Shangri La Diet

Is it an approach that works or just absurdity?

I was looking to lose a few pounds when a friend of mine gave me the Shangri La Diet book. I really thought she was crazy—there was no way I could eat everything I wanted and drink sugar water or olive oil and lose weight.

Once I began to read the book, I saw what she meant—it wasn’t that you could eat everything you wanted but the authors believed if you ate foods that lacked flavour you could lower your body’s “set point” and thus consume less food. Well, gee, I thought, if I’m eating food that doesn’t taste good, I’m going to eat less anyway.

I read through the entire Shangri La Diet book, and to make my friend see how absurd it was, I figured I’d try it. If the premise was to eat foods that were unusual in taste or lacked in flavour, then I would need to prepare meals differently for myself because I wasn’t going to make my family eat things they didn’t like.

The idea of unusual taste seemed odd—I could put cinnamon in spaghetti, and it would still have the same number of calories, yet the authors claimed I would eat less of that food.

After about two weeks, I had to give up on the Shangri La Diet. The foods were horrible in taste, and though I lost weight, it was because I couldn’t eat much. I forced myself to eat because I was hungry, but I surely did not enjoy what I ate.

Of course, that is what I expected, however, to think one could continue with this type of regiment for any period of time was absurd. The premise was also that if you eat foods that taste good, you will raise your “set point” and gain weight because you will eat more of foods that were tasty. Of course that is true, but you can control those urges.

I lost ten pounds in two weeks, not a healthy weight loss at all, because I had no desire to eat. The only time I ate was when I was extremely hungry and then I ate only enough to keep me from passing out from hunger. In fact, my husband was the one who actually forced me to stop the diet—he was concerned I was going to become sick from lack of nutrition.

My doctor was unhappy when he found out I had even attempted this plan, which he considered very unhealthy and lacking in any proof of its validity. He insisted that I partake of something much healthier and provided me with suggestions for diets that were proven to help a person lose weight in a healthy way.

When I told my friend the experience I had with the Shangri La Diet, she was appalled. She had not yet read the book but was considering using it to lose some weight. The two of us worked together with a plan that help us lose weight without starving ourselves and by eating foods that were healthy and tasty.

This unusual premise has no documentation to support its claims though one cannot deny eating tasteless foods will make you eat less.

Review by Valerie Brickman