There are a number of advantages to the Pritikin diet:

• Very high in natural fibre (from fruit, vegetables and grains)
• Helps people with Crohn’s disease & other digestive disorders
• Low in sodium (salt)
• Very low in saturated fat
• Promotes weight loss from healthy eating of whole foods
• Lowers blood LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels
• Regulation of blood pressure to normal levels
• Stabilised blood glucose and insulin levels
• Low fat, high fibre diet prevents many diseases, including cancer
• Helps to manage diabetes in some people, without medication
• Lowers risk for cardiovascular (heart) disease

“Diets that are low in fat and high in fibre (from a high vegetable, legume and wholegrain intake) may prevent many diseases, including heart disease and cancer”

REFERENCES

1. The Pritikin diet’s focus on mainly eating fruits, vegetables and wholegrains ensures that there is plenty of fibre, both soluble and non-soluble. This ensures that the digestive system is properly stimulated and especially the colon, which ensures that constipation does not occur (as at least 8 glass of water are taken in each day)
2. O’Keefe SJ. Nutrition and gastrointestinal disease. Scand J Gastroenterol Suppl. 1996;220:52-9. Accessed on 17 January 2008. This study examines the relationship between fibre and Crohn’s disease and suggests there may be a link, that the specific diet with high fibre should be used as a therapy for this condition
3. The Pritikin diet recommends only 10% of the dietary intake should come from fat and most of this fat will be unsaturated as the diet focuses more on plant food intake than animal-based foods
4. Anderson JW, Konz EC, Jenkins DJ. Health advantages and disadvantages of weight-reducing diets: a computer analysis and critical review. J Am Coll Nutr. 2000 Oct;19(5):578-90. Accessed on 17 January 2008. The study suggests that since the Pritikin is plant-based and low in calories and saturated fat, people will lose weight on this diet
5. Sullivan S, Samuel S. Effect of short-term Pritikin diet therapy on the metabolic syndrome. J Cardiometab Syndr. 2006 Fall;1(5):308-12. Accessed on 17 January 2008. This study showed that people with metabolic syndrome (they have a variety of health problems associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease) reduced their blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels while on the Pritikin diet
6. Roberts, Christian Barnard, R. James. (2005-01). Effects of exercise and diet on chronic disease. Journal of Applied Physiology, 98 (1): 3–30. ISSN: 8750-7587. Accessed on 17 January 2008. This study showed that the Pritikin diet lowered blood pressure to normal level, regulated blood sugar (and insulin) levels and initiated weight loss in the subjects of the study with the patients requiring less of their medication within three weeks of starting the Pritikin diet