Barry Estabrook - Just Eat: One Reporters Quest for a Weight-Loss Regimen that Works

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A special thanks to Dr. Dennis Beatty whose thoughtful insistence that losing weight might dramatically improve my well-being set me on the journey that led to this book and a slimmer me. Dr. Dennis, you were right. I doubt I would have summoned the willpower to follow the doctors orders were it not for the inspiration and support (and occasional not-so-subtle reminder) of my three daughters, Robyn, Jillian, and Molly. You have made my life better and, I hope, longer.

I have tremendous respect for the physicians, nutritionists, and scientists who dedicate their careers toward building a greater understanding of the causes and cures for obesity, one of our societys most confounding and pervasive medical problems. Thanks to all of you. It is an honor that so many experts, some mentioned by name in this book, others not, took the time to talk with me, a rank amateur, about their lifes work. Its a clich to say that any errors and misinterpretations are completely my own, but I think it bears repeating.

Aglaia Kremezi and Costas Moraitis welcomed me to Kea, the beautiful island they call home, and allowed me to look over their shoulders as they proved that Greek vegetable-based dishes could be tastier and more satisfying than recipes that rely on meat. My only complaint is that now I want to live on Kea foreverand enjoy many more wonderful meals in Aglaia and Costas shady outdoor kitchen.

No writer could ask for a more stalwart comrade than David Black. I suspect the earnings from my work barely keep his agency in paper clips, but he manages to give the impression that I am his only client. He replies to emails and phone calls at warp speed. He took way more time and was way more diligent shaping the proposal for this book than duty required. Thanks also to Ayla Zuraw-Friedland, Gary Morris, and Sarah Smith at the David Black Agency.

David once again placed a book of mine with the ideal editor. A very special thanks to the terrific Lorena Jones and the crew at Ten Speed Press: designer Isabelle Gioffredi, production designer Mari Gill, production manager Dan Myers, publicist Lauren Kretzchmar, and marketer Brianne Sperber. Its difficult to describe the great respect I have for copy editors. Deborah Kops eagle eye saved me from embarrassment more times than I want to admit, as did proofreader Andrea Chesman.

As always, I have the advantage on having the worlds most wonderful editor, my wife, Rux Martin, on call 24-7. She did yeomans work on this stubborn manuscript. And, Rux, Im really sorry I made you taste my buckwheat-noodle dish. They werent earthworms. Honest.

Precursors to Late-Twentieth-Century Diets

1830sSYLVESTER GRAHAM
No: meat, coffee, tea, salt, pepper, spices, sauces, mustard, yeast
Yes: vegetables, fruit, nuts, water

1863ELLEN G. WHITE
No: meat, alcohol, spices, sauces, coffee, tea
Yes: vegetables, fruit, whole grains

1864WILLIAM BANTING
Publishes Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public

1865ELLEN G. WHITE
Forms the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan

1874JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG
Joins the Western Health Reform Institute; prescribes diet of grapes, exclusively, for high blood pressure

1880sJAMES HENRY SALISBURY
Promotes his Salisbury System of Weight Reduction
No: vegetables, starches
Yes: 3 pounds rump steak, 1 pound codfish, 3 quarts hot water

1887WILLIAM OLIN ATWATER
Introduces concept of calories as unit of measure

EARLY 1900sJAMES RAYMOND DEVEREUX
Recommends meatless diet in three meals:
Meal one only vegetables
Meal two only fruit
Meal three only nuts

1913HORACE FLETCHER
Introduces diet regimen of chewing food until liquified, spitting out remaining solids

1920CABBAGE SOUP DIET
Only cabbage soup

1920sHOLLYWOOD DIET (GRAPEFRUIT DIET)
Grapefruit, melba toast, straight coffee, celery, lettuce, tomato, an occasional egg

1929DR. WILLIAM HAY
Warns against consuming protein and carbohydrates simultaneously

1934GEORGE HARROP
700 to 1,000 calories per day from bananas, skim milk, and minimal roughage

1964ROBERT CAMERON
Publishes The Drinking Mans Diet; limit carbohydrates, but enjoy two martinis with a steak in barnaise sauce

NOTES

Chapter One: Forty Unwanted Pounds

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: See Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig, The Whole30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015).

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: See Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto (New York: Penguin Press, 2008), 148.

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. See also Melissa Urbans post on the Whole30 Blog, February 8, 2012.

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fitness book sales, see Regina Nuzzo, Diet Hooks, Los Angeles Times , March 10, 2008.

: See Traci Mann et al., Medicares Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets are Not the Answer, American Psychologist 62, no. 3 (April 2007): 22033, psycnet.apa .org/record/2007-04834-008.

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: See David Ludwig, Always Hungry? Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently (New York: Grand Central, 2016), 28.

Chapter Two: Instant Results

: See Stanley A. Burroughs, The Master Cleanser (Riverside, CA: Burroughs Books, 1976).

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Chapter Three: Diet Nation

: See Susan Yager, The Hundred Year Diet: Americas Voracious Appetite for Losing Weight (New York: Rodale, 2010), 156.

: See Carl Malmberg, Diet and Die (New York: Hillman-Curl, 1935).

: Ibid., 9, 12.

: See Horace Fletcher, Fletcherism What It Is: Or, How I Became Young at Sixty (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1913).

: See Yager, The Hundred Year Diet , 1213. See also Louise Foxcroft, Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting over 2000 Years (London: Profile Books, 2012), 9295.

.

: See Malmberg, Diet and Die , 9295.

: Ibid., 6577.

: Ibid., 95101.

: Ibid., 10114.

: See Yager, The Hundred Year Diet , 810.

: See Allen M. Brandt, The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 71.

: See Gardiner Jameson and Elliott Williams, The Drinking Mans Diet (Petaluma, CA: Cameron, 1964).

: Ibid., 5.

Chapter Four: There Are Only Three Diets

.

: See Malmberg, Diet and Die, 66.

: See Yager, The Hundred Year Diet , 36.

: Ibid., 610. See also Harvey Levenstein, Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012), 3637.

: See Louise Foxcroft, Calories and Corsets , 7477. See also Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), ixxii.

: See William Banting, Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public (London: Haerison, 1864).

: See Yager, The Hundred Year Diet, 16.

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: See Lulu Hunt Peters, Diet and Health with Key to the Calories (Chicago: Reilly and Lee, 1918).

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Chapter Five: Dean Cuisine

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: See Dean Ornish, Stress, Diet, and Your Heart (New York: Penguin Group, 1982).

.

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: See Gary Taubes, Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 62.

: Ibid., 173.

.

: See Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure (New York: Penguin Group, 2007).

: See T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell, The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted . (Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2005).

.

.

: See Ornish, Stress, Diet, and Your Heart , 34342. See also Dean Ornish, The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, Gain Health (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007), 239340.