* Flexitarian Diet *
“It’s about adding
five food groups to
your diet—not taking
any away!!”
Isabel Delgado
Nutrition and Health
Flexitarian Diet History
• Creator: Dawn Jackson,
– RD and LDN
– Debut in 2003, in the U.S
Flexitarian Name came about
Combining two words:
– Flexible and vegetarian.
Many other Doctor's are now
researching this diet.
How Does the Diet Work?
• Type of diet: Balanced
• The aim: Weight loss , optimal Health
• “Becoming a flexitarian is about adding five food groups to your
diet—not taking any away!! “
– These are: the “new meat” (tofu, beans, lentils, peas, nuts and
seeds, and eggs); fruits and veggies; whole grains; dairy; and
sugar and spice (everything from dried herbs to salad dressing
to natural sweeteners)” (Dawn Jackson Blatner)
– “Flex Sawp” Concept: Learn to use a healthier meat or other
food item in one of your favorite meal
– Ex: Meat sauce pasta
Replace the ground beef with ground turkey
Then eventually you will be comfortable with replacing white
pasta with wheat pasta.
The levels of the Diet
• On the Flexitarian Diet, you can choose to follow one
of three flexitarian levels:
• Beginner: two meatless days
– limit of 26 ounces of meat or poultry per week.
• Advanced: three or four meatless days
– limit meat or poultry to 18 ounces per week.
• Expert: eats meatless five days of the week
– 9 ounces of meat or poultry weekly
Example of Dawn Jackson Blatner’s Meals
Pros
• Studies show vegetarians live 3.6 years longer and,
on average, weigh 15% less than non-vegetarians.
• Blatner estimates the average person can loose up to
30 pounds by following this diet for 6-12 months.
• There are no known risks of being on this diet
• Convenient-you can buy foot items at normal grocery
stores.
• Eating less meat = saving money, better health
Cons
• Diet doesn't’t require drastic changes to ones lifestyle…But
some people experience meat craves!
• Need to know how to cook/ prepare foods
• Have to adjust to veggies and fruits if you are not a fan.
• Side note: After doing research on this diet I made a
correlation: We crave meat as we become older because it
becomes the central point of a meal. As children meat was
introduced slowly into our diets. It being able to get back to
that eating pattern.
-This diet allows you to eat a variety of different
foods with the animal protein as the side.
Diet Facts
• Generally done by 5 week meal plan.
-you can eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and a various
choices of small snacks.
• The ratio used in the diet: 3-4-5
300 calorie breakfast, 400 calorie lunches, 500
calorie dinners, snacks up to 150 calories
1,500 Calories a day- so that means you can have two snacks!
you can add or reduce intake.
Consider your: Age , gender ,physical activity levels
Diet Facts
• Idea is to eating less animal protein, more plant
protein.
-50 grams of protein a day!
• You can still drink alcohol with this diet
• -1 drink/ day females , less than 150 calories
• -2 drinks /day males
• EXERCISE is always important!
• “anything is better than nothing,” ( Jackson Blatner)
References
"Best Diets." US News. U.S.News & World Report,
n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
<http://health.usnews.com/best-diet/flexitariandiet>.
Jackson Blatner, D. The Flexitarian Diet, McGraw
Hill, 2009.
Zelman, Kathleen M.. "The Flexitarian Diet Review."
WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/flexitariandiet?page=2>.