Diet Health Books

I had heard of this diet before and am now using it. I know about something of nutrition, but this book is excellent on explaining why we gain as well as maintain the weight we want to loose. The first week I lost 11 pounds, now ending my second and loosing 1/2 a pound a day - but I do stick to the program. I feel great and am looking to completeing my goal! There's nothing like preventative measures to enhance your health and life. Awesome find for anyone wanting to change the way they look and feel.

I am thoroughly enjoying my new Rice Diet Solutions book. This is a way of Life I can hold on to because not only will I be eating wholesome delicious nutritious food but it helps me physically, spiritually, and mentally as well. This book offers more assurance and details along with the cookbook. I would purchase both for more motivation and cooking tips.

When used correctly, this diet does work. It took a few weeks for it to really start working, but then it did. I can't say that I went hungry, and the fruit does satisfy my sweet tooth. I felt better for it also.
The problem, as with all diets, is that it is a way of life, not just there to lose the weight, and then go back to your old way of eating. Which is what I did the first time. I did eventually gain back the 20 lbs. I had lost, but I knew I was doing it, the same way I knew I was going to gain weight being on this damned computer. I let it happen.
Pardon me while I go browse the self-help section.........

Maddening.

Take some great weight loss ideas, framed with good science. Add a dash of pop "detox" tripe. Go into a long lecture about gummy bears. Then toss in some intriguing but complicated recipes. You end up with The Rice Diet Solution: The World-Famous Low-Sodium, Good-Carb, Detox Diet for Quick and Lasting Weight Loss, by Kitty and Robert Rosati, a registered dietitian and a physician, respectively.

This is a low-sodium, low-fat diet plan, that includes less red meat, more fruits and vegetables, more complex carbs, exercise, maintenance follow-ups, and stress reducing exercises. The first week results in low calorie consumption, less than 1500 calories a day. Between exercise and this 1500 cal/day diet, you WILL lose weight, guaranteed.

Founder Walter Kemper found "...it was almost impossible for [his patients] not to lose weight following the diet [of rice and fruit]" (p. 9). BTW, this is the reason it is called the "Rice Diet" as opposed to the Duke Diet, the Kemper Diet, or the Rosati Diet. He also said, "It's not what's in the rice, it's what's not in the rice."

So how does the Rice Diet work? There are three steps:

1. Diet in the following manner:
a. 1 week of grains, fruits, and veggies. This is the detox period, with 1000-1200 calories/day.
b. keep the same diet, but add some non-fat dairy, and you get animal protein once a week.
c. Maintenance while you add more foods.

2. Be a mindful eater. Pay attention to what you put in your mouth, and how you cook.

3. Find supportive people or groups, and surround yourself with them.

I'm irritated by the discussion of "detoxing." They note, "The overall goal of Phase One is to cleanse and detox your body's system of excess water weight... excess sodium, [and] allergic-like symptoms from a range of potential offenders from our food supply (e.g., pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotic and growth hormone does animal products, and others" (p. 31). In addition, "How does the Rice Diet detox the body?... This is probably an impossible aspect to actually quantify or prove but many signs of detoxification occur" (p. 58). Let me repeat that, "This is probably an impossible aspect to actually quantify or prove..." Then why is this coming from a physician and a RD?

Still, except for this "pop-nutrition", everything makes sense. Eat less meat, more fruits and veggies, more whole grains, less sugar, low-fat, high fiber, and exercise.

The book has more. It includes recipes and product suggestions. Some of these product suggestions seem way too specific: Yogurt? "Stonyfield Farm is best" (p. 49). For bread, try "Galliee Splendor Bible Bread" (p. 44).

I did try a recipe last night. The Bouillabaisse recipe on page 250 caught my attention. I couldn't get my hands on any fresh fennel, and I thought 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of saffron was a bit much (have you seen the price of this spice?). I used fresh bay leaves instead of dried, I chopped the garlic cloves (the recipe didn't specify), and given that I didn't have 2 1/2 cups of "hot fish stock" on hand, I used an 8 oz bottle of clam juice and another 12 oz of water (this also dilutes the salt in the clam juice). I mixed and matched my seafood with what was available... a pound of size 31-40 shrimp, a pound of Alaska salmon, a half pound of tilapia, a can of packed crab (no salt), and 8 oz of fresh mushrooms.

It was delicious. I served it on hot rice, in honor of the Rice Diet. MIne served 6, not 10.

Most of the recipes seemed fairly complicated. They definitely are not fast food. They are also a bit pricey, not an impossible situation, but one to be aware of.

But the Bouillabaisse was so delicious!

So the Rice Diet didn't seem to have any fatal flaws. It had a few pop-nutrition issues, and I really didn't like the gummy bear story. You will lose weight if you eat 1500 calories a week. You have to find a way to maintain your healthy weight when you readjust your calories to 1800-2000 calories. You should always exercise.

Be well.

I have not finished reading the book from cover to cover, but I have been following the program and have lost about twenty pounds. The recipes are excellent. I have recommended the publication to my friends. I do believe with this book I can finally lose the weight I have been trying to lose for many years. Also it has helped me keep my blood sugars under control. The price was good too.

I am very disappointed in this purchase.

The author initially presents some very basic information in the first 2 chapters which sounded far more like Eat Right for your Type. Then, she goes into tedious detail about antiquated diet programs - many of which had nothing to do with acid/alkaline balance. She then presented "solutions" for common ailments that frequently contradicted the initial info presented. For example, on one page, my "type" is supposed to avoid lemon juice, vinegar and leafy greens but those make repeated appearances in the solutions section.

It seemed like she couldn't decide what kind of "diet" this should be - raw foods, metabolic type, food allergy etc. The case studies and information regarding indigenous peoples of various regions were distracting & did not seem to have much to do with the acid/alkaline issue.

I was specifically looking for a program that gave me at a minimum a list of helpful foods or foods to avoid but this was a confusing patchwork of poorly-organized information.

Also, some of the suggestions for raw meat, raw eggs, raw milk and raw butter etc. fly in the face of recent food scares. I know many who swear by raw milk but it is illegal in my state and there are other ways to get enzymes without risk of e-coli or salmonella.

I nearly fell out of my chair when she mentioned by name an ephedra-based diet pill (used by one of her clients) that is now illegal in the US. Furthermore, citing a client who is still morbidly obese, takes unhealthy diet pills and follows fad 1-meal/day plans as a success shoots down what little remaining credibility the author might have had (IMHO).

I am going to the health food store to look at other acid/alkaline books before making another purchase. I would strongly caution anyone considering this title to thumb through it first.

While this book contained some useful information, it did not address my purpose of buying the book. I was looking for a lists of foods that were alkaline and acid forming, and various diet plans. In it's place the book contained too many medical historys of clients the author has seen, their treatment, and improvement. For whatever reasons, I rarely find this type of information useful, and feel it is simply a way to fill up pages of a book.

Overall, I didn't find the book "user friendly" either.

This book has such excellent research for a person who wants to have a happier healthy life from disease so there are good suggestions in how to change one's lifestyle for healthier living

I have done extensive research in Acid Alkaline eating theories. I think this book should be called "Eating for Your Blood Type" instead of its Acid Alkaline title. They are two very different theories. The author talks a lot in the two beginning chapters about various supportive research for ridding your body of acids to try to improve your overall health. Then she provides a couple simple of tests (that may make you sick) to find out your metabolic type.

There is a thorough explanation of Dr. William Donald Kelley's theory of metabolic food typing from the 1970s. According to the book, Dr. Kelley has much luck in reversing chronic diseases based on his assumptions. The book suggests two options for quick tests to figure out your metabolic type: 1) Swallow 50 milligrams of niacin on an empty stomach. If, within a half-hour, your skin turns red and you feel very, very hot and itchy, he believes you have a meat-eating metabolism. Warmer and better color in your face, he believes you have a balanced metabolism. If you don't feel anything, he feels you have a grain-eating metabolism. 2) If you want to confirm the first test, he suggests you take 8 grams of vitamin C a day for 3 days in a row. If you feel depressed, lethargic, exhausted, and irritable, or if you are a woman and experience vaginal irritation, you suggests you have a meat-eating metabolism. If you don't notice a change, he suggests you have a balanced metabolism. But if you feel an improvement -- more energy, better quality of sleep -- he suggests you have a grain-eating metabolism.

Much of the rest of the book hinges on the diagnosis of the above tests -- which sound scary to put yourself through. I don't want to consciously make myself red, hot, itchy, depressed, lethargic, etc. So I felt cautious after reading this section in chapter 1.

I read chapter 2 and then went to the specific section of the book with my "medical condition" as suggested by the author. My condition is obesity. That chapter describes a case study of an obese 17-year-old girl for whom the author prescribed treatments. The girl, Cheryl, started off at 350 pounds. After following the author's advice, the girl stabilized at 270 pounds. The thing that alarmed me was the author's suggestions for weight loss. Here is her list from p. 72-73. She wants you to eat or use the following: Nearly raw potatoes, ice pack on lower abdomen, raw honey, raw milk and butter, raw beefsteak, avocadoes and bananas, Vitamin E, ChitoPlex, coconut and flaxseed oil, raw carrots, ACIDIC FOODS, bland foods, several small meals, blackstrap-lemon drink, ice water. I've capped the word "acidic foods" because it is in complete contradiction with the author's book subtitle "An Innovative Program for Ridding Your Body of Acidic Wastes". She wants you to eat acidic foods to reduce your hunger. But that is completely antithetical to the title of the book and the introduction. Why would I take in more acidic foods only to have to work to neutralize them and eliminate them later? Note that she pulls all her informaton from other doctors and does not have a medical degree herself. Her book jacket describes her as an "adjunct professor at City College in New York and an alternate health consultant". I wish I could talk to Cheryl and share with her some of the information I've gotten from other books on diet and nutrition. I'm sorry to say I think the author has given her some good advice and combined it with some very bad advice.

Buyer/Reader beware! I think this author should do some more research. I think this book could be very dangerous to the quality of health of anyone follows her advice 100%.

Although this book has some useful information it is not as the title suggest. It is not a "diet" book. I bought this book because my husband and I are trying to change our diet to a more PH balanced way of living. We have already found that by balancing the PH levels we can all but eliminated acid reflux. When I saw this book I thought it would have a list of alkaline and acidic foods and a diet plan to follow. This book is nothing more than testimony as to what vitamins you should take in order to achieve better health. The test that is referred to is nothing more than taking a supplement on an empty stomach, waiting for results and translating how red you are into the meat eater, grain eater or combo of the two. So again, while there is some useful information I would not have bought this book had I had a chance to flip through it before hand.

Helped set up diet to reduce cholesterol as I have 3 clogged arteries and cannot have bypass surgery

This book has a lot of very good information, but it lacks in the area of recipes.... I thought it would be full of low-cholesterol recipes since it is a cookbook. There are some, but not what a cookbook usually holds.

This is a good starter cookbook for those of us blessed with the extra cholesterol gene. The chapters make the health problem easy to understand. The reicpes are easy to make and I was able to use the principles of healthful cooking to modify some of my old favorites. My sweetie even commented that my cooking was improving and that the meals I have made are satisfying! This is a guy who, when left to his own devices, makes everything into a sandwich.

I was looking for an actual cookbook, with lots of recipes. There are recipes, but they're hidden in all the writing. This book is too wordy. Yes, I want to and need to know more about Cholesterol, but that's not what I bought this book for.

My big mistake was that I bought two of them sight-unseen. I had planned to send one to my mom. After looking through it, I knew it would turn her off also. So now I'm stuck with two copies of the same cookbook I don't want and shouldn't have spent the money on to begin with.

I'm not saying it's not a good book. It's just not a good *cook* book. It should be advertised as book on Cholesterol with recipes, not as a cookbook.

When I found out I had high cholesterol in my mid-40's I went RUNNING to find cookbooks so I could lower it. I have bought 5 so far, this one is by far the best as far as information goes. It gives lists of foods you should keep around the house to snack on, lists of foods that should be kept handy for cooking and a no-nonsense approach to the health needs of those with high-cholesterol. There aren't as many recipes as some of the cookbooks I have; but the recipes they do have rate above the others in terms of the ease of procuring the ingredients, the taste of the food, and the simplicity of the recipes. I would not waste my time with the American Heart Assoc. cookbook if you are unsure of which to buy. As far as the 4 star rating, I can't see any low-cholesterol cookbook getting a 5 star rating - we who are doomed to a life without sugar, baked goods, white breads, mayo, luncheon meats, etc. are not prone to give any cookbook a 5 star rating!

There are 29 of us (of a hatha yoga class) reading and reviewing this book together this summer (2008) as a summer read project. We have begun about 3 weeks ago, implementing the suggestions to diet, lifestyle, eating patterns. We meet weekly and share ideas and cover new chapter(s)in the book. Difficult to predict what will happen by the end of the summer, but one participant has already completed the book, implemented the practices recommendations and another participant has already lost 4 pounds. Our main target is not weight loss though, but improving overall health. I would recommend this book as a good study group book, an introduction into Ayurveda, it is delivered in western terms without all the Indian words and terms so that the average westerner who is not necessarily not on spiritual path (per se) can grasp the velevance a improve their daily health regimen. We are starting very soon to cook in the sessions, learning to make ghee, buying Indian dal and mung bean in gross and dividing it up, etc. learning a different approach to food prep and healthy nutuition rich foods and eating.

This is a fantastic book on nutrition and health. I recommend it to all. While reading this book, I was able to pinpoint my eating behaviors that led to my cravings, and make changes to my diet to end them.

Excellent book with a lot of common sense lifestyle suggestions (that are easy to follow) and a big picture overview of why his guidelines are so important to your overall health and well-being. Would recommend it to anyone!

For any author on nutrition to suggest that we start our day (and our metabolisms!) with little or nothing for breakfast automatically brings into question everything else in the book, unfortunately. The list of optimal foods per season is probably very good, but I was put off by the lack of metabolic common sense from the get-go.

The teachings of ayurveda have been around for 5,000 years and in this book Douillard brilliantly some of these lessons to light for those of us in the Western world. Although some of his ideas fly in the face of traditional American dietary advice (but what is that anyway), the results of following his program are undeniable. I have been on the health and nutrition bandwagon for a long time and this book has helped me reach my weight loss goals better than anything else I have tried. I have lost 35 pounds in 3 months and feel great. It truly is a lifestyle change and re-education, not just another one of the countless fad diets that are out there. His program makes a lot of sense once you are willing to get past your own ego and the "logic" of the dietary advice that we have been misled with in this country for so long. Buy this book, check your ego at the door, and be read to lose weight and feel great!

This book is so helpful that I bought an additional one for my daughter in college. We are about 90% raw and this book is really helpful with real recipes we can use.

It is a good book just not what I wanted. Not the kind of recipes I was looking for.

Sproutman Publications is a specialty publisher with an impressive roster of health books to their credit. One of the best of these is the "Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook" by Steve Meyerowitz who began his interest in the relationship of foods to health in 1975 when he sought to deal with a lifetime condition of allergies and asthma. After the traditional medical establishment had failed him for some twenty years, he was able to restore his health through diet and fasting. he at 100% live foods for five years, practices 'fruitarianism -- a diet of fruit, nuts and sprouted seeds -- and fasted on raw juices for as long as 100 days. The resulting improvement to his personal health was amazing. In "Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook", Steve has amassed superb collection of recipes for sprout breads, cookies, soups, and salads, as well as 250 additional low-fat, dairy-free, vegetarian recipes. The recipes are presented after the reader benefits from an informational presentation on the pros-and-cons of dairy, dehydrating foods, nutrition charts, sprouting, food drying, low temperature cooking, how to be a healthy vegetarian, and so much more. From Cashew Cottage Cheese; Mighty Millet Bread; Sunflower Nut Milk; and Banana Chips; to Manhattan Sprout Chowder; Braised Tofu; Spinach Marinade; and Creamed Potato Mash, "Sproutman's Kitchen Garden Cookbook" will prove to be a popular and invaluable addition to the cookbook collection for anyone having to deal with the problems of food related allergies and illnesses, as well as the recipe collections for general vegetarians. Also very highly recommended for those concerned with food related health issues are the other titles from Sproutman Publications (available through their website at www.sproutman.com) including: "The Organic Food Guide"; "Power Juices, Super Drinks"; Juice Fasting & Detoxification"; Wheatgrass: Nature's Finest Medicine; "Water: The Ultimate Cure; and "Food Combing and Digestion".

I got this book because I wanted to make sprout bread. The book is very informative. But 95% of the sprout recipes are for wheat. That is great if you want to sprout wheat, but I don't. It does repeat the same info in many parts of the book. But I would say over all I still say it is a great book. I am on a special diet so a lot of what he has in his recipes I can't use. But I did learn a few things.

I guess I'm not the typical reviewer here - I am interested in healthy eating, but without the context of a major life change for myself and my family of five... I'd like to find new ways to eat well, without undermining our entire familiar (mostly vegetarian, mostly well-balanced) diet.

Let's start with what this book IS: an excellent guide to using all types of sprouts, and to which types are good for which occasions - baking, stir-frying, salads, etc. It's also a rather overt advertisement for "Sproutman's" own website and sprouting tools (sprout bag, greenhouse, seeds, etc); fair enough.

The book is full of interesting, simple recipes and ideas for using sprouts either raw or with low temp cooking to get the most nutrition out of every green, crunchy bite. He's also thrown in a bunch of related nutrition stuff - non-sprout items like vegan ice creams and helpful alternatives to salt and other seasonings.

Still, I found that most of the recipes were impractical for family cooking. If two cups of sprouted wheat make a single small loaf or several crackers or cookies, it doesn't take long to realize I'm going to need wheat berries bursting out of every corner of my tiny kitchen in order to create one meal for the five of us.

And that's just bread! To create enough sprouts for us to eat a single salad, a single stir-fry, a single helping of sprouted nuts... well, we're probably going to need to renovate other areas of the house to accomodate all the grow-bags or baskets.

Also, many of the recipes are just variants on previous recipes. Like, he'll take a page to describe how to make a cracker, and then ANOTHER page - this is just an example from memory - on how to make seasoned crackers, and it's obvious the ingredients and steps are identical, just with seasonings added.

Finally, having tasted sprouts and fermented products, I have some idea of what kinds of flavours to expect. Suggesting that his fermented "rejuvalac" beverage will taste similar to lemonade sounds way overblown. He actually hints that it may taste more "like sauerkraut" - to me, that's a BIG difference. Sorry, but I don't curl up on a summer's day with a tall, cool glass of sauerkraut.

Similarly, I realize our dependence on added sugars is overblown, but if I call something a "cookie", my kids (10 & 11) are going to know I'm lying if it's only sweetened with natural sprout maltose and a few raisins. Yes, sprouts give a nice malty sweetness to bread - but only the most idealistic parents would believe kids would accept it as a special-occasion treat.

I guess I was looking for a book that would help me incorporate sprouts into every aspect of our regular household dishes - stir fries, yes, but also to add flavour/nutrition to standard yeast breads, cakes, cookies, veg patties, etc.

Being almost totally vegan (he practically apologizes in the one section where he asks you to put a bit of butter into your rice cereal), there is too little range of dishes for our family's tastes and the dishes offered seem too monotonous for long-term enjoyment.

This book may be ideal for a single person or a couple who want to try an "extreme" veg or raw-foods or minimal-cooking lifestyle. For our family lifestyle, the overhaul required is too enormous to even begin imagining - and trust me, I have plenty of imagination!

I really like this book - great for transitioning into raw foods. So many recipes and most of them were delicious!

I was really looking forward to getting this book, but was a bit disappointed when recieved it. I really had expected a lot more recipes in the veggie department. Working with fruit is so simply for me, and thats a lot of the contents in this book. It is great book for the smoothie, and summer type food lover. I was hoping to get more knowledge on recipes with more raw vegetables. There should have been more variety, in my opinion. Especially with GREENS! Didnt love it.

I have 7 raw recipe books and this one is my favorite. The recipes are easy to follow and are just scrumptious. The pictures give an accurate idea of how the recipes will turn out however, it is the information found in the book that make it so great.

I bought and returned a few raw cookbooks but this one is REALLY a keeper! It has wonderful receipes that are very real and just look amazing. The quality of the book is great -- the pictures, the layout, etc. everything is made with a lot of love and thoughtfullness. Also, being a novive in the world of raw cooking, I needed some info on sprouting, soaking, dehydrators, etc. and guess what? This book has all the info, including a great chart with the hours necessary for sprouting different food. Also, there is a section on food combining which is a great bonus. All in all, the author has done an amazing job! Thank you! :)

I am very satisfied with the recipes in the book. They are very supporting now that I have decided to live on raw foods!
It is changing my life!! I feel incredible!!

A Great Book to have one at home. Easy to follow and understand. Good to know what we eat everyday.

gThe Tao of Nutritionh is a food therapy guide based on the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which looks at food in a slightly different way from Western nutrition. The book is divided into 5 main sections. Section 1 very briefly outlines the theory including yin and yang, the main organs of the body, the 5 elements and 5 tastes, causes of diseases, prevention of diseases and a guideline for a balanced diet based on a pyramid (which is not unlike that used in macrobiotics). Section 2 is a list of foods including detail on both the energetics (i.e. which of the 5 tastes the food has, as well as whether it has a cooling, warming or moistening tendency) and healing aspects (such as clearing heat, removing dampness, lubricating the lungs, strengthening the heart etc.) of each food. Section 3 gives tips on which foods can help various health conditions, such as bronchitis, eczema and headaches. Section 4 offers vegetarian recipes. Section 5 offers a simple meal plan.

As a non-vegetarian who has studied a little TCM, I was a little disappointed at the vegetarian bent of this book (although some fish and meat are included in the food list in Section 2). TCM does not discriminate against meat, and in fact some meats, such as chicken, are considered a very nourishing food for the weak, sick or elderly. That aside, this is an excellent book showing how to use food for both maintaining health and healing general health conditions.

gThe Tao of Nutritionh is a food therapy guide based on the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which looks at food in a slightly different way from Western nutrition. The book is divided into 5 main sections. Section 1 very briefly outlines the theory including yin and yang, the main organs of the body, the 5 elements and 5 tastes, causes of diseases, prevention of diseases and a guideline for a balanced diet based on a pyramid (which is not unlike that used in macrobiotics). Section 2 is a list of foods including detail on both the energetics (i.e. which of the 5 tastes the food has, as well as whether it has a cooling, warming or moistening tendency) and healing aspects (such as clearing heat, removing dampness, lubricating the lungs, strengthening the heart etc.) of each food. Section 3 gives tips on which foods can help various health conditions such as bronchitis, eczema and headaches. Section 4 offers vegetarian recipes. Section 5 offers a simple meal plan.

As a non-vegetarian who has studied a little TCM, I was a little disappointed at the vegetarian bent of this book (although some fish and meat are included in the food list in Section 2). TCM does not discriminate against meat, and in fact some meats, such as chicken, are considered a very nourishing food for the weak, sick or elderly. That aside, this is an excellent book showing how to use food for both maintaining health and healing general health conditions.

After reading the Tao of Nutritrian by Dr. Chang this book is not worth the paper its printed on. There is much more useful book on foods, than this book.

I bought this book about 4 or 5 years ago and it has become invaluable to me. The book starts with an overview of the principles of Chinese medical philosophy and then goes on with several sections describing the benefits of various foods and spices.

This book is very helpful for treating everyday minor ailments when you cannot, or don't want to, take medications. One of the first cures I tried was eating an apple to stop a dry cough, and it worked wonders!

Since travelling can through your body off its natural rythems, its a great book to travel with. It helps eat to prevent or cure those ailments of travel.

If you want to help your body heal itself, this is the book for you.

I love this book. It has great yummy recipes and the diet is not too hard to follow. It worked for me!

The book contains good ideas and a break down of all calories in a given meal. Some of the recipes seem a little banal.Others are pretty good.

The great thing about a McDougall recipe is the spice blends. Mary McDougall really knows how to put spices together to make things delicious. I highly recommend this and other McDougall books.

In an 8 month battle with the health effects of years on the standard Western diet, this book is now the first off my shelf of cookbooks. (McDougall Quick and Easy is second).

The index is useful. The food is filling and tasty. The health effect is 65 pounds lost and cholesterol cut in half. You will satisfy your desire for good food and possibally save your life!

I think all of Dr. McDougall's books are very very good. The cookbooks are really a big help to me as I learn how to cook this new way. The China Study got my husband and I started in this direction and we are very happy it did! We do feel a lot better already but expect to feel even better after a few more months (we are in our first month). This is a cookbook that I plan on using for a long time. I also like the Almost No Fat Cookbook by Grogan (it uses no animal fat).

McDougall rocks! I think Dr. McDougall has the answers to our health problems and reading all of his books, even the ones that are out of print or hard to find is so worth the effort. If you want to see your blood pressure go down, your cholesterol drop and your aches and pains go away - you've got nothing to lose by giving his program a try. You quickly become accustomed to a change in your diet. If you want to stay away from the doctor, get rid of your prescriptions and chuckle at the commericals for medications - you need to begin McDougalling. Life changing!

Dr. McDougall's change of food has helped me a great deal. I was having trouble with high sugar, triglycerides, etc and now am having trouble with iron in my blood. Eating no meat, dairy, white bread, white rice has brought all down and I am not hungry. It is filling and his books give me ideas for new recipes.

I was very pleased with this cookbook, seeing recipes for things that I have been missing since being sensitive to numerous foods. Very comprehensive & helpful. Each basic recipe (lemon bread, etc) has several alternatives to create a different dish (like adding poppy seeds & making into muffins). The brownies were awesome & so was the pumpkin bread. The "Magical one-bowl muffins" are also great with 20 different variations for savory or sweet. Blueberry pancakes were great too!
I have a grain mill which makes these recipes very easy for me to make. I have whole grains/beans that I grind to make the flour. They have a suggestion for an all-purpose flour mix, which I make a double batch & keep in the freezer. I can whip everything up in a flash. Can you tell I'd been craving breads?
I haven't tried many other recipes yet. I also haven't read the first half of the book, which is information that I am already familiar with.
Another good book is the gluten-free vegan.
This book is HIGHLY recommended! I give it 5 stars, but the option is stuck on 4 stars.

Half reference book, half cookbook, there's a lot of great information to be found in this book. However, I wish the title had specified that this is a book designed for those following a vegan diet. For some people on very restricted diets it isn't practical or healthy to follow a vegan diet.

I purchase this cookbook to help me feed my son, who has multiple food allergies. I have no hesitation in recommending this cookbook for families just starting this journey. Many other allergy cookbooks seem to be limited to one or two allergies or sensitivities. This cookbook does a good job of staying away from multiple problems.

I recently found out I had a gluten allergy and had been desperately looking for recipes for old favorites (breads, muffins, cookies, scones etc...) when I stumbled on this book. I hurriedly got it at Politics and Prose in Washington D.C. and went directly to the grocery store to procure all the new ingredients I will need to eat gluten-free. I made the Sunny Seed Bread as soon as I got home (with the book's recipe for all purpose allergen-free flour). It is AMAZING! Not only the best bread I've ever made (gluten breads included, and i've tried MANY) but one of the best breads I've ever tasted. ANYONE would love this bread, and there is no giving leniencies because it's "gluten-free" - no one could ever tell. Not to mention gluten-free, but the book really does cater to all allergies - corn, yeast, egg, nuts, dairy ETC ETC ETC. How can these recipes be so delicious when they are free of so much? It's a true phenomenon and PHENOMENAL book. I knew that if Jo Stepaniak was working on the recipes, they would be outstanding. She definetly delivers, as she always does. Another author I knew to trust was Vesanto Melina, from the wonderful "Becoming Vegan" book. I am thoroughly impressed and CAN'T WAIT to try all the other recipes - ultra fudgy brownies, berbere (ethiopian) spice mix, graham masala, muffins (with so many varieties possible), scones, etc. Although I mention a lot of sweets (i have a sweet tooth) the book has MUCH MORE than sweets; all kinds of vegetable and bean recipes, savory crepes, spreads, dressings, savory baked goods, etc. etc. etc. I am SURE that all of these recipes will be delicious, tried and true by the dependable Jo.
As well as delicious recipes, the book contains a ton of information on all the common (and even some less common) food allergies. This information is incredibly interesting and useful; the authors are a lot more thorough than one might expect from a book with so many delicious recipes. A feature I particularly appreciated: For each allergy there is a table with all the foods that definetly contain the allergen and a table with all the foods that possibly contain the allergen. I especially enjoyed a section where new foods are introduced. These foods, like buckwheat, amaranth, miso, quinoa to name a few are not new to the world, and the brief histories and tidbits explain this and much more.
Overall, it's a wonderful book. It's clear the authors put a lot of time and TLC into creating this marvelous book. I can't praise it highly enough. I'm so glad I bought it. For the size and length of the book, especially for it's quality, helpfulness and enjoyability, you're definetly your money's worth and much, much more. Thank you SO much Jo, Vesanto and Dina.

The layout and title of this book gives the strong impression of a guidebook, yet quite a cast of recipes lies within. In fact, the latter half of the book is all cookbook, with over 100 recipes. I was elated to find that each recipe was free of dairy, eggs, fish, gluten, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, wheat, and yeast. How refreshing to find a book that actually lives up to its title / subtitle. It was so nice to not have to sort through which recipes were "safe" and which weren't, the whole book was a go!

As for the first half of the cookbook, it seems to be a culmination of food allergy knowledge from among the three well known authors, Vesanto Melina (MS, RD), Dina Aronson (MS, RD), and Jo Stepaniak (MSEd). I have read and perused more than a few food allergy books, and this is certainly one of the best. The authors touch on the required material, such as explaining food allergies / sensitivities and food allergy testing, but they then move on to cover new ground that is seldom discussed in the surface world of food allergies.

Though the book reads fairly well, some sections do get bogged down in biology and other details. Some sub-chapter listings would be helpful to make this a true reference book. Each chapter is truly dense with information, and per standard, the index is a bit too muddled with keywords to serve as a quick and easy guide.

I have already trialed several of the recipes, including the Chickpea Pizza, a Mediterranean style flat bread, the Beannaise, a soy-free, dairy-free mayonnaise alternative, and the Hot Fudge Sauce (pretty self explanatory). All worked out but the sauce, which I will retry. I have been very pleased with the ease of the recipes, spending less than 30 minutes on each, even when preparing them for the first time! Not to mention, aside from an inexpensive bag of chickpea flour (easier to find than I thought), I haven't had to purchase any out of the ordinary ingredients. It should be noted that all of the recipes are also vegetarian / vegan.