No S Diet

I was sent a link to a diet called the No S Diet. It was thought up by a guy named Reinhard Engels. Here is a snippet from his website:

The No S Diet, also known as the "Grandma Diet," the "Why Didn't I Think of that Diet," and the "No $ Diet" is a program of systematic moderation I invented for myself that I imagine might work for similarly minded people.

No funny science or calorie accounting involved, just a few simple and mnemonic tricks for giving your willpower the upper hand.

There are just three rules and one exception:

• No Snacks
• No Sweets
• No Seconds

Except (sometimes) on days that start with "S"

That's it.

How could something this simple possibly work? Precisely because it's simple -- or rather, following the Einsteinian dictum, "as simple as possible, but not simpler." For all its folksy charm, there's a lot of serious, practical wisdom packed into those 14 words. 

On its face it is very simple and the advice is pretty good. However his website (which is atrocious, dude needs a web designer) goes on and on about other exceptions and caveats. When I was finished reading the whole website it seemed unduly complicated.

I was also annoyed when he weighed in (no pun intended) on sugar substitutes. He says, "you *know* that in 10 years scientists are going to discover that they're even worse for you than real sugar."

Oh really? You *know* that? I understand that with fake sugar (as with everything) moderation is the name of the game. But surely you can recognize that without claiming to know what will happen 10 years in the future?

So I give the No S Diet 2 stars.