The Great American Detox Diet: Feel Better, Look Better, and Lose Weight by Cleaning Up Your Diet
The Great American Detox Diet: Feel Better, Look Better, and Lose Weight by Cleaning Up Your Diet
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
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Pretty good, but not great
This book is ok– if you know anything about healthy eating, vegetarian or vegan diets, or the mistreatment of animals slaughtered for food, then you probably will not find this book very useful. However, if you don’t know anything about these things and consume a high-fat diet full of animal foods, bad carbs, and rely on convenience foods full of sodium and chemicals, then this book would be a good resource to help you change to a more healthy lifestyle. But, it is not really a diet, it’s more like a guidebook to what is wrong with the way you currently eat and foods to add and eliminate to help you eat and feel better.
5 Stars feeling better already!
I have been following the basic guidelines of Alex’s detox plan for about 2 weeks now and I am feeling really good. Taking some time to completely eliminate toxins from my body has helped to reduce (end?) cravings for processed, chemical-filled foods. Part of the reason it has been so easy is that the recipes she provides are fantastic! When people hear what foods I have cut out of my diet, they always ask “what do you eat?” Answer: yummy, fresh satisfying meals. Particular favorites of mine are Orange Date Scones, Avocado Sesame Pasta and Chickpea Lemon Spinach Salad.
This is a great jump start to get on track to healthier eating.
5 Stars Worth Every Penny
This book is a life saver! Before buying this book I had been showing symptoms of acquired food allergies and/or celiac disease. I tried a bunch of other eating plans/diets and nothing seemed to be doing the trick for me and my health. I had just about succumbed to my non-success when I was told about this book. I read it cover to cover and began “detoxing” right away. I haven’t felt this good in years!! I have been following Alex’s eating plan for almost 2 months now and my health has GREATLY improved, my skin is soft and glowing, I have way more energy than I can remember having in years, I’ve lost weight, and I just feel happy and healthy.
Like other reviewers have mentioned, I do not consider myself a vegan. However, since reading this book, I have stuck to a predominately vegan/vegetarian eating plan. The transition was really never that difficult. I have incorporated many of the included recipes in this book into my weekly menu’s and, because Alex included such a tasty (simple to make) variety, I don’t feel as if I’ve missed out on a thing (as in meats or animal products)!
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It would be impossible to read this and NOT learn at least 1 valuable thing about what you are currently putting into your body.
5 Stars easy to understand and very educational
This book teaches you so much! Teaches you the importance of the foods you eat or don’t eat and gives good ideas and recommendations. Worth the money for sure and I recommend everyone read this!
5 Stars Best Diet Book I Ever Read
Non-preachy. Personal. Great recipes. This is the book that finally got me to change the way I eat. It’s not a diet book really — it’s a lifestyle change primer. I lost 25 lbs. in 6 months. No crazy dieting.
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