Shangri La Diet Review

 

Dr. Seth Roberts, a PhD in psychology, created The Shangri La Diet around the theory that our bodies have a "set point" weight at which they will naturally plateau and settle, but that it is possible to reset the set point with "minor" changes to diet. Roberts believes that most diets are ineffective because they leave people feeling hungry all the time, and Shangri La is designed to get around that problem. He calls Shangri La the ''no hunger, eat anything weight loss plan.''

"No hunger" is one thing, but the "eat anything" part is a little misleading, given Roberts' statement that the "better food tastes, the more fattening it is.'' His theory is that weight gain is connected to taste - that if you routinely eat the same flavorful foods you enjoy then your brain stimulates hunger, you eat more, raise your set point and gain weight. On the flip side, if you eat foods that are tasteless and/or unfamiliar, you don't eat as much and your brain thinks you are starving and lowers your set point, causing weight loss. So the recommendation here is to eat anything you want, as long as you limit yourself exclusively to bland, tasteless foods.

But the "magic", so to speak, of the Shangri La Diet is the method Roberts recommends for re-training your body to stop associating good tasting things with calories, by filling up with calories that don't taste good. You do this by drinking 2 to 4 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil or a sugar-water mixture between meals. This way, you'll eat less because you'll feel full from the liquids, and your appetite will have been killed by the not-very-appetizing oil and water drinks. Roberts says that this regimen will reset your weight's "set point" all on its own - he specifically notes that exercise is not a component of this program.

However, if this routine is not totally working for you, Roberts suggests shaking up your bland, tasteless foods with unfamiliar flavors - specifically with spices you don't normally eat. He says that if the food tastes unfamiliar or weird, you won't enjoy it as much and therefore won't eat as much. One of the examples he provides is putting cinnamon on pizza. Seriously.

Does this sound too good to be true? A few things: putting cinnamon on pizza as a weight loss tool is absurd. Pizza is fattening, period. If you're serious about losing weight you shouldn't be eating pizza except when you are treating yourself. (And, frankly, once you've ruined the pizza with cinnamon you'll probably just throw it away and eat something else.) Also, we don't agree that just because food tastes delicious, it must be fattening. That is absurd. There are fabulous things you can do with food, that are not complicated, to create meals that are incredibly healthy and delicious. Life is hard enough - why would anyone want to give up the enjoyment of food too? You don't have to, and you can still lose weight - if you exercise. Which is another issue we have with Shangri La - it places no importance on the value and necessity of exercise. We believe that to suggest exercise is not important in a weight loss and weight maintenance program is also absurd. And lastly, there is no scientific evidence to support Roberts' theory linking tasteless calories with reducing hunger and weight loss. It may have worked for him, but it is entirely subjective. From our point of view, taking shots of olive oil throughout the day to curb hunger pangs is simply a gimmick.