Diet Health Books

This book saved my friends life! (I saw a television show about it and bought the book for her as a gift) She read it cover to cover in about 1 week, flew to the health center in TX and completely transformed her life. Lost 30 pounds, and now has energy. We are believers! A must read!

This is a book that all doctors and all women should reed.
After 7 years of sickness, I have now started to get hope again.
I just hope that I can get the help I need here in Sweden.
I am telling all my friends about this book.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone struggling with health issues. Dr. Hotze is very empathetic and very informative. Just from reading his book, I looked up his clinic and scheduled an appointment!

I haven't yet completed the book and I'm finding it very helpful, insightful and enjoyable. I just recently recommended it to a friend who is having health issues and her doctors can not identify the root cause of the problem.

A must read for every women that has looked (or is looking) for answers concerning chronic symptoms (aches, hormonal imbalance, allergies, fatigue, mood swings, etc). This book is easy to read and will answer the important questions:
What is the real problem?
Why am I having the problem?
How can I put an end to it?
Finally, a book that validates the physical changes that take place in a woman's life and empowers them to heal.

After checking this book out from the library, I purchased it so I could make notes and use it as a reference along with my select few books on health and nutrition. Pages two and three bullet point interesting ideas like how certain food combinations will put a man to sleep but put a woman in the mood. Well, if that's in the book, I haven't found it yet. What I have found is endless reference to how I will feel once on the "Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution." But there is no solution, just a constant reference to it.


This book disappointed me so much because I loved the book, "How to Get What You Want, and Want What You Have." The book is about removing emotional blocks that prevent you from moving forward in life. Now that I've read this diet book, with so many questionable terms like, "cold pressed aloe vera" (what does that mean?) and his ideas about chromium, I'm ready to chuck everything. The worst part of the book for me was on food combining. He just combines everything as far as I can tell. Other books will have you not combining certain foods because they cause gas and acidity when mixed together. John Gray clearly is a novice in this field and though discovered some neato stuff in his research, should not have created his own system for others.

As for me, I've been studying health and nutrition for 25 years. I haven't been over weight in 27. I don't believe in dieting to lose weight, but I do believe in proper nutrition. At a bargain rate this book isn't worth it not to mention all the time you'll waste reading and being confused.

Although the content of this book is somewhat repetitious, the suggestions for boosting metabolism and improving diet are great. I'm drinking the activated water in the morning and bouncing and shaking my way to a day with increased metabolism and energy. I'm using the Isagenix shakes in the morning as part of this program and so far so good.

The Mars/Venus Diet and Exercise solution is the missing link in my life. For 20 years, I have searched for wholeness, of mind, body and spirit. I work tirelessly to release with the emotional and spiritual pain of my past so that I may grow spiritually. I pray and meditate daily. I exercised regularly and I eat as healthy as one can in West Texas, lots of fruits and vegies, limited fried food and sugar. With all of this, I still felt fatigued, irritable and overwhelmed. After reading Dr. John Gray's book, I began using the recommended products and information in he book. I have been amazed at the results in my life the lives of my family and friends. I have since been privately trained by him as a nutritional cleansing coach so that I may help others. His information about how diet and excercise effect addiction has literly allowed me to help many people who struggle with food and alcohol addiction. The information on brain chemistry is fascinating and brings to light the differences in men and women. My marriage has come alive and my 5 year old said, "Mommy, you and my sister (hormonal 12 year old) are so much nicer now!" This book is a must read for anyone who wants to fill better and who are committed to a life change.
Here's too a healthy life filled with joy, peace and happiness.
Becky Benes, onenessoflife.isagenix.com

However, my husband twisted my arm and I was tired of him nagging me, so what the heck. We both started the Isagenix program a couple of months ago and I just finished reading Dr. Gray's book. Neither of us really needed to lose weight, but I have a history of depression and PMDD (I've been on meds now for almost seven years). So two months later, I'm eating my words of skepticism. I am completely off one med, weaning from another and going to work on my blood pressure and cholesterol meds next. I am an entirely new person. I feel good, I have a lot more energy, my marriage is much improved and an added benefit, I've lost 10 pounds and my clothes fit much better. Our son has anger and aggression issues and so we started him on some supplements mentioned in the book and he is a brand new kid. He quit junk food, soda and is no longer craving nor asking for it. He's eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and has not had a single episode of aggression since about a week after starting the supplements. I've done a lot more research beyond just the book and find agreement with other health professionals (holistic) that back up his statements. So, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Seven years of hell with depression is enough to convince me that there must be something to it.

"Without a nutritious diet, we don't have the fuel to make more endophins." ~ pg. 102

If any book can be frustrating and enlightening at the same time it is "The Mars & Venus Diet and Exercise Solution." This book is filled to the brim with interesting information on dopamine, serotonin, testosterone and endorphins. You will learn about the top forty serotonin-producing foods and how to get endorphins to release into your body. There is also a good amount of information on how to make your relationships work. There seems to be a biological basis for everything John Gray has been teaching for years. He explains why women are obsessed with giving too much and how to get men to give more. It is logical and makes complete sense. He also gives some of the real reasons marriages fail. I thought some of the information was very interesting, especially about why men may become workaholics:

"By increasing mental stress by taking on too much work (deadlines and long hours), men in particular stimulate the production of endorphins to reduce mental distress and anxieties temporarily." ~ pg. 103

While this is very helpful and intellectually exciting, I think the actual diet can be confusing. In the section on following the Mars & Venus diet I came across many frustrating things. Each morning you are supposed to drink a glass of water enriched with lemon juice, honey, trace minerals and aloe vera juice. This drink is also taken after you exercise in the morning. That means you are taking minerals twice. The problem I see with this is that you are also taking trace minerals with your morning health shake. (This drink is also recommended for fasting - should you take that many minerals in a day?)

My main question really is: "Is it necessary to take so many trace minerals?" The morning shake is made with a number of ingredients that can also be found in the Mars & Venus Superfoods Shake. In fact, you can skip mixing up the shake from scratch and just purchase the shake online. My problem with the shake is that it contains blanched almond meal and I'm allergic to nuts in general.

I looked up the Isagenix products and read the lists of ingredients. There are three products you could buy even though John Gray also says you can find other brands (he doesn't mention which ones so I'll give you that information).

The products you can buy (at the Isagenix website) include the Mars & Venus Superfoods Shake ($45), the Super Cleanse ($30) and the Super Minerals (also contains lithium - $30). So you can get the entire program for under $105.

Some options for the same types of products (Total is $131 with the optional cleanse) include "Nature's Plus Spiru-tein Tangerine Dream (Nature's Plus - Tangerine Dream Spirutein Shake 1Lb - $18)" which I've taken for years (compare ingredients to the Mars & Venus Superfoods shake) and the addition of Omega 3 Fatty Acid capsules (Nordic Naturals - Complete Omega/Lemon, 1000 mg, 60 softgels - $17). If you want to add in Yucca try Solaray - Yucca - 100 Capsule - 490 mg - $6.

This is easier than making the shake and adding in flax seeds, protein powder, yucca, enzymes etc. If price is a factor then you can see the difference in price. However, I read the ingredients on the Mars & Venus Super Cleanse and found it is not as good a product as Dr. Natura's Cleansing Product Colonix - Internal Cleansing Program (Liver, Kidney, Colon, And Parasite Cleanse) - FREE UPGRADE TO EXPEDITED SHIPPING - $90). The thing to note about the Dr. Natura program is that the "Paranil" product has wormwood. This is not good to take for an extended period of time. The "Colonix" is a good cleanse on its own.

Once you read the book you can then use these ideas to your advantage. The ingredients recommended will optimize brain chemistry and this will make you feel better. I've been taking a shake with amino acids for years now and it does make you feel more healthy. The Nature's Plus Spiru-tein Tangerine Dream (or other flavors) is an excellent product that contains most of the ingredients (just take Yucca and Omega 3 capsules as well) in the Mars & Venus Shake.

To finish the book, John Gray also briefly discusses the benefits of aromatherapy. He also talks about spirituality and how dietary changes can even cause cancer to go into remission.

Overall I think this book is very enlightening. The frustrating part can be easily solved by buying the shakes in powder form. There just doesn't seem to be enough information to make the program work when mixing up the drink at home. I found that section to be very frustrating because no exact measurements were given.

~The Rebecca Review

"Let's Eat Out!" covers a very difficult topic, restaurant dining for people with food allergies and intolerances. For adults who should avoid top allergens due to mild to moderate food allergies and intolerances, this can be a very useful book. I have already referenced it a few times for some restaurant inspiration, outside of my usual Asian selections.

The book itself is stylishly laid out with color-coded chapters, strategically placed photographs, useful charts, and sample menus. It addresses ten of the most common food allergens: dairy, eggs, wheat, gluten (an intolerance), soy, peanuts, tree nuts, corn, fish, and shellfish.

It should be noted, that this book was written with celiac disease, multiple food "sensitivities", and gluten intolerance in mind. It may not be very appropriate for those who have life-threatening food allergies or severe intolerances. This is not to blame the authors. The various styles of food preparation combined with a high risk of cross-contamination in food service kitchens, make this a complicated area to address. Though, as one food allergy mom pointed out to me, the "Allergy-Free" title is a bit deceiving in this respect.

Also, for those who do have true food allergies, this book should not be used as a dining bible, but more as a suggestion based resource for further research and diligence. As someone who lives with a milk protein allergy, I unfortunately noted many errors with respect to the foods listed as "not containing the allergen." Guacamole (often made with sour cream), margarine (frequently contains lactose and/or milk protein), and sausages (many brands contain cheese) were just a few that caused me to raise the red flag. Your own questions and food label reading would still be required when utilizing this book.

Luckily, the authors do relay what questions to ask, and in many different languages. Kim Koeller has traveled extensively while living with multiple food allergies. This is well evidenced by the resources provided, including a multi-lingual phrase section and what seems to be a very useful airline guide. For those most interested in travel, the authors of "Let's Eat Out!" have also produced a "Multi-Lingual Phrase Passport" for food allergies that is pocket-sized. I thought this was a very handy little guide!

Basically, it says be suspicious of EVERYTHING. As a Celiac, I am already. This book did not help me and I was disappointed but I can see how it might help someone newly diagnosed. Being vigilant is the key.

Eating when you're away from your own home is always a challenge when you are on a special diet.

In "Let's Eat Out!" Koeller and La France have put together an impressive amount of information to make life easier for travelers and people who just want to eat out with family and friends.

I found the book a bit difficult at first because there is just so much content to sort out. It's definitely not a book to digest in one sitting!

I soon realized it really is a combination of broad reference guide and quick reference "cheat sheets." Once that became clear, it was much easier to scan and use the table of contents and index to find specific information. You can choose to just use the quick guides or go to the more detailed explanations.

All in all, the authors cover a very broad topic in an orderly fashion that makes it easy to locate information for a variety of situations. They use 7 common cuisine types, from American Steak and Seafood to Thai, to analyze the issues a diner can expect to face. They offer comments on the ingredients, the way food is prepared and on likely sources of hidden cross contamination.

After you read a couple of these, you begin to see the patterns and it would not be so difficult to apply the same process to another type of food. As they point out, it's all about educating yourself and learning what questions to ask.

Poring through their food/menu analysis, I discovered to my dismay that the item I had been selecting from a fast food restaurant most likely contains hidden gluten that I would not have thought to question. I did wonder why I didn't feel good every time I ate there!

Not only does the book cover information about individual foods, styles of cuisine, and 10 common food allergens, it also provides specific information about travel including contact information for individual airlines and the special diets they provide, contact information for associations and organizations in many parts of the world and even some translation phrases.

I'd recommend "Let's Eat Out!" as a valuable reference book. It's especially useful for those who frequently eat out or travel and even better, those who'd like to eat out more but have hesitated to take the risk. It could open up a whole new world.

The authors deserve the recognition that their book received as a Benjamin Franklin award finalist for 2006 in the Health (Wellness/Nutrition) category.

I bought this book thinking it would be of great help to me. I found it to be absolutely useless. There are so many other valuable tools to use and informative books out there that I can only say - use your common sense - you know what you can and can't have & all you have to do is ask the server to check in the kitchen to make sure that thee either isn't, or won't be, any gluten ingredients used. I live very near NYC and I can name so many gluten free restaurants that weren't included that it's ridiculous. Don't waste your money.

This is a great resource to have for travelling. I love the tabbed setup that makes it easy to get to the section I need. Obviously a lot of thought was put in to making the book (with an amazing amount of info.) as easy to use as possible.

It is obvious that a great deal of thought and experimentation has been put forth in the making of this valuable resource!

After being gf (and other things free) for 5 years, I appreciate the resource as it will make it far more possible for me to visit Italy (and other countries in my future) maintaining my health as much as possible along the way! Well done!

I have dining cards and they work quite well, but the next time I travel, I will be packing this book to take as well, without a doubt!

KimS

Did not find this funny or even the slight bit interesting to read,,a real yawner. Its another sob story about a struggling individual who tries to find a diet suitable to her needs. Well, hello, lemon water has been around for centuries, it is noted for cleansing the body and preventing scurvy,,,I drink it daily with my water. So what discovery did the author make? Nothing, just selling another book to gullible women, like myself.

I'm glad this book has been a help to others, but I thought it was terrible. The writing is so humdrum and the characters are so cliche, it's painful. It's also obviously preachy. It just sounds like they took some non-fiction book on good eating habits and put quotation marks around some of the passages, except it's interspersed with corny details, like a baby's pacifier popping out of its mouth and another character putting it back in. I can actually imagine an idea like this working, but it will take someone who shows, not tells, and who can say more, with a lot fewer words. Plus, the authors make it sound so simple. Many people learn to eat fresh food, eat the right fats, etc. but don't deal with what drives them to eat junk even after they've had good food.

Personally, I think you'd do better combining reading Shrink Yourself with books that emphasize eating quality foods (Volumetrics, The Omega Plan, and Chic and Slim [must be ordered online at Barone's site]. And they're a lot better reading. For ficition, I'll stick to Henry James and John Fowles.

I want to hate this book. It is such a hokey story with totally unbelievable characters. With all of that being said I still find myself wanting to finish the story. I also find I can identify with many of the things said. I am at least half way through and I do feel driven to finish. Maybe I have made losing weight too complicated.....my previous attempts have been much more sophisticated and yet I have had little success. Possibly this will be the answer......just developing the 8 habits (I don't know and I don't feel confident about it but........I hope it does help). I will update in a few months and let you know!!!! I can't believe that I am involved enough in this story to hope that Karen leaves her control freak husband who puts her down all the time. I feel somewhat embarrassed to admit this as the story line is so weak and yet (unbelievably) I am involved on at least some level. I do believe that the habits are essential to permanent weight loss.

I did not enjoy reading this book at all. I found the level of writing to be comparable with high school level and the characters to be completely unrealistic. Now with that said, many people with disagree with me because of the content of the book. I think the concept of writing a story about weight loss instead of preaching about weight loss is great, however I think the writer did a poor job. This would be a fabulous book to have middle & high schoolers read for a nutrition class but for adult readers I feel that we deserve to be treated with a bit more intelligence. I had to force myself to finish reading the book and found myself dissatisfied all around.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the characters and I like the way the habits were introduced. It would have been overwhelming to have them all at once, so I thought it was perfect the way it was done. Now the storyline, sometimes I wish would have been a bit faster (because it is a novel) but it is an inspiring quick read that lays the points out beautifully. Some people were saying the role of the baby and the husband was pointless and wastes of time. I disagree. I think the point of the baby was to let you know that anyone -- even new moms -- can do this. Those of you with small children know how much work they are (I have a 22-mo old) And the point of the husband was said in the book. He was Karen's wall. His abusive behavior would cause her to reach for the comfort foods. Everyone has a wall of some type, be it a sick loved one, school, bills, job, or anything that makes you reach for the chips, ice cream, cookies, cakes, liquor or whatever substance of your choice. so an abusive husband was hers and she was able to deal with it and break down that wall. I am definitely glad I read this one and will definitely be using the principles here to slim down.

Entertaining to read, informative, but also I now am better able to deal with all the organic raw beans I bought from Mountain Rose Herbs.

db

It turns out I do NOT have gout, but this compendium of recipes that enables one to live with the disease would be essential in anyone's collection of cook books.

It is so hard to find information on gout. This book is well-researched, offers lots of information and the recipes are delicious and easy to fix. The bibliography alone is worth the price.

I bought Gout Hater's Cookbook I for my father, who suffers from Gout. He liked the recipes and the information so much I also bought Gout Hater's II and III. He has thanked me many times for this very helpful resource.

Received Gout Hater's Cookbook I as a gift and my wife has used the recipes and important tips for the last year. Information is provided in a concise easy to use style. We just added Gout Hater's Cookbook II and III to our kitchen reference library and we now have three times as many great recipes to use. We can't wait for Cookbook IV and hope that it includes a master index of the recipes from all versions. Thanks for making this information available to us.

This book is simply wonderful! It really helped me find and make easy-but-elegant recipes for everyday life (and even parties). My husband and I enjoyed the book so much we bought all three! Simply superb, I hope she writes more!

I began reading this book and realized I wasn't ready for it yet. When I was, I picked it up and lost 30+ pounds. Chantel is right...dieting doesn't work - changing your life does. This book was the inspirtaion that I needed. Thanks!

We've all heard of numerous diets that claim that you can lose weight in a few weeks, but then we realize that we can easily gain the weight back after the diets are done. Keeping the weight off is half the battle of weight loss, and it can be frustrating to regain all the weight. Thankfully, Chantel Hobbs provides a wonderful solution to this problem with her "Never Say Diet" program. The program works efficiently because it does not make ridiculous demands from people and allows gradual, healthy weight loss and because it provides a way for people to keep the weight off.

I myself have experienced this weight loss, as I began to change my lifestyle on March 29. Since then, I have lost a little bit over 20 pounds, and I feel much better and much less tired. Before I started to eat right, I ate two dinners almost daily and probably ate more than 3000 calories daily; I also did not exercise. I had been completely ignorant of how much I was eating a day until Chantel helped me realize and learn how much I should eat after she taught me to restrict my daily caloric intake to 1500 calories a day. Along with exercise, this has helped me greatly lose over 20 pounds and about 3-4% body fat.

Chantel's book will inspire you. If her responses to excuses for not dieting aren't enough, her story and her experiences are sure to move you. They are so poignant that they helped me realize that I was completely capable of losing weight all along. I had always blamed my failures of weight loss on a "bad" metabolism until I lost 20 pounds due to the program. I did have some nadirs in my determination, but Chantel quickly addressed those times by saying that one must remind himself/herself how miserable he/she was when he/she was fat. Chantel constantly stresses that we are not on a diet, as the title explicitly states. She provides the inspiration to help people achieve goals that they probably did not think were possible before, and she helps people on the way to a healthier life.

Chantel Hobbs has accomplished an superb feat - she's reduced her body weight by 200 pounds. That is like TWO of me!!! Her suggestions are healthy, doable and easy to comprehend. I feel a sense of balance in her writing.

She has received criticism for having supplemental cosmetic surgery (breast lift). While my weight loss experience didn't require any additional corrections, I can empathize with anyone who finds they need additional assistance and support (no pun). After releasing 200 pounds, skin sagging alone can require surgery.

I enjoyed reading about her fitness journey. Upon finishing the book, I was left with a feeling of motivation, enthusiasm and gratitude.

I saw Chantel on the Today show and thought she seemed really down to earth. I bought the book from Amazon and literally could not put it down! I laughed and cried as I read through her experiences.....so similar to mine! It was really like she was there cheering me on to do the workouts. I have started the phase one portion and feel absoutely fantastic. I would reccomend this book to anyone wanting inspiration to get started on a health and fitness routine - she doesn't offer any off the wall advice - just practical and doable stuff - you will be so glad you read it!

This was a very good book. Chantel does a great job getting the message across in a very simple yet powerful way. I love the fact that she is not another "guru" out there pretending that if you just had more will power you could lose the weight. She is a real person with very real struggles that all of us can relate to. She really helps you "get it". You can finally make the necessary changes to lose the weight for good. READ THIS BOOK!!!!!! It has made a huge impact in my life and I know it will do the same for you!

The Audio book does a great job of summarizing the South Beach Diet, and is a great start (especially for those who are challenged for time and reading the full book is too much).

the CD explains the diet and the philosophy behind the diet. A must read for anyone wanting to be proactive about their weight.

This is the only way to start a diet.....on the road. Since I'm on the road most of the time, I haven't the time to read, hence,no time to concentrate on dieting! I no longer have THAT excuse. Go ahead and try it this method....it works. Oh, by the way, I've lost 9 pounds!

Great source of info on processed foods. It should be a class requirement in grade school health class. People might eat better if they knew what they were really eating.

I thought this would be enjoyable reading, but the tone of the book thoughout was so about not offending anyone. I mean, 50% of our food--whole and processed--is genetically modified, created by a chemical company responsible for Roundup, Agent Orange, postcancer drugs, etc., and that's OK with Steve? All that gets is a little footnote at the bottom of the page? And I wanted to know if stearic acid and sodium stearylate or however you spell it is animal-byproduct-derived, but there was no mention of anything about that--just vague mentionings throughout about "emulsifiers" and whatnot. This book serves no purpose. Hated it.

This is the sort of book I would normally enjoy. Filled with arcane details and delightful trivia, the odysseys of the huge number of products that come together to make Twinkies should be a fun read. But it wasn't.

Part of the problem is that he is not a good writer. There are many of those "Well, that's not the right word there" moments, where he has chosen a word or syntax that made me stop and note the writing (in a negative way) rather than the tale. One example. On page 48 he describes Marmite, a goop I'm quite familiar with. He describes it as "tasting like a salty, bitter, awful form of molasses." The texture is not at all like molasses. Nor the flavor. The color sort of is; it is, after all, brown, but the word "awful" really makes this already weak and unhelpful description sound as if written by a 10 year old. One example among many I could choose.

Then there are the endlessly unfunny asides. If we were casually chatting on an airplane, I might find his little jokes amusing. (Though I doubt it.) But the snide and unwitty remarks of the "this is also used in the manufacture of anti-freeze" variety make this a loser. Am I supposed to be afraid? Worried? Amused? Or just what?

He repeatedly uses terms without defining them (e.g., crumb) but with other terms repeats the definition. A glossary might have been nice.

Ultimately, there is nothing much here. Endless tales of huge tanks and vats and train cars and spinning things and precipitating liquids and complex processes (many of which he is not allowed to see) all blur together. Do I really need to read how each one is made? All these less than 2% chemicals that are swirled together in a process he never sees? Maybe someone cares, but I did not. I bought this book having never heard of it, based on these delightful reviews, but I was not delighted.

Anyone who's ever eaten a Twinkie remembers the experience, even if it's been years. The textured, firm, sweet dough combined with the intense vanilla creme (not cream, mind you) filling is distinctive and, especially when you're a kid, delicious, yet obviously somehow sinful and wrong and unnatural at the same time.

Twinkie, Deconstructed is a perfect "sick day in bed" book: a sort of "science lite" non-fiction tome that's fascinating, informative, and non-polemical while still making a political point. I finished it in a little over a day while in the hospital.

The concept is brilliant. Prompted by a question from one of his kids, Ettlinger, a long-time science and consumer products writer, tells a story of traveling around the world to find out where each of the dozens of ingredients in a Hostess Twinkie comes from--in the order in which they're listed on the package. In doing so, he visits a lot more factories than farms, and encounters many more industrial centrifuges than ploughs.

Some reviewers think that Ettlinger got co-opted into the "Twinkie-Industrial Complex" (as he calls it) during the writing of the book. They think that he is too accepting, too uncritical, and indeed too friendly to the various large corporate interests who show him (or, in many cases, refuse to show him) around their facilities and processes. But I think he's smarter and more subversive than that.

Here's something from page 195:

"In an undisclosed location, perhaps in an industrial park near Chicago, maybe in rural, central Pennsylvania, possibly in riparian Delaware, in a plant full of tanks, railroad sidings, and a maze of pipes and catwalks, big, stainless steel vats are filled with fresh, hot, luscious, liquefied sorbitan monostearate."

Or check out this label-text Kremlinology from page 255:

"...while it seems that not one natural color is use in Twinkies, sometime the label has said 'color added,' which would make me suspect that annato, the butter and cheese colorant that is popular with [Hostess's] competitors, is indeed in the mix. But their punctuation indicates otherwise. 'Color added' is followed by '(yellow 5 red 40)' which would seem to indicate grammatically that they are the only colors involved."

One of the most obvious stylistic effects throughout the book is that whenever Ettlinger first mentions a trademarked product, he adds the registered trademark symbol: Yoo-hoo(R) Chocolate Drink, PAM(R) cooking spray, Clabber Girl(R), Davis(R), and Calumet(R) baking soda, and so on. Normally you'd only see things written that way in a press release or corporate brochure.

You might think he was simply pressured by company lawyers, but when I read the book every trademark symbol seemed to me like a wink from the author, an unavoidable reminder that while he's breezing along in his personal, gee-whiz style, he hasn't forgotten that the process of Twinkie-making is huge and industrial, one that has only a little to do with baking and nourishment, and a lot with multinational chemical firms and drill rigs and mines and massive tract farms.

Twinkie, Deconstructed is no Silent Spring, or even Super Size Me. It's neither a manifesto nor a satire. It's not horrified at what Twinkies are made of--because ingredients originating from petroleum or minerals rather than food plants or animals is part of the Twinkie legend. What's surprising is only how far some of those ingredients have to travel, and how extensively they have to be mangled, reprocessed, ground, dissolved, flung, and dried before they get used in even minute quantities to bake those little cakes.

Ettlinger's book is, I think, more effective because he doesn't politicize it overtly. He simply tells us, repeatedly and relentlessly, about conveyor belts, pipes, pressure vessels, railroad cars, noxious chemical reactions, huge stainless steel tanks, monstrous earth-moving equipment, and what obviously must be enormous quantities of energy used in all those processes. He talks just as blithely about factories that refuse to tell him where their ingredients come from at all as he does friendly chemical engineers who show him around less secretive facilities. You can draw your own conclusions.

I did find myself wishing, at the end, that he had calculated how much energy a single Twinkie consumes in its manufacture--how much oil or coal or gas, or how many kilowatt-hours of electricity, it takes to bring all those ingredients together. And I was surprised that, after nearly 300 pages of background, Ettlinger never actually describes step-by-step how a Twinkie is made at the Hostess bakery.

But Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fun read. Whether you feel safe eating a Twinkie afterwards is a message you can safely infer from the book, rather than having to be clubbed over the head with it.

So I'm at the bookstore, and I noticed this bright orange book on a rack, with a large Twinkie on the cover. Twinkies? I'm fascinated by Twinkies, and have been ever since I put a pair into a jar in 2005, where they sit to this day, stale and hard as rocks but otherwise unspoiled. I looked at the title: Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats. Oh, I like that. I am highly disturbed by the amount of processing that goes into our food. So I bought it and took it home and read it, even though I knew nothing about the author, because I like surprises in books. And I got one. It seems after reading this that Steve Ettlinger, the man who wrote this and several other food books, is not horrified as I am by the chemicals and machinery that process our food, nor is he disgusted by the source of most of the food additives. Oh, no: he finds it fascinating. It was like reading a canned travelogue by a corporate shill as he goes on an ersatz tour of discovery. The majority of the commentary in the book was along the lines of, "Gee, that machine over there, where they're mixing corn with six different toxic chemicals in order to make it look bright orange, is really, really big!" or "Golly, ain't it a wonder that such a delicious food comes from a petrochemical factory in China! If only we in America could eliminate our labor laws, we could make this wondrous product ourselves!" I took to reading this book in Troy McClure's voice, since it reminded me so much of his Meat Council film on how meat gets from the farm into your stomach. Everything was spun so that it was supposed to depict the miracle of modern industry, the wondrousness of how these massive, shadowy chemical conglomerates manage to make food so easy to make and sell, and so appealing to an unsuspecting public, on such a huge scale. Whenever he visited one of these plants, he was not allowed to see the process that goes into making the actual additive, but he was allowed to gawp at the 80-story buildings and the 1000-ton train cars and the 1,000,000-gallon mixing tanks. Every single company he describes, the first thing he talks about is the scale: how big the buildings and machines are, how much material they take in and how much they pump out every day, every year.

I suppose you could, as some of my fellow reviewers did, see the book as raising questions and provoking thought. But how much of a question needs to be raised here? How much thought do we need to put into these things? The entire thing was disgusting to me. The whole system boils down to this: we eat grains like wheat, soybeans and corn; minerals like salt and soda ash (baking soda), and oil. Lots and lots of oil. I don't know what it is about petrochemicals that make them so handy for the artificial food industry, but the last several chapters of the book (He wrote it in the same order as the list of ingredients on a Twinkie wrapper, which is clever but tends to de-emphasize the most horrid things, which are in there in much smaller proportions that high fructose corn syrup -- though that's really pretty nasty, too.) are all about different ways that oil and natural gas get messed with chemically in order to produce flavorings, dyes, and preservatives. And reading all of this with this author who actually takes the word of the company that all of the toxins are removed after processing and the food is perfectly healthy for human consumption -- it was amazing to watch him swallow that one; it was like watching a boa constrictor eat a Vespa -- gave the whole thing such a surreal aura that it was even more bizarre and uncomfortable to read than it should have been just based on the subject. It amazed me that someone could find out so many terrible things and think so little of it.

Then again, I guess it was like a little slice of America.

Though it has some good twists on the basic Abs diet workout, this book is definitely not needed to be successful on the Abs Diet -- too little new information mixed in with all the basic AD information. Disappointed with my purchase.

I read this book and then went on to lose 30 pounds, it's life changing.

Great book outlining a truly effective health & fitness program. Highly recommended to those who want to improve how they look and feel. Be prepared to make some lifestyle changes though--this isn't a "fad diet".

This book was great and it brought to attention how much terrible things are used to mass produce foods today. I know have a better idea of what to avoid and what to eat a lot of. I have noticed a big difference in my life and the way I feel on an everyday basis.

David's books hit the target straight on. No fuss, no muss, no fancy this or that. The plan is simple. Eat right and start moving. Change your life and lifestyle forever. Not once did I feel I was deprived of any particular foods. I went from 240 to 222 and am still re-shaping. Lots of new muscle and definition (and I'm 55, imagine that!). I like to do sprint triathlons and this book has helped me improve tremendously. Can't recommend this book and the sister books enough. Get it, read it, do it. You'll love it.