The Flavor Point Diet

To be successful, a new diet that is introduced to the public for the first time must be accompanied with recipes. After all, what good is a diet if there are no practical applications to guide our eating choices? Recipes take out the extra work from our weight management concerns by providing us with a slew of possible meals that we can whip up, especially if we have to improvise with just one flavor a day. They provide the variety we need in order not to deviate from the program.

The Flavor Point diet is not restricted to any recipe because Dr. David Katz maintains that it is the “one flavor a day” principle that should serve as the guideline and not the recipe itself. It is the resolve to stick to one flavor a day that helps the dieter in achieving his goals.

Dr. Katz’s main argument is that by limiting ourselves to one flavor a day we reach our sensory specific satiety sooner, hence motivating us to stop eating as soon as we are saturated. One consistent flavor for the whole day will enable us to reach our saturation point – flavor point – earlier. This helps in regulating appetite, not stimulating it with multiple ingredients and flavors.

If we choose lemon as Monday’s flavor, for instance, here is a menu that we can use:

Breakfast

Lemon juice, lemon-flavored muffins, and lemon-flavored yogurt

Lunch

Lemon chicken, lemon-flavored tea, and a lemon tart

Dinner

Greens with lemon dressing, turkey sandwich with lemon flavored mustard, lemon biscuits (digestives) and low fat lemon ice cream.

Recipe for Lemon Chicken
(a quick and easy recipe from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 lime, juiced
1/2 lemon, juiced
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
fresh ground black pepper
Creole-style seasoning to taste

Direction:
Place chicken in a skillet over medium heat. Pour in lime and lemon juices, and stir in Dijon, black pepper, and Creole-seasoning. Turn chicken occasionally, until the chicken pieces are done, about 15 minutes.

And if you choose banana flavor for the next day, your menu might look like this:

Breakfast

Whole bran cereal with banana slices, banana juice, banana-flavored yogurt or banana chips

Lunch

Banana bread with a green salad, no-flavor tea/coffee, slice of banana cream pie.

Dinner

Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread topped with bananas, fried plaintains, tea/coffee

Recipe for Banana Bread (allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (or substitute canola oil)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes.

(Note: the original recipe called for all-purpose flour which we have changed to whole wheat flour)

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