The plan Eliminate the surprising "healthy" foods that are making you fat-- and lose weight fast

Forget fresh tomatoes and cauliflower? Both occasional and career dieters may blanch at the thought, but holistic practitioner Recitas promotes her 20-day weight-loss program by dispensing with much conventional wisdom about food intake and weight and introducing a structured program for testing which foods may be triggering not only weight gain (rather than loss) in particular body chemistries but also constipation, inflammation, headaches, depression, and eczema. Cookies may not be villains, packing on the pounds, readers may discover as they explore friendly foods versus highly reactive foods that can no longer be seen as universally diet-healthy nutrition. Preparation, a three-day cleanse, and then a testing phase to determine which foods and food combinations to avoid can yield not just another diet but, instead, a plan for life, according to Recitas. To support her case, she includes photographs and testimonials of before-and-after successes, various recipes, the procedure for a five-day self-test, an index, and perhaps the most useful diet aid enthusiastic encouragement.--Scott, Whitney Copyright 2010 Booklist

Holistic remedy practitioner Recitas argues that individual bodies are unique in their physical preferences. Foods that make one person feel healthy and strong may not work for someone else. She recommends that her readers start with a cleansing, then undergo various tests of their reactions to different foods in order to discover what "burns clean." VERDICT While she presents an interesting concept, it's difficult to see how a book could pinpoint an individual reader's physiology with any certainty; but, again, the emphasis is on whole, unprocessed foods. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.