82 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, May 31, 2007
This review is from: The Swiss Secret to Optimal Health: Dr. Rau's Diet for Whole Body Healing (Hardcover)
Although I believe Dr. Rau's philosophy about the direct connection between nutrition and health, I find this diet to be very difficult to stick with and very extreme for an average, healthy person.
It is similar in philosophy to a Macrobiotic diet but the influence is European cuisine as opposed to Asian cuisine. It prohibits the intake of sugar, caffeine, processed foods, alcohol and animal protien, while greatly increasing your vegetable and grain intake. I've done the Macrobiotic diet and I experienced increased energy, vitality, better sleep, better mood, etc. Dr. Rau claims that this is what you'll experience with his diet . However, when I did the detox, I experienced headaches, nausea, and a general feeling of illness the duration of the diet and I feel it was due to the total lack of caloric intake. I do think cleansing the body is a good thing and fasting for one or two days can be beneficial. However, I do not feel his detox diet is a healthy approach for healthy people. His claims are that you will feel better and better as the days go on but that was not my experience. In my opinion, no diet that limits your caloric intake to a few hundred calories a day is good for the body. Nothing extreme is good for the body and his detox is way too extreme.
If you do decide to get this book, some things you should know:
The recipes for the three week plan and the one week intensive detox require a lot of cooking and preparation. Because it is based on the regimen done at his clinic/spa in Switzerland where meals are prepared for you, it's difficult for a regular person's lifestyle and schedule. You would basically have to take a week off from work to start the diet and that is unrealistic for most people. I also found more than a few inconsistensies: Dr. Rau opposes any dairy from cows, but some recipes call for cream and butter! Some of the ingredients are very difficult to come by. One day's meal required chestnuts and since I started the diet in Spring, they weren't available and he offers no substitution. Dr. Rau isn't thorough in his explanation of preparing some of the recipes because one recipe on the restrictive detox, he requires you to prepare a corn chowder, but doesn't explain how you are supposed to prepare the leeks in the recipe since you aren't supposed to saute anything. Dr. Rau suggests that hunger would not be a problem because of the food intake. Well that isn't true. I was very hungry all the time because of the limited caloric intake. Dr. Rau is adamant about following the diet to a tee so these inconsistensies were frustrating and it left me pretty doubtful about his claims and philosophies. I felt like he and his publisher were in a rush to publish the book and get it out and I also got the impression that it was more to promote his clinic/spa in Switzerland.
Would I suggest this book? Unfortunately, no.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic program on creation of health, January 5, 2008
This review is from: The Swiss Secret to Optimal Health: Dr. Rau's Diet for Whole Body Healing (Hardcover)
Dr. Rau has written an excellent, easily understandable book on how to create health and/or recover from illness. His common sense approach, with simply stated yet complete explanations, made it so much easier to follow his program than others I've tried. For instance, I never knew that eating onions has the effect of making the lymphatic system sluggish! I have found it easier to adjust my dietary habits because I have information about how the foods I used to eat were affecting my health. I've been ill with Lyme disease for a couple of years and felt horrid--extreme fatigue, pain, neurological symptoms, aphasia, etc; following Dr. Rau's program for just a few weeks has made an enormous difference in how I feel. I have energy, something I haven't been able to claim for a very long time, and I just feel BETTER. Knowing now that a high percentage of the immune system is in the gut, eating to heal it makes total sense. What a difference! I never thought I'd be eating oatmeal with raw apples and a tablespoon of flax seed oil and enjoy it, but it's very tasty and gives a wonderful, sustained energy throughout the morning. Recipes I've tried have been very, very good. But the best part is the result---feeling great after years of illness. This book should be a bestseller. Buy it!
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35 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Answer to today's medical crisis and to disease., June 29, 2007
This review is from: The Swiss Secret to Optimal Health: Dr. Rau's Diet for Whole Body Healing (Hardcover)
I am a practicing neurosurgeon in the USA, trained as a traditional allopathic doctor at an Ivy League school with the addition of a PhD to my MD degree, yet I didn't understand the true origin of our ill or aging body and it's 'diseased states', nor did I learn the answer as to finally preventing these states, until I studied with Dr. Rau. You won't need pills to treat illness or fatigue once you've learned how to cleanse your body of it's toxins and rebuild it the natural and healthy way. I urge you to read this user friendly version of Dr. Rau's God given insight and hard learned approach to becoming healthy (via true healing) and ultimately preventing illness.
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