The Liberation Diet: Setting America Free from the Bondage of Health Misinformation!Kevin Brown and Annette Presley
For the record, I think diet books and weight-loss plans are stupid. As someone who has struggled with her weight (and who has lost a good amount of poundage as well), I know losing weight isn't easy. Sure, I'd like nothing more than to eat pizza and french fries while sitting my ass on the sofa with a good book, but doing so will prevent me looking the way I want to look. Eating healthy foods, eating smaller portions, and exercising daily are unfortunately the only way to go.
The authors of The Liberation Diet, however, take issue with the current notion of what constitutes "healthy" food. In fact, they even go so far as to say that a lot of exercise isn't necessary. Hm. You know what they say: if it sounds too good to be true...
First, a run down of some of their main points:
1. Crisco is actually industrial waste marketed as a healthy alternative to lard and butter. Beware this and other false foods.
2. The USDA food guide pyramid (with the base -- and largest portion -- devoted to grains) was specifically designed to boost the sale of agricultural products; it was NOT designed to promote health. In fact, a great number of industries benefit from our current food guide pyramid -- not individual Americans and their health. Instead, one should buy locally grown, fresh food, which cannot be mass produced and distributed.
3. Animal fats are good for you - in fact, the authors note that "the heart gets its fuel from saturated fat, and it is the only organ in the body that does not succumb to cancer."
4. Carbohydrates (even whole grains) make you fat and one should not eat more than two servings of them a day.
5. Calorie counting is a waste of time because there is no way to be totally sure how many calories are being consumed or burned at any given time.
6. Instead of following the current recommendation of several small meals a day, one should eat 2 to 3 meals a day.
7. One should only eat breakfast if hungry.
8. Fasting, at least in moderation, is good.
9. Pretty much ignore food labels, since many are misleading. However, if a food has more than 12g of carbs or 5g of sugar, don't eat it.
10. Exercise accounts for only 20% of weight loss; diet accounts for 80%.
THE GOOD
1. Many of their points are sound, but a lot are common sense. It should hardly come as a surprise that Crisco is a fake food and therefore bad for you.
2. As for point #3 above, it sounds good, but then again those six vodka-cranberries sounded good to me last Friday, and look where they got me.
3. I'm all about point #9. In fact, I'll go even further and say that if there isn't at least 4g of fiber in those 12g, pass on it.
THE BAD
1. The exclamation mark at the end of the super-long title is a bit twee, don't you think?
2. I wholly disagree with their stance on calorie counting. I know we can never be totally sure of how many calories we consume (then again, can we ever be truly sure of anything? sigh.), but to discount calorie counting as a whole seems a bit dumb. I personally got my chubby ass in to some EXTREMELY TINY pants through constant calorie counting and daily exercise AND YES I COULD CUT A BITCH AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF SUCH DEPRIVATION but it was all worth it. Right? Right????
3. Fasting may be good in theory, but just ask my husband how lovely I am after I haven't eaten for a few hours.
4. I take issue with point #7. I'm very pro-breakfast. In fact, I'm a big fan of the "inverted pyramid" approach to eating: my breakfast is my biggest meal, lunch is medium-sized, and my dinner is quite small. Takes some getting used to but has worked quite well for me.
And that, ultimately, is what I think many need to keep in mind when it comes to dieting: what works for one person might not work for another. So take this approach with a grain of salt. But not too much salt. Salt makes you bloated, even if it IS quite tasty.
In a nutshell: I still say eat a little and exercise a lot, but what do I know? Still, The Liberation Diet taught me some things I didn't know, reaffirmed some things I did, and made me disagree with still others.
Bibliolatry Scale: 3.5 out of 6 stars
The authors of The Liberation Diet, however, take issue with the current notion of what constitutes "healthy" food. In fact, they even go so far as to say that a lot of exercise isn't necessary. Hm. You know what they say: if it sounds too good to be true...
First, a run down of some of their main points:
1. Crisco is actually industrial waste marketed as a healthy alternative to lard and butter. Beware this and other false foods.
2. The USDA food guide pyramid (with the base -- and largest portion -- devoted to grains) was specifically designed to boost the sale of agricultural products; it was NOT designed to promote health. In fact, a great number of industries benefit from our current food guide pyramid -- not individual Americans and their health. Instead, one should buy locally grown, fresh food, which cannot be mass produced and distributed.
3. Animal fats are good for you - in fact, the authors note that "the heart gets its fuel from saturated fat, and it is the only organ in the body that does not succumb to cancer."
4. Carbohydrates (even whole grains) make you fat and one should not eat more than two servings of them a day.
5. Calorie counting is a waste of time because there is no way to be totally sure how many calories are being consumed or burned at any given time.
6. Instead of following the current recommendation of several small meals a day, one should eat 2 to 3 meals a day.
7. One should only eat breakfast if hungry.
8. Fasting, at least in moderation, is good.
9. Pretty much ignore food labels, since many are misleading. However, if a food has more than 12g of carbs or 5g of sugar, don't eat it.
10. Exercise accounts for only 20% of weight loss; diet accounts for 80%.
THE GOOD
1. Many of their points are sound, but a lot are common sense. It should hardly come as a surprise that Crisco is a fake food and therefore bad for you.
2. As for point #3 above, it sounds good, but then again those six vodka-cranberries sounded good to me last Friday, and look where they got me.
3. I'm all about point #9. In fact, I'll go even further and say that if there isn't at least 4g of fiber in those 12g, pass on it.
THE BAD
1. The exclamation mark at the end of the super-long title is a bit twee, don't you think?
2. I wholly disagree with their stance on calorie counting. I know we can never be totally sure of how many calories we consume (then again, can we ever be truly sure of anything? sigh.), but to discount calorie counting as a whole seems a bit dumb. I personally got my chubby ass in to some EXTREMELY TINY pants through constant calorie counting and daily exercise AND YES I COULD CUT A BITCH AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF SUCH DEPRIVATION but it was all worth it. Right? Right????
3. Fasting may be good in theory, but just ask my husband how lovely I am after I haven't eaten for a few hours.
4. I take issue with point #7. I'm very pro-breakfast. In fact, I'm a big fan of the "inverted pyramid" approach to eating: my breakfast is my biggest meal, lunch is medium-sized, and my dinner is quite small. Takes some getting used to but has worked quite well for me.
And that, ultimately, is what I think many need to keep in mind when it comes to dieting: what works for one person might not work for another. So take this approach with a grain of salt. But not too much salt. Salt makes you bloated, even if it IS quite tasty.
In a nutshell: I still say eat a little and exercise a lot, but what do I know? Still, The Liberation Diet taught me some things I didn't know, reaffirmed some things I did, and made me disagree with still others.
Bibliolatry Scale: 3.5 out of 6 stars
3 comments:
I, on the other hand, love diet books because I feel like reading them makes me thinner (please do not disabuse me of this notion).
And while I totally agree with the idea that we are all laboring under a load of false nutritional information, In Defense of Food brought that point across in a way that was probably less ludicrous.
'Ludicrous' does not look correct, but google assures me that it is. Also, my word verification is 'scramo,' which sounds like a fake food.
That's so funny you said that - I feel the same way about diet books: it's as though reading them is the same as working out or something...I always feel thinner after reading one. And more hungry too, oddly enough :)
I know, right? They're all, Try THESE healthy snacks! Avocado is the HEALTHY fat! And I'm all, Mmmm, I WILL try those healthy snacks, and I could go for some avocado RIGHT NOW!!!
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