Review of The University of California San Diego Nutrition Book (Paperback)

I had the privilege of being one of Dr. Saltman's students in 1998 and 1999 at the University of California, San Diego.After taking his courses in metabolic biochemistry and nutrition, and after reading this EXCELLENT book from cover to cover at least five times, I can tell you that Dr. Saltman's methods are rock-solid.Rather than focusing on any type of "fad diet", Dr. Saltman lays out the scientific basis - the what, when, and why of nutrition- in an easy-to-follow regimen.He helps deconstruct the myths of unsound diets and dietary techniques, and instead guides the reader to the understanding of WHAT we need and WHY we need it.I took his course in nutrition at UCSD (a 10 week course) and lost 45 pounds in the process.And never once did I feel hungry, tired or "cheated" out of favorite foods.
Dr. Saltman was not only one of the most motivational instructors I've ever had in my life, but also one of the best mentors I have ever had.He was the biggest student advocate I have ever known, and I am honored to have been one of his students.He is sorely missed and loved here in the scientific community at UCSD (and everywhere else, for that matter), but his sound beliefs and wisdom live on in this book.Do yourself a favor and go buy a copy.It will forever change the way you look at food, exercise, nutrition and weight management.

Product Description
This is a book for everyone who has realized that there are no quick and easy ways to lasting health. It's especially for those who are fed up with faddish diets that might take off weight temporarily but demand unreasonable sacrifices and more often than not leave the dieter depressed and far from thin.
It doesn't have to be that way, according to the authors of this liberating and food-friendly guide that demystifies the science of nutrition. Not until you understand what's in food and how your body uses those nutrients can you make the best personal decisions about your diet. In this book you'll learn that the latest research proves that there are no "bad" foods and no single "right" way to eat. The good news is that you can eat your favorite foods without sacrificing sound nutrition.
In clear and very readable chapters you'll learn everything you need to know about food content and the recommended daily allowances, including the facts about vitamins, microminerals, body fat, weight control, heart disease, and hypertension. All this information is tailored to your specific life stage, health concerns, and level of physical activity.
"The University of California San Diego Nutrition Book" doesn't offer any "miracle" cures or secrets, but it does offer the unadulterated facts about the relationship between food and our bodies -- and that in itself is no small miracle.

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Review of The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies (Hardcover)

This book is a MUST READ for anyone trying to get pregnant.At 39 I had an FSH of 15.9 and was told by a fertility specialist to consider donor eggs or adoption - end of story no other options.He said I was out of eggs and gave me a 5% chance of conciving (with or without IVF) and a 1% chance of carrying a baby to full term.My husband and I where devistated to say the least.I did tons of research, sat in chat rooms and read thousands of on-line postings and support group websites.This book made the difference!I never believed in anything non-western and thought all the other stuff like acupuncture was hokey.I read the book cover to cover, followed a strict diet and did acupunture. After one, yes ONE month of trying I became pregnent and had a perfect girl.Nine months after that I did everything again and after four months of trying go pregnant again and have perfect little boy.I want to put their pictures on a brick and throw it through that doctors wondow. If you are having problems please read this book. While I understand that this may not help someone with blocked tubes who needs surgery at least you can check the box that it's not an imbalance due to bad diet or stress. Please ladies, read this book with an open mind and give it a try.This book and a lot of sincere prayer helped me.And to those of you trying who are frustrated and heartbroken please know that you are not alone!



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Review of Fat Free, Flavor Full: Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Guide to Losing Weight & Living Longer (Paperback)

The book is inspiring, and I highly recommend it. What made this diet extremely easy for me (as a working mom with a nursing 1-year-old I have little time to cook) is that there's a company near me called Diet-to-Gothat delivers Mirkin Meals to my home. I feel like I could eat this wayforever. I have lots of energy, and after just two months of eatingMirkin-style, even my pre-pregnancy clothes are all loose on me. For peoplewho like whole grains, beans, veggies and fruit, this way of eating isextremely satisfying. The food is filling, and it seems like I'm getting avery nutritious diet every day, with enough protein, complex carbs,vitamins and minerals. I find that I really don't crave the fat, and that20 grams of fat per day is plenty. I think this type of diet also booststhe immune system, because even though others in my household (who are noton the diet) have been coming down with colds and viruses, I've stayedhealthy. Mirkin recommends exercise, but with so little time, the best Ican manage is to wear a pedometer and try to walk 10,000 steps each day.But, I've found that even walking an average of 4,000 steps seems to besufficient to cause weight loss on the Mirkin diet.

Product Description
No fat with a tasty new twist! Nearly 300 deliciously simple, meatless meals, plus a medically tested health-and-fitness plan make this bestselling book a must for anyone who wants to lose weight and feel better. Illustrations & charts.

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Review of Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars (Hardcover)

One of the things you learn with Dr. Bernstein's book is that excessive eating (even when you don't overeat carbs, but other food types) leads to high sugars, due to the so-called "Chinese Restaurant Effect". Well, if you were to devour this hefty book (like you will, once you get your hands on it) you will not see your blood sugar rise. If you are a diabetic (type I or II), you will find in Dr. Bernstein's book a wealth of information that will answer the questions you've ALWAYS had, and even those that you didn't know you had, about diabetes and how to keep your blood sugars in control.

His approach is very unconventional (coming from a diabetic childhood, being an engineer first and a doctor later in life). But you will be fascinated with the amount of "Eureka!" moments throughout the book. I was unable to put it down from the moment I picked it up, and I am grateful to him for having taken the time to share so much wisdom from his years as a practitioner and from his many, many years as a diabetic and experimenter. His lessons are not easy to follow, but they are the way for those who want to live a long and healthy life with diabetes.

I leave you with a thought. If you knew what you need to do to prolong your life and live it in a healthy manner, in spite of what you've been told about typical lifespans in diabetics and all the ailments we seem to be bound to suffer later in life, wouldn't you do it? I would. And I hope you do too. So I recommend you take the time to read what Dr. Berstein has to say to you.

Product Description
The standard text on living with diabetes, newly revised and updated with all the latest scientific findings.
Since its first publication in 1997, DR. BERNSTEIN'S DIABETES SOLUTION has become the treatment of choice in the medical field. In this revised and updated edition of his work, Dr. Bernstein provides an accessible, detailed guide to his revolutionary approach to normalizing blood sugars and thereby preventing or reversing long-term complications of diabetes. He offers the most up-to-date information on new products, medications, and supplements, and outlines a plan to reverse the obesity that underlies most cases of Type II diabetes. Dr. Bernstein discusses breakthrough science and potential cures, and has added information on the new insulins and insulin pumps.
The only book to detail step-by-step methods for normalizing blood sugars in both Type I and Type II diabetes, DR. BERNSTEIN'S DIABETES SOLUTION will enable patients to take charge of their health and live longer, healthier lives.

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Review of Living Low-Carb: The Complete Guide to Long Term Low-Carb Dieting (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading and frequently refer to Fran McCullough's previous low-carb book, The Low-Carb Cookbook. This second book on the subject is already proving just as useful to me. The excellent informationin it is completely accessible because the author's writing style issmooth, down-to-earth and as pleasant an experience as a chat with a goodfriend. Another major plus is that the layout of the book itself as a wholeis extremely well organized. There is a clear table of contents, anextensive list of sources for low-carb living (many conveniently on theWeb), a bibliography and an index. The first four of the book's sixsegments deal with living the low-carb lifestyle:(1) Why are we doing thisanyway? (benefits of low-carb living); (2) Secret weapons (for maintainingthe low-carb lifestyle); (3) Troubleshooting (blowing it, plannedindulgences, snacks, eating out, holidays, on the road, hitting a plateau,thyroid troubles, etc.); (4) Special situations (vegetarianism, diabetes,pregnancy and nursing). The fifth section contains extensive informationabout what to have in your kitchen (spices, food labels, bread, soy, fakesugar). The final section is 240 pages of new recipes to add to theexcellent ones in her first book.
I agree with the other reviewers thatone of the most refreshing things about Fran McCullough is that she is notposing as a diet guru. She is an "ordinary" person in that she isnot a doctor or nutritionist who came up with a particular diet and ishawking it as the salvation of all. She has tried the diet herself over along period of time and found it has conferred many benefits to her health.And as a writer and cookbook editor, she has read carefully and analyzedthe latest books and studies on the subject of low-carb living. She reportson her findings and conclusions about these books and studies clearly,concisely, and extremely helpfully. I found her section on thyroidespecially useful. It was one of the best and most accurate statements ofthyroid information I have read in the recent past (it is a subject I readabout extensively when a very near relative of my age developed a seriousthyroid problem).
I believe low-carbers, either new to this diet or oldhands like me, will find this book well worth owning, a ready reference towhich you will refer again and again. I have taken extensive notes from thebook listing for myself suggestions she gave I found extremely pertinent tome for food, supplements and sources for both which I plan to follow up onin the very near future.



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Review of The Diabetes Diet: Dr. Bernstein's Low-Carbohydrate Solution (Hardcover)

This is a book for food for Diabetics, especially type II. The recipes and methods follow Dr Bernstein's other book (The Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars - which I highly recommend from seeing it actually work on on my mother and my spouse).

First things first: There have been other reviewers who seem to not onlyto have missed the point that this is for *diabetics*, but also have an axe to grind with snarky comments about "low carb taliban".Thats an idiotic thing to say when uncontrolled carbs are the very things that are killing the type II diabetic with uncontrollable blood glucose levels.This is not some flavor of the month to be glib about - this is a lifestyle change to treat a life threatening disease.

There is no cure - you will have to change your life; Dr Bernstein is quite clear about that.And Diabetes is all aboutrules you must use to control your blood sugar.It all begins with your food.Control your food intake and you will enable control of your blood sugar.And thats is where the "strict" and "forever" come from.Regardless of how snarky some people wish to be about it, this is a choice between eating that cinnabon and dying of diabetic complications, or moving along and realizing that you are making a trade-off: the carbs for your health.Either you control your diabetes or you will die from it.

There have been comments made about the "outlawing" of Splenda (and Equal as well, had that the review bothered to read further), but thisapplies only to the *powdered form*. Dr Bernstein instead recommends Stevia if you wish to use a powder, or the *tablet* form if you wish to use Equal or Splenda.In fact, the tablet form of Equal is what Dr Bernstein writes that he himself uses.

All the facts: dieters should note that many of the artificial sweeteners in the dry form you find in those blue or yellow or pink packets actually contain sugars other than sucrose in order to provide bulk and avoid bitterness.Read the label in the grocery store and you will see that is the truth about a vast majority of the powdered forms, especially things like dextrose.

Beware of poeple who cavalierly and foolishly dismisses the presence of those substances, even though they are sugars!This causes me to seriously question whether that such people did much more than skim the book to reinforce thier biases.I urge people to go browse this book or the reviews for the other Bernstein book (or other sections of the book as published online at Dr Bernsteins web site).

Back to this book now that some common erros and misconceptions have been pointed out:

The recipes in here fit very well into almost any low-carb diet.But unlike the typical "Atkins" recipes (which some people use as an excuse to have a bacon-grease free-for-all),they also take into account protein and fat content to a much greater extent.There is a lot of difficulty in coming up with a menu that keeps your carbohydrates in line with Dr Bernstein's inescapable "Laws of Small Numbers", but this cookbook is a great starting place.

The recipes do not use many exotic items, and are reasonably easy for an experienced home-cook to prepare.There is a lot of "flavor" in these dishes, so, unlike some other low-carb diet plans I've had, there is no need to eat with your fork in one hand and the tabasco sauce in the other.

However, after a while, even these recipes will get "stale" if this cookbook is all you are using.There are not really as many recipes as most other low-carb cookbooks.But by examining how this book put together the proper amounts of protein and carbohydrate, proper portioning, and the proper types of carbohydrates, you can readily take other low-carb recipes and menus and adapt them to fit into the Bernstein Diabetes Solution.For example I was able to adapt many of the recipes in Carpender's "500 Low-Carb Recipes" and "15 minute Low Carb Recipes" books with little trouble at all.

Bottom line: For the casual dieter, there are probably easier ways of doing that, but for the diabetic, this is the gold mine.This book, along with the main "Solution" book will be invaluable for those working with their doctors to implement their own personalized "Diabetes Solution" to control and achieve normal blood sugars.

Product Description
A revolutionary new low-carb diet for diabetics by the doctor who pioneered a successful new approach to the disease--with 100 original mouth watering recipes.For diabetics, diet is more than a lifestyle choice--it*s the key to controlling the course of their disease. Many diabetics struggle their entire lives to maintain a healthy weight, but the guidelines given to them by the American Diabetes Association have proven unhelpful in regulating blood sugar--the critical component in keeping diabetes in check. In THE DIABETES DIET, Dr. Bernstein serves up the groundbreaking low-carbohydrate approach to diabetes care that has enabled his patients to take control of their disease by regulating their blood sugar without the usual swings. Dr. Bernstein himself is living proof of the success of this method, and he has the science to back it up. Plunging into the current debate on low-fat vs. low-carb diets, he shows that, especially for diabetics, low-carb is what will change lives--and he offers 100 delicious all-new recipes to help keep diabetics on track for life. The recipes and advice in THE DIABETES DIET will provide readers with an easy-to-follow guide for controlling their disease and regaining their health and well-being.* There are an estimated 18 million diabetics in America, and their number is increasing every year--yet there are no low-carb diet books appropriate for diabetics.* Since publication in 1997, Dr. Bernstein*s Diabetes Solution and its revised 2003 edition have sold more than 120,000 copies.* An engineer by training, Bernstein pioneered blood glucose self-monitoring and the tight control of blood sugar that is now accepted as the standard treatment of diabetes. He entered medical school at the age of 45 in order to publish his findings.

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