Rating: 
Summary: The Last Diet Book You'll Ever Need!
Review: Anyone who expects to lose weight eating exactly the way they've always eaten (except maybe, eating less of it) is dreaming! Gittleman not only explains why it's important to help the liver do its job (flushing fat!) by why it's difficult to lose weight eating today's fast food. Not only will you lose weight on this eating plan, you will see many additional health benefits...(my skin is better, my concentration has improved, my aches and pains are gone, my perimenopausal symptoms cleared up). I have so much energy that my hubby says my perky meter is maxed out. I lost 53 pounds in 6 months and I will NEVER go back to eating the over-processed, salt/sugar saturated addictive foods pushed by today's food industry.
Now that I've reached my goal weight, I've been enjoying deferred foods such as cheese, yogurt, butter, cocoa, spelt bread and other favorites. Not only that, I'm wearing clothes 5 dress sizes smaller!
If you want easy - get your stomach stapled. If you want sane, healthy eating habits, get this book!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: This is without a doubt the BEST book on diet that I have ever read! (And I've read a bunch of them.) I didn't follow every detail of the plan, and I didn't take every supplement recommended, but even by just following the basics of the program, I saw incredible results. It did wonderful things for my complexion, and for the first time in... well, maybe the first time ever... I didn't crave chocolate or starchy carbohydrates. I'm not overweight, but this book is more about improving your overall health, digestion, and the effectiveness of your body's functions. Weight loss is just a natural response to the positive changes you make in the fat flush plan. Whether you have weight to lose or not, I HIGHLY recommend this book. In response to the previous one-star rating... the wheat and dairy restrictions are only for the first two weeks. Wheat and dairy are incorporated back into the plan as it progresses. Personally, eliminating dairy was a great step for me, and even when the plan allowed for dairy again, I chose to leave it out. This is an awesome book with tons of great information!
Rating: 
Summary: not what it seems
Review: I did what this book said to do, which is eating more protein than I am used to. As it turns out, it is easy to follow but I gained 4 pounds in the first week. I stuck with it and the second week I gained two more. I was doing exactly what the book said. After two weeks, I kept some of the ideas and cut back on my protein intake and lost the 6 pounds I gained.
Rating:
Summary: A couple years later and I still recommend the Fat Flush
Review: I started the Fat Flush a couple years ago and have tried other diets like Atkins and Dr. Perricone. I find myself coming back to the Fat Flush, it's not easy to follow but works better than any other diet I've tried. My skin is much more radiant and supple, I get many many compliments on my skin. The other benefit is the weight loss but I like this plan for what is does for the complexion. You have to wonder about other diets where you lose weight but your face looks awful. Anne Louise Gittleman has done her homework. There's a lot to be said for her research on a body's reaction to food and food allergies. I don't plan to follow the Fat Flush completely, I allow myself to eat my favorite foods like pizza, french fries and chocolate once or twice a month. Ultimately I think it's important to maintain a balance with what you eat and make sure you get a good amount of protein, veggies and fruits. At the very least give the Fat Flush a try, I'd say if you're having a difficult time staying with the plan at a minimum do the berry smoothie and flax oil. Even with just those two items you will notice an improvement in your face.
Rating:
Summary: Hidden Weight Gain Factors -- Excellent Info!
Review: Ann Louise Gittleman's "The Fat Flush Plan" is the best health and liver cleansing book I've ever read. Ann Louise says that the liver is the number one fat burning organ and that the lymph system is a major player in processing fats. She goes on to tell us that detoxifying the liver can lead to lower cholesterol and weight loss. In the author's words, this book is basically about "cleansing both the liver and the lymphatic system for effective weight loss and cellulite control." Here you will find a basic anatomy and physiology book regarding the lymph and liver. It is written in an easy-to-understand and interesting style. The author describes the liver and its functions, liver overload, liver stressors, and how to detoxify the liver. Chapter 2 "Five Hidden Weight Gain Factors" is a must read for anyone who is trying to lose weight. Excellent info! There are three phases of detoxifying the liver AKA fat flushing listed in this book. Also included are daily eating plans, shopping lists, recipes, a question and answer section, and resources. Three of my favorite nuggets of truth found on the pages of the Fat Flush Plan are included here: 1. "If poisons or excess fats clog your liver, it can't perform it's fat burning function." Pg 52
2. "The lifestyle eating plan provides "a basic lifelong eating program designed to increase your vitality and well being for life." Pg 40
3. "Weight gain, bloating, and those stubborn fat deposits on your hips, thighs, and buttocks-the very thought rattles your senses, not to mention your self esteem." Pg 7 Very informative! I give this book 5 stars!
Rating:
Summary: looking at it from another viewpoint
Review: Many of the ideas in this book are good; getting off of coffee, regularly drinking an anti-oxident rich drink, etc. If it's too much for you to sustain, -do it when you can-. Unlike diets that don't focus on health, a week here and there will combine to improve your health along with a healthy weight loss.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy the Book, Follow the Program....it works
Review: Maybe you're gaining weight because you're allergic to some of the foods you eat or maybe because your digestive track is clogged and you keep adding things like bread and sweets on top of it. The Fat Flush Plan cleanses out your liver and allows for a smooth flow of food. You'll be able to have bread and milk again, but during the plan you're letting your body digest all the bread, sweets and milk you've had in the past.It's tough, but it works. BUT, the food that she wants everyone to buy can get costly, hard to find and I don't really eat some of the stuff that she recommended. For example she says to try and get fresh veggies and organic fruit. But, I'm a poor college student, so I just made my own adjustments. I alternate between eggs and protein shakes in the morning for breakfast. I bake chicken the night before and I buy the pre-made salad at the grocery store and have a chicken salad everday for lunch (it's only for two weeks) and for dinner I just steam some frozen veggies that I got from the grocery store freezer at about $1.00 per bag and bake some kind of meat. And I have fruit for snacks, even grapes and bananas which I don't think she recommends. I'm almost a vegetarian so I don't eat alot of meat, my meals consist of about 75% veggies. Eating too much meat can make a person constipated anyway. Also, the long life cocktail in the morning always makes me want to gag.So, I just take psyllium pills or I just mix the powder in some water. It tastes sooooo much better and it's soooo much easier to swallow. Also Recommended: Greater Health God's Way
Rating: 
Summary: Left me wanting more....
Review: I needed either a lot more time or a personal chef to adhere to this diet. The recipes are tasty, but very labor intensive, and the demand for all fresh and often exotic veggies plus lots of fish, steak and chicken made this expensive. I did lose weight for the few days I was able to stay on the diet, but I was constantly hungry (and therefore grumpy) so my family made me stop the whole thing. I do like cranberry juice in my water, though.
Rating:
Summary: Eating Plan that Works
Review: So far I have lost 50 pounds following the Fat Flush Plan. Ann Louise Gittelman does a great job of explaining the role the liver has in weight gain and weight loss. I originally read this book because I wanted to find a detox plan that wasn't "weird". This was great. After I finished the two week detox, I had lost over 10 pounds and felt wonderful. I've stuck with it since. I find this plan easy to follow and I don't find that I'm obsessed about food.
Rating:
Summary: Possible problems with the science.
Review: Ann Louise Gittleman, The Fat Flush Plan (McGraw-Hill, 2002) We were doing so well there for a while. Yeah, the book gets a little heavy on the new-age diction (things "resonate to" ideas way too many times in this book), and the constant talking about the necessity for eating organic food (with a helpful recipe in the back for soaking your foods in bleach-water if you can't buy organic) was a bit unnerving, but everything else seemed to be on pretty solid ground. But then came the word that has become the yardstick for measuring the scientific objectivity of every nutritionist on the planet: aspartame. And Ann Louise Gittleman, as so many have before her, utterly fails the test. In short, the so-called "dangers" of aspartame have been so overblown by the press and a few wild-eyed (and very large-mouthed) activists that it has now been blamed for everything from MSG-like headaches to Multiple Sclerosis. (Odd that the MS Foundation's denial that the claim holds any sort of truth whatsoever got nowhere near as much press coverage.) What reports and studies is your nutritionist reading? Easy way to find out: ask them about aspartame. If they start getting fluttery around the eyelids, switch your nutritionist, quick. Gittleman here attempts to softpedal the anti-aspartame mania the first couple of times it appears by focusing on sweeteners approved for the plan or saying that her bias against the stuff is caused by its water-retaining properties. But keep reading. Once you get to the last fifty pages or so, you'll stumble upon a turn of phrase here, a word there, that strongly implies Gittleman has it in for aspartame for a lot more than that. Which draws the whole scientific basis of the book into question. (There are a few other shady bits, but the aspartame question is the easiest to determine, so I'll stick with it.) Ultimately, another diet book with a few good, logical ideas that can be found in a number of other places, some really awful overdramatization, and a lot of questionable stuff between the two poles. **
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