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Written by amuthy
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Saturday, 20 December 2008 |
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The Fat Flush Plan 
The keys to overweight are liver toxicity, waterlogged tissues, fear of eating fat, excess insulin, and stress, asserts nutritionist Ann Louise Gittleman. Her Fat Flush Plan addresses these problems with a targeted diet.
The Fat Flush Plan, filled with nutritional analysis and detailed explanations, is not a quick read. Despite Gittleman's assertion that the plan is "as easy as 1-2-3," it is quite regimented. No white flour, white sugar, margarine, vegetable shortening, artificial sweeteners, or caffeine. The diet emphasizes essential oils (e.g., flaxseed and GLA), protein (eight ounces or more, plus two eggs a day), vegetables, thermogenic spices (e.g., ginger and cayenne), water, and diuretic beverages (eight glasses/day of diluted, unsweetened cranberry juice). In its first two-week phase, the plan is a rigid, low calorie (1,100-1,200 calories/day), low-carb (no grains or starchy vegetables) diet. Phase two lets you increase your calories to 1,500 and add two "friendly carbs." Phase three, the "lifestyle program," moderately adds more dairy, carbs, and calories. Gittleman promotes walking and recommends strength training in phase three.
The book includes 41 recipes such as Grilled Lamb Chops with Cinnamon and Coriander, Breakfast Egg Fu Yung, and Cumin Sautéed Scallops. The Fat Flush Plan is recommended for dieters willing to commit to a strict plan for weight loss. --Joan Price
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Written by amuthy
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Saturday, 20 December 2008 |
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What to Eat  How do we choose what to eat? Buffeted by health claims--should we, for example, restrict our intake of carbs or fats or both? Is organic food better for us?--we become confused and tune out. In supermarkets we buy semi-consciously, unaware that our choices are carefully orchestrated by sophisticated marketing strategies concerned only with the bottom line. That we should confront such persuasion is the major point made by nutritionist-consumer advocate Marion Nestle in her extraordinary What to Eat, an aisle-by-aisle guide to supermarket buying and thus an anatomy of American food business. "The way food is situated in today's society discourages healthful food choices," Nestle tells us, a fact that finds literal representation in our supermarkets, where food placement--dependant on "slotting fees," guaranteed advertising and other incentives--determines every purchase we make.
Nestle walks readers through every supermarket section--produce, meat, fish, dairy, packaged foods, bottled waters, and more--decoding labels and clarifying nutritional and other claims (in supermarket-speak, for example, "fresh" means most likely to spoil first, not recently picked or prepared), and in so doing explores issues like the effects of food production on our environment, the way pricing works, and additives and their effect on nutrition.
What Nestle reveals is both discouraging and empowering. Through ubiquitous advertising, almost universal food availability, the growth of portion size, and unchecked marketing to kids, weÂ’re encouraged to eat more than we need, with consequent negative impact on our health. Knowledge is indeed power, and Nestle's lively, witty, and thoroughly enlightening book--the work, readers quickly see, of a food lover intent on increasing sensual satisfaction at table as well as promoting health--will help its readers become completely cognizant about food shopping. It's a must for anyone who eats and buys food and wants to do both better. --Arthur Boehm
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