The Rosedale Diet is a low-carbohydrate diet plan created by Ron Rosedale, MD, based on his ideas about how leptin affects the human body. According to Rosedale, the diet is designed to regulate leptin, a hormone that plays a key role in appetite and weight loss.
Core Principles
The Rosedale Diet centers around the idea that hormonal dysfunction is the root cause of both obesity and premature aging. Hormones are chemical messengers that direct body activities, including how much you eat, and ultimately, whether you are fat or fit, according to Rosedale. The diet aims to correct the underlying metabolic aberration at the root cause of both obesity and premature aging: hormonal dysfunction.
Leptin and Its Role
Leptin, discovered in 1994, is the “satiety hormone” that controls hunger. It is produced by fat cells and tells the brain when to eat, how much to eat, and when to stop eating. Leptin is also critical for many of the body's most important functions, including the regulation of blood circulation, the prevention of blood clots, making new bone, regulation of body temperature, and reproduction. The more scientists research leptin, the more they learn about how vital it is to life.
The Diet's Claimed Benefits
Ron Rosedale suggests his diet will prevent or improve high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and a host of other ills. He claims that his diet corrects the underlying cause of obesity, premature aging, and many diseases. Many of Dr. Rosedale's patients can attest that the Rosedale Diet can even help eliminate or reduce heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other conditions associated with "natural" aging.
Diet Structure
The diet falls into two parts, both of which have lists of restricted and permitted foods.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
Phase 1
The first stage is designed to teach the metabolism to burn fat, not sugar. For 3 weeks, practically no carbohydrates are allowed.
Foods Not Allowed: Dairy, white potatoes, breakfast cereal, rice, bread, peanuts and peanut butters, beans, corn, honey and sugar, all cakes, cookies, ice cream, candies, flavored jellos, and most fruits (pineapple, orange, apple, watermelon, banana, all dried fruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes).
Foods Allowed in Limited Quantities: Carrots, parsnips, peas, fresh or frozen blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, lemons, limes, tomatoes (one serving a day or less).
Coffee is discouraged because it allegedly raises blood sugar.
Phase 2
Gradually add foods from the "B" list, such as steak, lamb chops, fruits, beans, and so on.
Read also: Walnut Keto Guide
Recommended Foods
The diet emphasizes foods from his "A" list, including "healthy-fat" foods such as avocados, nuts, olives, lobster, crab, shrimp, goat cheese, Cornish game hen, and venison.
Recommended sources of fat included raw nuts and seeds, avocados, olives and olive oil, flax oil and cod liver oil. The intake of protein was told to be limited to approximately 1.0 grams/kg lean body mass per day (increased for exercise to 1.25 grams/day). As a result, most patients were instructed to eat from 50-80 grams of protein per day. Recommended sources of protein included sardines, fish, eggs, tofu, chicken, turkey, wild meats, low-fat cheeses (cottage, ricotta, swiss), seafood, and veggie burgers. Only non-starchy, fibrous vegetables were acceptable: lettuce, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, peppers, sprouts, asparagus, and seaweed.
Macronutrient Ratio
Though not explicitly stated, the general dietary intake as percent daily caloric intake from macronutrients for most people ended up by history to be approximately 20% carbohydrate, 20% protein, and 60% fat. For drinking, 6-8 eight ounce glasses of water and/or herbal tea were recommended.
Supplements
Nutritional supplements to support fat metabolism and enhance insulin sensitivity were recommended to all patients to be taken on a daily basis: L-carnitine 2000mg, alpha-lipoic acid 400mg, coenzyme Q10 100 mg, 1 tbsp cod liver oil, magnesium 300mg, potassium 300mg, vitamin C 1000mg, vitamin E 800mg daily, and a multivitamin consisting of all essential B vitamins and minerals.
The basic supplement plan includes L-arginine, L-carnitine, chromium, CoQ10, lipoic acid, magnesium, potassium, aspartate, a multivitamin without iron, vitamins C and E, and L-glutamine powder. The Rosedale Diet Supplement Plan Plus adds biotin, gymnema sylvestre extract, phosphatidyl serine, and pregnenolone.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP
If you have cardiovascular disease, you should take extra CoQ10 and arginine, plus vinpocetine, vitamin B12, trimethylglycine, and folic acid. If you have diabetes, you should add vanadyl sulfate, extra thiamine, and extra alpha lipoic acid. If you have osteoporosis, you should add vitamin K. If you have arthritis, you should add glucosamine and cetyl myristoleate.
Monitoring
He recommends that 16 tests be done at your annual physical, with follow-ups at 3, 6, and 12 months to monitor your progress. He says many of these tests can be done as part of the routine CBC that should be done at your annual physical.
Clinical Study
A retrospective analysis of clinical information from patients attending a private practice was conducted. Patients were referred for the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, excessive weight, fatigue, and other chronic diseases of aging. On the first visit, a comprehensive history and basic physical examination was performed. Clinical information was obtained and dietary instruction was provided by a clinical team consisting of a naturopath, nutritionist, and physician.
Methodology
Baseline and follow-up laboratory measurements included body weight and sitting blood pressure. Laboratory parameters included serum glucose, insulin, leptin, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides (TG), free T3 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) following a 12 hour fast. The primary analysis was a “pre-post” analysis comparing baseline to follow-up values using a paired t-test. Individual percent changes for each laboratory parameter were determined and used to calculate the mean percent change.
If an individual was taking lipid-lowering or sulfonylurea medications, these medications were discontinued at the first visit before starting the diet. In those patients taking blood pressure medication, medication was adjusted or, altogether discontinued, if low normal blood pressures were observed during the course of the intervention.
Results
The recommendation of a high fat, adequate protein, low carbohydrate diet resulted in a significant loss of body weight by 7.1 ± 0.8 lbs in this patient population. Accompanied by the weight was a significant reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 10.2 ± 2.1% and 11.4 ± 1.8% mmHg, respectively. Serum levels of leptin, insulin, fasting glucose, and free T3 significantly decreased from baseline levels by 48.2 ± 3.8%, 40.1 ± 4.7%, 7.6 ± 2.1%, and 10.8 ± 1.8%, respectively. In addition, despite the intake of predominantly fat, there was a significant decrease in triglyceride (28.3 ± 5.7%) in this patient group. The triglyceride/HDL ratio decreased from 5.1 ± 1.7 to 2.6 ± 0.5.
Patients in this study demonstrated a similar directional impact on the measured parameters when compared to studies using more established models of longevity such as caloric restriction. The patients in this study demonstrated significant weight loss along with a reduction in glucoregulatory mediators including insulin and leptin similar to those found in calorie-restricted primates.
Conclusion of the Study
In conclusion, a nutritional program recommendation originally designed to treat chronic diseases of aging led to weight loss and metabolic changes currently thought to be beneficial in reducing the aging process.
Criticisms and Considerations
Harriet Hall, MD, also known as The SkepDoc, is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. She argues that Rosedale is relying on hypothesis and speculation, not on evidence from clinical trials. She notes that without a control group, his unsystematic observations are meaningless.
Hall points out that it’s hard to follow Rosedale’s arguments in his book, because he doesn’t cite references for specific claims but only provides an appendix with short lists of references grouped by topic. He repeatedly says things like “I believe” and “I have come to believe,” “I lecture on that topic,” “one day it dawned on me,” “I decided to try,” and “I offer the only alternative diet that works, and works fabulously well.”
Aflatoxin Misinformation
He prohibits peanuts and peanut butters because they “contain an element called ‘aflatoxin’, which is a potentially deadly carcinogen.” That’s nonsense. There is no aflatoxin in peanuts unless they are moldy. Aflatoxins are produced by a fungus, Aspergillus, that can sometimes contaminate grains, milk, and peanuts. Peanut products are monitored for aflatoxin in the US.
CBC Misinterpretation
He explains that CBC stands for complete blood chemistry. It doesn’t; it stands for complete blood count (red cells, white cells, etc.) and is NOT recommended as part of a routine physical.
Lack of Evidence for Monitoring
None of these tests are recommended on an annual basis by any reputable organization like the USPSTF, and most of them are not recommended at all as routine screening tests in healthy people. He offers no evidence that monitoring these lab values improves clinical outcomes. The only thing that most doctors would check periodically (not annually, and not for certain age groups or low risk groups) is cholesterol, and he considers that the least important thing on the list.
Potential Medication Adjustments
He warns patients that if you’re on medication for heart disease or diabetes, you should monitor it carefully, because the need for meds will diminish and likely disappear. Maybe. Maybe you would see the same improvement on a different diet.
Leptin Complexity
Leptin doesn’t exist in a vacuum: it interacts with insulin, ghrelin, and a lot of other things. When you change one thing, you may be inadvertently changing a lot of other things that you might not want to change. It’s complicated, and simple one-size-fits-all solutions are seldom the answer to a medical problem.
Retrospective Analysis Limitations
Because this was a retrospective analysis of a clinical practice, there may be bias introduced in the patient sampling procedure. This study reflects the effect of recommending this diet in a clinical practice, so food intake was not directly measured. In addition, this sample population may reflect the results in highly motivated individuals. Though the metabolic improvements occurred in patients who had both high and low weight loss, the improvements in metabolic parameters may be all or partially due to the weight loss. It should be noted, however, that the percent reduction in leptin particularly far exceeded the percentage of fat loss and may not be explained solely as a result of this fat loss.