Robyn Landis was 25, muscularly lean at about 16% bodyfat, healthy and very happy when she wrote this very controversial health and fitness book, published in 1994, advocating a high complex carbohydrate, low protein and low fat eating style that slowly sculpts your fat away as muscle tissue is allowed to grow. It had taken her two years to lose fifteen pounds of fat and grow fifteen pounds of fat-burning muscle, but time didn’t matter to her since she had never been healthier, more strong, more fit-looking and more energetic. Time should not matter to you, either, if you want the same results.

Since reading parts of her excellent, up-to-date website at bodyfueling.com, she has become a vegetarian and recommends a moderately high complex carbohydrate, moderate protein and moderately low fat diet, or basically one with a 55-65, 25-30. 15-20 percent range. I like this better, but having so much whole grain, also endorsed by the USDA, is just too much for me, it seems. I’d be perpetually tired from experience.

In the book, she has detailed recommendations for how your three meals and three carbo snacks a day may look like, which is how she has been eating for at least two years. She does not add any oils or butters and likes some vegetables, but only as “garnish.” Fruit is more of a simple carbohydrate, as well as poatoes, candy and junk food, (gives an immediate sugar rush as opposed to the much slower use of glucose/sugar in complex carbohydrates) and should be limited, also. Animal protein adds fat and protein that if eaten in excess of a few ounces a day will turn to stored fat. Soy milk and tofu were cautioned against in the book, but were highly recommended on her website. She now even drinks a Spiru-tein shake that uses soy milk or fruit juice like I do, though I use soy milk and fruit always.

What You’ll Find In The Book

FOREWORD by Kaaren A. Nichols, M.D.

She has academic training in physiology and biochemistry, a physician, teacher and founder and director of Seattle Medical and Wellness Clinic. Gives hearty approval of Robyn’s health advice.

INTRODUCTION: Lies and Truth—Your World Turned Upside Down

Robyn starts out by asking such things as “do you believe you will lose fat if you stop eating fat?” And “do you believe that losing weight is synonymous with getting fit; it is always good to have lost weight; there is an ideal weight you should weigh?” Her book will show you why those are products of distorted diet thinking through explanation of how the body really is fueled by eating the right food, frequently and in quantity.

CHAPTER ONE: Fueling Your Future (Why fuel?)
CHAPTER TWO: What’s Weight Got To Do With It? (Nothing; it’s fat you want to lose! Fast weight loss means you’re losing muscle and you become fatter when you start eating again)
CHAPTER THREE: Fueling The Human Body: Your Owner’s Manual (Details...)
CHAPTER FOUR: Exercise: Increasing the Fuel Demand (This shows you why Bill Phillips’ Body For Life is very unhealthy and another case of diet thinking)
CHAPTER FIVE: Diet Thinking (Ahh, a better explanation finally)
CHAPTER SIX: Beyond Diet Thinking (why Dr. Atkins’ high-protein, high-fat, low-carb diet is a very bad way to treat your body among much more)
CHAPTER SEVEN: Overturning The Overeating Myth (Robyn gets 2500 calories a day and has not lost weight, but has muscle and little bodyfat, works out moderately)
CHAPTER EIGHT: Diet Thinking In The Media (just amazing examples)
CHAPTER NINE: Body Fueling Day to Day (listen to your body)
CHAPTER TEN: From The Shelf To Your Table: A Practical Guide (helpful details, I especially appreciated her explanation of how to read nutrition labels)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Bodyfueling In Progress (no one’s expecting perfection)
CHAPTER TWELVE: The “Fat-Loss/Muscle-Gain” Movement (inaccurate methods)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Surrendering The Suffering (eating healthy doesn’t have to be a chore you dread)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Getting Your Priorities Straight (your body can’t run on vitamins and minerals, it needs complex carbohydrate food that fuels it)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Education: The Ultimate Answer (we need to start teaching kids how to eat right, not start them off wrong)
EPILOGUE (spread the good news, you can make a difference)

My Conclusions At This Time

I can’t tell you how provoking this book has been for me. Not that her debunking of the diet mind and the weight-loss programs surprised me in the slightest. That all made perfect sense and it was wonderful that someone as level-headed and personable as Robyn Landis exposed what so many yoyo dieters who are obese or with around forty percent bodyfat need to hear desperately.

It’s provoking to me because I have been eating a more balanced percentage of complex carbohydrates, protein and fat. I do eat nuts, seeds, olives, avocadoes and add walnut or canola oil to stir frys, salads and what I bake. Robyn says we don’t need added fat, but then she was not vegetarian and I am a vegan to boot without fat from meat, dairy or eggs. She says that fats are not fuel unless we’re serious athletes, which is why I ran a marathon with a lot of peanut butter as well as complex carbs and vegetable protein in my diet. Maybe, though, she’s inspired me to add more servings of whole grains to my diet now.

There’s one big question I have, however, in spite of all her evidence. Why were so many people for so many years able to live off of what they hunted, fished or gathered? Domesticated crops were developed over in China in the Neolithic Age, ten thousand years ago, and they were not plentiful really until many, many centuries later.

American Indians didn’t eat bread until long after the Europeans came over. Obviously meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds have been the staple of diets for billions of people, but perhaps their health wasn't too good. Or maybe I’m missing some information and our bodies are different today?

That aside, this information is still excellent for helping people get off the diet merry-go-round and to eat healthier, more substantial food. She may have improved the newly rereleased book, too. Landis has written a new book, Herbal Defense, which sounds like more than just talk about herbs. As in Bodyfueling, a 290-page book (originally at least) of nonstop challenging insight and practical ways to change your body’s composition, her new book looks to be our first line of defense against heart problems, diabetes, obesity and cancer because when the body is fueled properly, the body will happily work like it is meant to.

I hope you will find the book as enjoyable as I did and check out bodyfueling.com, too. She will definitely give you lots to think about and, I think, a lot of pretty good advice you can take or leave according to how it feels to you.


Recommended: Yes