'Da Vinci Code' diet

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9451724


PORTLAND, Maine - A baker who lost half his business to the low-carb craze has written a book based on the mathematical principles of the Golden Ratio, a formula used by Leonardo Da Vinci and made popular in the best seller, “The Da Vinci Code.”

Stephen Lanzalotta created what he called the “Da Vinci Diet” in response to the decline in bread consumption brought on by the popularity of the Atkins Diet. The diet consists mostly of Mediterranean foods, including bread, fish, cheese, vegetables, meat, nuts and wine.

He signed a deal last year with Warner Books, a division of Time Warner Book Group, that included a six-figure advance.




The diet is based on the Golden Ratio or Phi, a mathematical value that was used to build the pyramids and has since been found to exist most everywhere in nature. Da Vinci is said to have used the Golden Ratio to proportion the human figures in his paintings — which is how it found its way into Dan Brown’s hugely popular novel.