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Diet Cults: The Surprising Fallacy At The Core Of Nutrition Fads And A Guide To Healthy Eating For The Rest Of Us (2014)

by Matt Fitzgerald(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1605985600 (ISBN13: 9781605985602)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Pegasus Books

review 1: If you want to piss off a whole lot of people then start poking holes in their religious beliefs. This is exactly what Matt Fitzgerald has done in Diet Cults. And if you don’t think some dieters are religious just consider that they put belief in their experience ahead of any verifiable science. And just like religions, what many of these diets share is a belief that only one way of eating leads to the path of true health. If you think theological battles between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics can get rough then you’ve never seen a vegan college coed take on an Atkins adherent over a nice steak, cooked rare. Fitzgerald argues that almost everyone can stick to basic nutritional guidelines and be healthy. Polan’s “Real Food. Less of it. Mostly plants.” fits ... morewell here. There are no super foods. There are no forbidden foods. Protein will not set you free. Paleo will not give you a new lease on life. He steps through each of these diets and others skewering them as mostly modern fads.He weaves research in throughout the text and provides references in the appendix. It’s a good starting place though nutritional research is a morass of conflicting findings. He also argues from personal experience that elite athletes – people who have the discipline and will to follow any diet for performance - mostly shy away from specialty diets and eat what he calls an agnostic diet. Agnostic of the true truth of other diets they stick to real food in reasonable amounts. Boring but effective and easy. All foods are permissible and none impart superpowers or super health.Fitzgerald takes care to recognize that there are individual proclivities toward certain diets. “Diets choose people”, he says. There are people who genuinely feel better eating foods without gluten. Some people are genuinely bothered by lactose. But selling a gluten free or raw foods diet as a cure all for everyone is what rankles him. These diets typically lack scientific validity and are almost impossible to maintain. There is ample evidence that people lose weight on these diets in the short term – often because they are difficult or boring – and then gain weight back when they drop it. The book is generally well written though I wonder how many disciples’ minds he will change. It’s not overly rigorous and in many areas he simply weighs his experience against someone else and that’s a tough way to win an argument. But I think his approach to eating is likely the best way for most people to eat. Think Michael Polan with an occasional slice of apple pie. Three stars.
review 2: Even as a vegan I am wary of the "One True Way" evangelists in our ranks (I'm looking at you, Esselstyns and Campbells). As I may (or may not) have alluded to in my review of My Beef With Meat, I think that anyone should be able to realize that a single diet is not going to suit every person on the planet. To claim otherwise is to sink down that slippery slope of dogmatic ravings.This book hits a sweet spot with a science-backed perspective and a bit of good humor. It was a fun read and I'd recommend it to anyone, regardless of his or her food or lifestyle preferences. A bit of perspective is a wonderful thing. less

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