Customer Reviews
paul mckenna is better - By: Ms. Kelly Jennings, 16 Apr 2008 
i have read this book out of intertest after loosing 2 stone with paul mckenna.i have an interest in people & our relationship with food
i like the idea of intuitive eating,but then its says you shouldnt reallly eat alot of this or that,surely if he says follow your instincts about what to eat,saying what you idealy shouldnt eat is a contradiction? i mean with paul mckenna there is nothing at alll you should be thinking about,no sugar or dairy,meat questions.just plain simple eat what you want & let the body tell yopu,how can your body be wrong.i have lost losts of weight & i dont eat alot of any so callled junk food ,but if i reallly fancy it,i have it. i do think he has some interesting points & my husband stopped smoking thanks to his book,so he is helping people. but as far as the weight loss goes,i think Paul mckennas methods, along side his cd & excercises helped me better. others may disagree...the prove is in the pudding? ha ha
It does exactly what it says on the tin... - By: G. Tones, 17 Feb 2008 
...although if bacteria won't touch tinned food, why should you? The man had the gift of cutting through the industry c**p; he showed the way with smoking & here he explains why you are eating the way you are, highlighting what you actuallly already know but won't admit to. That's not to say this is painful to read; on the contrary, it is easy (suppose it would be, reallly)and you find yourself on the path without knowing your feet are moving. That's the strange thing... I'm now a non-smoking teetotal vegan without ever reallly trying to be. Good job he never wrote 'Mein Kampf - the easyway!' Do I need Allen Carr in alll areas of my life? Not to worry - I've got Allen Carr's 'No More Worries' on order.
Genius - By: Ariel Belloso, 17 Sep 2007 Allen Carr is genius! The champion of common sense. If you don't get this book then you are stupid & you will die stupid!
Not sure what to think - By: Anon, 14 Jul 2007 
I read this book because i read the alcohol one & it made me stop drinking even though I had no intention of stopping as I didn't have a problem with drink. I read easyweigh twice & the reasoning in the book rang true for a few weeks but then I found myself questioning a lot of the logic. I like the fact he goes against convention & tries to rid you of brainwashing but then he puts a load more brain washing in which can be confusing. I also like the fact he said that diets don't work as I've believed that for a long time, I also believe that eating when hungry & stopping when full is the best way to maintain a healthy weight but just saying do that & actuallly doing it are two different things. Most people I know are overweight because they eat emotionallly & it's not that easy just to stop it because someone tells you to. I think people would be better off looking into the various books out there based on intuitive eating as a lot of them cover emotional eating. What I like about the easyweigh book is that now I reallly enjoy a fruit salad for breakfast, I find it so much more refreshing than a bowl of cereal. In fact I think I eat even more fruit & veg than I used to, I feel like I've regained my love of fresh fruit & veg. My open mind also helped me try juice on cereal which I reallly like & having boiled hot water instead of tea I find so much more refreshing (before these things would've sounded crazy to me due to convention). In fact I rarely have decaf. tea or coffee now never mind caffinated. I also no longer force dairy produce down me, I am milk-fat intolerant but made myself eat dairy to be healthy now I feel strong enough to not eat as much of it, although I have started to get calcium fortified juice just in case!! I still eat dairy if i fancy it as I'm usuallly ok once in a while & banning things just makes me want them more. I am also now more inclined towards a vegetarian option in the restaurant, I don't feel like I have to have meat every time but I still crave meat on occassion. The one thing I reallly do not like about this book is that even though it stresses that diets don't work ultimately it is a diet. Although you can eat whatever you want in theory, it still says what you should eat & what foods aren't so good which will make people feel guilty when they eat those foods which keeps people stuck in the diet mentality. I'm glad I read it but I'm going to take my favorite bits then dump the rest & carry on eating intuitively.
Could be better - By: James Swan, 03 Jul 2007 I have read both Allen Carr's easyway & onlyway books ( both very helpful), so i decided to read the easyweigh book.
I think when Allen discovered his no smoking method , he was frustrated by the lack of support from the medical profession ,so i felt he used his books as a medium to project his frustrations; easyweigh being no exception.
At the end of his onlyway book he asked "if the experts are wrong about smoking , what else are they wrong about?", so this question seems to reflect his frame of mind while writing the easyweigh book. It also effects the integrity of his request to keep an "open mind" since he has already developed a negative bias towards the medical profession.
He seems to base his ideas on wild animals & evolution & assumes that both animal eating patterns & evolution are perfect. However there are plenty of counter examples , for example if wild animals are kept in zoo's they still eat instinctively but tend to become overweight if given too much food.
Observing wild animals I could argue that exercise is bad for us! Animals which don't move around as much (elephants , turtles etc) live far longer than more active animals (tigers , squirrels etc) , so I conclude that we should keep physical activity to a minimum! (would you drive longer miles in your car to keep the engine lasting longer?).
So clearly these basis are not reliable enough to produce firm conclusions, conversely Allen Carr seems to have firm belief in them.
He states that meat, milk & dairy products have devastating effects on the body , however the real evidence lies in the lives of senior citizen;
if asked , anyone healthy over the age of 70 would confirm that their daily food intake in their lives included meats & dairy products, so the effects of eating such foods cant be too devastating right ?
EVEN if alll his theories are correct , is easyweigh reallly a practical eating plan ? Contrary to his claims most green vegetables don't contain much energy (read labels in supermarkets). So one would need around 20 standard fruits to satisfy the daily needs, that's 140 fruits per week per person, that around 500 fruits for a family per week! Supermarkets don't usuallly stock that much fruit. It would also be impractical to adhere to family meals at set times (the whole family would have to read the book AND agree with it).
However I have to give credit to Allen Carr for the time spent on the book. It also requires a lot of self confidence to write something this controversial & if his book has helped people achieve goals without long term complications , then the book has served its purpose.
