Late last year, a TV production company filmed a new reality program in England. Nine volunteers set up camp in the Paignton Zoo in On average, each of the participants lost 10 pounds and experienced significant reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol. The majority of the participants signed up because they were experiencing health concerns and needed to do something drastic in order to improve their health.
I realize that this is sort of old news, but I just heard about it and I found it intriguing. I'm also very curious if this will become one of the many reality TV shows exported to the United States. Americans are willing to try a variety of drastic measures to lose weight. Will eating like an ape be one of them?
photo by Marisa McClellan










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
7-16-2007 @ 10:15PM
Lydia said...
Thanks for the article! I tagged it right away. Fish, fruit and vegetables? I only wish that someone would pay me to eat this! Imagine combining this with exercise. Where do I sign up?
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7-17-2007 @ 9:34AM
SusanV said...
Sounds a lot like the Eat to Live diet (http://www.drfuhrman.com/weightloss/about.aspx).
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7-17-2007 @ 1:35PM
beanspants said...
apes can cook fish?? I think we might need to reassert out dominance sometime soon.
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7-25-2007 @ 7:36AM
j2429j said...
Well fed animals are healthier than the average human,so there may be something about eating some,but not everything,food that animals eat
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7-25-2007 @ 7:51AM
philwoch said...
Remember that this was for 12 days. What was it like in the long term? I think that our ancestors took to eating hooved animals for a reason, and evolved to fit that diet.
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7-25-2007 @ 8:33AM
Jim said...
Doesnt Ape Meat taste pretty good?
Sprinkled with a litte nuts and berries.
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7-25-2007 @ 8:40AM
Lisa said...
I did this "change" in my diet over a year ago and lost 30 pounds. Now I am the size I was in highschool. I am 35 and have two kids. I continue and will continue to eat like an ape.
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7-25-2007 @ 8:47AM
~`:-joanna said...
I lost 15 pounds after eating wholefoods that I ordered from http://www.farminabag.com I purchased the Nu Yu resolution kit and did the detox for the 1st few days. I am eating the food in the kit along w/fruits and veggies. It is very satisfying and filling, I also got rid of the cravings for junk. Check out the site and read the ingredients, sometimes we need to back track to get ahead,and to lose in order to win.~`:-joanna
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7-25-2007 @ 8:47AM
Ed said...
I've been on this diet for a month, It works! I only eat bananas, apples, grapes, celery, carrots, and meats and cheese. No processed foods, no bread or starches. I've lost 22 lbs and feel much better. I think the monkeys are smarter than us and live better. Ed
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7-25-2007 @ 9:38AM
Terry said...
I too have been using the ape diet the last year. The only negative has been a tendency to throw poop at people walking by the house.
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7-25-2007 @ 9:41AM
William Ross said...
What is this fascination with apes? Why does everyone seem to want to "devolve" instead of "evolve." This takes its form in things like attempts to find out how close in intelligence chimpanzees are to humans. For centuries, men tried to PRO-gress. This current generation, with its nonsensical left-wing agenda, seems to want to RE-gress. I could care LESS how apes eat. I'll eat how I want to eat!
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7-25-2007 @ 9:44AM
Frank said...
The raw diet appears to be very good, and has all the enzemes that cooked food does not. The chimps, I understand on occation kill and eat smaller monkeys.
Of course they do not cook the meat, also retaining the enzemes.
Frank
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7-25-2007 @ 9:50AM
jud5w said...
I eat like an ape now. That's because I am an ape, I know how to type you see....I am at the local zoo under some experiment thing again. I hope I don't get stuck in some other kinds of crap testing. My best buddy died that way. I hate humans but some are nice.
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7-25-2007 @ 9:55AM
deb said...
I've been eating like an ape for 3 years! I have completely lost the taste for what passes for food in our culture.
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7-25-2007 @ 10:02AM
frannie said...
Perhaps what we all need are keepers who feed us. The secret is always the availability of other food that is more pleasurable than fruit and vegetables. Monkeys in the wild have to live on what grows in the wild. If they had more tasty choices I am sure they would choose them. Monkeys in the zoo have dieticians and keepers that control what they are fed - only healthy food. Free choice is the derermining factor. Those who enjoy a vegitarian diet or those people who have the will power to make themselves adhere to this diet of course will succeed. Those who enjoy tasty foods and have a hard time living on bland fare, are always the ones who have problems.
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7-25-2007 @ 10:11AM
Dr.B said...
There is nothing wrong with a diet similar to what the zoo keepers are feeding the apes. However, if you want to eat like a wild ape eats, you will have to include animals, raw animals! Apes are, for the most part, vegetarians, however, if something like a monkey is made available, they will rip it limb from limb and eat it. Yikes! Now that's where I would draw the line - no raw meat!
Also, concerning the person above whom eats dairy. NO animal consumes dairy after the brief suckling period after birth. The enzyme needed to reduce the milk so that it can be digested is lost, in humans after about the age of two, making it much more difficult for the body to digest dairy products. Man is the only animal who eats dairy throughout the rest of their lives. And suffer for it...
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7-25-2007 @ 10:24AM
undimere said...
How lazy am I? This sounds great if someone would prepare the menu for me. I have no imagination with fresh fruits and veggies; No idea how to not overcook fish. The diet idea sounds wonderful, but I am too stuck in my ways to change. Plus the cost of fresh fruits, veggies and fish is too much for a minimum wage girl like me.
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7-25-2007 @ 10:26AM
malanchu said...
William Ross's lashing out against the "left-wing" in response to an article that has nothing to do with political philosophy indicates that he is a very troubled, and probably very lonely, person. I feel sorry for his family, if he has one.
May he devour mass quantities of saturated fats and put his life on the line in Iraq in defense of his "right-wing" leaders who got us into the quagmire. If he isn't blowin up in Iraq, at least he should die of heart disease at an early age rather than lingering for years on the Medicare dollars paid in by us liberals.
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7-25-2007 @ 10:47AM
D. Goldman said...
You know, the sad thing about diet is that you actually have to be "rich" in order to afford the foods that are healthy!! Even if you look at all of the "vegan type" of foods, let alone the natural foods, you need a big checkbook. However, over at the check out line, in the "impulse buying areas" are those little packages of junk food, just waiting for you. The irony to my statement is that if anyone actually looked at the cost of junk food, and FIGURED the cost of what they have to what it would cost for a FULL POUND of the product they would realize that eating the healthy food may actually be worth it -- in several ways. $4.17 for a pound of Fritos!!! Come on!!!
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7-25-2007 @ 11:05AM
Renee F said...
Eat meat and die. Heart attack is the #1 killer in the us. Hello people open your eyes. Kill animals and you'll suffer one way or another. Your karma or your health. Cancer, diabeties, obesity, heart diseace, etc.
Dont let parents teach to kill. Dont let them feed their babies rotten flesh
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