17
O
besity and nutrition spe-
cialist Dr Michael Greger
has spent years being boil-
ing mad at diet books and
fads. Finally, he set out to
write a comprehensive
scientific rebuttal to the
whole darned shower of
them. After many years in the field, he had
all the data at his fingertips.
It turned, he ruefully admits, into another
diet book. How Not to Diet: The Groundbreak-
ing Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss
has it all: moving personal anecdotage, good
food lists, naughty food lists, a list of short-
cuts and a companion book of recipes.
However, the book has one fea-
ture almost no other diet book can
lay claim to. It is based entirely
on science’s gold standard: ran-
domised, controlled blind trials.
It’s chattily written. “The best
way to find out if a loaf of bread
is healthy is to drop it on your
foot” – in other words,
“ouch” is good.
But at just shy
of 600 pages,
the book is
more like an
encyclopae-dia. Every assertion or recommendation is
backed up with the details of the relevant
studies, including behavioural trials, such
as the work of New Zealand’s University of
Otago, which he says has been a fount of
reliable information.
“People can go and check these stud-
ies out for themselves if they want to. Mypurpose was to provide a counter
to all the bad information that’s
out there.”
Of course, he’s still furious
with the multibillion-dollar,
ingeniously self-perpetu-
ating diet industry, theAfter becoming exasperated at the
diet industry’s dodgy tricks, a US
obesity and nutrition specialist has
come up with the ultimate science-
based guide to weight loss. by JANE CLIFTON
GE
TTY (^) I
M
AG
ES
“For three weeks,
do exactly what I
tell you and you will
feel so much better,
you will have better
digestion, better
sleep, more energy.”
DIET
BUSTERS
Dr Michael Greger: good
food lists, naughty food
lists, shortcuts and recipes.