Eat Fat, Lose Fat: Lose Wight And Feel Great With The Delicious, Science-based Coconut Diet

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Summary: must have diet journal
Review: I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy my new beverage of choice. Made from 100% organic soy, taste just like coffee and no caffeine. Finally, I got rid of that wired up feeling all day and feeling great. Look for it on the net by googling "s o yfee

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Summary: Other health benefits
Review: I am an extremely slow loser when it comes to weight loss. Low fat diets made me fatter. High protein diets worked well the first couple of weeks and then nothing. I feel coconut oil is adding something back that my body has been missing. My energy level has risen so much. This was the biggest change. My weight has dropped 3 pounds in the last two weeks. This has been with no exercise and going through the Holiday Season where last year I gained 12 pounds! My family has been going through intestinal flu, and winter colds. I am the only one not to be affected. Coconut oil is anti-viral and anti-bacterial. Its also great for skin and hair conditioning. I bought mine through tropicaltraditions where it is organic and expressed naturally. There is a lot of information there on coconut oil to do more research.

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Summary: The ultimate weight loss health book
Review: Every January publishers launch diet books to lure in diet book readers who have gained weight over the holidays. Most of these books rely on techniques that produce temporary weight loss. Since malnutrition is the biggest health problem in our country, dieting only makes people sicker and more prone to weight gain and sluggish metabolisms. The only way to lose weight is to feed your body so it can repair on a cellular level. Then your body will naturally find its ideal body weight. Dr. Enig is a world leader in the field of lipid biochemistry. She was the driving force behind the FDA finally getting around to labeling trans fats on products. When she speaks about fats, she knows what she is talking about. Sally Fallon has brought national recognition to the work of nutritional pioneer and researcher, Weston A. Price. Most of our country's health woes would be solved if Americans only strapped on their aprons and got back into the kitchen. Sally is the driving force in our country today in encouraging people to prepare their own food. These two researchers are the real thing and their book is filled with exciting, authoritative and confidence inspiring advice on how to restore health and lose body fat.

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Summary: Too Much Oil
Review: I became very nauseous following this diet. Taking 3 tablespoons daily of coconut oil was just too much. I sure wasn't hungry following this diet! I can't stand the smell of the coconut oil, although I enjoy coconut very much. I thought the science in the book was great and really agreed with the approach. The idea of the oil having anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties was wonderful, but I just couldn't stomach the oil.

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Summary: Sensible eating
Review: I have been using coconut oil and coconut milk for awhile. The oil is great for cooking and the milk tastes great in a shake! The fatty acids in coconut milk are the same/similar to those found in breast milk; now all baby formulas contain coconut oil. It makes sense that these fats are good for adults, too. Also, since adopting many of the principles from Nourishing Traditions, I have had much more energy, much less fatigue and no weight problem. My mother-in-law is always asking me how I can eat so much without gaining weight... I have also tried to feed my son this way. He's 15 months and is VERY strong and healthy - no ear infections and only 2-3 colds/viruses. It's science and it's common sense. Eat healthy to be healthy.



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Summary: Some doubts
Review: I have read almost everything ever written or published by Sally Fallon and the Weston A Price Foundation. I have also been a standing member of the WAP foundation for over a year and I am privy to every journal that they put out. Sally Fallon is one of those rare charismatic figures in history who can bring about substantial changes in society and in the lives of those she encounters by the sheer force of her will and sincerity. I have no doubt that her intentions are wholly genuine and that her thinking is largely inspired by carefull consideration of the issues. I do think however, that her enthusiasm for an iconoclastic desolution of the prevailing dietary priscription has lead her to overstate the importance of certain nutrients, especially fat.

The subtle wisdom and careful cultivation of understanding acquired over the years by both Sally Fallon and Mary Enig should not be understated or lightly dismissed, but there are some nagging questions about the program espoused in this book, and these persist in causing great doubt in me. For instance, the WAP foundation has based its entire dietary philosophy on Dr Price's cross cultural survey of traditional peoples whom he observed as exemplifying exceptional health. The logic here seems sound enough: look at traditional peoples who lacked chronic illness and find out what they were doing right. But I feel that a crucial part of the picture has been left out, for most of the people Dr. Price observed were not thin. In fact, with the exception of the hunting and gathering groups, most were quite plump. This is not to say they were ill, just that they were overweight.

I myself have gained quite a bit of weight since I began following the precepts of a traditional diet over the last three years and this fact looms large in my head, for when the ethnographic record shows an increase in chronic disease it does so when humans become sedentary (circa 10,000 years ago)and begin consuming the types of foods and in the quantities advocated in this book.

From the standpoint of evolutiuonary biology, there is a very good reason why modern humans intensely crave, and should limit, the amount of fat they consume(as well as other things like sugar and salt). These foods were scarce and/or difficult to obtain in the EEA (Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation). That is, it is correct to designate fat sugar and salt as essential, but it is incorrect to think we can consume these with such aplomb and in such high amounts as prescribed in this latest publication (up to 6 tbs of coconut oil and generous amounts of celtic sea salt). Hunters and gatherers were limited by their economy in the amount of fat, sugar, and salt they were able to obtain in the EEA and the situation was such, almost throughout the entirety of our evolutionary history. This scarcity accounts for nature's selection of individuals who craved these ingredients, but it should also remind us that if these nutrients were scarce in the EEA, their overconsumption in modernity may be detrimental to our health.

If there is one major strength to Sally Fallon's approach to diet it is this: Ms Fallon understands the importance of looking to traditional cultures for clues as to how to deal with evolutionarily novel foods (i.e. dairy, grain, etc,). Traditional cultures suffering our same fate as agriculturally based people came up with some of the most creative ways to make these novel foods edible. They did this by imitating the types of processes (like fermentation) that would naturally occur in the intestines of herbivores, or by recreating the types of conditions that would induce the germination of seeds in nature (such as soaking grain before cooking), or by such processes as the culturing of milk to breakdown its sugars and proteins. The careful preparation of these novel foods, not previously available to human beings (before 8000 BC), was an ingenious solution to the problem of digestability that these presented.

In conclusion, I bought this book with great enthusiasm, but at the onset of following the dietary prescription therein I began having problems with diarhea and nausea. These symptoms subsided when I discontinued the program. But to be fair, I must note that decreasing the prescribed dosage of coconut oil might have helped in this regard, but I did not do this.

Sally Fallon is to be applauded and respected for all her efforts and contributions. But we should not assume that the answers to our weight problem are to be found among people who suffered our same fate: discontinuity with our hunter and gatherer ancestry.

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Summary: A Diet That's Actually Fun
Review: I love coconut, but the only time I ever ate it was in a pina colada or an Almond Joy, and they never helped much with my weight issues! But coming from the Weston Price authors of Noruishing Traditions, the advice in Eat Fat, Lose Fat had a lot of authority for me, and after reading this book I started adding coconut oil to my health shake in the morning. I began feeling its beneficial effect on my metabolism and energy (as well as my skin) right away. As expressed in the title, this book squarely confronts the fear that prevents dieters from getting the fats we need to stay healthy while we're slimming down.

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Summary: A Refreshing Focus on the Quality of Food
Review: I serve as a chapter leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation, and as such have been following the Nourishing Traditions principles outlined in Sally's book for some time. I had not been consuming coconut oil however, nor consistently limiting my meals to three a day. I wasn't quite sure how to integrate coconut into my diet on a daily basis. The book offers many recipes - including simply adding coconut oil to a smoothie! After an initial couple of days having difficulty consuming the recommended 1 T. of coconut oil melted in warm water or herbal tea 20 minutes before each meal, I am now drinking it easily and find that my appetite is definitely surpressed!

I found the book to be very well written and compelling!

What I most appreciate about Sally and Mary's plan is the great importance they place on the QUALITY of the food consumed. Namely organic, sustainably produced, natural, whole foods. Animal protein from pasture raised animals who are treated humanely. Real, raw (as opposed to pasteurized) milk products. Instead of the artificially sweetened diet sodas which are typically recommended on other diets, this plan recommends kombucha, beet kvass, kefir and real ginger ale. It includes enzyme rich foods such as sauerkraut, mineral rich bone broths and soups ... and traditional superfoods such as cod liver oil. There are many generations of nutritional wisdom in this book - it is not merely the latest fad approach to health, wholeness and weight loss.




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Summary: A delicious way to lose weight
Review: I was afraid to eat fats until I read this book. The authors make a good case that low fat is just a marketing ploy, and that coconut oil, butter and other healthy fats are actually what we need to lose weight.. For years, the food industry put transfats into all processed foods, while the government and science turned a blind eye to this harm to our health. The American Heart Association even told people to eat this junk claiming that margarine was healthy and butter was not. What a joke! Now, they've done an about face, without even apologizing.

For decades, the sole scientific voice questioning trans fats was Dr. Mary Enig, one of this book's authors. She is a real pioneer and has the science down cold. Now that the tide is running the other way, it's great to have a book that is so complete by authors who really know their stuff. The authors analyze the science and also provide several diet plans along with great recipes..

I was amazed, but eating fats really does make weight loss easier because I'm not starving all the time. In fact, I defy anyone to feel hungry on this diet. You're not always thinking about your next meal, you're not tempted to eat junk. The weight loss is gradual but it feels a lot healthier than crash and burn dieting.

When I think of the years I spent trying to lose weight drinking tasteless skim milk, egg beater omelettes and low fat muffins and who knows what else! Whereas now I put cream in my tea, make eggs in coconut oil, and drink the coconut tonic, and I actually am losing weight. It's mind boggling!

You have to experience it to believe it because we have been so brainwashed into thinking fats are bad-- and in fact, as the authors show, we need them for health.

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Summary: Common Sense, Wonderfully Written and Explained
Review: Since Sally Falon's first book, Nourshing Traditions, literally transformed the way my wife and I eat, I was excited to read this one. Once again, Sally and Mary bring back the common sense with plenty of facts and history to support thier message - that their is no magic bullet to great health and losing weight, but rather a very simple method of avoiding processed foods and taking the time to cook and eat the way our grandparents did. Perhaps more importantly, this once again includes many recipe's that not only derive from the wisdom of the world's people, but are easy to follow and nourshing for the whole family. For what it's worth, my wife and I have not gained one pound during the last three years of eating this way. As disease, cancer, and obesity increase, and the latest diet fads disapear, this book simply provides the roadmap to health that has been traveled on for centuries.