Slim Businez
by Mark Cupples
Herald Books
There must still be a few people out there who want to lose weight because books on how to lose weight keep on coming. Slim Businez is another one and it starts out by recognizing the fact that there is a lot of conflicting advice on this subject. Most of it comes from big industry. Cupples’ advice is to think for yourself. That will be difficult for many because most of us went to schools that didn’t teach you how to think. They just taught you what to think. Still, it is good advice and you should at least try. Don’t be afraid. I will just briefly mention that what our culture thinks is aesthetically appealing and what is really healthy may be two very different things. That is one area where you may especially want to think for yourself.
He goes on to say that almost any diet will work if you can stick to it. That’s the catch, though—sticking to it. Most people are looking for something they can do for some period of time (as short as possible of course), then go back to life and eating as usual. You need to have goals that inspire you and that you can stay with permanently. Many diets are impossible to stay on because, while they may “work” in terms of losing weight, they don’t work nutritionally.
The diet primarily promoted in this book is a low-carb diet. I’m pretty sure there is no one diet that will work for everybody but this can and has worked for many. Where people usually go wrong with this diet is in trying to make it lowfat as well. I guarantee that won’t work and if you try too hard you may actually kill yourself. This author does rather well on explaining what kind of foods to eat and the importance of fat, with information right in line with our teachings at WAPF.
Cupples ducks the question of whether chemical sweeteners are good for you and leaves it to the readers to think and decide for themselves. My personal thinking is that they are clearly bad but, by all means, think for yourself. He has a lot of ideas on exercise that I would mostly take as suggestions. I like to keep it simple and say the best exercise is the one you will do. Elsewhere I have read that the exercise most popular among people who live the longest is walking, which is highly recommended in this book. Not running, not killer workouts at the gym or slugging it out with a side of beef in a meat locker, not extreme sports, just walking. Period. But think for yourself.
The book offers several detailed plans for exercising and eating depending on whether you have an iron will or you are normal. There seems to be a lot of monitoring of vital statistics and weight and counting of carbs from day to day. Perhaps that motivates some people when they see even the tiniest increments of progress. I wouldn’t follow any of the plans exactly because, well, I think for myself. I have some doubts about a few points in the book (like drinking a lot of water just before eating) but I think the thumb is UP for this book.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Summer 2016
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