by Barbara Berkeley, MD
The beginning of each year brings a new crop of diet books. Publishers aren't stupid. They know that the most common New Year's resolution is the vow to lose weight. And since none of the thousands of other books already written on this topic were strong enough to get the job done, it's time for a whole new table of tomes---purposefully displayed right at the front of the book store.
Hah, you may be thinking, she's one to talk. She's a diet book author herself!
Well, it takes one to know one and here is my no-holds-barred assessment: Most diet books are worthless. Worse, they can waste precious time by leading a reader---who is seeking answers to health problems--- down blind alleys. I sincerely hope that "Refuse to Regain" is one of the good, honest and helpful diet books. I did try hard to make it that way. But that is for others to decide. Either way, books on weight loss that fit that description are few and far between.
This year, I was disappointed in "What Are You Hungry For?" by Deepak Chopra. The subtitle of this book is: "The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being and Lightness of Soul". A tall order for any book....or any person....that's for sure.
Dr. Chopra is a very smart doctor, an endocrinologist, whose brother (also a physician) was a favorite preceptor to my husband and me when we were medical residents. In recent years, as anyone who has a television is aware, Deepak Chopra has become well known through writing and counseling about spirituality a