In mid April I was sent this and another book. Being w/o a computer for a few days last week was a good excuse to get them read already.
Today's review is The Shangri-La Diet by Seth Roberts.
Firstly an overview, the Shangri-La diet is a method of eating, more like not eating if you ask me, that netted it's author and a few others staggering weight loss. I wasn't sure if I could reveal the methods, that's what buying the book is all about, but even if they poked me in the eyeballs w/toothpicks to force me to repeat his methods, I seriously couldn't so here's the short version:
Drink Sugar Water
Or
Drink Extra Light Olive Oil
Or
Do both.
As for what I think of the book? Let's put it this way. If I read it, oh 5 years ago, as a weight loss newbie, I'd prolly give all 3 methods a shot, the only thing stopping me, is the knowledge I know have about the human body. Today I wouldn't do it.
Not to be harsh, but it reads too gimmicky. I was repeating some of his methods to my mother and @ one point she told me she ate a bunch of leeks and it was so bulky she wasn't hungry for 3 days, I smirked and told her write a book. Apparently anyone can and does. I mean, why not have the college students guide to losing weight? The ramen noodle diet? The Po' People from the Projects meal plan? Sheesh.
So that's my beef. There are TONS of ways to drop weight, quickly, it doesn't mean any of them are safe for the long term. And I won't call out this book for being unsafe, I'm no doctor, barely got my Associates degree, this dude is a PHD so take from that what you may, but I do know this, his writing about drinking sugar water and having no appetite for 2 days...
From page 27: "I ate about one meal every two days. I was never unpleasantly hungry."
...troubled me. His tip, and maybe it was snark, to eat supermarket samples, was, well, odd. And his claim that when he got down to 150lbs people thought was sick was enough for me.
I've never read a holistic weight loss success person who lost weight slowly and steadily by eating better and working out being told they look sick. You know who looked sick to me? People who lost weight crazy quick. Like Al Roker, Randy Jackson, Star Jones. Something about them just don't look right. It's like Oprah w/the wagon wheel of fat vs. Oprah from last year.
I once knew a guy that was on Atkins before it became a phenomena. He single handedly scared me from doing it. Sure he lost weight, but he looked, well, sick. His body shed the lbs in an odd manner and by not working out, he just didn't look healthy.
Why Seth's theory works is, like all weight loss plans from WW to Jenny Craig to NutriSystem, if you consume 3 glasses of sugar water a day, say 400 calories, and eat 1 meal a day (as he subtly suggests) say 500 calories, and snack here and there, say 300 calories, you would've eaten 1200 calories per day.
Apparently sugar water, drunk slowly over the course of say 30 minutes, slows your appetite. When I read that section know what I thought? Sugar water, again I'm no doctor, messes w/your insulin and retards it to make you not feel hungry. I'm telling you, he had an anecdote about drinking either so much or a high enough dose that he didn't eat for 2 days.
What about working out? He casually mentions it, but more as an after thought I think and to cover his bases. Also he doesn't have proof so much as he latches his results onto other studies. For instance, say he lost 30lbs, he'll find a study that is similar to what he did and insinuate that's the reasoning behind his loss. Yet, he doesn't advise going over 400 calories in sugar water per day. Why? It's simply hasn't been tested.
A few tidbits the book had, I can get behind. I buy the set point theory. He gives an example of being in the hospital and being fed intravenously and when leaving the person doesn't resume their old eating right away, something about the body now has a new set point. I dig that. Last year, I got sick and I remember Marta commenting, w/in a 5 day period how much weight I loss, I didn't shed much, but from that point on, I didn't eat like I did the weeks before an lost a couple more lbs steadily.
I can also get behind a teaspoon or two of olive oil per day, for health reasons, it's fairly sound.
Other than that, I hate to say it but again, it reads like a gimmick. Shangri-La has no real meaning, sure he uses it for a reason (he says the diet puts people @ peace w/food...ok), but I suspect it's in hope that I can turn into become a fad, like The South Beach Diet or The Sonoma Diet or The Mediterranean Diet. And he talks @ length about calories flavor associations, which, by the middle of the book, I still didn't get. I think that's supposed to be the new "points" or "carbs" lingo.
So if you are the type of person that likes to identify yourself by the diet program you are on, for instance, "I count points", "I'm SBD", "I'm a bfl-er", "I'm a BBer", "I'm a NSer" (and if you know those acronyms, dear lord you ARE one of those people) then, this book will fit. You can become a Shangri-La-er and your thing can be how many sugar packets you tote around.
While it was a quick read, I got done in ½ a day, it's just not my cup of tea. Which by the way, I take without sugar *snort*
I think, and it could be b/c he's a dude, he misses a crucial point of weight gain, emotional eating. Shurely during some of my most stressful days last winter, I wasn't eating b/c I was hungry as much as I was eating to not feel. If I had a handle on not eating when I wasn't hungry it would net me the same results, weight loss. All the sugar water and or olive oil in the world can't retard that urge.
Renee's Rating: 
Comments: 4
05.11.06 | American Girl commented: A newer reader to your blog. Thanks for standing up and saying that unhealthy diets are a bad idea. I remember how sick and tired I was of seeing women do Atkin's in college five or six years ago.
There was so much press about how bad it is for you, some even learned about it from PSA info on campus stating the heart problems it can cause. Can you imagine, something to discourage Atkins was taken as encouragement, geez.
So, a tip I'm happy to share I have found a neat new customized workout system called Push. For $25 a month, way cheaper than personal trainer you get 2 toning and a cardio designed for you.
Keep up the posts, I'm rooting for ya.
05.12.06 | renee commented: Thanks American Girl, it's hard, I try to be fair and didn't want to slam the book hard, I think his intentions are, well, ok I guess. I just have a hard time w/the lose weight by any method then worry about the long term effects later approach.
I s'pose someone could've easily slammed me for doing NutriSystem and equating it to frakenfood, the old me sorta felt that but the benefits it gave me outweighed the negatives, which is why I get Atkins or SBD type people. They may know deep down they aren't going to do it forever and ever but for the short term they make it work.
Oh and thanks for the tip about PUSH, coincedentily I have some cool news about them in the next week or so 
05.15.06 | American Girl commented: Yes, I understand how tempting those diets are because hey who doesn't like the promise of a quick fix. My aunt is a doctor and I remember how jazzed she was over Atkins when it first became popular again- she'd tell stories of other doctors who lost substantial amounts of weight happily eating bacon, eggs, and red meat. She claimed their cholesterol and blood pressure were fine, well I'd be suspicious of those numbers.
I'm eager to see what you have to say about Push- I think it is a great option for people with past injury concerns like me, it really is well customized to your needs. 
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First, yeah, this guy has a PhD, but isn't it in psychology, not phisology? I'm not sure I'd trust a psychologist over a doctor or nutritionist on the issue of what to eat. They don't have to study much biochemistry.
But, I do have to say that a good friend of mine lost a TON on Atkins and while he did look kinda bad at times while he was losing, now that he's on a more reasonable maintence diet, he looks great. Sometimes it's a phase you have to go through.
Not that Atkins is for me though... It's just too easy for me to eat my weight in cheese every day.