Customer Rating: 




Summary: innovative cousine for health and weight lose
Comment: This book makes a lot of sense. I have not yet begun to cook any of the 31 days recipe because I'm away from home. But as soon as I return from vacations I will definitely work on this plan. Most of the recipies look delicious and healthy. I also want my daughters to read this book and learn to eat the healthy way and maintain their figures. There is no easy way to loose weight because people have to learn to discipline themselves and eat more healthy and wise meals for the rest of their lives.
Customer Rating: 




Summary: Why Diets Don't Work
Comment: Carol Simontacchi is a certified clinical nutritionist and has written numerous books on nutrition. Margaret West graduated from the California Culinary Academy, is a former chef, and provided the recipes in Appendix A. This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. It is information offered to help the reader in a quest for optimal well-being. There is no "magic pill" to reduce excess body fat. This book suggests a diet to control insulin will reduce obesity and make weight loss permanent.Why are so many Americans overweight, and this number increasing every year? Probably because of driving more, and walking less (the zoning laws). In one way overweight is better than famine; too much of a good thing IS a bad thing, or at least has a trade-off. Is a person predestined to be overweight? Or to squander money or time? Not if they learn to act in their own best interest, and reject the lies of advertising (p.11).
Obesity used to be a problem of middle age (p.4). But now it attacks our youth (less walking and more sitting and watching). Caloric intake has decreased by 10% since 1900 (p.5), but obesity has more than doubled! This book may explain why maintaining your desired weight seems so difficult. Weight alone is NOT a reliable indicator of health (p.6)! The obese are subject to "intense prejudice and discrimination". In past ages portliness was associated with prosperity; thinness equaled poverty. This prejudice may be a sign of "human error", where many people are always looking to put down others to make themselves feel better. Does thinness recall a lost childhood?
One feature of this book is the debunking of those Met Life weight tables (p.13) which had nothing to do with health, or the ratio of lean to fat tissue! Some dieting styles are genetically and biologically wrong, no matter how many articles and books repeat them. There are three principles to consider: 1) if you are/were overweight you will have a tendency to be fat; 2) almost everything you read in the corporate-controlled media about nutrition and diets is wrong, guaranteed; and 3) it is possible to lose weight permanently.
The secret is to NEVER go on a diet again. It will ruin your health and make you fat! you must eat real food and balance proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. You need a gentle exercise program several times a week. Chapter 2 explains why common diet strategies fail. Diets lead to metabolic imbalances in your body that guarantees eventually gaining back any lost weight (p.24). Dieting, or starving, results in binge eating (p.32). Eating a high-protein breakfast can control binge eating.
There is the critique of the "politically correct" diet of high-carbohydrate vegetables and grain (pp.34-42). The problem of the low-fat diet is on pages 42-54. Fats are an essential part of a diet, but some eat too much. Fried foods from fast-food restaurants are the most dangerous foods you can eat (p.46). Pages 54-56 tell of the problem with a too-high protein diet. The problem of a herbal diet is discussed on pages 56-60; they are not safe! The facts in this book make it recommended reading for everyone!
Customer Rating: 




Summary: Still some of the same ol', same ol'
Comment: Good material - but it still requires changing your diet (translated: dieting). You're supposed to avoid grains, processed foods, etc. Most of us are looking for a way to be thin and still eat whatever we want - which we know is possible because we see plenty of skinny people doing just that. I want to eat grain. I don't eat much processed food, but if I want to, I don't want that to matter. Call me in denial, avoidance or whatever you want. But if some people can eat whatever they want, as much as the want, as often as they want (metabolism?), surely there is a way that the rest of us can. When someone writes a book with a method that works for that, I'll buy it - and so will millions of others. And then we won't be an obese nation!
Customer Rating: 




Summary: about thyriod
Comment: i would like to know what i need to eat good healthy diet for my thyroid ? thanks catheryn
Customer Rating: 




Summary: This one is worth it-a good tool in the battle of dieting!
Comment: While some say this is just a copy of the zone, I think it is more well written than the zone...the information can be presented a number of ways & this one is the first diet book I feel like I can really learn from & use. It is true she hawks her own stores products, but any savvy consumer can make their own choices. Besides, the breakfast bars she mentions can be bought just about anywhere these days. The points she makes about thyroid, & other possible reasons you may not be able to lose weight yet are good ones. The recipes are very easy & very tasty. All around, a very good tool to get you going on a real plan to change the way you eat so you can lose weight for good. At Amazons paperback price, what have you got to lose, really? Go for it!!