All In or Slow Change?

There are different ways to approach healthy eating. The simplest is more veggies and fruits, less animal products, sweets and processed foods. More ambitious seekers of health aim at gradual improvement where hopefully they reach an optimal diet. The completely committed choose between Pritikin, Barnard, Esselstyn, McDougall, Fuhrman, Ornish or similar whole food plant based diets and eat this way immediately.

Any of these dietary changes is good for you. If you're only willing to eat a few more veggies then do it, but greater commitment is much better. There aren't good studies showing how much better total dietary change is. Food intake surveys show better health results for more vegetables and fruit daily up to 8 portions; after that results level off. All physicians reporting on their patients' change to whole food plant based eating have many remarkable success stories for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, auto-immune disease and, less often, cancer.

Careful, accurate analysis of cigarette smoking may provide help in assessing likelihood of dietary change effectiveness. Those who cut back 50% have only modestly less cancer and lung disease, not nearly 50% less. To have major impact total abstinence is necessary.

The other big reason for going all in from the start is that cravings for fat, salt and sugar are almost wiped out after a few weeks without them. The brain's control centers can be quickly reprogramed, something that does not happen with gradual change.