Product Description
Alex Jamieson, a certified holistic health counselor and vegan chef—presents the everyman’s version of the detox plan that helped Spurlock lose 14 pounds in 8 weeks. Flexible and easy to follow, this 8-week strategy lays out a step-by-step plan for not only ridding the body of harmful toxins but also ending addictions to sugar, fats, and carbohydrates that damage both mental and physical well-being. Filled with 100 unique, delicious, and healthy recipes, The Great American Detox Diet can help anyone begin a lifetime of wellness and good health – and regain control of their body and lose weight.
When Morgan Spurlock, the star of Super-Size Me, gained nearly 30 pounds after a month of eating at McDonald’s for every meal, nobody was more horrified than his fiancée Alex Jamieson, a vegan chef and holistic health counselor. When his liver showed signs of damage just 20 days into his fast-food diet experiment, she knew he’d need serious help to recover at the end of his “gastrointestinal form of hari-kari.”[p.viii] The Great American Detox Diet is her prescription for helping him shed the chub as well as rid his body of the chemical additives (such as propylene glycol alginate—yuck) so prevalent in fast food. She notes that since a British medical journal recently reported that eating fast food just twice a week increases one’s risk of developing insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition, you don’t need to have gorged yourself on McDonald’s to benefit from her quick-results plan.
Jamieson does a noble job of spelling out the detrimental effects on the body of sugar, caffeine, and an overload of fat, carbs, and protein, all of which are present in your typical fast-food meal, let alone a “super-sized” one. (Spurlock’s diet included a repulsive 30 pounds of added sugar and added sweeteners over the course of the month.)[p22] Those horrified by Fast-Food Nation will find familiar territory here, but will also receive constructive advice on how to alter one’s diet for the better. Jamieson also spurns wheat, corn, and dairy products, citing them as potential allergens (interestingly, she points out they’re all heavily subsidized by the government), and she recommends viable sugar and caffeine substitutes. Nearly 90 recipes round out her treatise on healthy eating, and although some are not unusual (revamped versions of Guacamole, for example, and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies), a few others like Miso Tofu Cheese Spread will be a bit of an acquired taste for those so accustomed to burgers and fries. –Erica Jorgensen
The Great American Detox Diet: Feel Better, Look Better, and Lose Weight by Cleaning Up Your Diet
Haven’t finished reading the book, but what I read is informative.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is written by the fiance of the guy who made “Supersize Me.” She made all his meals following that movie and had him down to minimal levels of cholesterol, fat, blood pressure, and all those other health risks extremely quickly after the movie was made. Something like six weeks’ time. She did something brilliant and incredible there. I thought that this book would be about how you can do it too.
It’s not. It’s a bunch of time-wasting platitudes about saving the planet that will convince nobody who wasn’t already convinced and bore anybody who **was** already convinced. There’s chapter after chapter about **WHY** doing what she did is a good idea, and maybe three to five pages about **HOW** you can actually do it. Honestly, this is the most self-indulgent, pathetic excuse for a book I have ever made the mistake of buying in my life. My father had a heart attack; his brother my uncle had a heart attack; their father, my grandfather, died of a heart attack. This woman has the ability to **SAVE MY LIFE** and she instead takes my money and gives me a bunch of pathetic, meaningless platitudes and chapter after chapter of reasons to change my diet, and no information at all about how to do it. She should be in jail for THEFT.
I do not need persusasion. I need a method that works. She has a method that works. She tells you she’s gonna tell you what it is. And then there’s just a ton of unnecessary blah blah blah and no useful practical information AT ALL. Except that eggplant is good for you. Like I couldn’t have figured that part out myself.
BIGGEST. RIPOFF. EVER.
Rating: 1 / 5
I enjoyed reading this book, and I love the recipies in it that have brought me more energy, and a better overall feeling physically. If you want to detox your body, lose weight, and be healthier, then I recommend this book for you. It has made a difference for me.
Rating: 5 / 5
Ok, let me start by saying that I’m a vegan of twenty years and a raw foodist of two. This said, let me point out why and where I found fault with this book. Let’s start with Detox in general. When you detox your body you are purifying and purging your body of toxins and buildup. You do this by removing the damaging products that are clogging your system. This means products like brown rice, nuts of all kinds, legumes, etc. To my surprise, these are the products she is recommending. How truly wrong she is and obviously not as experienced or knowledgeable about detox. Let me qualify this statement by saying I have done many detoxes, colon flushes, kidney cleanse, liver cleanse, parasite cleanse, etc. and I know enough about detoxing to challenge this.
Secondly, items like beans, rice, nuts are very tough on the digestive system. They all have a tendency to stick to the walls of the colon and eventually build up a layer of mucus. All grains do this. So encouraging people to eat this way simply clogs up their systems more. Yes, to the average person looking to detox this may be a great place to start. Someone like Morgan Spurlock, who poisoned himself on McDonald’s food for thirty days would benefit from this. That said, Alex’s book is not without some merit. The book is written in an easy to read style and is very simple for someone to use and apply. I just feel she’s a bit off on her dietary recommendations. Therefore, I can’t, with clear conscience, give this book a high rating but I wont give it the worst either.
Rating: 2 / 5
The book was very informative and easy to read. I took a star off b/c of some errors in the book such as listing yogurt being a nondairy source of calcium and lean beef as a plant source of protein.
Rating: 4 / 5