Alex Jamieson

I'll start by saying that I, like many others, was led to this book by watching Morgan Spurlock's documentary which at the time made an impact on me. I also had been looking for some ideas on how to cut down on sugar / coffee / processed foods etc, since in the last year or so my fatigue levels have gone up and I often have a low fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat etc (with no other explanation than bad eating habits).

Jamieson's book is good enough- as other reviewers have noted, she gives a thorough list of recommendations on what to cut down in order to feel better & to achieve better health. Some of these recommendations were things I already knew- and yet Alex's book gently 'pushed' me in the direction of actually implementing them. So I've cut out sugar and alcohol from my diet (at least for the time being!) & have also cut down on coffee, which really makes a difference. I'm not prepared to cut out dairy products or meat / fish, since I'm not keen on going down the vegetarian route. But as I said, Alex's recommendations are good and can be 'fiddled with' by each particular person, according to dietary needs and depending on what each person is willing to do without.

I do have some problems with her book, however, which are the following (some have been mentioned by other reviewers, some not):

a) the huge expense one has to go to if following all her recommendations

b) the constant and repetitive use of the language of 'poisoning' and 'addiction' in her book. I'm very sceptical as to the addiction model which has been so overused- to cover everything from drugs and alcohol to bad relationships, food and internet. I'm not sure I agree with taking this all or nothing view, since it creates a situation where the individual is not able to learn moderation (I would argue that for alcohol & drugs, there possibly is no such thing as moderation, but that's not the case for food, sex or internet use- they just don't belong in the same category). I know many would disagree with what I say, and that certain substances like white sugar may very well have a semi-addictive effect if used in high doses. But Alex's almost obsessional use of the 'poisoning' vocabulary says as much about her way of thinking- which tends to verge on a black or white mentality, not accepting in-betweens and nuances- as it does about the actual issues she's discussing: because the fact of the matter is, there's never one reason which explains all our distress, difficulties, even bad health in life, however much lots of people might like to believe that is the case- there's never a magical solution to all of life's problems.

c) Last but not least- Eating habits are not always a matter of 'choice' (as, to be fair, Alex sometimes points out herself). People have all sorts of emotional / unconscious reasons to be eating the way they are. I do understand and completely agree that advertising and sheer number of junk-food outlets does not help in the least. But to be honest, when someone's reached the point of obesity, there's a question to be asked about this person's desire to live like this. People are not merely pushed into their eating habits, although to a certain degree they are. They also have to assume, if only to help themselves, some responsibility and understanding of why they have ended up like this... And Alex does not really address this issue. She does talk about emotional needs but does this fairly superficially, not seeing that for most people cutting out sugar, coffee, processed foods etc is far more difficult and complex than just making a 'choice' and learning about the facts from a book. The thing is that any symptom, including obesity, serves a purpose and has a reason for existing. If that were not the case, then the levels of obesity and bad health would of course be much lower, even taking into account the constant barraging of junk-food ads etc: it would just be a matter of reading the right book and making a 'choice'. If only it were that easy though...

So all in all, this is a book I can recommend, but merely as something to dip into and get some ideas from, not as something to follow as a religion- fanaticism in any religion does no good, including the 'de-tox' religion!… (meer)