11 Sep 2005 - 15:38

the Shangri-La diet

Go read about the Shangri-La diet right now!

I have reason to believe it probably works as described, but there's no time to say why, because we are off to the U.S. Open!


Christopher, Jimmy, & I are going to drink some olive oil before we leave.

update

The Open was grand. So fun.

However, and this is a NOTE OF CAUTION, a soup spoon of olive oil, an empty stomach, and a long stop-and-go car trip to the Queens are a mistake.

Fat Politics

The Freakonomics web site & blog have all kinds of fun supporting material for the Shangri-La Diet. It's worth taking a look no matter what your weight, because the diet was created by a Berkeley psychologist who has spent a lifetime conducting experiments on himself. Not only has he lost 40 pounds & kept them off, he cured his insomnia and his depression to boot. Here's his paper:

Surprises from self-experimentation: Sleep, mood, and weight
Seth Roberts, University of California, Berkeley.

I'm especially looking forward to Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic by J. Eric Oliver, also linked to by the site:

In Fat Politics, Eric Oliver unearths the real story behind America's "obesity epidemic." Oliver shows how a handful of doctors, government bureaucrats, and health researchers, with financial backing from the drug and weight-loss industry, have campaigned to misclassify more than sixty million Americans as "overweight," to inflate the health risks of being fat, and to promote the idea that obesity is a killer disease. In reviewing the scientific evidence, Oliver shows there is little proof either that obesity causes so many diseases and deaths or that losing weight makes people any healthier. Our concern with obesity is fueled more by social prejudice, bureaucratic politics, and industry profit than by scientific fact.

Such misinformation, Oliver argues, is the true problem with obesity in America. By telling us we need to be thin, the proponents of the "obesity epidemic" are pushing millions of Americans towards dangerous surgeries, crash diets, and harmful diet drugs. Oliver goes on to examine the surprising reasons why we hate fatness and why we are gaining weight, and also the real threats to our health that are being displaced by our fat obsession.

I'm not even going to bother reserving judgment about the Shangri-La diet; I'm just going to dive in and believe Roberts' findings without reservation. Not to go out on a limb here, but I've always thought the whole Fat Police thing was a crock. Whenever you see every feature writer in America fervently agreeing on the horrors of X, the horrors of X invariably turn out to be cr**. Of course, that's my Scots-Irish talking.

If it's not Scottish, it's cr**!.

update update

Speaking of the Scots Irish, I hooted when I read Why don't the Irish like us? What have we ever done to them? at Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry.

(btw, Chase me ladies is one of my favorite blogs, but I haven't posted a link to it because I hope Kitchen Table Math will have kids reading Math Help pages soon, and Cavalry has lots of bad words and stuff about sex. So consider yourself warned.)

The Shangri-La Diet at Amazon
Seth Roberts website

Shangri La diet in freakonomics
Shangri La diet part 2
early adopter
diet, evolution of the brain, & McDonalds
Marginal Revolution on Shangri La
your own lying eyes
progress report 7-23-06
Jimmy 7-24-06
mind hacks & Shangri-La 7-26-06
7-29-06 update
my life and welcome to it - 8-6-06 - success
compare and contrast photo op 8-12-06
9-12-06 update
9-17-06 Jimmy is melting
10-4-2006 Dr. Erika's olive oil diet works, too

shangrila

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