Book ~ "The Rice Diet Solution" - Kitty Gurkin Rosati and Robert Rosati (2005)

From Amazon.com ~ Can you really lose twenty pounds in a month? Will you really keep it off this time? With The Rice Diet Solution, you will! The Rice Diet Program has been helping dieters successfully lose weight since 1939. Now in book form, this world-renowned weight-loss method can help you change the way you eat forever.

The Rice Diet Program in Durham, North Carolina, was one of the first medical facilities in America to use diet as the primary way to treat disease. On this high-complex-carb, low-fat, and low-sodium whole-foods diet, "Ricers" lose weight faster, more safely, and more effectively than people on any other diet. Men lose on average twenty-eight to thirty pounds and women on average nineteen to twenty pounds per month! The Rice Diet also detoxes your body, ridding it of excess water weight and toxins from processed foods and the environment. The program's results have been documented by extensive studies and confirmed by thousands of people who report amazing weight loss, as well as immediate improve-ment in such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. After all the other diets out there have failed them, people find that the Rice Diet is the one that finally works -- for good.

Here's how it works: The Rice Diet strictly limits salt and sodium-rich ingredients. Salt, like refined sugar, is an appetite stimulant, so when you reduce salt intake, you lose water weight and are less inclined to overeat. The Rice Diet also limits saturated fats and instead relies on carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans) as the main source of nutrition. The fiber cleanses your system and satisfies you so you feel full quickly. The Rice Diet makes it easy to limit calories; when you're eating foods that truly satisfy your hunger, it's a challenge to eat 1,500 calories per day!

You know I'm always reading books about different diets because I'm curious about their angle.

With this diet, there are three phases:

Phase One (Detox for a week)

For 1 day a week
Breakfast - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Lunch - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Supper- 2 starches and 2 fruits

For 6 days a week
Breakfast - 1 starch, 1 non-fat dairy and 1 fruit
Lunch - 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Supper- 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit

Phase Two - Do this until you lose all the weight you want

For 1 day a week
Breakfast - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Lunch - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Supper- 2 starches and 2 fruits

For 5 days a week
Breakfast - 1 starch, 1 non-fat dairy and 1 fruit
Lunch - 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Supper- 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit

For 1 day a week
Breakfast - 2 starches and 1 fruit
Lunch - 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Supper- 3 starches, 3 protein, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit

Repeat

Phase Three - Maintenance

For 1 day a week
Breakfast - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Lunch - 2 starches and 2 fruits
Supper- 2 starches and 2 fruits

For 4 days a week
Breakfast - 1 starch, 1 non-fat dairy and 1 fruit
Lunch - 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Supper- 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit

For 2 days a week
Breakfast - 2 starches and 1 fruit
Lunch - 3 starches, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit
Supper- 3 starches, 3 protein, 3 vegetables and 1 fruit

Repeat

I love rice so could do this diet. One thing I found annoying, though, was that they claim that people lose at least twenty pounds a month on this diet, but they don't give their starting weights. There's a big different between weighing 300 pounds and 150 pounds so your weight loss can't be the same.

Even if you don't buy into this diet, the book itself was good because it explained about nutrition. There is a chapter devoted to making time for yourself (yoga, meditation, tai chi, etc.). There's another chapter devoted to preventing disease. So I would recommend it just for the info they included.