Seth Roberts
Encyclopedia
Seth Roberts is a Professor of Psychology at Tsinghua University
in Beijing and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the bestselling book The Shangri-La Diet
. He is well-known for his work in self-experimentation
which has led to the discovery of his diet, multiple publications and a popular blog.
Roberts's work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine and The Scientist
. He was also a contributor to Spy and a member of the university’s Center for Weight and Health.
for an explanation. Roberts would later apply this mentality to solving problems in health, sleep, and mood, among other things.
The accuracy of Robert's conclusions have been questioned by scientists who challenge that his experiments lack a control group and are subject to various biases.
Roberts' has been called the "champion of self-experimentation" for his contributions to the field. Professor Tyler Cowen
called Roberts' theme of experimenting on the self the "highest stage of science."
, Roberts studied animal learning
, specifically "rat psychology." After Roberts read a report by Israel Ramirez studied the effect of saccharin
on weight gain in rats, he thought of his new theory "in seconds." Roberts tried about ten different variations, such as eating sushi
, eating foods with low glycemic index
, and drinking vinegar
, before arriving at the Shangri La Diet.
Roberts argues that weight is controlled by maintaining body fat at a certain amount, referred to as a "set point." When weight is above the set point, appetite
decreases, and it takes less food to feel full. When weight is below the set point, appetite increases, and it takes more food to feel full. He further states that eating strongly flavored, quickly digested foods (like soda or donuts) can raise the set point, whereas flavorless, slowly digested foods (like sugar water, canola oil, extra light olive oil) can lower the set point. These flavorless foods must be consumed in a "flavorless window," at least one hour after and one hour before consuming flavors. Consumption of 100-500 flavorless calories per day lowers the set point, and therefore, lowers weight.
The name is taken from the fictional Shangri-La
, a reference Roberts explains by stating that Shangri-La is a "very peaceful place. My diet puts people at peace with food."
The diet has been endorsed or mentioned by Tyler Cowen
, Stephen Dubner, Tim Ferriss
, Tucker Max
and Wired Magazine writer Gary Wolf. It was criticized by UCLA nutritionist Dr. John Ford.
. It made it as high as #2 on Amazon.com
's bestseller list. At one point in 2006, Roberts' book was ranked #3 on Amazon while on Freakonomics
, a friend and early supporter of the book, it was ranked #4.
The Shangri-La Diet was also featured on Good Morning America
where journalist Diane Sawyer
tried a tablespoon of olive oil.
, a prominent nutrition
researcher
, published a study about the effects of vitamin supplementation
on the cognitive functions
of the elderly. Roberts and Saul Sternberg, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania
, discovered inconsistencies in the data presented, specifically in the data distribution
and standard deviation
. Roberts is quoted as stating "the results were not just implausible, they were impossible."
The story received recognition in both the British Medical Journal
and the New York Times. The CBC ran a three-part documentary about the controversy called The Secret Life of Dr. Chandra. In 2005, Nutrition issued a retraction of Chandra's original paper.
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
in Beijing and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the bestselling book The Shangri-La Diet
The Shangri-La Diet
The Shangri-La Diet is both the name of a book by psychologist Seth Roberts, a professor at Tsinghua University and professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, and the name of the diet that the book advocates...
. He is well-known for his work in self-experimentation
Self-experimentation
Self-experimentation refers to the very special case of single-subject scientific experimentation in which the experimenter conducts the experiment on her- or himself. Usually this means that the designer, operator, subject, analyst, and user or reporter of the experiment are all the same...
which has led to the discovery of his diet, multiple publications and a popular blog.
Roberts's work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine and The Scientist
The Scientist
The Scientist: Magazine of Life Sciences is a professional magazine intended for life scientists. Coverage includes reviews of widely noticed research papers, informing its audience of current research, updates to technology, updates to career information, profiles of scientists achieving...
. He was also a contributor to Spy and a member of the university’s Center for Weight and Health.
Self-Experimentation
In the early 1980s, Roberts suffered from insomnia. Through self-experimentation, he set out to solve this problem by varying aspects of his lifestyle, like exercise and calcium intake. After many failures to see an improvement in his sleep, he eventually discovered that delaying breakfast, seeing faces in the morning light, and standing solved this problem. When Roberts discovers a trend or solution, he typically looks backwards evolutionarilyEvolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is an approach in the social and natural sciences that examines psychological traits such as memory, perception, and language from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional...
for an explanation. Roberts would later apply this mentality to solving problems in health, sleep, and mood, among other things.
The accuracy of Robert's conclusions have been questioned by scientists who challenge that his experiments lack a control group and are subject to various biases.
Roberts' has been called the "champion of self-experimentation" for his contributions to the field. Professor Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution...
called Roberts' theme of experimenting on the self the "highest stage of science."
The Shangri-La Diet
As a graduate studentGraduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
, Roberts studied animal learning
Animal cognition
Animal cognition is the title given to the study of the mental capacities of non-human animals. It has developed out of comparative psychology, but has also been strongly influenced by the approach of ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology...
, specifically "rat psychology." After Roberts read a report by Israel Ramirez studied the effect of saccharin
Saccharin
Saccharin is an artificial sweetener. The basic substance, benzoic sulfilimine, has effectively no food energy and is much sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations...
on weight gain in rats, he thought of his new theory "in seconds." Roberts tried about ten different variations, such as eating sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
, eating foods with low glycemic index
Glycemic index
The glycemic index, glycaemic index, or GI is a measure of the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more...
, and drinking vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
, before arriving at the Shangri La Diet.
Roberts argues that weight is controlled by maintaining body fat at a certain amount, referred to as a "set point." When weight is above the set point, appetite
Appetite
The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is...
decreases, and it takes less food to feel full. When weight is below the set point, appetite increases, and it takes more food to feel full. He further states that eating strongly flavored, quickly digested foods (like soda or donuts) can raise the set point, whereas flavorless, slowly digested foods (like sugar water, canola oil, extra light olive oil) can lower the set point. These flavorless foods must be consumed in a "flavorless window," at least one hour after and one hour before consuming flavors. Consumption of 100-500 flavorless calories per day lowers the set point, and therefore, lowers weight.
The name is taken from the fictional Shangri-La
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
, a reference Roberts explains by stating that Shangri-La is a "very peaceful place. My diet puts people at peace with food."
The diet has been endorsed or mentioned by Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution...
, Stephen Dubner, Tim Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss
Timothy Ferriss is an American author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. In 2007, he published The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, which was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. In 2010, he followed up with The 4-Hour Body...
, Tucker Max
Tucker Max
Tucker Max is an American author and public speaker. He chronicles his drunken and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com, which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it for a bet in 2002, making him an Internet celebrity.Max's book I Hope They...
and Wired Magazine writer Gary Wolf. It was criticized by UCLA nutritionist Dr. John Ford.
Book
Through word of mouth, the book became a New York Times bestsellerBestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
. It made it as high as #2 on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
's bestseller list. At one point in 2006, Roberts' book was ranked #3 on Amazon while on Freakonomics
Freakonomics
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
, a friend and early supporter of the book, it was ranked #4.
The Shangri-La Diet was also featured on Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
where journalist Diane Sawyer
Diane Sawyer
Lila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
tried a tablespoon of olive oil.
Criticism of Dr. Chandra
In September 2001, Dr. Ranjit ChandraRanjit Chandra
Ranjit Kumar Chandra, OC is a professional in the field of nutrition and immunology who has been accused of committing scientific fraud by the British Medical Journal...
, a prominent nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
, published a study about the effects of vitamin supplementation
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
on the cognitive functions
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
of the elderly. Roberts and Saul Sternberg, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, discovered inconsistencies in the data presented, specifically in the data distribution
Probability distribution
In probability theory, a probability mass, probability density, or probability distribution is a function that describes the probability of a random variable taking certain values....
and standard deviation
Standard deviation
Standard deviation is a widely used measure of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average...
. Roberts is quoted as stating "the results were not just implausible, they were impossible."
The story received recognition in both the British Medical Journal
British Medical Journal
BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...
and the New York Times. The CBC ran a three-part documentary about the controversy called The Secret Life of Dr. Chandra. In 2005, Nutrition issued a retraction of Chandra's original paper.
External links
- "Self-Experimenter Freed Himself from Insomnia, Acne and Love Handles: Seth Roberts says the key to self-help lies in the scientific method," by Scientific AmericanScientific AmericanScientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
's J.R. Minkel - http://sethroberts.net/, his official website with blog and forum
- What Makes Food Fattening? A Pavlovian Theory of Weight Control, outline of his theory of calorie-associated flavors raising the set point
- http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/117/ Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight