The latest diet fad — the 21 Day Meal Plan

My blanket advice about any diet plan that promises amazing results is to avoid it. Any “diet plan” will not help you long-term because it’s by nature a short-term fix for problems with how you eat.

I have opted to cut salt, fat and sugar from my daily food intake because those are thought to have negative impacts on my heart health. Heart disease has plagued me since my first stent in 2012. I’ve seen cutting salt impact my blood pressure in a positive way and so stick with that. The others, fat and sugar, have been much more difficult for me to give up because it’s difficult to see a direct correlation to my heart health.

So the 21 day meal plan intrigued me because it too looks at cutting salt and fat. It also talks about eating whole foods and eliminates eating out, more difficult goals to achieve. So I was interested in reading this Cooking Light article headlined: I Lived Through the Entire 21 Day Meal Plan—Here’s How It Went

The author, who calls herself an avowed foodie, had her problems with the meal plan, mostly because she missed the salt. Her thoughts on that just affirm how hooked most of us are on salt, chefs included. Even celeb TV chefs routinely talk about how salt “brings out flavor” in meats and other dishes. All it brings out is the salty flavor.

One comment from the article author backs that up. “I think I had become so used to salty dishes that when food was unsalted, it tasted terrible to me. I had to learn to lean into bolder spices I normally don’t cook with—like garam masala, chili powder, and cayenne—to dress up meals. By the end of the program, one of my favorite sauces to drizzle on proteins was non-fat Greek yogurt mixed with curry powder.”

The author’s conclusion about the plan: “I don’t think it could work as a sustainable lifestyle. Never eating at restaurants or having a treat (or, um, even a bowl of oatmeal) isn’t feasible for the long-term.”