fit for Life meal plan would consist of carbohydrates. They can be eaten alone or with vegetables.
Carbohydrates should not be consumed with animal protein foods such as milk, butter, or cream. They should also not be eaten with fruits. There should be a profusion of whole grain (bread, muffin, bagel) in the servings. Fit for life’s food combination chart gives us an idea of the foods that should and should not be combined.
Fit For Life Recipes – Lunch
Lunch can be enjoyed in two different ways: combining protein with vegetables or combining carbohydrates with vegetables. Combining proteins and carbohydrates in one meal is strongly discouraged.
For example, you could have carbohydrates in whole wheat bread with bean sprouts, grated carrots, add some lettuce, or steamed brown rice with stir-fried vegetables.
Protein foods will have vegetable salads with chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or red kidney beans and sunflower seeds. You might relish a steaming cup of lentil soup with a variety of vegetables and a drizzle of light oil-based dressings instead of milk or cream.
Fit For Life Food Combining Dinner
While breakfast and lunch are carbohydrate-loaded meals, the Fit for Life diet recommends high-protein dinners. Diamond advises against animal proteins (except for organic eggs and fresh fish).
Some of the Fit for Life recipes for dinner include vegetarian chili with beans and lentils, or assorted vegetable and legume curry or stew.
Other stable dishes are stir-fried tofu with Asian vegetables, raw salad vegetables, and steamed asparagus.
Dairy Products In Fit For Life
Drinking milk or eating other dairy products such as butter, cheese, yogurt, pudding, cottage cheese, etc. is prohibited by the Fit for Life diet program.
The reason is that the human digestive tract is not designed to digest dairy products properly. This could lead to many problems, such as allergies.
To alleviate this problem, Diamond offers a supplement. The USDA asserts that dairy products are the primary source of calcium and recommend adults to have up to 3 cups of dairy products per day.
Dairy also supplies protein, according to Nutrients.
Fruits In Fit For Life Meal Plan
Fruits must be eaten alone or consumed as juice but never with other food. The diet also suggests that fruits be consumed early in the morning, not in the afternoon.
This is because fruits have digestive enzymes with cleansing properties. It is very beneficial to eat them and activate the digestive system, according to Advances in Nutrition.
Fit For Life Book
The Fit for Life book by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond explains the diet and lifestyle. This diet became popular in the 1980s and was a New York Times bestseller, selling millions of copies.
Through the book, Diamonds urged people to reject chemical additives and hydrogenated vegetable oil (popularized at that time as an alternative to butter). They advocated for veganism to increase energy levels.
Fit For Life Claims
Fit for Life Harvey and Marilyn Diamond claims that following their diet plan Fit for Life, will cause weight loss and prevent obsessions with counting calories and exercising vigorously.
A reasonable exercise schedule with the Fit for Life meal plan can help you get Fit for Life. Diamond claimed that mixing different foods can cause fermentation, which would kill valuable nutrients and enzymes.
In the 2000s, the Diamonds launched FFL’s Weight Management Program, which uses genetic predisposition, metabolic typing, and “analyzation” to create a Personalized FFL.
This Fit For Life meal plan can be used for each individual throughout his or her life. In this version, there was no more talk of ‘dead’ and ‘living,’ but the emphasis was on enzyme-rich or enzyme-deficient foods.
They promptly began selling enzyme supplements called as nutritional supplements.
Fit For Life Ingredients
The Harvey Diamond Fit for Life diet recipes is mostly made of unprocessed whole foods.
The strategies of combining certain groups of food are not proven to improve health and have no firm scientific basis. The diet chiefly consists of:
- Whole-grain foods
- Legumes
- Beans
- Raw fruits and vegetables
- Fresh fish
- Organic eggs
- Vegetable oils and seasoning
- Food with high water content
Research published in the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology and the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine found that consuming whole grains could reduce the risk of chronic health problems, like obesity.
More research published in Frontiers in Psychology noted that consuming raw fruits and vegetables may lead to better mental health. Additionally, one study published in Clinical Diabetes found that legumes could reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
Does Fit For Life Work?
The Fit for Life diet, centered on lifestyle modifications and dietary choices, has witnessed anecdotal success stories, with individuals attributing weight loss to its principles. Notably, public figures like Tony Robbins have endorsed Fit for Life and veganism, emphasizing increased energy levels in their pursuits. However, the correlation between the reported weight loss and the authors’ insights, as opposed to simple calorie restrictions, remains uncertain.
While the Fit for Life approach has garnered praise from some, skepticism persists within the nutrition and health community regarding its efficacy in delivering the promised weight loss. Regarded by some as a longstanding yet enduring fad, the diet lacks robust scientific support for many of its proclaimed principles and benefits. Despite the mention of “clinical trials” on the Fit for Life website, several assertions lack citations to scholarly research, and some claims have been directly contradicted by scientific studies.
Harvey Diamond’s credentials have faced scrutiny, questioning his competence in nutrition due to the non-accredited nature of his doctoral degree from the American College of Life Science. Moreover, criticisms extend to Fit for Life’s personalized diet program, particularly the “Clinical Manual,” which incorporates alternative medicine claims about the body’s workings, some of which may lack scientific accuracy.
Fit For Life Benefits And Results
Though widely known as a diet for weight loss without causing adverse effects, Fit for Life is much more than just a diet program.
It is a healthier way of living. Unlike the many crash diets that cause you to lose weight drastically but bounce back to your original weight in a trice, Fit for Life by Harvey Diamond does not cause this yo-yo effect.
After the initial days of perpetual hunger pangs, you will get used to (and even look forward to) short and frequent snack breaks. Healthy eating and proper hydration result in weight loss.
Details On Fit For Life And Weight Loss
The fundamental principle of this diet plan states that just by eating more amounts of the right type of food, you can alter your life, get into shape, and live happily.
The plan entails adhering to your body’s natural cycles of digestion, assimilation, and excretion and eliminating highly refined grains from your diet.
Fit For Life 24
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Fit for Life 24 is the go-to fitness center for those who yearn to be Fit for Life.
How To Diet With Fit For Life
The first step is to divide your day into three phases or time pockets. When you adhere to this natural cycle of life, your body works best, and everything else falls into place. Noon to 8 pm is the time for eating food and its digestion.
8 pm to 4 am is the time for assimilation when your body absorbs and uses. 4 am to noon to eliminate waste. Once you follow this pattern, you can get Fit for Life.
The Good And The Bad FFL Food
FFL promotes eating fruit by itself earlier in the day when your stomach is empty. You must wait 30 minutes before you consume any other food.
Proteins should be eaten as a main course combined with a large helping of vegetables as a side dish. Starches can also be eaten as a main course with vegetables.
Oils, animal fats, and dairy products cause indigestion, weight gain, and are likely to ferment in the stomach. Seed oils and nut butter are preferred.
Non-starchy fruits and vegetables with high water content and fiber such as zucchini, squash, cucumber, collards, lettuce, cabbage, parsley, okra, beet greens, kale, asparagus, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and broccoli are recommended.
Garlic, leeks, shallots, radishes, and onions are considered irritants and should be used sparingly.
Fit For Life Food Combining Chart
The idea behind combining varieties of food is to complement nutritive values. Diamond strongly believed in this.
It is the basis for the Fit for Life food combining chart. Although the concept itself was around for decades, the Fit for Life book by Harvey Diamond served to popularize it.
This chart is a perfect guide for people who wish to learn which food combinations will work for them. Health Authority has a food combination chart.
The Fit for Life diet plan works around the food combining chart and natural body cycle.
Consequently, there is a restriction on what can be eaten and at what time of the day. The diet eschews the consumption of dairy products, animal protein, and processed food.
The diet also advocates certain combinations of food.
Diamond believed that when food was properly combined to promote good digestion, it will result in weight loss and also body energization.
Side Effects Of Fit For Life Diet Plan
One of the most apparent side effects is the overwhelming pangs of hunger.
The diet requires you to start the day with a bowl of serving of fruits. With a breakfast of a bowl of fruits, you will be counting minutes for the mid-morning snack, a whole wheat bagel, or another bowl of fruit.
There are specific kinds of food which can be in combination, so the choice is quite limited. As a result, this diet can leave you feeling perpetually hungry, tired, and continually looking forward to the next meal.
Fit For Life Diet Plan Warnings
The first complaint of skeptics is the lack of sound scientific backing for some of the diet’s rules. Eating healthy whole grains and fresh produce is a welcoming start, but there are many claims which lack proof.
This is probably because the authors lack expertise in this field. They don’t have the educational qualification, or training, or personal experience to validate their claims in the book.
This amounts to dishonesty, and there was a lawsuit in this regard. There is no sound scientific proof for many of their claims.
Any Fit For Life Lawsuits?
As previously stated, there are speculations about the authenticity of the claims made by Fit for Life’s Harvey Diamond and Marilyn Diamond due to their lack of qualifications.
The doctorate he obtained from a University of questionable credentials was proved to be bogus.
Two decades after their book shot them to celebrity status, and a divorce later, Harvey Diamond and his son were in court again with his other son, Beau Diamond, who faced Ponzi scheme charges, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
There is no trace of documented lawsuits against the controversial diet plan.
Reception To Fit For Life Diet Plan By Scientists
Health experts and nutritionists have scant regard for the book by Diamonds and have dismissed it as sheer quackery. Not only are Harvey Diamond’s credentials widely disputed, but many of the book’s claims have also been questioned by the scientific community.
The ideas propounded in the FFL diet have heavy leanings to alternative medicine, especially on how our bodies work. Some of the ideas are not acceptable by conventional medicine, and others totally contradict scientific research, as the book Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States reports.
Fit For Life Alternatives
The diet plan is similar to many plant-based, low calorie, high-protein diets, and discourages the consumption of processed food.
This was a revolutionary idea at that time, but there are several current meal plans and diets where people are more aware and conscious of their health and food habits.
The following diets could be regarded as alternatives to the FFL diet plan:
The Seven-Day Hay Diet
This is based on combining specific foods and avoiding foods which can increase acidity levels in your system and hinder the digestion process.
Three- Day Fruit And Vegetable Diet
This is a detox diet that is prescribed to cleansing your system. Vegetables and fruits are rich in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals and can help reduce the risk of obesity and other health problems. This is followed only for three days. Then a regular diet is resumed.
Two-Week Vegan Meal Plan
This is for those considering turning vegan or for die-hard vegans who want to try new delicacies.
The Bottom Line On Fit For Life
What’s the real deal with the Fit for Life diet? The program has numerous glowing reviews from people who have successfully lost weight. However, the science indicates that these individuals lost weight due to calorie restrictions rather than valuable insights. According to authorities in health and nutrition, this is little more than a fad diet, which is why we have reservations about giving it our support. It’s also expensive, and the price and food list are only visible once you sign up, which feels shady.
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