I went ahead and bought Dr. Michael Greger’s just released, “How Not To Diet” (Kindle edition) after reading the free sample, even though there was an extremely weird passage about obesity skeptics (see below).

After all, “How Not to Die” inspired me to get back in the WFPB (whole food plant based) groove a year ago September, and I’m now down a total of about 104 lb, without about 14 lb to go to a “normal BMI.” And my blood sugar is normal, cholesterol fantastic, and things are going very well.

I’m looking forward to diet (s o r r y – “not diet” advice) to get me across my final goal. The free sample was overall interesting. I did want to mention my buying experience though.

• You can’t purchase the Kindle book from inside the Kindle app.
• You can’t purchase the Kindle book from inside the Amazon app.
• You can purchase it from iPhone Safari at the Amazon site, but it’s like $25.
• You can buy it from a computer web browser going to the Amazon site, and that way it’s $16.99, which is what I did. Why is it so much less expensive from my Mac’s web browser than it is from my iPhone’s web browser?
• At the Amazon site, when making the Kindle purchase it says it comes with the free audio book. I don’t like audio books, but I figured, “If it’s free, why not?” So I chose that option. At which point the purchase price jumped to over $40! So I dropped that and just bought the Kindle version and had it delivered to my iPad.
• After making the purchase, it said the audio book was available for free download now, so I clicked that. But it said there was a problem delivering that.
• Then I opened the Kindle book, which works very nicely on my iPad. I noticed there was an audio play button at the bottom, and I touched it. Sure enough Dr. Greger’s (rather annoying) voice was narrating the page I was looking at in real time. So I have the audio narration anyway. So what was all that business about getting the audio book? Anyway, I turned off the narration because I’d rather just read it.

I’m reading the book now, but was just wondering – why all the confusion about how to purchase, and the vastly differing purchase prices depending on what device you are doing it on? Am I the only one to experience that?Anyway, the Kindle price is $16.99. So be sure you are paying the right price.

And here was that really weird passage about obesity skeptics I read in the free sample. It created quite a conversation in the Whole Food Plants Based group on Facebook:

Health at Any Size?

There are “obesity skeptics” who argue that the health consequences of obesity are unclear or even greatly exaggerated. They are a motley bunch of unlikely bedfellows, ranging from feminists, queer theorists, and new ageists to “far right wing, pro-gun, pro-America websites where the idea [is] that obesity alarmists are nanny-state communists who simply want to stop us from having fun.”

“How Not to Diet” by Dr. Michael Greger, page 47.

Strange, yes? Controversial language? He certainly could have written that better. But he just feels strongly about the health dangers of obesity and so I think was being intentionally provocative. Still, feminists and queer theorists (whoever they are) in bed with far-right gun nuts?

Anyway, I look forward to reading the book to see whether there is actually new, useful information in it as I am (very) slowly continuing my weight loss quest.