This is an update of a book that came out a number of years ago. I had read the earlier book, and tried out the diet. I even lost weight on it. However, I didn't sustain the lifestyle. Perhaps I wasn't ready, as this was before I went gluten-free or learned about paleo or grain-free lifestyles. However, reading the book today, I felt I would still have a hard time sustaining the plan.
The author is very broad in the topics she covers related to how diet can affect health. At times I felt this meant that she over-simplified in her efforts to address so many different issues. A quick example is that she states that one should never cook food in a microwave (only reheat if necessary) because it is hard to get it evenly cooked. However, this is far from a new issue and there are known techniques to ensure proper cooking of microwaved food that have been around many years. Another is that dark meat poultry is not included on the approved food list even though beef chuck is. That didn't make any sense to me.
This is a book for people who like to have a detailed plan to follow so that there are few, if any, questions of what to do in any given situation. One of the things I've learned about myself is that I do better with a simple plan rather than one with a lot of steps to follow. If you like a lot of steps, then this is the plan for you. Not only are there meal plans, but there are other dietary routines to follow between meals and all day long. There are also exercise, journaling, and sleep routines to follow. The plan can keep you busy following it.
The author makes recommendations for specific brands. She does admit that she works for one brand, but provides enough information that you can figure out your own if you don't need the convenience of a ready-made pack of supplements. And those supplements and some of the foods are not cheap. While this is your entire diet that may be okay, but most of the important items are not ones that you are likely to already have in your pantry or refrigerator. This means a large outlay of cash up front. One difficulty with recommending specific brands is the lack of control over what happens with the company after the book is published. For instance, I read a review copy from NetGalley and looked up the brand of water filter recommended. My browser would not let me navigate to the company's website as it was unsafe. Amazon had one listing for the filter and it had no reviews, despite the statement in the book that it was the best available.
Overall, there is much in this book that is covering the same ground as many others today. Yet, this book is based in many more years of practice as the author has worked in nutrition for decades and has updated this book based on research that came out since the first book. For instance, she has added eating certain fats as well as discussing the importance of sleep. What is reported on both of these has changed substantially since the first edition was published.