Book Review: Shangri-La Diet by Seth Roberts

I really have to clean the house today and get some exercise in.

Here is my review of the Shangri-La Diet . Is anyone of my readers on the diet or has been on the diet.
Are you on maintatince?

I have adhd so I might go back and edit this review more for clarity.
I was hoping for another review on this book which is why it took so long.
I got this book for free but I will be fair to it.



Book Review: Shangri-La Diet by Seth Roberts
VH Melville
I read the original book but could not due the diet due to needing to gain weight after my loss from not having enough body fat. What I am judging on is only the science.
I will most likely try the book out or have someone try it out in early fall.

The positive points of the diet is that is fairly cheap. The diet seems to be a sort of a cheap flavorless slim fast.
Taste does set off hunger. When I do a religious fast I do get hungrier when I taste food. Bland foods part of the diet isn't a new secret it's very old diet
trick. If you get bored you eat less but it can set some people up for binges as well. This is the reason some bland diets do poor in stage two or maintenance.
I do fear that some people prone to extreme dieting will skip too many meals but they also might be weary due to the high calorie content of the oil or sugar water.

It was more entertaining than most diet books I've read.
There is something almost romantic about never having to journal again but then I'd have to drink oil or sugar water for the rest of my life which makes journaling not seem so bad.
They key to this diet or any is you have to keep doing it after you lose but you get more calories. I think adding healthy oil is a good thing instead of only eating trans fat laced items.

My problems with the book:
The science he states is a bit off. I think this diet might work for other reasons than stated. Maybe I am being too hard on Seth. A theory is just an educated guess. I do think his theory is flawed. If there is affect on metabolic or set rate I am not sure that's entirely good.

My biggest issue with this book are the blog reviews. I hated them. It was bad filler.
I read Seth's blog and he is smart enough to know that this is not evidence and doesn't cut it and is not real evidence.
The blog reviews were anecdotal and rather worthless.
How do you prove they are real? Also the ones that are real don’t prove anything most diets even bad ones can result in weight loss. A good diet is based on its maintenance rates. Tell me if you like the diet in a year.


I asked an expert in diabetes and health care and the lion's heart study does nothing to prove the diet work since the
oil was in food and not taken the way Seth envisioned. This book lacks real studies which is really odd because a study on this diet
would be rather cheap and easy to do.
His obesity clinic doctor missed a big thing colas that are addictive aren't addictive due to the flavor. They have caffeine in them which
is also addictive.
Taste is only part of food addiction. There are many obese and morbidly obese smokers who can't taste their food.

My over all view is this diet is not complete. It’s still an experiment.