Eat and fast to reduce weight
The Alternate-Day Diet: Diet only HALF the time! James B Johnson with Donald R Laub , Sr, Penguin Group, Pp 271 (PB), £14.99
How lovely if one can eat and still stay slim! Sounds impossible? Not at all, say James B Johnson and Donald R Laub in their book The Alternate-Day Diet: Diet only HLAF the time! Approaching the diet issue from a genetic point, they say that our ancestors always ate more than necessary as they did not when the next hunt would be. “Having historically survived by eating as much as we could whenever we could, we are now genetically programmed to do that. The more primitive, nonrational part of our brain (often termed the “reptile brain”) is constantly telling us to eat. The difference between us and our ancestors is that we now have an endless supply of relatively low-cost food always available.”
According to Johnson, all diets work and all diets fail. As long as one sticks to a diet and is conscious of what is one is eating and drinking it seems to work. But diet fatigue sets in and the plan goes awry. Statistics indicate that 100 per cent of those who succeed in losing weight will regain it within five years.
The authors are emphatic that “No diet will work without a plan that overcomes our inclination to eat whenever and whatever food is available. The alternate day diet gives precisely this advantage. This essentially emerged out of experiments with the rodents. Johnson experimented with himself. He did not avoid fatty foods on ‘eating’ days. “I found it relatively easy to muster the willpower to comply with my self-imposed regimen, because I knew that i’d never be depriving myself for more than one day at a time.” He says he lost 35 pounds within the first 11 weeks of the new diet and other health indicators improved too.
Johnson guides the reader step by step into this diet programme. There are even twenty menus and recipes to help. And a section of frequently asked questions, in case there are doubts left. According to him this method of dieting comes with loads and loads of other benefits. Most of all, it removes the guilt factor of ‘violating’ rules. So here it is, a classic offer of having the cake and eating it too.
(Penguin Group 80 Strand, London, WC2R, ORI England)
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