The Great American Detox Diet: 8 Weeks to Weight Loss and Well-Being
by Alex Jamieson

Published by Rodale

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To lose weight and regain health, don't diet -- detox!

In 2002, Alex Jamieson watched in horror as her boyfriend, Morgan Spurlock, ate food for 30 days to find out if, as the fast-food giant claimed, their food was "healthy." Over the course of the month, she watched her fit, slim, and athletic partner gain 25 pounds and nearly destroy his health. The rest of the world got to watch, too, as Spurlock's diet became the centerpiece of the hit documentary Super Size Me. Once the cameras stopped rolling, Alex stepped in. By following Alex's detox plan, Spurlock was back to health and nearly back to his pre-super-size-me weight in just 8 short weeks.

We are a nation of bingers and fast-food fanatics. Our food supply is made up of overly refined, highly processed food products that are touted as being "convenient" but which have been stripped of their nutritional value and loaded with ingredients like sugar, caffeine, salt, trans fats, and chemicals. Highly processed food wreaks havoc on our digestive system and damages our overall health.

Most of us don't even think about what we eat until we're overweight, miserable, or just feeling lousy. Then we sign on to the latest fad diet, which probably focuses too heavily on promoting some kind of deprivation instead of working to restore balance to our eating. And that's when we fail: It's impossible to lose weight and keep it off if we're not nourishing our bodies in the balanced, essential ways they're aching for.

The Great American Detox Diet is really an "antidiet" book. It shows us that by detoxing our diets and learning to eat whole, healthful foods we can literally change our lives.

Alex Jamieson shows us how to clean up our lives by replacing packaged foods with whole, fresh, healthful foods that will strengthen our systems, restore our vitality, and protect us from major illnesses and disease. She also gives us the dirt on what's really in that fast-food hamburger, microwavable dinner, or box of cookies, and encourages us to become "food detectives" so we can avoid the often-hidden ingredients that make processed food so unhealthy.

Included in the book are nearly 100 easy, delicious recipes by Chef Alex and resources and tips on how to make detoxing a way of life.

pub date: 2005-06-01 | hardcover | 9781594862311