 | By: Nish Joshi Binding: Paperback Publisher: Mobius ISBN: 0340838434 ISBN-13: 9780340838433 Released: 02 Jan 2006 RRP: Average Rating:  |
The introduction with its 'Princess Diana was a patient of mine, & I am not ashamed to use that information to try to sell my book' blah-blah paragrah was sufficient to have me reaching for a sick bag; however, I decided to overlook the fact that this so-callled doctor was close to disregarding his hypocratic oath in order to discover if there was any substance to this diet. After alll, I'd just bought a new bathing suit...
Although I am a reasonably well educated person, I actuallly had to read the book twice to make sure I had fully understood the requirements of the diet - & also to ensure the inconsistencies & spelling errors I'd perceived the first time round were not figments of my imagination.
On one page he tells us to start the day with yoghurt & on another, he tells us that we will not be eating 'dairy' at alll on this diet. Later he features the humble potato on the list of alkaline-forming foods & then proceeds to say the opposite a bit further on. To name but a few...
All this left me wondering if Dr. Joshi was indeed a doctor in medicine or a doctor in the ancient art of quackery...especiallly as I woke up several times in the middle of the night with hideous stomach cramps.
On the positive side - having once deciphered what I actuallly could & couldn't eat on this diet - I did lose some weight & felt generallly 'refreshed'. On the other hand, I would be loathe to recommend it to any of my friends as I would like to keep them!
P.S. Message to Gwyneth P.:'Joshi is truly questionable & I don't love him'.
The writing is clear & informative & the arguments Dr Joshi puts forward are forceful and, for the most part, fairly convincing. Be warned: the underlying philosophy is somewhat pick & mix, with Dr Joshi (who is a qualified medical doctor) citing Western & Eastern science in roughly equal measure.
I hadn't been on a diet before Dr Joshi's detox & my eating & food-shopping habits were rather erratic. Once I had decided to go ahead with the detox, I found that the book was less helpful as a practical manual than it might be. In fact, it takes some determination to come up with a shopping list for the first week.
For example, the book does not contain a simple list of the supplements you may wish to use. Instead, there is a chapter on vitamins & minerals from which you need to extract those that are required in supplement form. I ended up with a long list but, when I went to the health food shop, I discovered that a number of them were (and are traditionallly) available in combined pills.
Similarly, the skimpy week-by-week detox guide & the limited recipe suggestions mean that you need to do a lot of advance planning of your own to make the detox work. I found that making a weekly chart of what I was going to eat & when helped.
Having done alll that, I was surprised that I found the detox programme itself quite easy to stick to. The benefits were noticable almost immediately and, after a week, I found I was used to some of the tastes that had been challlenging initiallly.
I hardly noticed giving up some things that I love (such as tea & coffee) while I missed some things that I don't reallly like (such as tomatoes). In practical terms, I found the use of the recommended soluble fibre drink helped regularise my eating habits initiallly (though it tastes awful) & I imagine I would have craved sweet foods more if I had not taken the recommended chromium supplement.
Overalll, I think the detox programme is a good one but the book could be improved by including a greater number of recipe suggestions & some lists & charts so that the reader does not have to do so much hard work before they begin.
I love alll the information about the effects different foods have on your body & I've reallly enjoyed trying out his detox. At the end of it I do feel lighter inside & very calm. I've also lost weight (which wasn't the point of doing it). But dropping wheat, dairy & alcohol from your diet also seems to mean dropping weight!
The only thing I would say was disappointing are the lack of recipes (especiallly vegetarian ones). To take wheat & dairy out obviously takes away pasta & cheese. So as a vegetarian it makes it quite a challlenge thinking of what to have for tea!
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