Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet – Peter Gott

This book gave me hope.

130lbs ago and facing an increasingly desperate health situation, I stumbled upon Dr. Gott’s book. I was in pretty dire straights: insidious weight gain (even while meticulously eating under the guidance of a hospital dietitian), rising blood pressure, and facing the prospect of having an otherwise healthy part of my stomach removed in the hopes that it would fix whatever was wrong with me. (That none of my healthcare providers could explain what was wrong with me that was causing such rapidly increasing weight and decreasing health was a subject that was conveniently avoided.)

I was desperate, and hopeless, and dying. Dr. Gott suggested that refined carbohydrates, notably sugar and flour, were at the root of my problems. He suggested cutting them out, along with some fruits and veggies, and any type of flour that was highly refined (stone ground corn meal is allowed, for example).

It was a simple protocol to follow, and it quickly returned results. Within a matter of weeks I dropped 40 pounds. I also gained something important: hope. I cancelled my appointments with the stomach surgeon: “I’m not ready for Roux En Y”, I told them, thumbing the pages of my dog eared copy of the book. I emailed the dietitian and cancelled my appointments with her. They were growing increasingly difficult anyways, especially considering that when I was following her advice meticulously, I was gaining weight. And, of course, when I followed Dr. Gott’s advice, I was losing weight. She, of course, didn’t much appreciate this and kept lecturing me on how unhealthy the diet was…despite the positive effects it was having on my life. That’s some cognitive dissonance, eh?

At any rate, this book was a fantastic introduction to what would later evolve into a low carb way of eating for me. After losing a bunch of weight following his protocols, I happened upon Gary Taubes’ “Why We Get Fat”, and figured that it was time to move on from Dr. Gott’s reduced carb approach and hit the true low-carb, ketogenic diet hard.

While I no longer follow the particulars of Dr. Gott’s approach (I don’t like how he allows stone ground corn meal, for example), I appreciate the profound positive impact this book had on my life and would readily recommend it as background reading for anyone undertaking any sort of carb-reduced way of eating.