Dietary Theories

Learn All the Major Dietary Theories

We teach more than 100 different dietary theories, from the traditional to the modern, Eastern to Western, popular to esoteric. Our curriculum teaches bio-individuality, or that one person's food is another person's poison, because no one diet is right for everyone. Some of the major theories we cover include:

5 Element Theory

An ancient Chinese belief system based on the idea that we are surrounded by five energy fields: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. These elements are constantly moving and changing. Keeping all the elements in balance promotes harmony in our surroundings and in ourselves.

90/10 Theory

A flexible approach to eating that strives for eating healthy foods 90% of the time and allowing 10% of the time to eat whatever you feel like eating. A lot of people try to stay 100% on their chosen diet program, which is bound to cause stress and likely to result in failure. A 10% range of flexibility can help you indulge without guilt and maintain a basically healthy diet.

Atkins Diet

This diet restricts carbohydrates, causing the body to burn its own fat for fuel, instead of carbohydrates. When the body is in this state, many people tend to feel less hungry, and as a result, lose weight.

Ayurveda

This ancient healing system from India emphasizes eating in accordance with your individual body type and the seasons. The system promotes health and disease prevention through balancing doshas, or mind-body types.

DNA Diet

The DNA diet is a customized approach to eating, which offers specific recommendations for food based on the results of genetic testing. The idea spun out of the Human Genome Project, which identified nearly 25,000 genes in the human body.

Macrobiotics

Translated literally, macrobiotics means “great life.” The philosophy is based on eating only natural foods and balancing yin and yang in the body. The idea is to live within the natural order of life.

Raw Food

Raw or living food diets are based on eating unprocessed and uncooked plant foods. This philosophy believes that cooking destroys vital enzymes in food and disrupts your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from the food.

Sally Fallon and Weston Price

Sally Fallon looked at the work of Dr. Weston Price, who studied the diets of many ancient societies, and decided that by eating nourishing, traditional foods and farm produce, we could achieve optimal health. She asserts that local, fresh foods provide the vitamins, minerals, oils and enzymes that our bodies need.

South Beach

Developed by a cardiologist from this fashionable beach town, this diet is similar to other low-carb diets but offers a unique approach by distinguishing the right kinds of carbohydrates and fats and puts emphasis on lean proteins.

Vegetarian/Vegan

Vegetarian diets restrict eating meat for moral, spiritual, environmental or health reasons. A vegan diet restricts all animal products including eggs, dairy products and honey and sometimes restricts other products tested on animals or derived from animals, such as leather and fur.

The Zone

This diet is based on a theory that excess insulin, a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels, makes us gain weight and keep it on. By regulating blood sugar levels with a balance of carbohydrates, fats and proteins at every meal, the body burns fat more efficiently and has more energy.