The Great American Detox Diet LOCKED

I recently read The Great American Detox Diet by Alex Jamieson. (Her website.)

It was very interesting, and I highly recommend it. Alex is a trained chef and nutritionist, and the tone of the book is emphasized in the first couple pages, when she explains that she was raised in a very hippie family in Oregon who had a huge garden in their backyard and rarely went to actual supermarkets for food. That's fantastic to me because that's my ideal food situation - it'll just never happen in the northeast climate.

The book is not all about diet, however. There are suggestions (rational ones) regarding how what we eat affects how we feel, and how cutting out certain foods will make our bodies feel better. It makes so much sense to think that all the processed crap with tons of chemicals is not good for us. I totally buy that. I appreciated this part of the book because it actually helped diminish my cravings for fast food. I haven't wanted fries from a fast food place since I've read the book - I never thought anything would remove that craving.

As for other food suggestions, cutting out white sugar and caffeine, I think I would like to try both of those for a week each (which is what the book recommends to start) just to see if I feel differently. Obviously, white sugar is a processed food of it's own right - we've all seen "raw" sugar, but there's no mass-marketed version thereof. The book makes excellent suggestions for ingredients to use instead of sugar, and I'm looking forward to going to my local health food store to try cookies with them instead of white sugar. I try to eat less white flour, but there's not really a good substitute if you're baking. And I do love the texture of white-flour based bread versus rye or whole wheat bread. I just bought a huge book of bread recipes, though, so I'm going to experiment with mixtures of different flours, at least reducing my intake of processed white flour. Already, the only caffeine I really intake is in chocolate, and honestly, I don't think anything could ever make me stop eating chocolate.

The book also helps you examine your reasons for eating. Do you have chocolate when you're having a bad day? I certainly do. Could I do something more productive that doesn't involve food that's fattening? Absolutely. So I've really been trying to get hold of my emotional eating and improve my self control in that way.

Finally, the book talks about environmental toxins that surround us, and suggests how we can diminish them. Aside from advocating recycling and safer household cleansers, it discusses how we can minimize our personal toxins, such as an unfulfilling job or personal relationship. It also points out the method of work/family that other countries have; all being more relaxed and focused on family than this country. I think as Witnesses, we're all less focused on work than others, but sometimes that focus can become insidious and sap our strength.

I very much enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very quick read; I think it only took me a week or so. Again, it doesn't advocate a specific diet over changing a lifestyle, and I was looking to do that anyway. I've always had an ideal of eating food straight from the dairy farm, butcher or farm, but (yes, even in PA) these things are not readily available. The book suggests easy middle-of-the road ways to get the same healthy methods of eating. I'd give it an A- overall.