DR. ABRAVANEL'S ANTICRAVING WEIGHT-LOSS DIET: Based on the Revolutionary Skinny School Program

The authors of the gimmicky body-type diet (Dr. Abravanel's Body Type Diet and Lifetime Nutrition Plan, 1983, etc.) now claim to cure craving forever--all by administering a quiz to determine whether your cravings are for sweet and starch or for greasy and spicy foods, then prescribing a seemingly arbitrary diet and list of supplements for each type. They also emphasize choosing food by taste and smell, which supposedly allows you to never think again about calories and nutrients. The recommendations are far from mainstream: for example, sweet-starch cravers are told to have eggs or milk-with-butter(!) for breakfast and more protein than grain overall; both groups are prescribed bedtime tryptophan supplements, a product currently under dark clouds and possibly being withdrawn from the market. The whole system is tied into a theory that people don't crave food; they crave the ""M-State""--a feeling of tranquil alertness that the authors say is only ""faked"" by giving in to food cravings. The real thing can be had, they say, from transcendental meditation, but they give no instructions here on that technique. And the diet is a nuisance.