Reviewing 2013 in Food (Part I): Intense diets, from GAPs to garlic to eating worms to intermittent fasting to paleo.

Eating cockroaches. Binging on as much cheesecake and chow mien as you want. Cutting out whole grains and healthy beans altogether.

Each of these approaches sounds counter-intuitive to healthy eating, if not outright counterproductive.

But each is key to one of several increasingly popular diets.

The Weekly food team studied the bug-protein, intermittent fasting and GAPS regimens (respectively) as part of a year dotted with diet-driven exploration.

Here's the skinny and links on what we looked at and what we learned:

• The Bug Diet

Maybe you know the schoolhouse song, “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms…”

You should.

Not saying you should know the song. You should go eat creepy crawlies. And there are a number of reasons why. Ari LeVaux explains. (Click the link above.)

• The Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet

No more refined sugar. No more grains. No more beans, potatoes, corn, rice or oats. Nothing processed, no cooking oils, no artificial sweeteners (except stevia), no smoked meats. The GAPS diet is difficult, but it's better than the leaky gut it's designed to mend.


Kera Abraham tried it and went in depth with its the only local naturopath who deploys it.

• The Intermittent Fasting Diet

Eat whatever you want—whole chocolate cakes, triple cheeseburgers and massive casseroles—within an eight-hour window. Really. Then nothing, for the next 16.

If that sounds like a weird advancement in weight loss, which the IT diet has been show to aid, advocates point out the eating pattern comes much closer to nutritional rhythm of our ancestors than does three meals a day.

• The Paleo Diet 2.0

An eating habit dedicated to low carbs, organic vegetables, animal fats and high-quality meats has flown around the pop ether for a while now. But no one lives it with the same verve and evangelism as Chae Fields, who parlays it with strength training and stress reduction on an increasingly popular blog and Instagram feed.

• The Gluten-free and Still Eating Out Diet

Millions wrestle with wheat allergies. Very few are professional food writers. Enter Shiho Fukushima, whose unique affection for the food industry—despite its ability to make her puff up—inspired another piece about her work in restaurants and about restaurants.

Her piece (linked above), meanwhile, detailed 12 of her favorite meals eating out across Monterey County, with allergies.

• The Local Burger Diet

This experiment was not designed so much as a Supersize Me-style odyssey into intestinal erosion, but as an effort to suss out which burgers qualified for the tastiest in Monterey County.

But when that list numbers 20—and that 20 doesn't include the many mediocre ones that didn't make it—a doctor appointment ensues. Look for the follow-up finalist lineup early in 2014.

• The Gilroy Garlic Diet

Shirley Chen knew she'd be challenged as an editorial intern this summer. She just didn't figure one of her steepest feats would be an eating challenge.

We sent her to the Gilroy Garlic Festival with instructions to try everything. She returned ready to abstain from the bold bulb until the next GGF. At least.