Which, if any, of the 27 essential micronutrients are deficient most often within the four popular diet plans examined and does a pattern exist? Methods The conducted study had no human participants. It analyzed the sufficiency level of 27 essential micronutrients within four popular diet plans (the Atkins For Life diet, a low-carbohydrate plan, Atkins For Life, a Mediterranean style diet plan, The South Beach Diet, a medically based plan recommended by a wide variety of medical and governmental organizations, including the Mayo Clinic, to click here reduce
high blood pressure, and the DASH diet, a low-fat plan), exactly as they were recommended in their respected texts, official companions, or related web sources, using the U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database for Standard Reference [9] as the major source of food composition data and the World’s Healthiest Foods databases as a secondary source[10]. FK506 supplier Each diet was analyzed to determine the daily and three day average of essential micronutrient levels provided compared to the amounts suggested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) RDI guidelines appropriate for healthy adult men and women between the ages of 18-55, excluding pregnant and lactating women. To determine
the three day average, each ingredient in each meal was individually calculated, based on serving size, for calories and its content of 27 essential micronutrients. On average, 15 meals and 75 ingredients were evaluated for each of the four popular diet plans. Depending on the sufficiency level, the calories for each plan were uniformly raised or lowered, as necessary, so that each plan’s unique macronutrient ratio remained the same as the original, until 100% RDI sufficiency for each of the 27 essential micronutrients was met. This study also evaluated and recorded a revealed pattern of commonly deficient and/or non-existent micronutrients in each diet plan. Once identified, these deficient and/or non-existent micronutrients were removed from the sufficiency requirements and a re-analysis was then preformed to determine a sufficiency calorie intake for the remaining micronutrients.
Results Sufficiency Analysis to It was found that all four diet plans failed to deliver 100% sufficiency for the selected 27 essential micronutrients, based on RDI guidelines, when followed as recommended by their suggested daily menus using whole food alone. Analysis revealed that the Atkins for Life diet was (44.44%) sufficient, delivered 100% RDI sufficiency for 12 out of 27 essential micronutrients and contained 1,786 calories. The Best Life Diet was (55.56%) sufficient, delivered 100% of the RDI for 15 out of 27 essential micronutrients and contained 1,793 calories. The DASH diet was (51.85%) sufficient, delivered 100% of the RDI for 14 out of 27 essential micronutrients and contained 2,217 calories. Lastly, The South Beach Diet was (22.