Rating: 
Summary: Freedom from Frustrating Diets
Review: I saw Dr. Clower on TV and was intrigued by his premise that our low-fat and chemical-filled culture is partly responsible for our national obesity problem. What he wrote resonated with what I know intuitively: Low fat diets don't work, and fake foods are bad for you. Clower says to eat wholesome, real foods WITH the fat and you'll feel more satisfied and eat less overall. This was an epiphany for me. After reading the book in one day, I tried another one of his suggestions: Taking small bites. At first it was like trying to hold back a team of wild horses, but over time I came to enjoy the slow pace and the savor the meal. Plus, I was eating delicious, fatty foods, so it wasn't that difficult. I haven't overeaten since. It's been said before, but something about Dr. Clower's gentle, enthusiastic style and the supporting scientific evidence he cites got through to me. I had told myself I was giving up dieting, but I was still making a mental checklist of what I "shouldn't" eat, which is still a diet! No more. After reading this book I feel more optimistic about weight loss and more pleasure at mealtime than I ever have before. What a magic book!
Rating:
Summary: I love food again
Review: I'm so happy that others are as enthusiastic about this book as I am. It deserves to be talked about and shared. I haven't been this happy with my meals in years! Why aren't more talk shows and diet magazines touting this diet, I wonder? Could it be that all the people who make those tasteless, processed, diet foods are a bit uneasy with these findings? This book makes so much sense. I've been telling all my friends about it. I've lost five pounds in a month. But more importantly, I've been incredibly happy and satisfied with my meals.
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Clower is a wonderful, wonderful man.
Review: I've been using Amazon for years, and this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review. This book is nothing short of a godsend. I read an article in "Allure" magazine comparing various popular diets (including Weight Watchers) and saw that the Fat Fallacy "diet" blew the others away. Despite my inherent skepticism, something made me buy the book and give Dr. Clower's simple, friendly advice a try. I somehow managed to force myself to start eating great, tasty, real food again, and I forced myself to savor it while doing so. And at a rate of 1 or 2 lbs a week, the 15 lbs I needed to lose just disappeared. It really did. And the best part is, I know I can eat this way for the rest of my life. So Dr. Clower, thank you so very much for giving back my figure and the right to take joy in eating good food. I only hope that whatever it was that made me give your book a chance finds a way to reach everyone else one day. I'm certainly doing my part to see that it does.
Rating:
Summary: If you're sick of dieting and ready to give up... read this!
Review: If you're like me, you've tried every diet on earth and nothing has worked, or not worked permanently. And you came away angry, depressed and probably heavier than before. This book opened my eyes as to how messed up and backward the American approach to eating (snacking all day, eating in cars, eating in front of the TV, treating mealtimes like an inconvenience to hurry through) is, and that all these diets are scams. I've only been eating the way the book describes for a week, and already I FEEL GOOD. I never feel hungry or on some stupid regimen (because I'm not!) or depriving myself of eating good, satisfying food-- I am eating better than I did before! And I'm about 2 pounds down already. And here's better news: when you've eaten good quality food, you don't want the junk food anymore. No, really. After three days of eating good cheeses, I tried to eat the generic shredded cheddar cheese that I loved... and UGH! It tasted salty and bland. Like a dog's chewy rubber toy. I threw it out. I'll take bread and cheese over nacho chips any day! I even eat squares of dark chocolate now (mmmm), and I used to be a die hard milk chocolate type. And whole milk, yum. The moderation thing has not been as hard as I thought. And I used to eat 3-4 slices of pizza in one sitting! Without all the chemicals and junk in my body, my mind is so much clearer and I have much more energy. Oh, and do you hate to exercise? Me too! Clower does not tell you to run 10 miles a day or do a workout of any kind (unless you want to). All he recommends is that you walk. As in, park a bit further away instead of fighting for the parking space closest to the door. Just get out of the house every once in a while, or take a short walk after dinner. I can't stand to sweat or even be in the sun-- I've always hated Phys Ed. classes and sports-- and even I can handle this. If you're at the end of your dieting rope, get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Stay slim with wine, bread and full fat milk!
Review: It seems so astonishing when you think about it. Here in America we are chasing the way to stay slim. One minute we are told it is low fat, the next its no sugar. There are folks who espouse counting carbs, others proteins. The list goes on. While we are fighting the fat wars and getting fatter, the French go about their merry way oblivious to calories. Saying NON to lowfat milk and cheese products, drinking wine etc. When do we wake up and smell the french roasted coffee? THE FRENCH ARE SLIM as a culture and AMERICANS ARE FAT as a culture. And the Frenchmen and women outlive American men and women. THEY MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT! Why not do what they do? And that is what Clower's book is all about. He walks you step by step into the changes you need to make to embrace the French lifestyle diet. You will learn to eat for pleasure, savoring each bite. No longer do you eat tasteless low fat, it's full fat cheeses and cream. Wine with your meal if desired. Bread and plenty of it. The secret is of course moderation and eating REAL food. Did you ever read the ingredients list on light butter. I did for the first time the other day. I couldn't understand half the ingredients in it! And neither can your body understand these synthetic ingredients! Feed your body real butter. But just a little bit because that is all it takes. You won't need to stuff yourself with a ton of food, because eating real food will be satisfying and you will learn how to eat for pleasure. Not gulping it down or supersizing. Eating a small amount in a relaxed environment and enjoying it! With Clower's book you will rediscover the joy of food and your slim, healthy self!
Rating:
Summary: The way we used to eat!
Review: Once upon a time(before fat was the enemy) we just ate. We didn't drive ourselves to neuroses about low fat, fat-free, high carbs vs. low carbs, etc. Finally someone who tells us what we always knew but were afraid to think about. It's okay to eat, as long as it's real food. If you stick to the outer aisles in the grocery store, you can pretty much fill your cart with what you need. Whole milk yogurt(whole milk anything), butter, real(not processed) cheese, foie gras, real veggies, whole grain bread, sour cream not(horrors!)non-fat sour cream dressing. Fat does not make you fat. Au contraire,once in a while le bifteck is good for you.
Rating: 
Summary: some good information
Review: The book has alot of good information about processed foods. The all-purposed flour is processed and bleached. It probably isnt the same as the french.
Rating:
Summary: Could This Be America's Weight-Loss Solution?
Review: The Fat Fallacy is a refreshing new way (or rather old way) of looking at food. In our search for the quick-fix weight-loss solution, we have basically abandoned food and learned to embrace a diet of generally non-edible chemicals that have been dressed to resemble food. This becomes apparent at the end of every chapter, where there is a "faux-foods" quiz, which lists the ingredients of a common food substance and dares you to identify it. I only got one right, and wondered why I've been eating all this stuff. His advice is grounded in common sense - "if it ain't food, don't eat it" - and is actually quite easy to follow. How much time do Americans spend obsessing about how many carbs or sugars or fat grams are in their "food"? And when was the last time an American actually ENJOYED one of these low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar, low-taste, low-nutrition meals? The basic idea behind this "diet" is that Americans are fat because they eat too much. We keep getting fatter in spite of all the diet "foods" we eat. The human body doesn't get the nutrition it needs from this chemical soup, so it remains hungry until it gets some kind of real food. This is the typical binge. It's really quiet disgusting if you think about how much we eat. But in The Fat Fallacy, we are shown how to choose real food and enjoy it, all the while losing weight. How? When your body actually gets the nutrients it needs, it stops telling you that it's hungry, and that's when you stop eating. Pretty simple stuff. No agonizing over what frozen-food item has less fat or less carbs, no more choking down those tasteless food-sticks, no more disgusting eating habits. Our bodies need food. Be nice to your body and give it some.
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Summary: Retitled softcover of Dr. Clower's wonderful hardback.
Review: The Fat Fallacy: The French Diet Secrets fo Permanent Weight Loss is a wonderful book BUT it is a retitled version of the hardcover edition The Fat Fallacy: Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle. There are a few new paragraphs and a few testimonials from readers of the hardcover edition included, but otherwise its the same book. Unfortunately the new title can be misleading and many folks do not realize they are buying the softcover version of the hardcover they already own. The book is quite an eyeopener. It makes you realize how much fake food we eat. It seems so astonishing when you think about it. Here in America we are chasing the way to stay slim. One minute we are told it is low fat, the next its no sugar. There are folks who espouse counting carbs, others proteins. The list goes on. While we are fighting the fat wars and getting fatter, the French go about their merry way oblivious to calories. Saying NON to lowfat milk and cheese products, drinking wine etc. When do we wake up and smell the french roasted coffee? THE FRENCH ARE SLIM as a culture and AMERICANS ARE FAT as a culture. And the Frenchmen and women outlive American men and women. THEY MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT! Why not do what they do? And that is what Clower's book is all about. He walks you step by step into the changes you need to make to embrace the French lifestyle diet. You will learn to eat for pleasure, savoring each bite. No longer do you eat tasteless low fat, it's full fat cheeses and cream. Wine with your meal if desired. Bread and plenty of it. The secret is of course moderation and eating REAL food. Did you ever read the ingredients list on light butter. I did for the first time the other day. I couldn't understand half the ingredients in it! And neither can your body understand these synthetic ingredients! Feed your body real butter. But just a little bit because that is all it takes. You won't need to stuff yourself with a ton of food, because eating real food will be satisfying and you will learn how to eat for pleasure. Not gulping it down or supersizing. Eating a small amount in a relaxed environment and enjoying it! With Clower's book you will rediscover the joy of food and your slim, healthy self!
Rating:
Summary: Debunks the Fat-Free Myth
Review: The French eat fatty cheeses, carbohydrate loaded breads, rich desserts and drink beaucoup de wine. They eat dinners with multiple courses that last well over three hours long and enjoy this marathon of eating well past the prescribed 8:00 curfew time that most American dieticians claim is time to stop the day's eating. The question Clower poses is then: Why are the French relatively thin and healthy while we Americans, with all our rules and diet limitations the most unhealthy and overweight people in the world?
In a systematic format, Clower moves from topic to topic, citing the American fixation for medical studies and recommendations from such august bodies as the American Medical Association and the FDA and then ripping their premises to shreds by showcasing the typical French woman eating cheese--a definite high cholesterol no-no and bread with every meal---and still fitting into her tight black skirt, never concerned in the least about artery blockages or counting carb blocks.
Clower does a fine job of debunking most of the newer fads that have replaced simple sensible eating in the American diet. He explains that most of the studies that indicate positive results for ingesting particular preservatives and other food fillers are ironically funded by the manufacturers of the said product. He also delves into the American psyche and need for "the magic bullet" that will make weight loss and good health a snap like so many other American advancements.
If you want to get yourself off the dieting merry-go-round, Clower's book is a good start. He also has a nice website. a monthly newsletter and a Yahoo Group for those who want to make the Fat Fallacy a way of life.
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