This is Michael, author of the Pen and Paper Diet.

I understand that some people are genetically predisposed for anorexia nervosa. I also understand that most things in life are a combination of nature and nuture (not either or). I believe there are people predisposed to anorexia in the country of Tonga where over 90% of the population is overweight. I do think that if you placed a newborn Tongan in our country (especially a female due to societal expectations that some have created) there's a chance she could become anorexic. Conversely, once we find the genetic marker for anorexia and we could determine if a newborn in the US had it, we could place the child in Tonga and the chances of her actually becoming overweight are greater than developing anorexia due to the culture. Certain people and organizations in our society have placed expectations on females in general to be thin. The expectation is simply...Be Thin. No training is provided though with the expectation and you have girls accepting the challenge and doing what they can to meet it....exercising all the time to increase calorie usage, taking diet pills, starvation, and purging. As mentioned before, a percentage of females are predisposed to anorexia and our culture has created an environment in which the disorder can manifest. They instinctively know that if they control what they consume then they can help control their weight. I've simply discovered a simple way to put weight management skills into the hands of the People. Right now, there's a lot of guessing and blind attempts at weight control. Eat more vegetables (which is on the right track since the metric edition of my book shows vegetables have the least amount of calories per gram than other foods), exercise more (to increase calorie usage), dieting (avoid certain types of foods especially those with high calorie content), starvation, purging (a form of starvation), and diet pills (change your body chemistry to change your metabolism while not finding out real side effects until decades later). While my wife and I were discovering the Pen and Paper Diet ideas, we found research from the National Academy of Sciences in which they determined estimated calorie requirements to an exact number that is dependent on a person's height, age, sex, weight and activity level. They show that a person requires xxxx amount of calories to maintain a specified weight. I have to say that it's kind of a cool feeling to know that I can control my weight. The diet is basically a calorie budget. Why I beleive this diet will be able to help some struggling with anorexia and bulimia is that some do not have true anorexia or bulimia, but only have symptoms of it because they are determined to control their weight. This book provides the ideas our society needs to control their weight. This book let's people control their weight as safe and as cheap as possible (no starvation, no purging, no diet pills). Once people learn to control their weight no matter what they eat and how much they exercise, we can build upon that skill and help people eat more healthy and exercise daily. We should inform people how to manage their weight safely since this will help relieve stress from our healthcare system that is in crisis (nursing shortage of over 800,000 in the US expected in 2020 - also when the baby boomers will be peaking for healthcare problems). Weight management is a simple solution to some of our society's ills and I am very confident that the ideas in my book provide the easiest, cheapest, and safest solution.

Sincerely,
Michael Dow