Below is an excerpt from Part One of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

The Variety Sensation

Humans (and other primitive creatures:)) must eat a variety of different foods to stay healthy, because no single food has enough of all the nutrients we require. Since we generally don't consciously try to eat lots of different things, we'd likely get sick and die if we didn't have some other internal mechanism to stimulate us to do this. Naturally, God and evolution have given us several such mechanisms. These mechanisms operate automatically according to certain cues they get from the food we eat. We can think of them as being part of the phenomenon we irreverently call "The Beast".

Researchers have extensively investigated several aspects of these internal "variety-seeking" mechanisms. Their existence and power can no longer be doubted. But for brevity in this section, I am deferring discussion of the details and research to MORE ON... SENSATION on page 261 in Part Two.

For now, we'll just say that since variety is so important, it is a serious mistake to try to eat the same identical bland "diet stuff" day after day. Although many of the standard Heroic Diets advise you to do just this, it's not a good idea because you'll get bored, and boredom wakes The Beast. If The Beast gets bored, it tries to force you to give it something "more interesting"---something which will undoubtedly contain "a few" calories (like... chocolate cheesecake:)).

This is another source of those horrendous cravings that have made so many of your other diets so miserable. You therefore need to make sure your meals are not boring. To do this, you provide The Beast with variety.

What exactly do we mean by variety? Does it just mean different flavors? Unfortunately not. Although that would make things easy and convenient, research shows that different flavors alone won't provide enough variety. (Note: Very strong flavors, for example coffee, garlic, hot peppers, or fresh ginger may be an exception.)

For The Beast to be happy, it usually also requires different textures, densities, crunchiness, "chewyness", and so forth, in addition to different flavor. Cottage cheese, for example, has a completely different texture and "mouth-feel" than meat or vegetables. (For a more complete discussion of this, including the research, see SENSORY-SPECIFIC SATIETY on page 268 in Part Two.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Once you've learned to pay attention to it, The Beast becomes your "early warning system". If you feel it waking up and making you think about food, you know you're running low on something you can only get from food. But that something is not energy---you've still got more than enough energy stored away in your fat cells---else why would you be on a diet?:)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Variety Issues

Creating variety in meals is simple. You just keep changing what you eat. But this does not mean eating your way through every one of the 100,000 different items available in the typical American "super-warehouse-mega-mart". (Besides, ninety-nine percent of those items are off-limits just because of the fat and Calories they contain). Even for Multi-Dieters there is such a thing as too much variety.

To create sufficient variety, it is enough to simply make sure you do not eat the same items more than once about every two or three days. (Of course, more variety than this is certainly Ok as long as you stay off both Heroic diets and the Liar's Diet.)

As I mentioned above, it is also helpful to eat things that provide lots of strong or complex flavor. For example, gourmets consider both coffee and cooked meat to have very complex flavors. And adding (e.g.) a teaspoon of fresh cayenne pepper will obviously increase the strength of any meal's flavor by 'whole orders of magnitude'. (Note that I am not recommending this amount. If you happen to like that much, it's entirely up to you.:))

Using flavor to help satisfy The Beast's variety requirement means making sure you get something with a lot of strong or complex flavor in it at least once a day. Strong herbs such as garlic, chili, oregano, curry, ginger, and others allow you to do this in all sorts of really interesting ways.

These issues are further discussed in THE VARIETY SENSATION on page 267 in Part Two.)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Spoor of The Beast

If you find yourself thinking fondly of double-fudge or any other form of chocolate (candy, cake, or ice cream)... Your Beast is on the prowl! You need to find out what it's looking for and head it off! It may just want the Sweet Sensation (discussed below), but it's sneaky, and experience shows that this is not likely. Here's how to find out. Think of sucking on a piece of your favorite fruit-flavored hard candy. If this thought seems just as satisfying to you as the double-fudge, the Sweet Sensation is probably what The Beast wants. If not, it's a virtual certainty that it wants Essential Oil. (Chocolate things have lots of fat as well as sugar.) Give it a tablespoon of safflower oil on a salad instead. It may protest that that's not really what it wants, but it'll settle down anyway.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Sweet Sensation

Research shows that humans seem to periodically require the sensation of the "sweet" flavor, and researchers are still a bit confused about why this should be so. Although the innate human desire for sweet has been clearly and repeatedly demonstrated through impeccable replicated research, and virtually everyone thinks it is probably rooted in evolutionary adaptations of some sort, there is still a lot of uncertainty about just what purpose it actually serves.17 (You will find my personal opinions on this in THE SWEET SENSATION on page 271 in Part Two. You will also find the research and the references on many of the discoveries that have been made about the effect of the sweet taste as distinct from its obvious connection to energy.) For now, we will simply assume the sweet flavor is necessary and discuss how to handle it.

Obviously whatever sweet thing you eat should have as few calories as possible. These sweet calories should not come from high-glycemic-index foods and they should absolutely not come mixed with fat of any type (like our famous chocolate cheesecake).

Artificial sweeteners are usually the best way to handle the sweet craving. They come in many forms, but low-cal soft drinks are usually the easiest and simplest way to provide the sweet sensation since they are easy to buy and keep handy and provide virtually no calories.

Of course, if you have allergic, philosophic, or other sensitivities to artificial sweeteners, you'll have to handle the sweet sensation "the old-fashioned way"---i.e. save some of your Calorie allowance for sugar or honey. But don't try to ignore this need. You'll just convert the Multi-Diet into a Heroic Diet---and we already know they don't work.

Rules-of-Thumb for the Sensory Factor

• Select low calorie foods and eat quantities of them that will make you "feel full" after at least one meal each day.
• Select foods so that at least two of your meals each day have completely different "textures". Also use spices and flavorings to ensure that at least one meal each day has "a lot" of flavor. "A lot" means whatever you consider a lot.
• At least once a day eat or drink something that tastes very sweet---use artificial sweetener if possible.

You will find additional information, technique, and speculation in MORE ON... SENSATION on page 261. If you wish, you may turn to that chapter now and return here when done, or just continue on in this chapter.