Description:
Fad diets generally fall into two categories: extremely low-fat, or high-fat and low-carbohydrate. A pox on both their houses, say the fiery Dr. Kevin Vigilante, a medical professor and activist, and Dr. Mary Flynn, a nutritionist and researcher. The low-fat diets advocated by Nathan Pritikin and Dr. Dean Ornish are unsatisfying and hard to stick with, and the high-fat Atkins diet is based on fraudulent, speculative science. One banishes half of all possible foods (those with fat), while the other banishes the other half (those with carbohydrates). Both, the authors say, start on the wrong track and then derail. They recommend--no surprise--the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in seafood and fresh fruits and vegetables, and is saturated with olive oil. Unlike other books that recommend this diet, though, Low-Fat Lies actually explains the science validating it. The authors explain the antioxidant properties of olive oil, and tell you why you don't want your cells to oxidize in the first place. (Same reason you don't want your car to rust.) But that's not to imply that Low-Fat Lies is bogged down in science. The concepts are easily understandable for regular folks, which is a very good thing, considering how many of us fall prey to junk science masquerading as a "breakthrough" diet. Moving even farther away from theory, the book includes 40 pages of recipes from top American restaurants, along with a simple and useful chapter explaining how exercise blunts your appetite, and offering ideas about how to get more of it into your day. --Lou Schuler
| 
