When Barry Estabrook’s doctor told him that he needed to lose 40 pounds in order to take care of his health, he knew it was time to take it seriously. As a journalist, his forte is research and reporting, not dieting. But, he thought, what if he used his journalistic chops to find the best diet? So he set about to find the best way to lose weight in an informed and methodical fashion.
He started with the Whole30. It’s not so much a diet as it is a way to cleanse your system and reset, eliminating all potentially problematic food groups for 30 days and then slowly adding them back in to your normal diet, so you can see which food groups cause you problems. It’s a tough regime—you have to give up all sugar, dairy, alcohol, and grains/legumes. And there is no room for error. Any small slip-ups in those first 30 days, and you have to start al over. He did lose 12 pounds on the Whole30, but he suffered sleepiness, dizziness, and gastrointestinal distress.
Next he went for the Master Cleanse, which involves 40 days of no solid food. You simply drink 6-12 glasses of lemonade a day, spiked with cayenne pepper, and an herbal tea laxative. It worked for Beyonce, but it did not work for Barry E. He lost some pounds, but he felt faint and was afraid to be far from a bathroom. But after his, he did decide to lose the fad diets.
From there, Estabrook took a deep dive into the diet world. Researching this, he discovered that despite the time and energy millions of people put into dieting, despite the billions of dollars that dieters spend ($72 billion in 2019 alone), 83% of dieters gain the weight back in two years, often with extra pounds. He goes back through the long history of dieting in the United States, to talk about Horace Fletcher, who touted chewing food until it was liquified. Or James Henry Salisbury, whose daily diet was made up of 3 pounds of rump steak, 1 pound of codfish, and 3 quarts of hot water. The Hollywood diet had housewives all over eating grapefruit and little else.
Modern dieting, though, really comes down to 3 diets. There is the diet that restricts carbohydrates (like Atkins, Paleo, South Beach, Keto), the diet that restricts proteins (like Ornish, Pritikin, Seventh Day Adventists), and the diet that restricts calories (like Weight Watchers). Estabrook tried all three with mixed results but eventually realized none of them were quite right for him.
Where to next? To Greece, if you can. Estabrook traveled to Kea to find out more about how the other half of the world eats. After eating a delicious meal made entirely of fresh vegetables cooked well in good olive oil, he discovered just how delicious the Mediterranean diet can be. And then it’s off to France to see how a country that is so enamored of its food, even breads and cheeses and wines, can still be healthy. And he found that a lot of the health benefits of French food come with the lifestyle. They enjoy eating. They set everything else aside to enjoy the moments they eat. There are no phones, no televisions, just family and friends and joy.
In the end, Estabrook takes the parts of each diet that resonated with him and fashioned a way of eating for himself that was healthier but also filled with joy. He limited meats, choosing more seasonal vegetables and preparing them with the olive oil and herbs of the Mediterranean. He took note of his “Big Sins'“ (a term from Weight Watchers, where a dieter’s “Big Sins” were the foods that were most likely to cause them to fall off their plans), and tried to restrict cheese and alcohol to smaller, more flavorful portions.
In short, Estabrook went on a variety of different diets to see what they were like. He did all that, so that we don’t have to. We don’t have to fail over and over to find out what works—we can use Estabrook’s failures and successes to help us plot our own best meal plan. In the end, he found the best advice was simple—Just Eat. With some smart choices, we can all find ways to add in healthy eating habits and lose some Big Sins without forgetting that eating is not just about sustenance. It’s about happiness and community and living your best life.
I was fascinated by Estabrook’s journey. As a woman growing up in America, I have heard about dieting since I was young. I have seen people diet, I’ve been told I should go on a diet, I’ve tried dieting, I’ve failed at dieting. It’s easy to give up and feel like there’s too much information to wade through, and too much commercialization to all of it. But I found Just Eat to be smart, exceptionally well researched, and balanced. Estabrook doesn’t tell us how to lose weight. He just shares his journey with us and lets us figure it out for ourselves. He’s lost 26 pounds, is off his blood pressure medications, has normal cholesterol, and exercises regularly in ways he enjoys. He is happy as well as healthy. And I can’t think of a better example of a successful diet than that.
Egalleys for Just Eat were provided by Lorena Jones Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.
