Eat Special Issue 2003

Are you eating the same things in the same way that you were last year? Have you added or subtracted a whole category of food from your diet? How many people do you know who have turned vegetarian this year, and how many who turned back? Some of us have rediscovered the pleasures of rich, stinky cheeses and heavy cream, while our neighbors still look first, always, and only to the saturated fat content on supermarket labels.

It all comes down to that word--diet. Whatever you eat, that's your diet. However, if you're "on a diet" or "dieting," it means, almost always, that you're on some kind of controlled eating program designed to help lose--or in some cases--gain weight. But today, because everyone knows that "diets don't work"--and because the career dieter, that plump, bonbon-sneaking matron, has for decades been an object of national ridicule--nearly every new weight-management program denies that it's a diet at all, insisting instead that it's "a new way of eating." Nevertheless, in this fat city in this fat country, a lot of people have begun--or terminated--some program of weight reduction, many of them in past six weeks, and almost every single one of them without first consulting their family doctor.

What we did in the pages ahead, with all of these thoughts in our head, was the same thing hundreds of enterprising Americans do every day: We made up our own diets. Twelve in all, these new diets are all debuting for the first time here, but be assured, we're wasting no time seeking out book deals and celebrity endorsements. We expect to be filthy rich by April at the latest.

Once you've looked over these dozen diets, and have chosen the one that will help you best achieve the new you (or help you remain the perfectly fine old you), you'll find a thoughtfully arranged selection of restaurants that will help you stick to your new eating lifestyle. For example, our Halogen Diet locates beautiful eating spots; the Duchess of Windsor Diet tracks down Mrs. Simpson's beloved Southern cuisine; and the Summer of Love Diet returns you to the food you first loved in 1967, or think you might have if you weren't around yet.

We've designed diet plans for people who have been deprived of carbohydrates, people who like to eat in groups or gathered at the communal trough, and people who prefer to do their eating when the sun goes down, among others. We hope that one of them is right for you. But we know that if that one fails, you'll want to try another.

Eat 2003 was written by Richard Gorelick, along with Anna Ditkoff, Lee Gardner, Michelle Gienow, and Heather Joslyn. Christopher Skokna copy edited, Waris Banks fact-checked; Megan A. Dilks performed research assistance, while Marissa Baldwin, Jasmen Davis, and Patricia Hayter interned. Michael Northrup took the restaurant photos; Sam Holden shot the photos of the Eat chefs. Special thanks to Mark Harp and Chef Wendy.

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