It’s Not A Diet – by Davinia Taylor

A lot of diet books claim “it’s not a diet”, even when the titles are things like “The Such-and-Such Diet”.

This time, we get to see the claim as the title itself, so, how does it measure up?

Honestly, we’ll agree it’s not a diet. Yes, there is nutritional advice, and nothing that will be too shocking to regular 10almonds readers. Avoid processed foods, get plenty of fruit and veg, skip the alcohol. She leans towards keto, but isn’t evangelical about it despite selling a line of keto products herself. All in all, it can be called dietary guidance, but not reasonably “a diet” in any meaningful sense of the word.

The only counterpoint is that there is, for those who like that sort of thing, a “two-week reset programme”, which we might consider a diet, given it is clearly prescriptive with its meal plan.

She also talks sleep, hydration, stress management, movement, and so forth. Again, nothing that will surprise the well-informed reader. So, what does this book have to offer that we’re not assuming knowledge of?

Informationally, very little. But inspirationally, rather more, and a lot is about integrating healthier changes into your life and making them actually stick—and that’s where the real value of the book lies.

The style is, as with her other book “Futureproof” that we reviewed all so recently, again very direct and personable, and/but has a normal British amount of casual swearing that might shock some American readers. There’s a lot less science in this book than her other one, so there’s no bibliography per se, just an “acknowledgements” section at the back.

Bottom line: if you know what you need to do but struggle more with actually doing it, this book can help with that.

Click here to check out It’s Not A Diet, and do not diet!