Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins That Make You Fat

Description

I expected to be disappointed by this book, but instead found it quite interesting. The basic hypothesis is that we are surrounded in our environments and in our diets by toxins; these toxins are horrible for our bodies and contribute to a vast range of symptoms; when losing weight, these toxins are released from our fat where they are stored and flood our body leading to worse symptoms.

While the marketing point of the book might be on how to lose weight, it really is more holistic and is about adding detoxifiers to ones diet. It discusses foods that are bad (such as which fish have the most mercury) to foods that are good (such as blueberries and blackberries are great detoxifiers)

Having expected some new age fru-fru, I was pleasantly surprised to learn a lot from the book, and it has impacted some of my eating practices, in particular with respect to a "green drink" shake a friend turned me on to,since the book puts in the basis of why various components of the drink (basically kale, chard, flax seeds, various fruits) are useful for health and cleansing.

although i doubt i will take the book to some of the extremes, such as removing the carpeting from my house and getting a weekly colonic, there is much material that is worth thinking about.

the weakest part for me were the recipes. there are many wonderful vegetarian, raw food and spa cookbooks out there. the recipes here, although called wonderful by the author, really are drab at best. use the book as a different perspective on what various foods can do holistically, but don't look to it as a cook book or for a step by step guide to losing weight.