The Science of Skinny

I changed to all organic and now that "Shop Rite" and "Ocean State Job Lot" carry many of the items in the raw, they really don't cost more than I was spending. I also found that "The Farmers Cow" milk is organic and less expensive than the one that says Organic because Guida packages their milk in their plant they cannot say that it is Organic. By changing to ALL FAT products, I have lost 7 pounds in six weeks, I feel better, I have much more energy, I can actually say I am going to the "Throne Room" each day rather than once a a while, and I feel good. I do not count calories, but I do watch my portion size. I eat snacks of fruit or cheese and crackers, especially if I am going out to eat at a restaurant. It helps to curb my cravings and not ask for the tempting desserts because I am full. I am not hungry now and I listen to my body. I drink no soda and have bought Schweppes seltzer flavored water and add either some organic juice to the can and it tastes like I am drinking soda. I like the bubbles to make me burp. I have bought the book for my daughters too. My daughter and her significant other are feeling much better now too and you can see the difference in my daughter's body and face. She is much less bloated and she has more energy. You have to be patient for the weight to drop after the first few pounds because your body is adjusting, but you will feel it and you will see it happening as your clothes fit differently, and you actually feel slimmer too. Once I start riding my bike this summer I know I will probably see more weight fall off because of my increased exercise. I am a teacher and spend most of my time at school and planning and when I get home I am too busy right now, or it is too late to go for a bike ride. As you know "a teachers work is never done". Good Luck and believe in this. Oh, when my mom was told she needed to lower her cholesterol she had to stop eating eggs and cheese and she would say, "Oh, I miss those things because I loved eating them"...well she stopped eating them, and she got cancer within 6mo or a year after. If you read the book it tells you have IMPORTANT these foods are to strengthening your cells against cancer invaders and how they protect you against them. I am sure that if she hadn't stopped eating them she would be alive today. Dee McCaffrey is a Chemist and she knows what she is talking about. Don't make the mistake my mom made. I know people who lived until they were in their 90's and 100 that had high cholesterol. The "REAL" fats fight fat AND Cholesterol and cleans out your body the natural way. I hope that you change like I did and I guarantee that you won't regret it.

Like Dee, I am an analytical/environmental chemist (except I have a masters degree) who has dealt with obesity and issues of self-esteem. I have also educated myself a great deal on the science of food and weight issues with available literature.Dee goes into a lot of detail explaining the processes by which many things we eat today are made, and I think that is probably the most valuable part of this book-- really understanding what goes into processed foods, alternate names for compounds we know we should avoid, and how certain compounds are processed in the body. This information is actually very helpful in understanding food and the way it interacts with your body, especially if you have not taken biochemistry.However, she also uses a lot of scare tactics for the non-science crew-- the book is filled with stupid words like "yucky," "yummy," and "gross" and declares foods morally good and bad in ways that really betray her deep personal and emotional problems with food. She uses A LOT of non-sequitur arguments that are certainly aimed at her most susceptible readers, most commonly:(1) trying to say that laboratory produced compounds are chemically different from naturally produced compounds (they are not-- water is water no matter how you make it)(2) trying to justify that something must be bad if it is produced from a "scary" reaction (ex: water is a byproduct of fuel combustion... but that doesn't mean it's bad for us) or used for a "scary" purpose like in her hexane example-- hexane is definitely not something you should consume, but the fact that it is used in dry cleaning has absolutely no bearing on how good or bad it is for you(3) trying to say that rat studies MUST mean the same thing for humans because it "just makes sense." You can't do that in science. Regardless of whether the same effect occurs in humans, a rat is not a human and you cannot assume that because it happens to rats, it will also happen to humans until this jump has been scientifically shown.She likes to emphasize the fact that she was an environmental chemist in hopes of making you, the unknowing reader, believe everything she says. Unfortunately, she also makes a point of including her pseudo-scientific beliefs about food being given to us by god and life energy (chi/ki/whatever) coming from the things we eat-- that foods contain "life force" that is then transferred to us when we eat it, and "the more fresh and alive the food is, the more energy we receive." That's all well and good on a personal, spiritual level, but there is no science in this, and it just feels insulting to be forced to read this in the midst of what should be a scientific discussion.Dee says things like, "when people are optimally healthy and free of disease, they will always be blessed with a thin body." However, this has been shown by several studies to be untrue (a great number of "obese" and "overweight" people are, in fact, quite healthy), and her use of the term "blessed" (among many other similarly charged words) to refer to thinness indicates her investment in the highly pervasive thin = superior mentality. She also says, "no matter what is in your past or family history, you are not destined to be unhealthy or overweight." However, susceptibility to diseases and weight gain has been shown to be highly hereditary. You can force your body to weigh less through caloric restriction, but this does not mean that you are at your optimal health (mentally and physically).The skinny part of the book... I will just say that you need to take it with a grain of salt, as not everyone will benefit in the same ways (or at all) from her ideas. All it really comes down to is eating less processed foods, which may or may not lower your body weight, but is a good way to try to be healthier.

Thank you, Dee. Your book has helped me a lot already and I haven't even finished it yet. I don't think this diet is hard to follow and you have to respect Dee as she has proved the diet works. I also think one must know thyself too. I know that I cannot bake some of her recipes without wanting to eat all of it at once, so therefore, I don't tempt myself. However, she gives advice regarding this. I also feel good eating as she says and I like that she is against processed foods. Yeah, Dee!Sept. 29, 2013One thing that I think Dee forgot to look into is the affect of caffeine on the body. Even if coffee is organic and decaf, it has caffeine. Likewise, caffeine makes one lose calcium in one's urine and this has been proven. Besides that caffeine stimulates insulin production and can make one become insulin resistant as well as hurt the adrenal glands "Google" caffeine, cortisol, and insulin resistance and you'll learn a lot. After giving up caffeine numerous times and wondering why I lose weight when I do, I now realize why. I also found out that caffeine can hurt your thyroid. I found that coffee, black tea and green tea (despite opposite claims) makes me gain weight. Thus, now on day 13, 4 hrs and 22 minutes (ha, ha) , my tummy is flattening out! Hope this helps someone else. I know I love caffeine, but I love feeling calmer and not so tired. Likewise, I probably won't have to take any bone strengthening drugs!

For over a year now I have been looking into a healthy lifestyle. Being south asian my genes are a ticking time bomb of diabetes & high blood pressure. Most of my family has passed away from heart problems/strokes. Im now in my mid-thirties and seemed to be heading down the same path. In the last year I have been searching for answers I have come across many theories, many fad diets all the chemicalized food in our food chain. This is the first book I have come across which links the science of the chemicals in our natural and unatural food to the effects it is having on our bodies. In South Asia my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents lived between 80 and 100 years of age (they ate seasonal organic food and their sugar and grains were not refined) I lost my grandparents when they were in their 60's and 70's my mum had a stroke when she was 53. Dee McCaffery's book put all the peices together and the information is clear. Eat well and healthy, live well and longer. As she is an American author she does write about the American food chain but here in the UK we are not far behind them. Cost of food production is high and companies will cut costs irrespective of the negative health consequences. In the book she fully explains the origins of sweetners. The process of how all the bran and germ is removed from wholegrains we always hear wholewheat is good white/refined flour/sugar is bad but we never fully understand why white/refined is so bad. Effects of additives and preservatives. Essential fats and virgin oils vs refined oils. How to cleanse your body and get it right & much much more. She has a diet plan and recipes that will help. This book should be called the dirty little secrets about food. I can honestly say that this book has conformed me into a healthier and leaner person. This book had all the answers I had needed and much more. I would recommend this book for every household looking for the hard truth about food and what has happened to our food in the last 100 years.

I found this book to be very informative. We just don't realise that refined and processed foods are SO BAD for us. I have changed the way I eat, so has my sister and my mum after reading this book. I have motor neurone disease which doctors cannot cure, and don't know the cause/s of! I have been eating poisons all my life, maybe all that processed and refined food has caused it? Who knows, but I have more energy now with my changed diet!

One of the best books I have read in a very long while. It is written by a chemist, so therefore factual. It is not a diet book but how to eat healthily. Everything she says makes good sense. I have adopted her ideas as much as possible and feel much more full of life, (I am in my sixties). Highly recommend this book.

I bought this book following a review in the papers. It is very detailed, but the clear message is that we really do not understand what happens to processed food and the use of both sugar and fats as well as thousands of chemicals. From my own experience I know I can observe changes in my energy levels and heartbeat following certain foods. I also have type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure so using this to radically change my eating habitsRob

This has opened my eyes to the rubbish we find on our supermarket shelves and have now decided to follow a regime of no processed foods, no sugar and organic where possible. I know that this will change my life. Everybody should read this book.