Yes (I bought the book, which is really just a lot of fluff around the central idea as you summarized), though I didn't stick with it long enough to make it stick, it definitely started a downward weight trend.
His original insight (discovered while traveling in France) was worthwhile, though, and confirmed through testing, and confirmed by thousands of people commenting on his blog: apparently, the body will somehow store calories more when it detects incoming things "it" likes, and won't otherwise (thus the sugar water/flavorless olive oil idea, which provides the calories without the "likes").
His original insight (discovered while traveling in France) was worthwhile, though, and confirmed through testing, and confirmed by thousands of people commenting on his blog: apparently, the body will somehow store calories more when it detects incoming things "it" likes, and won't otherwise (thus the sugar water/flavorless olive oil idea, which provides the calories without the "likes").