Seth Roberts (August 17 1953 - April 26 2014) was a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the author of the bestselling book The Shangri-La Diet, and a prolific blogger. He was well known for his work in self-experimentation which led to many discoveries, including 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. Roberts died in April 2014 after collapsing while hiking. 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, morning light, and standing solved this problem. When Roberts discovered a trend or solution, he typically looked backwards evolutionarily for an explanation. Roberts would later apply this method to solving problems in health, sleep, and mood, among other things. The generalized validity of Robert's conclusions have been questioned by scientists who assert that his experiments lacked a control group, were not blinded, and were potentially biased. Roberts was 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". The Shangri-La Diet As a graduate student, Roberts studied animal learning, specifically "rat psychology". After Roberts read a report by Israel Ramirez studying 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 argued that weight is controlled by maintaining body weight 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 stated that eating strongly flavored foods (like soda or donuts) can raise the set point, whereas flavorless foods (like sugar water, canola oil, extra