Oprah's Starvation Diet Experts

Let’s see how the diets of Oprah’s experts compare to some episodes in history where human beings have intentionally tried to kill or cause suffering to other human beings through nutritional deprivation: [i]

“Diet”

 

Kcal/day

 

 

 

Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen (to weigh 150 pounds, 2 lbs weight loss/wk)

 

400

Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp

April 1945

533

Canadian POWs in Japanese POW Camp Near Hong Kong

January 1942

898

Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen (to weigh 150 pounds, 1 lb weight loss/wk)

 

900

Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp

September 1944

1017

Cruise/Katz 3-Hour Diet (male and female up to 199 pounds)

 

1450

Food Distributed in Netherlands - sedentary individuals

1944 III

1529

Food Distributed in Netherlands - sedentary individuals

1944 II

1585

Russian and British POWs in Tost, Germany  WW II

1611

Central Prison in Louvain, Belgium

July 1941

1647

Cruise/Katz 3-Hour Diet (male and female 200 to 249 pounds)

 

1650

None of the intake advice above from Oprah’s experts includes the recommended approximately 300 Calories per day to be burned exercising. [ii] Once exercise is factored in, the chart looks like this (300 exercise Calories were NOT subtracted from Mehmet Oz’s and Michael Roizen’s diet recommendations):

“Diet”

 

Kcal/day

 

 

 

Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen (to weigh 150 pounds, 2 lbs weight loss/wk)

 

400

Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp

April 1945

533

Canadian POWs in Japanese POW Camp Near Hong Kong

January 1942

898

Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen (to weigh 150 pounds, 1 lb weight loss/wk)

 

900

Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp

September 1944

1017

Cruise/Katz 3-Hour Diet (male and female up to 199 pounds)

 

1150

Cruise/Katz 3-Hour Diet (male and female 200 to 249 pounds)

 

1350

Food Distributed in Netherlands - sedentary individuals

1944 III

1529

Food Distributed in Netherlands - sedentary individuals

1944 II

1585

Russian and British POWs in Tost, Germany  WW II

1611

Central Prison in Louvain, Belgium

July 1941

1647

Bob Greene’s The Best Life Diet, according to “Consumer Reports” June 2007 issue (p. 14), suggests “Average Daily Calories” of 1520. Subtract from that 300 Calories for recommended daily exercise and you end up with 1220 Calories per day to sustain the body. That is just over 20% fewer Calories (or more than 1/5 less) per day than the sedentary people of the Western Netherlands were rationed in 1944 III. And they got really sick. [iii]

 

[i] Diet data from: Cruise, J. The 3-Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin. New York, NY: HarperCollins 2005:85. Foreword by David L. Katz, MD; Roizen MF, Oz MC. YOU: On A Diet. New York: Free Press 2006:238-239.

Starvation data compiled from Keys A, Brozek J, Henschel A, Mickelsen O, Taylor HL. The Biology of Human Starvation. Minneapolis, MN: The University of Minnesota Press 1950:1239-1246.

[ii] 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Report. Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans. PART D: SCIENCE BASE. Section 2: Energy (Accessed April 18, 2007 at http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/report/HTML/D2_Energy.htm); Steps to Healthier Women – Physical Activity, citing Ainsworth, B.E.; Haskell, W.L.; Whitt, M.C.; et al. Compendium of physical activities: An update of activity codes and MET intensities. Medical Science and Sports Exercise 32(9 Suppl):S498-504, 2000 (accessed December 10, 2006 at http://www.4woman.gov/Pub/steps/Physical%20Activity.htm); Brooks GA, Fahey TD, Baldwin KM. Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and Its Applications (4th ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill 2005:633. Exercise recommendations vary by opining entity; see Brooks GA, Fahey TD, Baldwin KM. Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and Its Applications (4th ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill 2005:590.

[iii] See generally, Burger GCE, Drummond JC, Sandstead HR, eds. Malnutrition and Starvation in Western Netherlands, September 1944 – July 1945. Parts I and II. General State Printing Office. The Hague, Netherlands, 1948.