Plant Chat: Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD

I’m really excited to welcome Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD to my Plant Chat today! She is an internationally-known registered dietitian and the creator of the renowned F-Factor™ Diet, which provides a liberating approach to weight loss and optimal health based on fiber-rich nutrition. F-Factor Diet evolved from Tanya’s early work with patients to help lower cholesterol and control diabetes, as she discovered that prescribing her patients to follow a lifestyle diet rich in dietary fiber, they not only all improved their clinical conditions, but also lost weight without hunger. Tanya is the author of two bestselling weight loss books: The F-Factor Diet: Discover the Secret to Permanent Weight Loss (2006, G.P Putnam & Sons), and The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with Fiber! (2012, Hyperion). After 10 years, she is now releasing a new edition of The F-Factor Diet that will include updates to the overall diet, as well as new research and studies, along with new recipes. Tanya lives in Manhattan NYC with her husband, children, and twin cockapoos, Henry and Hudson. Continue reading to learn more about the F-Factor and Tanya’s interest in health and wellness.

What is your inspiration behind the F-Factor Diet?

Although recognized today for my success in the weight loss space, I did not set out to help people lose weight. When I began my private practice, my focus was on treating patients with clinical conditions through dietary intervention, specifically patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. My job was to create meal plans that would lower their cholesterol or, in the case of the diabetics, help to manage their blood sugar levels. Both patient populations received high fiber diets because of fiber’s ability to lower cholesterol and manage blood glucose levels. Once on the diet, my patients’ health improved, but they also lost weight – all across the board. My clients were still living their normal lives – dining out at their favorite restaurants, eating carbohydrates, and drinking alcohol. Friends and colleagues of theirs took notice and began to call in, requesting to be put on the same diet, but for the weight loss benefits. This was the birth of the F-Factor Diet and the practice and program have continued to grow from there.

What are the main principles of the F-Factor Diet?

At its core, F-Factor is a high-fiber diet. Fiber is added to the diet to make for weight loss and maintenance. This sets F-Factor apart and sets F-Factor Dieters up for success.

Most diets are based on omission—they omit certain foods, like carbohydrates or fats, or ways of life, like dining out or drinking, leaving dieters feeling hungry, deprived and dissatisfied.

The F-Factor Program, on the other hand, is based on addition, you add fiber into your diet to lose weight, so such feelings of deprivation and denial, which often holder dieters back, are not experienced—this is what makes the program so liberating and sustainable.

F-Factor was designed to fit seamlessly into people’s lives so that they can stick to the plan and the plan becomes their new normal.

On F-Factor, you can eat carbs, dine out and drink alcohol from day one, spend less time at the gym and eat regular meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and dessert) – and still lose weight. These principals truly make it a liberating plan.

Day to day, the F-Factor Diet involves eating 4 meals a day—breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner—and combining fiber and protein at each meal.

Do you find that this program has helped people achieve healthier eating?

Absolutely, the F-Factor Diet helps people to get healthier and improves their relationship with food. As a registered dietitian, clinically trained in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, etc, I have the responsibility to my clients first and foremost to ensure that they are healthy. The weight loss experienced is a welcomed byproduct.

With that being said, F-Factor is changing what it means “to be on a diet,” and setting a new precedent for healthy living. Since most diets are not sustainable, the weight loss which may occur won’t be sustainable either. In reality, temporary solutions equal temporary results. Only permanent changes can lead to permanent weight loss and F-Factor was designed to create permanent changes with sustainable dietary modifications, and thereby permanent weight loss.

What are some of your best tips for helping people get on the right track to healthful eating?

• Fiber and protein at every meal makes losing weight no big deal – Clinical evidence shows that fiber and protein have a high satiety benefit in calorie-controlled diets and in weight reduction.
  • Fiber, specifically, is essential to success on the F-Factor Diet, as it allows you to eat the carbohydrates necessary for energy without gaining weight. Fiber is the zero-calorie, non-digestible part of a carbohydrate that adds bulk to food. Fiber absorbs and removes fat and calories, and boosts metabolism.
  • The combination of fiber and protein keeps you feeling full, for the longest period of time, on the fewest calories. The fuller you feel after a meal, the less likely you’ll be to overeat at the next meal; and, therefore, the more likely you’ll be to lose weight.
• Eat your meals – breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner—to keep metabolism going– When your body is deprived of food for many hours between meals, it starts conserving fuel and burning fewer calories to protect itself from starving. Your metabolism slows down, therefore inhibiting weight loss despite reduced caloric intake. Also, blood sugar levels begin to drop within two hours of eating, which can trigger bingeing and food cravings.
• Jumpstart your metabolism by eating breakfast– Skipping breakfast slows metabolism, which inhibits weight loss efforts. Studies show that breakfast eaters burn calories more efficiently throughout the day and are more likely to be thinner than non-breakfast eaters.
• Keep a water bottle by your side – Drinking water is especially important on the F-Factor Diet because of the high amount of fiber F-Factor Dieters consume… and fiber needs water to work its magic.
  • When fiber combines with water, it forms a soft gel, which leads to firm stools and allows for easy defecation. On the other hand, if you eat a lot of fiber and don’t compensate by drinking more water, it can lead to the opposite effect—constipation.
  • Water plays a key role in nearly every bodily function and it fills you up so you tend to eat less.
  • Being dehydrated can also mimic hunger. Many times, our hunger is really just thirst in disguise and you can experience symptoms such as feeling weak, cranky and tired. To get rid of these symptoms we then grab a candy bar when all we really needed was a drink of zero-calorie water.

Tell us about your personal journey in the food and nutrition world. How did you first get started?

I never planned to be a dietitian. Food was always an important part of my life, as some of my earliest childhood memories involve food – especially cooking in kitchen with my grandmothers. From an early age I recognized and learned that food was an important way to make people happy and because I grew up in a family full of cooks I felt I was destined to be in the food and beverage industry one way or another.

After gaining the “freshman 15” in college, I decided I wanted to learn about the connection between food and health. After undergrad I applied to the nutrition program at NYU, which I believed to be food focused. Only when I arrived did I find that the program was science based, with prerequisites such as anatomy, physiology, chemistry, etc. I was surprised to learn that I loved the science, and not only did I stick with the program, I went on to pursue my Master’s Degree in Food and Nutrition studies.

What is your personal nutrition and wellness philosophy?

“Fiber and protein at every meal makes losing weight no big deal.” That’s both what I tell my clients, and what I follow myself, I follow the F-Factor Diet. Like most people, I have to work to maintain my weight; being lean is a choice for me. I feel fortunate that F-Factor exists, not just for my clients, but because it helps me to manage my weight too.

If we opened your fridge today, what plant foods would we find?

My fridge is always stocked with tons different plant foods. For fruits I always keep berries in the house, fresh and frozen, as they’re packed with fiber, apples and pears, which are great for grabbing and taking with you on the go, and lemons and limes for drinks and recipes. In terms of veggies, nonstarchy vegetables are a free food on F-Factor, so my fridge is always well stocked with those. I always have leafy greens, which are loaded with fiber and nutrients and can be used to bulk up salads, stir-fries, omelets etc., and everything to make my “house salad” (lettuce, carrots, onions, cucumber, radishes and red peppers). I also like to keep zucchini to make zoodles in the house, and riced, which I use to make cauliflower crust pizzas and in place of banana in my smoothies (this makes them creamy, yet cuts down on carbs). And wine—there’s never a shortage of wine in the house.

What are 5 plant foods you can’t live without?

• Berries —I start almost every day with a bowl of berries with my coffee/ part of my breakfast.
• Leafy greens – I’m a lunchtime salad person, and it’s hard to have a salad without them.
• Wine – that does counts as a plant food, right?
• Wheat bran—packed with fiber, I use wheat bran in so many recipes as a substitute for bread crumbs and/ or flour
• Broccoli