Hi Brandy,
Welcome to the forum. I am an American who has been living in Europe for 16 years, and I order FFL from the U.S. -- just the strawberry, chocolate and vanilla shake mixes. I did not care for the soups or other flavours that much. And, I prefer South Beach bars to CD ones (US or UK). And, I just use Quaker Oats... oats are oats, and I can take multivitamin. I also use Crystal Light instead of the CD water flavouring.
BTW -- I am losing weight at a nice steady 2 pounds a week, as I would because I am about 10 pounds from a bmi of 25. I am also older and not very active, but I am working on upping my exercise.
Although similar, the two Cambridges are not the same nor are the companies related. And, the American Cambridge diet was the first.
Food for Life has more limited flavours than the "original" US Cambridge 330 fomula, as it the newer version and is soy based.
Summayh is correct that both Belfrogette and I have or do use American products, but she uses the original 330 formula and I use FFL.
As I wanted "local" support I have a UK CDC and, so I also purchase some products from here. I prefer the US bars, as the UK ones have a lot of malitol in them. I also prefer the US soya based, and UK lactose free products, because they seem to agree better with me.
I thought the pre-mixed tetras (like little UHT milk boxes) would be handy to have, but I do not like the way those taste.
The differences are explained in a FAQ in the Cambridge forum.
http://www.minimins.com/cambridge-d...54021-cambridge-diet-united-states-facts.html
Good Luck you with this diet. As most US customers rder on-line, you might want to look into a support group to help you along the way. OA, WW, etc. Once you have reached your goal weight, you'll want to move on to something like weight watchers for maintaining your losses.
I strongly recommend that you look at the Beck thread in CD maintenance, and consider ordering Judith Beck's
The Beck Diet Solution. She is a cognitive behavourial therapist and working through her 6 week programme will help you be successful with losing the weight and keeping it off.
The people on this forum are lovely and supportive and will do their best to help you.
MM