Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275623 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

Synopsis
Written for people unable to lose weight dieting and for professionals who deal with eating disorders and food addiction, this book explains why, despite the proliferation of weight loss programmes, so many people in the west remain overweight.

Customer Reviews

Be wary of this advice -- some good, some bad, some downright ugly
First let me say that I know that not all approaches will work for everybody (or should I say 'every body'), so I realise that for some people this book might be spot on what they need. If so, there's a previous raving crit below that's gotten a couple hundred people to buy this book. I was one of them. And sorry for it.

The GOOD bits: lots of good key questions in there to ask yourself, that help you hone in on your particular issues. And the concept that the human body (not just the human mind and emotions) can be addicted to certain foods is well grounded in science and strong theories and studies. The book provides a list of questions to answer to help you identify which foods are your personal 'trigger foods' -- the ones that get your body responses revving in the 'wrong' way to give you a very physical urge to eat certain substances found in particular foods (i.e., sugar, processed white wheat flour, kinds of sodium). But seeing as how I got this same information from other books, I didn't rate this one good aspect as a reason to buy this very long and expensive book.

The BAD of this book is that it gets you thinking that there is only one, single, solitary way to beat your body's and mind's addictions. And that way is total and complete life-long abstinence and a life full of weighing and measuring all your food -- even in a restaraunt (yes, really, the authors insist it's better to live a life of whipping out scales and measuring cups in a restaraunt than to be fat for life; which to me sounds like replacing one obsession for another). For so many people (like anyone who's read 'Eating Less' by Gillian Riley and recognised themselves in that book as rebellious) that will simply not work. Not only that, such a plan could send them back on a relapse that would last for months or years, simply because it sets you up to fail -- and this Danowski book contains stories of people who relapse all the time on this book's program!

Now to what I call the UGLY bits of this book: I don't need to read about fearing or not-fearing 'the satanic' when trying to overcome a lifetime of addictive eating habits (I mean, what?!). No, I did not once ever think, in the decades I struggled with addictive eating, that Satan was involved or that the 'rituals' involved in perpetuating bad habits were in anyway 'satanic' -- so, thanks Ms Danowski, but I don't need this book to hold my hand through that perceived quagmire. And I don't need a book steeped in American-style 12-step fundamentalist pseudo-religious doctrine in my program to eat more healthily (and I am a transplanted Yank, so this is not anti-Americanism). Yes, 12-step programs that have you sitting down your entire family and all your friends to tell them you are in recovery, have you exploring your childhood ad nauseum, have you abstaining and reaching for a higher power and the phone for a chat with a fellow addict may work for some.... It won't work for me, and before I spent the dosh I spent on this book and invested the time to read a few hundred pages, I'd like to have known I was reading an Overeaters Anonymous textbook... I'd have known to run from it.

Again, to be fair some great bits; but I don't like to be 'indoctrinated' into a very specific and religious-based way of thinking, which is what I felt was going on with this book. Some freaky stuff in there.

A brilliant aid for those who can't stop eating
This book is a godsend for those who are compulsive overeaters. It not only explains the addiction that creates the overwhelming desire to overeat, but it provides one with all the necessary wisdom and knowledge needed to overcome this illness, and to lead a fulfilling life free from this obsession. It covers issues like how to rebuild one's self-esteem and how to create a healthy outlook to support a life where food is not the main event. I am overjoyed that I finally came across this book because it has quite literally changed my life. Highly recommended.