Editorial Review

Reviews

Every doctor, teacher and parent needs to read this book!, January 25, 2005
T. Colin Campbell has made a career of challenging the conventional wisdom around nutrition, and this book is the culmination of his work. His integrity, brilliance, and unflinching courage shine through every page.

The main point of this book is that most nutritional studies that we hear about in the media are poorly constructed because of what the author terms "scientific reductionism." That is, they attempt to pin down the effects of a single nutrient in isolation from all other aspects of diet and lifestyle.

While this is the "gold standard" for clinical trials in the pharmaceutical world, it just doesn't work when it comes to nutrition. Given that the Western diet is extremely high fat and high protein compared to most of the rest of the world, studies that examine slight variations in this diet (i.e., adding a few grams of fiber or substituting skim milk for full fat milk) are like comparing the mortality rates of people who smoke five packs of cigarettes a day vs. people who smoke only 97 cigarettes a day.

Campbell's research, which he describes in a very accessible and engaging fashion, has two tremendous advantages over the typical nutritional study. First, there is the China Study itself - a massive series of snapshots of the relationship between diet and disease in over 100 villages all over China. The rates of disease differ greatly from region to region, and Campbell and his research partners (including some of the most distinguished scholars and epidemiologists in the world) carefully correlated these differences with the varying diets of the communities.

It's not lazy "survey research" either - the researchers don't rely on their subjects' memory to determine what they ate and drank. The researchers also observed shopping patterns and took blood samples to cross-validate all the data.

The second amazing part of Campbell's research method is his refusal to accept any finding without taking it back to his lab and finding out how exactly it works. In other words, we discover in The China Study not only in what way, but precisely how, the foods we eat can either promote or compromise our health.

The book is part intellectual biography / hero's journey (although Campbell is always wonderfully humble - there's no trace of self-congratulation, just a deep gratitude for what he has experienced), part nutrition guide (the most honest and unflinching one you'll ever read), and part expose. The final section leaves no sacred cow standing, and names names! From the food industry, to the government, to academia, Campbell calmly reports on a coverup of nutritional truth so widespread and insidious that all citizens should be enraged.

I have a PhD in health education and a Masters in Public Health - and I can honestly say that no book has shaken my worldview like this one. Anyone interested in health - their own, or that of their family, friends, or community - must read this book and share it. Campbell has started a revolution. Skip this work at your own peril.

Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?, December 24, 2006
I love juicy steaks, delicious cheese, and big bowls of ice cream. I love to eat out at nice restaurants. And I really like eating without thinking about the operations and consequences of our dietary industrial complex. But I don't get to enjoy these things any more because I read the China Study. Like Neo in the movie the Matrix, you have a choice, take the blue pill and believe what you want to believe, take the red pill and you will be exposed to the reality of the world we live in. The China Study is the red pill.

This is a fascinating book on the capitalism, politics, and human behavior that drives the food industry. It is also frighteningly insightful into the health consequences of an affluent societies' diet. I am not a scientist so I don't know if this is good science. But I did work ten years ago as a government attorney on the USDA dietary guidelines and was surprised by the political influence and acceptance of what the author would call scientific reductionism. I also worked for a man who lived and worked until he was 100 years old, and he had a dietary regime very similar to that recommended by the China Study: not vegan nor vegetarian, but largely based on plants and whole foods rather than animal based foods. So I found this book very persuasive - in fact, too persuasive. It scared me straight so I eat healthy now and that's good for the long term...but I don't enjoy it like I used to.

Fantastic!, December 25, 2005
This is a fantastic book that's loaded with so much eye opening information, it's the kind of book that I'll read again. I feel if you don't convert to a whole food plant based diet after reading this book, I don't think anything in the world will convince you....the evidence is just overwhelming.


As for my story, I was on statins for high cholesterol for over 6 years....and a moderate to high dose at that. Over the years, my cholesterol kept rising gradually and my total cholesterol was just over 300 and a triglyceride level in the mid 200's without statins. The moderate/high dose statin brought my cholesterol down to the range of high 190's to low 200's. Over the years, I tried to get off the medication and I was told to try to eat a low fat diet, don't eat shrimp, lobster, etc. I went off the statins, tried this diet for several months and none of this helped....actually my cholesterol went higher....I was told it's hereditary, there's nothing you can do, and I should take the statin and that I would be on them indefinitely. Well, after reading the book "The China Study", there's a few paragraphs tucked in this great book mentioning that the major factor causing high cholesterol is eating any animal protein. The only meat I ate at the time was fish and chicken and small portions of it....and maybe beef a few times a year, if that. I have to say I was skeptical and figured what do I have to lose, so I went on a whole food plant based diet (vegan diet)as Dr. Campbell in the book suggests. I started that last November (same time I stopped taking the statins), and I had my cholesterol checked this past summer and was stunned at the result....my total cholesterol went from over 300 without statins, high 190's/low 200's on moderate/high does statin, to 175 without statins on Vegan diet, with good LDL and HDL. I'm guessing next time it's checked it will be even lower. Also, my triglycerides went from the mid 200's to 64! All as a result of just giving up animal products....amazing. Now I wonder....why wasn't I ever given this option by the doctor's I've seen over the years? Even if a person doesn't want to give up animal products completely as I have, why isn't this advice offered as at least an option to a patient.....and let the patient decide? What a concept!

Of course, I feel my cholesterol and triglycerides levels are just the tip of the iceberg on how my health has improved on a plant based diet....the only regret?....I wish I started the vegan diet earlier....I never have had so much energy and just downright have never felt so good....seriously...this is not an overstatement.

As to all the doubters out there with harsh reviews, I say to each is own but ignore the evidence at your own risk. I've seen many of my friends and family sick by what I feel this book has proven by many studies to be nothing more than a bad diet for the most part and most of them are looking for a magic pill to save them....and the old standby argument that it's all genetic doesn't appear to hold much water either....again, proven by studies in the book.

My friend, family, and co-workers know how I eat now and wonder why I want to live forever....that's not the issue....quality of life over quantity of life...isn't this what we should all be after?

My Personal Experience, August 22, 2006
On January 21, 2006, the day I started eating according to guidelines given in The China Study, I was 63 years old, 5 feet 10 1/2 inches tall, weighed 213 pounds and with a BMI of 130 was on the first rung of being obese, even though I did not look it. The first week I lost 5 pounds, the 2nd 5 pounds, the 3rd five pounds, the 4th 4 pounds, then 3, 2, 1, until I lost 35 pounds in about 3 months and then stabilized at about 178 pounds. My blood pressure went from an average of 141 over 91 to an average of 120 over 81. My total cholesterol went from over 200 to 127. I no longer feel that I am on a slow decline from 50 years onward, but feel happy and alive now. Much like when I was a kid. Today is August 22, 2006 and I know that this will be the way I eat and live for the duration. For me it's a matter of survival, physically and spiritually. I have given over 20 copies of the book to people I care about, including a waitress at an Outback Steakhouse in Virginia. It was May; she was worrying about her dad and wanted to get him something for Father's Day. By the way steakhouses are a great place to get real yummy vegetables. This is my true story. By the way, thank you Dr. Campbell and Thomas Campbell.

Nutritional Excellence-A Nobel Worthy Masterpiece, January 17, 2007
As an M.D. nutritionist I was inspired by and practiced the concepts in Dr Campbell's book for over 10 years. I'm here to document that in practice,with very sick people these principles of nutrition work! For the past decade I have taught and guided many patients in vegan diets using Campbell's earlier booklet, The China Project, as my primary reinforcement. Thousands of very ill people with cancer, autoimmune disease,degenerative heart and vascular disease and other problems have reaped the benefits of this landmark nutritional masterpiece. Acheiving nutritional excellence does not "treat" disease. It does, however, enhance our body's innate physiologic mechanisms which fight disease. For over 10 years I've documented these often dramatic and unbelievable results. The beneficial response patterns over time are clear and undeniable. To delay reading this book is to postpone a journey into wellness. This book can and will change your life forever and you will never again fail to understand why you are sick and why conventional medical treatment may not be the answer. Doctor's, hospitals and medication kill over 200,000 people a year. Can you afford to trust your health to a medical system that may not have the answers to your dilemma? The answers you seek, the understanding you crave will be found in The China Study. Dan E. Chesnut,M.D.

China Study Review, September 22, 2007
When I began reading this book, I couldn't put it down. In the first section, when Dr. Campbell described his own experiments on the effect of milk protein on liver cancer in rats, I just poured through page after page, thinking, "What great science"!

At that point in the book he reported his experiments, their rather dramatic results, was careful to point out the limitations and did not extrapolate. So far, very good.

In the next section he describes the China Study itself. There is also an addendum at the back, which gives more detail about the structure of the study. The foundation for the study was a database collected by the Chinese government during the 1970's. It listed the age and causes of death in each of China's provinces over a certain time period. For the follow-up study ten years later, they chose 67 rural villages and gathered data on details about diet, several markers from blood samples and other factors, on approximately 6000 individuals. He claims to have data on about 350 variables. However, only 57 of the 417 pages in the book are devoted to discussion of The China Study.

The purpose of the study was to try to relate diet and other factors, with the diseases that caused death, especially cancers. His particular interest was about the effect of a purely vegetarian diet. It bothered me that he had undertaken leadership of that follow-up study, with a pre-conceived notion of what he wanted it to show.

At this point in the book, Dr. Campbell began to make very broad statements about the Chinese diet and the benefits of a diet that was devoid of animal protein. This is where I really began to have trouble, because I felt that either the study itself or his description of it fell short of supporting the broad claims he was making.

There's no discussion of things like smoking, environmental pollution and sanitation, all of which plague China.... Even rural China.

Another thing that bothered me was his description of the Chinese diet. It flies in the face of my own observations and experiences during many trips to China and other parts of Asia, over the course of about 35 years.

Meat and seafood are a major staple of the Asian diet. They eat quite a bit of pork, chicken, duck, pigeons, fish, eggs and even snakes, organs and sea creatures that Americans would not eat. They do eat much less animal protein than Americans and always accompany it with lots of rice and vegetables. In that sense, their diet is much better than ours. But it is not vegetarian. Although much of their food is stir-fried in a wok, it is done with vegetable oils. Until very recently, junk food has not been available and it is rare to find beef. So it is a much better-balanced diet than ours.

In years past, during trips to Taiwan, I've been to markets where live chickens & ducks were laid on the ground with their feet tied together. People would either buy them live, or have the merchant slaughter & clean them before their eyes. In one market I saw a vendor selling the blood from snakes he had killed & drained as the people watched. Next day, my hosts took me to a snake-meat restaurant for lunch! (Not much meat & lots of bones.) In back alleys of Taipei, I saw families raising pigeons for food.

Just last year at a Shanghai food market in a very old and traditional neighborhood, the emphasis was on meat and fish. There was a section that sold vegetables & rice, but around the fringes of the central meat market. The displays were open and there was no refrigeration!

As the book proceeded through other chapters, making incessant claims about the preventative and curative effects of an all-vegetable diet, he begins to sound like a 19th century "Snake oil" merchant.

He's a zealot on a soap box. Mind you, HE MAY BE RIGHT. Most of what he says about nutrition has been heard before and is considered by many, to be the Holy Grail of diet. There is certainly a lot of public opinion that red meat, animal fat and highly refined carbs are bad for you. But after the first section, I felt that his science became lost in his rhetoric.

Throughout the early parts of the book, I began to wonder what the meat and dairy industries had to say about all this. He certainly got into that in excruciating detail. Again, to the extreme where unfortunately, he sounded like all the folks at the fringes who claim that "Big business" and "Government" are trying to discredit them. I kept thinking of all the stories of big oil companies buying the patents for a "90 mile per gallon" carburetor, to keep it off the market. (On the other hand, there's Galileo.)

After finishing the book, I went to the Internet to look for critiques. There are plenty! Most are by vegetarians and vegetarian societies, all were having orgasms over the book. Finally I did find a site with some criticisms. Now I'd better mention that this site belongs to an organization that advocates increased consumption of fats and oils. However, the critique of the book was limited to a few specific items and did seem to be based on good science.

I do have some experience with statistical methods of extracting the effect of individual variables from data involving many variables and felt a bit uneasy about the analysis methods while reading Campbell's chapters about the study. This critique pointed out that with 350 variables and just 67 samples, there are not enough samples to establish high (95%) levels of statistical confidence. The best that data structure could accomplish is an "Indication," but not proof.

Actually, Campbell himself does discuss the limitations of statistical methods. His problem is that as the book progresses, he wanders away from "probability" and speaks with "certainty" about too many diverse subjects.

The critic, who had apparently examined the actual 900 page Study report, also claimed that Campbell had ignored data that was counter to his theories and in some cases showed negative results of a vegetarian diet. (That does happen when dealing with probabilities.) He then went on to question the reliability of some of the blood markers that were used. (That part was far beyond any of my knowledge.) Also, the fact that the blood samples of each village were pooled, did enable more markers to be measured, but all data about the variability among individuals was lost.

Another thing that bothered me was that Campbell completely ignored the fact that anthropologists tell us that hominids have been eating meat for about 2.5 million years, apparently with great success. Also, if meat is so harmful, why and how do carnivorous animals thrive?

He tells that cow's milk can cause type-1 diabetes in babies, but that mother's milk is ok. He leaves a gaping hole in his discussion because he doesn't explain the differences between those two types of milk.


So, what is my bottom line on this book?
It is widely accepted that vegetables, especially fresh vegetables, are good for you. No argument there. His early research clearly indicates that there is a threshold, above which animal protein can do some harm. That is intuitively appealing. We Americans do eat much too much meat. But, given the extremely long omnivorous history of mankind, it would seem that a moderate amount of animal protein is an important dietary nutrient.

I feel that Campbell has raised many good points, but his zealotry has taken him too far from sound science. That's too bad. He's hurt his credibility.

A Life Saving Experience, November 14, 2006
As a physician, I know how little is taught to medical students about nutrition. As an amateur chef, I've read for years about what we need to do for our diet in order to be healthier. Large studies, such as the Framingham study, do make comments about exercise and nutrition, but as far as I know have never gone into the detail that Dr. Campbell has. His credentials are impeccable. His research is impressive. It brought everything together for me. I've stopped eating meat and avoid most dairy. I bought 12 copies for family and friends immediately, because I felt that I was ethically bound to do this. Now I'm ordering more copies. It is a terrific example of how information that can literally be lifesaving is suppressed by many means. I only wish I'd had this info when I was 40 instead of 62. Of course, my husband, a cardiologist, so far has not read the book. He does eat everything I cook.

Good science leading to bad conclusions, September 11, 2009
Review of the China Study

I am a scientist, not specifically in the field of nutrition, though I have touched on it as an aside of my main focus, and I know how to research and interpret (correctly!) scientific work. I have read The China Study and the China Project (a publication of the actual data from the study). Normally when reading bad science information I would just shrug it off and move on but thought that there would be people out there that would just take the authors word of the truth of the book, resulting in unnecessary dietary alterations and damage to health all with the aim of trying to get healthier. As such I have written my thoughts on the book - take from them what you will.

The China Study is an attempt by Campbell to promote veganism as a dietary lifestyle through scientific research. Unfortunately the scientific basis of the book if full off misinterpretations, omissions of conflicting data, and conclusions and statements based on unreferenced facts (possibly not facts?). I began reading the book with an open mind but from the outset it was clear that Campbell had one mantra - animal based food is bad, plant based food is good, and this is repeated over and over throughout the book.

Let's first look at Campbells own laboratory studies. In the presence of Aflatoxin, a carcinogen, rats fed a diet of 20% casein, a milk protein, develop cancer while those that are fed 5% casein do not. Okay, I am willing to accept that study on face value. How much casein causes cancer then? In a dose response study Campbell found that 10% casein doesn't contribute to cancer development, but above 10% does. Again, I am happy to accept that. A diet made up of 10% casein contributes to cancer development. How does that apply to humans? After describing a study about nitrosamines and how the dose wasn't relevant to the human population (page 45), Campbell has done the exact same thing with his Casein study. Casein is a milk protein. In 100ml of whole milk, the macro nutrient content is 5.2g of carbohydrate, 3.25g of fat and 3.2g of protein that equals 11.65g of nutrients, the rest of the 100ml mostly made up of water. Milk protein is 80% casein, 80% of 3.2g is 2.56, so out of that 11.65 total, 2.56 is casein which equals 22% of the total. Oh no! Milk will cause us to develop cancer! But don't worry, as long as we get the casein down to 10% we will be safe. How do we do that? Eat 13.95g of anything that is not casein. Pretty easy to do. So as long as we are not living of more than about 50% milk, then we are safe from cancer as a result of the casein in the milk. Do you know anybody that has that much milk? And that is ignoring the fact that casein extracted from milk for the purposes of his study is not exactly a healthy, natural source of protein purely as a result of the chemical extraction.

But hang on, what if other proteins contribute to the development of cancer? Campbell thought that so he investigated gluten and soy and found that neither of them had the same impact as casein. That clearly shows that not all proteins contribute to cancer, and having tested 2 plant proteins and 1 of the many animal proteins, we must therefore conclude that ALL animal proteins lead to cancer and ALL plant proteins do not. Does anybody else see a problem with this? All that we can conclude from these studies is a diet made up of above 10% casein, may contribute to the development of cancer and a diet below 10% casein does not contribute. That is all. Other proteins, both animal and plant, like gluten and soy, may behave differently and unless you have a milk fetish or you are downing large amounts of casein based protein powder (like the rats in the study) then the study is largely irrelevant to your diet or your health.

Before moving on I have one more observation; To test the impact of decreased protein from 20 to 5% they replaced some of the protein with carbohydrates to keep the calories the same. Commenting on the addition of carbohydrate he says "the extra starch and glucose in the low-protein diets could not have been responsible for the lower development of foci because these carbohydrates, when tested alone, actually increase foci development" (page 351). So carbohydrates, which come from plants, increase the development of foci? PLANTS CAUSE CANCER TOO?? Could this be something worth elaborating on or including in a conclusion? No, better not, lets keep that brief mention of carbohydrates causing cancer stuck away in an appendix in case anybody gets the wrong idea.

It is apparent from his casein studies that Campbell has come to the conclusion that "20% casein causes cancer, therefore all animal protein is bad". It is with this mindset that he then set out on the giant study of the China Project, a commendable effort that could have had many beneficial outcomes. Unfortunately, possibly as a result of his previous work, Campbell has gone in with blinders on, and all he can see is animal protein and the negative health outcomes associated with its' consumption. The project itself and the original publication arising from it produced a vast amount of data that provides some interesting insight into health and disease. However, what Campbell has shown in the China Study is but a fraction of the information to be gained from the project. It would require a whole new study (unbiased this time preferably) to go into all the beneficial knowledge we could gain, but I will touch on a few things here.

Campbells main conclusion in the China Study is that all animal protein contributes to disease and all plant protein prevents disease. In the original project, they performed a diet survey over 3 days, analyzing all the food consumed per person in that time. Guess how many of the measured mortality factors (about 50 of them), were associated with animal protein consumption measured from the diet survey. Zero. Zero. Zero. Okay, so Campbell can't have come to his conclusions from there. They also had study participants fill out a questionnaire that included one question on meat consumption. Guess how many mortality factors correlated with that? One type of cancer (naso-pharyngeal or something I think it was). An example of some of the many other inclusions in the questionnaire are canola oil and potatoes (not sweet potatoes) which both had a number of positive associations with the development of different types of cancer. Apparently that wasn't worth mentioning in the China Study. Speaking of oil, Campbell makes reference to %fat in the diet being a good indicator of animal protein consumption, despite the fact they clearly use enough canola oil (a vegetable fat) to measure in the study.

So a 3 day food consumption survey shows no association between animal protein and mortality and a questionnaire shows an association between meat and one of many cancers measured. From where can Campbell come to his evil animal protein conclusion then? They also took plasma samples and measured them for blood biomarkers of animal protein consumption. These biomarkers, listed in the references for chapter 4 #39 are "plasma copper, urea nitrogen, estradiol, prolactin, testosterone and, inversely, sex hormone binding globulin, each of which has been known to be associated with animal protein intake from previous studies". No mention of these previous studies of course. So the associations with most of those biomarkers and mortality rates are dubious, and the only biomarker statistically associated with cancer mortality is copper. Many places show food sources of copper and I went to [...] find the best sources of copper. The best? Calfs liver. The next 40 best? All from plants. 42 and 43 are shrimp and venison, the only other animal source in the list on the site. So for copper to be a biomarker of animal consumption then the participants in this study must be eating a lot of calf liver and avoiding a lot of vegetables. Sound realistic?

So from an association between blood biomarkers, the only real one being copper, and cancer mortality, Campbell has concluded that animal protein gives you cancer, despite the fact that the majority of dietary sources of copper are actually from plant sources. So that basically leaves Campbell with no actual evidence between animal consumption and mortality as a result of the original China project.

A final note. In his eating right section Campbell says supplements are bad (principle 2). Principle 3 then says "there are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants"(page 230), but over the page he says plants are not a good source of vitamin B12 and you probably should take a supplement. What? Then in the how to eat section on page 242 he says "the findings from the China Study indicate that the lower percentage of animal-based foods that are consumed, the greater the health benefits-even when the percentage declines from 10% to 0% of calories". As I've clearly shown, the China Study does not show this, and his own study with Casein proved that there was no benefit in eating less then 10% of your diet from Casein.

Clearly Campbell is a vegetarian, as he states in the book, and promoting vegetarianism is his main goal, which he tries to back up with scientific research that actually disagrees with him, but that he has interpreted in a way that makes it agree with him. Bad science, bad book and definitely bad recommendations as far as health. While I'm not saying go out and live on animal products alone, I don't think you should stop eating them, especially because they are tasty, but even if only for a natural source of vitamin B12.

Invaluable Information about nutrition, food & drug industries and medical profession, December 10, 2006
It's about nutrition and chronicle diseases (heart, cancer, diabetes, etc.). A highly readable book, from the medical angle as well as from societal angle.

Here is shock #1: Protein in milk promotes cancer. Unbelievable? It's proven in animal trials and observed in human population study. The book presents findings of many researchers, including a large scale study on nutrition and chronicle disease done in China by Dr. Campbell (hence the title China study).

The author grew up on a farm (milking cows when he was a boy), became a well-trained, well respected and well funded research scientist at Cornell and participated in national-level nutrition policy making. He found convincing evidence through decades of research (funded by NIH, etc.) that switching to a plant-based food can reduce risk of top killers in the U.S. (heart diseases, cancer, etc.) and even stop and reverse them!. Ha!

So basically he calls for veggie diet (the whole-foods type, not the pasta, sugar and cookie type).

This is not a big news to many people. But I was really surprised by how readable his book is and how reasonable he is, addressing all possible suspicious aroused by his stunning conclusions. He was suspicious himself in the beginning and cautious in conducting his research. He asked "Am I crazy?" after he discovered the protein intake positively correlated with liver cancer in children in the Philippines, where he went to promote "good nutrition" by adding more protein in their diet. He then explained the solid follow-up research he conducted (all peer reviewed and funded by NIH and other reputable organizations).

He also spends maybe 50% of the text on powerful influences from industry as well as the medical profession itself that prevent research results like this to reach the public. For example, in Cleveland Clinic, the renowned heart-disease treatment center, some senior staff doctors and trustees, having heart problems themselves, go to see Dr. Esselstyn. Dr. Esselstyn was a top-ranked surgeon in the world. However these patients went to see Dr. Esselstyn not for his surgical skills, but for his plant-based nutrition treatment. Dr. Esselstyn, despite all awards he got during his successful career (in fact top earner in department of general surgery for over ten years!), he came to realize that without a change in diet, all the surgery and drugs didn't prolong patients lives, didn't reduce their chances of heart problem after these treatments. So he conducted a study of 18 patients following a low-fat, plant-based diet. Their heart diseases were reversed! Yet he couldn't get the Clinic to use his program to treat heart patients. So he had to set up his own practice. Then words get out and apparently the senior staff doctor and trustees KNEW this is a better option than surgery - many of them seeked help from Dr. Esselstyn. YET THEY STILL DON'T ALLOW DR. Esselstyn''s program to enter the Cleveland Clinic!!!

Wow! That's something, huh?

But think about it, it makes sense. Doctors are people, they need to make money to pay for houses, children's education, etc. If you tell them just by eating a true whole-foods veggie diet, people can avoid and indeed reverse heart diseases and various cancers, which the medical man cannot do yet, then their skills, and therefore their earning power, are rendered worthless. I wouldn't be happy if I were a heart surgery or cancer specialist.

This book demands attention!, February 13, 2005
The China Study is a courageous survey of the best science has to offer about your health and what you eat. In addition, the China Study reveals a system of nutrition misinformation that has created public confusion equal to that which surrounded the health implications of smoking. Remember the days when "no one knew" that smoking was bad for you? That all ended when a few morally courageous individuals spoke out and demanded examination of the topic. We now know that the tobacco industry not only knew the health risks, they added ingredients to make their products more addictive. The current state of nutrition information is just as convoluted - and the food industry is just as interested in keeping you confused and addicted to its products. Dr. Campbell (writing with his son, Thomas) is the morally courageous voice in this field and he speaks the truth about what he has found, above the clamor of the objecting voices in "the establishment".

The book is organized into four parts. The first part follows the compelling life story / research career of Dr. Campbell. Campbell grew up on a dairy farm in Virginia and began his professional life trying to discover more efficient ways of raising cattle to deliver protein to our diets. Through an accidental series of discoveries, he became interested in the relationship between high levels of protein consumption and cancer development. He ended up with astonishing research that showed high levels of protein consumption to be a more potent promoter of cancer than high level exposures to Aflotoxin. This startling evidence led him to organize "The China Study" (namesake for the book) - a uniquely comprehensive study of the relationship between diet and disease in 65 counties of rural China. The study examined approximately 6,500 adults and looked at blood samples, urine samples, and food intake records (researchers went into homes to observe and collect this data), to document over 367 variables related to health status and diet. This data was systematically compared with disease rates for 48 different diseases.

The second part of the book is a survey of professional scientific research from around the world, regarding the relationship between diet and a whole host of diseases. Campbell focuses on a class of diseases - referred to as "diseases of affluence" - that are experienced at higher rates in developed countries than in developing countries. This part of the book meticulously documents the relationship between various diets and the following diseases: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, common cancers (breast, prostate, large bowel), auto-immune diseases (including type I diabetes, MS), osteoporosis, kidney stones, macular degeneration, dementia and Alzheimer's. This survey reveals that across this broad range of diseases, there is one diet that consistently prevents these diseases, and one diet that consistently promotes these diseases.

The third part of the book is a brief nutritional guide. It discusses eight principles of food and health, and gives advice on how to eat. In essence, these eight principles present Campbell's theory of nutrition - what is important to health and what is not. Principle six, for example, says "the same nutrition that prevents disease in its early stages (before diagnosis) can also halt or reverse disease in its later stages (after diagnosis)." The principles create a well-founded summary derived from the evidence presented earlier in the book.

The fourth and final part of the book answers the question "so why haven't I heard all this before?" Campbell sits in a unique position to answer this question. He has been involved in the relationship between nutritional scientific research and public health information at all levels. As a university researcher, he built a career on publicly funded grant research, he sat on the approval boards for similar grant programs, and he experienced the politics involved. As a well-respected expert in his field, he was called to testify before Congress on food safety, he sat on the panel that developed nutrition information labeling for packaged foods, and he has been on the National Academy of Science's expert panel on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer. As a dedicated scientist, he helped found the American Institute for Cancer Research, and he is familiar with the policy and funding priorities of this and other cancer research groups. From this unique position, Campbell reveals a public health information system that is biased. Although he is deliberate to state that he does not see a back room conspiracy here, he is conclusive in arguing that our system is corrupted and unreliable.

The fourth section, combined with the strength of the scientific evidence presented in this book, strongly establishes that this book should have an appeal that is MUCH broader than the alternative crowd, the "vegan" crowd, or the "health nut" crowd. This is more than a diet book, more than a book for people who are already suffering from disease and looking for help, and more than a fringe perspective. This is a book that demands attention, demands answers and should be given not only deep thought but also wide publicity. Who will answer for this system of corruption, and how will we get them to do it? Ignoring the information in this book would be as grave as ignoring the first courageous individuals that presented reliable evidence against the tobacco industry. Read this book, share it with someone you love, and call your Congressman to demand action. This book should change lives. Though it sounds an alarm, it also pronounces that we have strong hope - a simple, proven and economically efficient means to prevent and treat a host of diseases and to create long, vibrantly healthy lives. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

TOTAL KNOCKOUT!, October 12, 2010
I am shocked at how engrossed I am with this book. I want to cook every single recipe! The biggest surprise--aside from learning how many calories I could save by cooking for myself--was how motivating the recipes are. Beautiful pictures and simplified cooking tips turn complex dishes into super-easy recipes. Many of the recipes even come with variations in case you can't find a certain ingredient or just want more variety. Here are my four favorites so far:


*Red Pepper Alfredo - AMAZING dish, and I saved 830 calories and $10 over the same meal at Olive Garden.

*Loaded Calzone - Far easier than I ever imagined, and I saved 1,025 (!) calories and $4.50 over Pizza Hut's Meaty P'Zone Pizza

*French Toast Stuffed with Strawberries -Whole-wheat toast stuffed with ricotta cheese, strawberries, honey, and almonds. Yum. I will definitely be making this again! And I saved 810 calories and $11.40 over IHOP's version.

*Curry with Cauliflower & Butternut Squash - I had no idea I was capable of making curry. Or that I could save 717 calories and $8.50 in the process.


My kitchen skills are improving, I'm motivated to cook, and I already feel healthier. And if I don't feel like cooking one night, I'll just dive into the chapter dedicated to 10-minute meals. That should be easy enough. Though, to be honest, nothing I've cooked so far has taken me much more than 20.

Awesome utility!, December 2, 2010
I bought this book at Walmart (paid a lot more for it there) and it was completely worth it. So far, I have tried a half dozen of the recipes, and ALL of them have been a huge success. One reviewer rights about how it is only restraunt selections..... false. At the bottom of each ORIGINAL recipe in here, they show what a restaurant alternative is, and how much money and calories you save by cooking at home. Also helpful in this book is new cooking tips and techniques. For example, as a southerner - I love fried foods. This book showed me how to "oven fry" foods to have that familiar taste and crispy outside without all the extra calories from submerging foods in hot grease. Other techniques in this book that have been helpful are how to braise meats and use the natural drippings to make your own sauces while cooking, increasing the natural flavor of dishes.

2 weeks in, 11 pounds down

5 Stars in my book!

Perfect for Foodies and Flunkies, November 4, 2010
I'm a recent college student turned amateur chef. This book not only educated me on healthy food I should be cooking, but how to cook it easily. Many of the ingredients can be found in local grocery stores and recipes aren't complicated. That being said- the food is delicious. As a former junk food binge eater, I almost don't taste how good the food is for me.

Very well-written and educational, but also personal.

Awesome Book, November 28, 2010
I can not say enough good things about this book. The recipes are delicious and very easy to make. I have also found that I can buy fresh ingredients and use them for other recipes in the same book. I have been eating out of this book for about 2 months now and find the recipes easy. I had to eat processed food the other day and felt so sick afterwards. This has made meal planning in my house easier also. LOVE LOVE LOVE all the books, but this one is by far my favorite. Thank you!

350 Calorie Wonderful Meals, December 17, 2010
Excellent! Everything I have tried has been successful and utterly delicious. I am having a wonderful time cooking with these recipes. There are wonderful choices for each meal and the techniques learned are most helpful and easily adapted to cooking in general. I already had on hand most of the ingredients. I was surprised and delighted when I started falling in love again with my cast iron skillet. Who would have thought carmelized onions could be a staple in our diets! The selections turn out just like the beautiful pictures! I am ordering two more for family!

This book ROCKS!!!, December 4, 2010
This book is perfect for the dieter who doesn't want to let go of all flavors in life that many times dieting will do. It's a very simple, easy to follow book with amazing recipes! The key lime pie recipe is to die for!!

Good ideas for cooking healthier, November 17, 2010
This gives me a better idea of how to prepare the meals I like with healthier ingredients cooking with less fat.

Great recipes, November 7, 2010
This book is well worth the investment in healthy cooking. Every recipe we have tried has been great.

Great Resource!, November 19, 2010
This book has a ton of useful information on just about everything food related. I've only thumbed through it so far, and haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but there are several that sound great and I can't wait to try them out. The only downfall I see to this little book is some of the recipes require things I will never already have on hand, and some require ingredients that I would have to travel to a specialty store to pick up. Most of them won't require anything special though.

That said, my plan is to start at the beginning, and work my way through, making the recipes that I can do without having to go out of my way. Some items they require are used again in other recipes so not a big deal to buy them as they will get used, but others... I'd be better off skipping them completely.

I'm definitely glad I picked up this book, and am looking forward to cooking with it. The portion sizes seem to be fair as well as I can figure form reading ingredients and looking at number of servings, so I don't think I will be starving anytime soon! ... Read more

Editorial Review

A pocket compendium of food wisdom-from the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan, our nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat.

... Read more

Reviews

This book is necessary..., December 29, 2009
It is amazing how complicated we have allowed our diets, and our understanding of our diets, to become. Even Pollan's most recent book In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto - which seemed to be a pretty simple premise - ended up being a (wonderfully) complicated journey through our food system. So when I read that this book was coming out, I wondered if it was necessary given the wealth of information already covered. The answer is: yes, this book is necessary.

While there are a million other guides to a healthy diet running around out there, few manage to boil down the essentials in such a usable way. Pollan takes the essential and fascinating information that he wrote about in his previous book and simmers it down into a succinct (the book is basically 70 half pages long) "manual" of rules for eating. While this book retains some of the bones of its predecessor, it is by no means a Cliff's Notes version. This manual is essential reading all on its own.

Food Rules is broken down into 3 sections (and this will sound familiar to those that read In Defense of Food): 1- What should I eat? (Eat food) 2 - What kind of food should I eat? (Mostly plants) and 3 - How should I eat? (Not too much). Each section includes 20 or so rules that you can pick and choose from in order to eat a healthy diet. Some of the rules overlap (Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce and Avoid ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry, for instance) and some seem like such common sense that it is almost laughable to include them, but that is why this manual is so important. It distills all of this complex information that we see and hear every day and turns it into something relatable. We know, somewhere in our minds, that certain grains and oils are better than others. Pollan gives us an easy rule to help know which ones are best. We know that most breakfast cereals are little more than desserts and Pollan gives us an easy rule to know which ones are safe. Some rules are humorous (it's not food if it arrived through the window of your car) and some are serious; some rules are easy and others require a bit more dedication. But what this manual has is a wide range of useful tips that can be applied to any life at any time. This is no complicated diet; this is a little pocket book of sensible, realistic rules to help you eat your best.

Food Rules Rules!, December 31, 2009
I picked up Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, because I have been searching for just this type of book for many of my clients as a New Year's gift. I read the slim book quickly in a bookstore and it is the perfect present for my clients who are not eating healthy diets (but who have confessed they wish to.)

I am an interior designer/organizer and see how my clients eat all the time when I redesign and organize their kitchens. Pollan's In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma are both excellent, but can be intimidating. Not Food Rules--it is short and easy to understand.

The book is divided into three parts and has 64 chapters or rules. The following will give you an good idea of what the book is about: Part I, What should I eat? Includes such chapters as "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food", "avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients", and "avoid foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup".

Part II, What kind of food should I eat? Includes "Eat mostly plants, especially leaves", "eat your colors", and "the whiter the bread, the sooner you will be dead."

Part III, How should I eat? Includes "pay more, eat less," "eat less," and "limit your snacks to unprocessed plant food."

For those of you who desire a healthier diet, Food Rules is a terrific guide that makes understanding what to put into your body simple to understand and implement.

Finally, if healthy eating is a new concept for you, you will find the clever chapter titles easy to memorize, thus making the concept of healthy eating a simple one to learn.

Highly recommend.

By the author of the award winning book, HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT and SELL YOUR HOME FAST IN A BUYER'S MARKET

You could buy a #3 at Mickey D's --- or start to save your life, January 7, 2010
If you got in on the ground floor, you chewed every page of The Omnivore's Dilemma, (464 pages, $8.00 at Amazon).

If you were a second responder, the first Michael Pollan book you read was In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, (256 pages, $7.50 at Amazon), which boils theory and anecdote down to a tasty, healthy feeding strategy.

If you're new to the topic or haven't paid attention --- or love Pollan's work and want to spread the gospel --- here's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (137 pages, $11 retail, $5.50 at Amazon), a skinny paperback that says pretty much everything you'd find in his longer books.

Or you can consider Pollan's reduction of his message to seven words --- "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" --- and read nothing more because you know how to crack that koan and adopt a way of eating that just might save your life.

Why, you may wonder, does a clearly written 256-page book need to be boiled down to 64 general principles?

Two reasons.

Those of us who read about food have, in the last few years, been swamped by the language of nutrition. Antioxidants. Polyphenols. Probiotics. Omega-3 fatty acids. But you can know all about this stuff and still not be able to answer the basic question: Yeah, but what should I eat?

Then there are those who have never heard Pollan's message. They're the folks on the coach, eating pre-packaged snack food, sucking down sodas, serving vegetables as an afterthought. In short, people who are devotees of the Western diet --- which is, says Pollan, "the one diet that reliably makes its people sick!"

Pollan wants to help both groups --- and break the cycle of self-created disease.

And the quickest way to do that is through lessons so simple even the guy chowing down a Hungry Man ("It's good to feel full") meal can understand.

"Food Rules" may be short, but it's elegantly organized. Part I addresses the question: What should I eat? (Answer: food.) Part II asks: What kind of food should I eat? (Answer: mostly plants.) And Part II considers: How should I eat? (Answer: Not too much.)

These are un-American answers. Advertising trains us to shop in the center aisles of supermarkets. We've been brainwashed to believe that fast food is food. Because we're so busy, we're encouraged not to cook for ourselves. And that way of living works for us --- right up to the moment we're overweight and diabetic.

But if we break the cycle?

"People who get off the western diet," says Pollan, "see dramatic improvements in their health."

What does Pollan tell you in these pages? Here's a sample:

--- "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
--- "Don't eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce."
---- "Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot...There are exceptions --- honey --- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food."
--- "Always leave the table a little hungry.'"
--- "Eat meals together, at regular meal times."
--- "Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car."
--- "Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk."

Pollan would have you only eat junk food you cook yourself. He'd like you to buy your snacks at a farmer's market. He'd like you to use meat as a flavor enhancer, a condiment, an afterthought. And he'd like to see you hurt the bottom line of pre-packaged food companies by paying a little more for real food that's worth eating.

I can imagine a great many of of you nodding in agreement. And feeling superior. And still buying several copies --- to send, anonymously, to loved ones who are eating themselves to death. I can think of no better gift.

Rules for eating, January 5, 2010
Clever little book. . . . Michael Pollan has written a book of rules about eating, with brief text elaborating the statements. On first glance, it looks like a slight volume with little substance to it. However, it turns out to be a pretty interesting book.

In his introductory comments, the author notes a few undeniable truths--Western diets (e.g., processed foods and meats, lots of fat and sugar, etc.) lead to lots of health problems; traditional diets tend to be healthier than the so-called Western diet; when one leaves the Western diet, one tends to get healthier. Following are a number of rules (64 in all). The author's hope? (Page xix): "My hope is that a handful of these rules will prove sufficiently sticky, or memorable, that they will become second nature to you. . . ."

Examples?"Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce" (Page 17). "If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't" (Page 41). "Treat meat as a flavoring or special occasion food" (Page 53). "Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi" (Page 73). Examples? Yogurt, sauerkraut, soy sauce. . . . "Pay more, eat less" (Page 99). Cheap food in large quantities (supersize me??) is normally not so good for one. "Buy smaller plates and glasses" (Page 115).

In a sense, if one can keep a number of these apothegms in mind and follow those that seem most sensible, one might end up better off! So, a book that looks like a one trick pony ends up being much more satisfying than one might expect.

Waste of time and money, January 4, 2010
I love Pollan's previous book and I was looking forward to this one. I got my hands on it as soon as I could, but sadly, I was disappointed.

This book is just a (really)watered down version of In Defense of Food. Don't waste your time or your money on this book, especially if you already read his other books. It was kind of a sell-out thing to do: publish a book that takes exact passages from the last book he published, increase the font size, add a ton of blank pages and big pictures and then sell the thing for $11. Um... why? He should have just published an article in the NY Times magazine instead of a whole book. Why waste all that paper?

Thank goodness I work in a bookstore and didn't actually have to buy the thing to read it. If you really think you want this book, I suggest flipping through it first, or getting it from a library. It's not worth $11.

The Tao of Food, January 14, 2010
People complaining about the size of "Food Rules" certainly missed the point. In Twitterland, any message that can't be reduced from "bullet points" to 140 characters will not be heard. The Eloi don't read books. Food Rules compresses the message of Pollan's food advice into its second simplest form.

Pollan mentions in the introduction his discovery, while researching In Defense of Food, that the answer to the question, "What should we eat to stay healthy?" turned out to be seven words: "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." As he points out wrily, that wasn't enough to satisfy his publisher, but fortunately explaining it was. Food Rules is the middle ground between The Three Commandments and the Food Bible. Clearly it is needed, if one hostile reviewer thinks his "Don't eat more calories than you burn each day, and eat a balanced diet" is comparable to Pollan's seven words.

Food Rules consists of 64 aphorisms with a few paragraphs of explanation as needed (no rule runs much beyond a single page). Like the Tao Te Ching, Food Rules can be stuffed in a back pocket, thumbed through when you are bored, or purchased for a clueless friend you care about. The rules are common sense, unless you suffer from the literalism of some reviewers (No, gentle reader, Mr. Pollan did not MY grandmother, who was a rotten cook, but the proverbial grandmother, who is not). Common sense distilled to aphorisms rather than platitudes, Poor Richard's Culinary Advice. In other words they are crisp, memorable, and quotable. Who wouldn't wish they had thought up, "Don't eat any cereal that changes the color of the milk"?

For the Twitterpated, this is the place to begin with Pollan. Some of them, at least, may discover that they would like to know more. If not, no harm done.

Not worth the money, February 10, 2010
Finished reading this book in about 30-40mins. Its more of a pamphlet than a book. Its all common sense stuff (eat planets, dont eat stuff with chemicals, etc - really! this is as complicated as it gets). Its a book for those than don't understand the obvious. A regretful purchase.

Good info, wrong format, January 8, 2010
Don't let the fact that it's 112 pages long throw you, this is maybe 10 pages worth of information. Granted, it's GOOD information (for the most part). Handy rules to help you wade through the nightmare of American supermarkets and culture. I'm glad to see Amazon is only charging 5 dollars for it, because anything more than that would be a rip. If you look up his New York Times article, it's mostly the same information, just not broken down into clear rules.
Between pages 30 and 37 there are 11 (eleven) sentences.
There's no reason this needed to be over a hundred pages long.

Food Rules to Live By, January 4, 2010
I'd previously read and enjoyed Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and was interested to pick up "Food Rules". "Food Rules" is an extension of "In Defense of Food" and his earlier books as it offers a common-sense approach about eating smart. What primarily sold me was its in pocketbook size, compact and easy to carry when you're out and about grocery shopping or dining. And unlike other complicated diet schemes and faddish trends (Grapefruit Diet anyone?), the advice here is well thought out and well articulated. At 70 pages there's not a lot of complications but it is crammed with considerable wisdom and thought. Broken into three parts (much like "In Defense of Food") it answers the most essential and fundamental questions: what should I eat and avoid, what kind of food should I eat (e.g.: unprocessed plant based foods), and how much should I eat? Each section contains roughly 20 rules to follow for healthier eating and living. "Food Rules" winds up being a handy little reference guide that can help you create better new habits, gradually phasing out the bad ones. And that's the approach Pollan seems to take. It's easier to adopt a new habit that it is to break an old one. By following "Food Rules" you can get yourself on track to healthier eating habits and believe me; you'll feel better as a result!

The Cliff Notes for In Defense of Food, January 18, 2010
This book is just the Cliff Notes version of the book In Defense of Food. Just take the time to read the real book. So much better. But if you must, you can read it while standing in the store. It is that quick. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

READ THIS BOOK!!!!, October 29, 2010
About five months ago, I started doing CrossFit (an exercise program/gym). The coach explained the Paleo diet model and suggested this book. It took me almost five months before I read it, but prior to reading I had pretty much adopted a Paleo diet, which completely changed my life. I mean, really changed my whole experience. I used to be a vegan (six years ago for four years), but then my hair started thinning and that was the end of that, so I started incorporating fish and eggs, and a little dairy. But I was still almost always hungry, and it seemed no matter what exercise I did, or how much, it wasn't ever really getting me to where I wanted to be, even though I thought I was eating super healthy. I also drank a lot of wine, which interfered with my sleeping. All in all my digestion wasn't so good. I felt my health slowly and steadily declining. So, long story short, when I started CrossFit I decided to give this Paleo diet a try. Amazing results! Never felt better, my blood sugar is even and steady all day long, and my sleep is restorative not something to "get through"; not to mention, my body is rockin'! I don't crave sugar, which is a miracle, and I hardly drink anymore. Why? Because I feel so good, I have no desire to mess that up. Me, a wino, yes, giving up wine. For once in my life, I'm lean, I'm stronger than I've ever been, and I feel certain solidity to my being. I never thought it possible. So then I bought Paleo Solution, because I'm thinking, "I gotta learn why this diet works so well. What's up with this Paleo stuff? I want to tell the world about it!" I was skeptical about the read, despite my great results in trying out this lifestyle. Books on diet and health can sometimes be boring, daunting, and uninspiring. Right? How many books have you bought, hoping to find the thing you were looking for, only to quit reading it half way through? Robb Wolf has assembled an incredible amount of information into one book, and he's presented it in a simple way. He's also got a great voice -- a great sense of humor -- and it feels like he's talking directly to you. I liked this. It felt personable and it was engaging. Plus, I was understanding all this scientific information, (and I'm not scientifically oriented at all), which when all put together into the bigger picture was like "WHOA!". (It was more like a holy you know what). So here's the skinny: If you are suffering from diabetes, a heart condition, high blood pressure, an auto-immune disease, indigestion, cancer, a sugar or alcohol addiction, or pretty much any illness; or, you are an athlete seeking greater performance, or you're wanting to loose weight and look and feel fabulous and incredible, then you MUST read this book! It's quick, it's easy, informative, it's entertaining, and it will change your life like it did mine. That is, if you're willing to give it a try. And for those of you who are vegetarian, or concerned about industrialized farming and general slaughtering practices, I suggest you check out eatwild on the internet to find out where you can get grass-fed animal directly from sustainable farms in your local area. READ THIS BOOK, for your health, and for the health of your family. Thank you, Robb Wolf!

Wolf's teachings in the Paleo Solution changed my life, September 14, 2010
Let me begin by saying that I have always been a healthy person--or at least that is what I thought. Since I was fourteen, I went to the gym almost every day and ate foods that I thought were good for me. Around the age of thirty I got super busy. Although I still worked out and ate foods that I had been told were healthy, I didn't sleep as much, stressed a whole lot more, and things began to go down hill. I developed a fairly good-sized tire around my midsection. The color of my skin was a little off. And, most importantly, I no longer felt super healthy. I tried everything I could thing of, which basically boiled down to eating less of the foods I had been told were healthy. I ate a ton of lean meats, and I combined them with a ton of carbs in the form of rice. I cut out every ounce of fat I possible could. And guess what? I started to feel (and look) even worse. In an attempt to correct the situation, I began working out even harder. Although I got stronger and gained more muscle, I still had that tire of fat around the midsection and had very little energy on most days. Was I just getting old? Were the good old days of being fit and healthy gone for good?

A friend of mine had been following Robb's teachings for some time, and he turned me on to the diet. As with most people who learned "nutrition" in college, I was highly resistant. I mean, why would they be teaching us the wrong nutrition in college. The professors seemed pretty smart, and I doubted that they had the goal of trying to kill me. But I was failing with the traditional way of thought, and so I decided it to give the thirty days. My friend told me that Robb preached the "give me 30 days" philosophy, and so that is what I decided to give this new and strange diet, which I still doubted would ever work. Well, thirty days later I had dropped TWENTY SIX POUNDS. Am I joking about that number--absolutely not. A part of it had to do with the fact that I was working out a whole lot more--but the only reason I could work out more is because I was feeling so GOOD. How good? Well, to be quite honest, I was feeling like I did back when I was eighteen (well, maybe not eighteen, but twenty one for sure.)

Now a year and a half later, I feel better than ever. That twenty six pounds of weight loss not only did not come back on, but it turned into thirty pounds of weight less (and yes, I needed to drop thirty pounds.) Just like Wolf's slogan, I LOOK, FEEL, AND PERFORM better than I ever thought imaginable. For someone who has always prided himself on being fit, healthy, and happy, I can honestly say I owe Wolf the world. His teachings have convinced me that getting older does not mean getting fatter, sicker, and less happy. Will you be eighteen for the rest of your life if you take Wolf's 30-day challenge and then adopt a Paleo lifestyle--no, probably not. But you most certainly won't be 40 or 50 or 60. You will look younger than you are, feel younger than you are, and be happy in your skin. Honestly, I don't see how you can put a price tag on that.

What about the sacrifices? This is the big one, right. Well, I have been on diets before, and this is not a diet. It is a lifestyle. And when you get that "diet" word out of your head, restricting certain foods becomes a lot less challenging. Trust me when I tell you that I was a guy who LOVED my bread and wheat beer. But you must also trust me when I tell you that I do not miss these delicious products in the slightest. . .Wolf's lifestyle plan puts you in much better contact with your body, and when you acquire that mindset, things that make your body feel, perform, and look better begin to taste better. Foods I used to despise now taste wonderful. And the foods that I once could not have lived without (bread, rice, pasta) are now the farthest thing from my mind. I've talked with other people on the Paleo diet, and many of them have told me that when they cheat, they can feel the negative effects immediately. Personally, I think I may have cheated on the diet twice in a over a year. Is it because I am super strong willed. Absolutely not. When it comes to will power, I don't think I have that much of it. The reason that I haven't cheated is because I simply don't want to cheat. When I smell the foods I once loved, I no longer have the urge to consume them. Did this take fun out of my life? Did this destroy the thrill of eating and socializing over a tasty meal? Actually, the opposite has happened. I actually enjoy eating a whole lot more because it makes me feel powerful, just like food should. It makes me feel strong, both mentally and physically. And despite what some people will believe, eating healthy does not destroy your social life. All it may do is add some interesting conversations into the mix.

In conclusion, try the Paleo Solution. it works. It works well. And it will change your life in ways you can not imagine. I know change is scary for a lot of people (it was for me), but when the changes you make break the barriers of what you thought life could be, you won't regret it!

Good but some things to fix for the second edition ..., October 21, 2010
I've read this book, Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, and Cordain's Paleo Diet recently. Wolf's book was a good and accessible explanation of his overall approach, without the diet-book-y style of Cordain's effort.

With the growing popularity of paleo eating lately, I would have liked to see more discussion of some of the controversial issues within the field, such as "cheat meals" or the use of salt (Cordain is strongly anti-salt but Wolf's recipes often include it). Explaining how the Paleo Solution's prescriptions differ from those of others would strengthen the book.

I also would have liked to see an index. Not having an index is especially a problem if you're looking for a recipe. (I also would have run the entire meal plan, followed by all the recipes. When the meal plan calls for a recipe, just give the page number for the recipe.)

Finally, there are a couple of references to a "Gear List," which doesn't seem to appear as such anywhere in the book. The last section on resources seems to cover what the "Gear List" should have covered, but could have been more conveniently organized.

Unbelievable, October 26, 2010
Been following this devoutly for one month now and have never felt better. Waking up each morning with a renewed fervour, an abundance of energy and optimism I've never possessed (well not since I was a child!). Can't recommend enough.

I feel great!!!!!, September 27, 2010
I have been on this for 12 days and my energy level is through the roof. I have not had this kind of energy since my twenties, and I am 53. Dropped 6 pounds so far and I feel fantastic. Dan Adkins

Robb Wolf helped change my life!, October 3, 2010
I always considered myself "healthy" - having been athletically active and with reasonably good blood-work and body weight markers all my life. But after I turned 30 years old 6 months ago, with 9 years of highly stressful desk-jockey jobs behind me; I realized I had slowly accumulated a number of afflictions that could be considered part of normal "aging":
- joint pain & arthritis (in my knee)
- hair loss
- muscle & strength loss
- slow build-up of spare-tire around my mid-section
- allergies (to something new every few years)
- canker sores
- disrupted sleep
- chronic tiredness, leading to increased caffeine consumption
- a growing sweet tooth
- gum pain

After doing some basic research on arthritis, I came across the concept of the ancestral diet, primarily through the internet. However, having trained with a scientific background, I was highly skeptical of many of the stunning claims despite all the testimonials.

Of all the different recognized experts in the arena, it was Robb Wolf's scientific explanations (through his website and his podcast) given freely (with no hidden financial agenda or sketchy corporate relationships) that convinced me to give the ancestral diet a try.

I have since never looked back.. all the above afflictions disappeared in a few months, and I now am healthier, fitter, stronger, leaner, sharper and more pain-free than I have been in 15 years.

I owe Robb and his compatriots in the field a huge debt.

However, I have struggled to explain the concepts to others. This is why I am excited about Robb's book!

The Paleo Solution brings the right amount of scientific background, complete with associated reference material, while maintaining a conversational, engaging tone. It covers all the right bases of a hugely complex subject (the key apocalyptic "horsemen" of the Standard American Diet) from the perspectives of anthropology (ancestral history), biochemistry, nutrition and actual clinical practice. It scares the reader, while at the same time providing the right solutions and motivation, with enough hope and optimism.

If asked to bring someone up to speed on the concept of the ancestral diet, I would absolutely recommend this book as the perfect start!!

So:
If you've ever been confused by "expert" dietary recommendations (This food is poison! No it's actually good for you! All fat is bad except fat is good from fish or avocados! Have whole grains! Don't have eggs! Have eggs! You need vitamins! Vitamins don't work! etc etc bla bla) and wanted EVERYTHING to just make sense for once - read this book. Even if it's just from a robust scientific perspective, and you don't enact the actual diet, you'll never look back.

Not enough!, October 10, 2010
What I like about this book:

1. It explains in a scientific way how the Paleo Diet works from the nutritional point of view.
2. The book is written "with an attitude" and is fun to read.
3. The author is passionate about his ideas and this rubs off on the reader getting the reader excited, fired up, and motivated


What I don't like about this book:

1. Paleo Diet is nothig new. Loren Cordain published a book of the same title some 8 years ago. If you happened to have read it or anything written by Mark Sisson, then you might as well skip reading this one. There is nothing new in this book. In fact jn my opinion The Primal Blueprint is a better read.
2. The author doesn't go beyond the basics, the book is very general in nature and lacks in specific how-to's
3. I am very uneasy about some of the most popular reviews of this book that seem to be "doctored". One reviewer goes on and on about how this book changed his life, only two days after the book has been published (!!!???)
4. Most importantly, this is yet another diet. We need to understand that unless we change our focus we will never fix the obesity problem. It is not only about what and how we eat, but mainly about living a healthy lifestyle that is in total agreement with nature. Read " Live 150 -- The Body Maintenance Handbook " to properly understand the problem and how to deal with it.

As good as it gets, September 20, 2010
I'll be honest, I've been a fan of Robb's work for a while so I'm somewhat biased but even considering this I was impressed. He lays out not only why a change in diet, and more importantly lifestyle, is scientifically validated but it also gives you a jumping-off point in a 30 day, meal by meal guide. It doesn't get easier than this folks. Buy it. Now.

Excellent, September 17, 2010
I definitely didn't expect it to be this enjoyable! Loved all the humor and the geeked-out info as well.

The information is very concise - with a lot covered in few pages. As someone who already follows a paleo life style, I know it works but wasn't very clear on all the reasoning behind the results. Robb pretty much cleared up every question I could have asked plus I have lots of new recipes to try!

It Just Plain Works, September 20, 2010
I've been studying carb restriction diets for over 15 years. I've read the Paleo Diet, multiple Zone Diet books, much of the Eades' work, Dr. Atkin's books, read and re-read Gary Taubes' "Good Calories Bad Calories," hundreds of studies, and digested blog posts and podcasts while doing a fair amount of writing and coaching on the topic ([...]). Robb's work is a mixture of the rants of a guy who's too smart for his own good, a clinician who's been tested by working with real clients for over ten years, and a serious competitor in a variety of physical arenas. I know of other approaches that will work, but don't know of any single source with a more dense store of knowledge or a more accessible plan for health, fitness and competitive performance. I by no means agree with all of Robb's editorial temper tantrums outside of this book, but I've competed against him, listened to every podcast, and read most of his entire blog before reading this book. If you want a book that cuts to the chase giving you the yellow brick road for health, performance, longevity and with a detour around the diseases of the West, this is your book. I've been looking for a book that does not cheat on the science, is not too hard to read, and therefore makes the truly common sense of the paleolithic diet accessible to everyone with an IQ of room temperature or better - Robb, thanks for writing that book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The companion volume to The New York Times bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma

Michael Pollan's lastbook , The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. ... Read more

Reviews

Care for your family? Want to live long and well? This is required reading., January 8, 2008
What's better for you --- whole milk, 2% milk or skim?

Is a chicken labeled "free range" good enough to reassure you of its purity? How about "grass fed" beef?

What form of soy is best for you --- soy milk or tofu?

About milk: I'll bet most of you voted for reduced or non-fat. But if you'll turn to page 153 of "In Defense of Food," you'll read that processors don't make low-fat dairy products just by removing the fat. To restore the texture --- to make the drink "milky" --- they must add stuff, usually powdered milk. Did you know powdered milk contains oxidized cholesterol, said to be worse for your arteries than plain old cholesterol? And that removing the fat makes it harder for your body to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins that make milk a valuable food in the first place?

About chicken and beef: Readers of Pollan's previous book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma", know that "free range" refers to the chicken's access to grass, not whether it actually ventures out of its coop. And all cattle are "grass fed" until they get to the feedlot. The magic words for delightful beef are "grass finished" or "100% grass fed".

And about soy...but I dare to hope I have your attention by now. And that you don't want to be among the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight and the third of our citizens who are likely to develop type 2 diabetes before 2050. And maybe, while I have your eyes, you might be mightily agitated to learn that America spends $250 billion --- that's a quarter of the costs of the Iraq war --- each year in diet-related health care costs. And that our health care professionals seem far more interested in building an industry to treat diet-related diseases than they do in preventing them. And that the punch line of this story is as sick as it is simple: preventing diet-related disease is easy.

In just 200 pages (and 22 pages of notes and sources), "In Defense of Food" gives you a guided tour of 20th century food science, a history of "nutritionism" in America and a snapshot of the marriage of government and the food industry. And then it steps up to the reason most readers will buy it --- and if you care for your health and the health of your loved ones, this is a no-brainer one-click --- and presents a commonsense shopping-and-eating guide.

If you are up on your Pollan and your Nina Planck and your Barbara Kingsolver, you know the major points of the "real food" movement. But if you're new to this information or are disinclined to buy or read this book, let me lay Pollan's argument out for you:

-- High-fructose corn syrup is the devil's brew. Do yourself a favor and remove it from your diet. (If you have kids, here's a place to start: Heinz smartly offers an "organic" ketchup, made with sugar.)

-- Avoid any food product that makes health claims --- they mean it's probably not really food.

-- In a supermarket, don't shop in the center aisles. Avoid anything that can't rot, anything with an ingredient you can't pronounce.

-- "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does."

-- "You are what you eat eats too." Most cows end their days on a diet of corn, unsold candy, their pulverized brothers and sisters --- yeah, you read that right --- and a pharmacy's worth of antibiotics. And they bestow that to you. Consider that the next time there's a sale on sirloin.

-- "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." By which Pollan means: Eat natural food, the kind your grandmother served (and not because she was so wise, but because the food industry had not yet learned that the big money was in processing, not harvesting). Use meat sparingly. Eat your greens, the leafier and more varied the better.

In short: Kiss the Western diet as we know it goodbye. Look to the cultures where people eat well and live long. Ignore the faddists and experts. Trust your gut. Literally.

In all this, Pollan insists that you have to save yourself. And he makes a good case why. Our government, he says, is so overwhelmed by the lobbying and marketing power of our processed food industry that the American diet is now 50% sugar in one form or another --- calories that provide "virtually nothing but energy." Our representatives are almost uniformly terrified to take on the food industry. And as for the medical profession, the key moment, Pollan writes, is when "doctors kick the fast-food franchises out of the hospital" --- don't hold your breath.

"You want to live, follow me." I loved it when Schwarzenegger said that in "Terminator." It matters much more when, in so many words, Michael Pollan delivers that same message in "In Defense of Food."

Back to Nature, February 22, 2008

It is so good to read a book about nutrition that does not promote any new diet! The author's message is plain and simple: Go back to nature, eat wholesome foods, and don't bother with dieting. Don't overeat; instead eat slowly, and enjoy your meals - such notion has already been promoted by Mireille Guiliano in her bestseller "French Women Don't Get Fat".

Our curse is processed food. The dieting industry completely distorted our feeding process. Our desire to improve everything and to separate 'needed' ingredients from the 'unneeded' ones leads us to refining most of our food products. However, our artificially 'improved' food only seemingly has the same nutritious qualities as natural food. Artificial and natural foods have as little in common as silk roses with real ones.

Processed food is easily obtainable, doesn't require much work to prepare, and, unfortunately, it is often also addictive. At the same time it is full of calories with very small nutritional content.

Like "The Omnivore's Dilemma", Pollan's new book is indeed eye-opening. It makes us think twice about what we are going to put into our mouths the next time we eat. For more reading about the danger of refined foods I strongly recommend Can W e Live 150 - another book devoted to living in agreement with nature, and revealing the secrets of healthy diet.

We truly are what we eat . . . . . or don't eat, January 6, 2008
Americans are fat.

Who's to blame? The government. Ay, but there's the rub. If the government undoes its mischievous agricultural subsidies, voters in farm states will throw the rascals out of office. Look what happened to Sen. John McCain in Iowa because he wants to end ethanol subsidies. No politician can afford to be public spirited instead of self-centered. The cure is not in government.

Instead, an intelligent solution begins with this book. Pollan goes to the heart of the matter, which is the content of our food. Our consumer society is based on making attractive products. For food, this means added sugar or added fat.

To quote Pollan: ". . . we're eating a whole lot more, at least 300 more calories a day than we consumed in 1985. What kind of calories? Nearly a quarter of these additional calories come from added sugars (and most of that in the form of high-fructose corn syrup); roughly another quarter from added fat . . . "

These extra calories are from nutrient-deficient food. It began with refined flour in the 1870s which removed bran and wheat germ to produce long-lasting snowy white flour. Consumers loved it because flour no longer turned rancid, and it didn't become infected with bugs.

Okay. Why didn't bugs chomp down on this new flour? Quite simply because the nutrients, the bran, wheat germ, carotene, were gone. Pollan explains, ". . . this gorgeous white powder was nutritionally worthless, or nearly so. Much the same is now true for corn flour and white rice." Take a look at a package of white flour and count the additives that make up for the loss of natural ingredients. Then you'll understand the basic thrust of this book and its remedies.

How do refined carbohydrates affect us? They are implicated in several chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

This book outlines those problems and practical solutions to the lack of nutrients and excess of fat and sugar in our daily food. Quite simply, good health is often less a matter of miracle medicines than of common sense meals. Pollan outlines the problem and offers solutions, as indicated in a University of Minnesota study of natural ingredients in wheat which concluded, "This analysis suggests that something else in the whole grain protects against death."

Protects against death? Did that get your interest? If so, this book is truly a major step toward a much healthier lifestyle . . . . . merely by changing the foods you eat.

Try it. You'll like it.

Some good basic info, but lacks scientific rigor, April 18, 2009
Michael Pollan's book has some generally good advice about what to eat, and some fascinating/disturbing info about the American food industry, but I was continually frustrated by the author's weak attention to research. Pollan is a not a scientist, and doesn't seem to find it very important to ground his assertions with unimpeachable facts. His advice can sometimes be contradictory ("don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize" but "eat tofu"--If your great-grandmother didn't come from Asia, it's doubtful she would recognize anything made of bean curd) and he tends to cite sources that he likes, rather than sources he's really investigated. For example, Pollan would never list a dairy-industry pamphlet as one of his sources, but he gleefully quotes some rather doubtful statements from an organic-food-industry pamphlet, and apparently didn't bother to ask even one secondary source to verify them. He writes a compelling essay showing that nutrition and dietary habits are incredibly difficult for scientists to study, and implies that any information based on nutritional studies is flawed, yet quotes certain studies as if they are somehow immune to this problem. Pollan maintains that the American government's health-education programs are a major cause of the obesity epidemic, yet the descriptions he gives of these programs don't match my memory of what was actually being taught at the time. And because he gives merely general endnotes, rather than specific footnotes, it's difficult to check where he got his information.

I also had a little trouble with Pollan's tone, which is strangely naive, and occasionally condescending. He seems overly impressed with some of his own statements, such as his claim that humans are the only animals that turn to experts to tell them what to eat. Even if one accepts that this is true, humans do a lot of things that animals don't do, and in many cases, we should be glad of it. (And as Paula Poundstone has pointed out, she has to tell her dog to get his head out of the garbage every day.)

I think Pollan is basically right that the American food industry would benefit from a major overhaul, and the suggestions he's making to the government would make us all healthier if they're implemented. But it's too bad that someone with generally sound ideas can't take a little more trouble with the details. Overall, if you read this book to learn how to eat healthier, you'll get some good tips, but take his "facts" with a grain of salt. This is definitely a book to be read, but it should be read critically.

Omnivore's Dilemma Updated In A Quick, Focused, Factual Form, January 4, 2008
I thought I'd discovered gold two years ago when I chanced upon Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" on the new-book shelf at my local library. I'm a health nut, and what Pollan had to say between the covers of that book was exactly what I'd been looking for. The message blew me away. I started telling all my friends, colleagues, and family about how phenomenal and groundbreaking the book was, and encouraging them to read it. I even went so far as to buy five hardbound copies to give out and loan. But in the end I don't believe I really made any serious converts. Plenty of people wanted to listen! Telling my friends and acquaintances about the content of Pollan's book made me a big hit in social situations, but I honestly don't think many people took the time to read the book or, more importantly, to change their eating habits.

But Michael Pollan's book did convert me. Over the last two years, I have changed my eating habits--not as much as I hoped I would, but significantly nonetheless. The problem is, as I am sure anyone else knows who has also tried to follow his path: eating healthy in modern, urban America is extremely difficult.

"Omnivore's Dilemma" went on to become a nationwide bestseller. Thanks in part to the stir that book caused, and the many newspaper articles and television programs that followed, there has been a small but noticeable difference in the availability of healthier, more naturally produced vegetables, fruits, meats, and fish in the area where I live. Merchants now appear to be very conscious of the fact that many buyers are eager to know how and where each batch of produce was grown; whether fish is wild or farm-raised; and whether meats, dairy products, and eggs come from range-, grass- or grain-fed animals. In our area, the local farmers' markets are thriving, and the supermarkets...well, they don't seem to be doing so well anymore. Instead there are a number of small health food chains opening up that seem to be robbing the supermarkets of a large portion of their business. People are starting to "vote with their forks." They are saying they want better quality food, and slowly, their voice is being heard.

When I heard that Pollan had a new book out--"In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto,"--I jumped at the chance to be one of the first to buy it. It is a small book, easy and quick to read. I finished it in one enjoyable afternoon. Frankly, there is not much in this new book that wasn't already covered in "Omnivore's Dilemma." However, what this new book accomplishes that the previous book did not, is to present the basic concepts--about what is wrong with the modern Western diet and what we can do to eat in a more healthy manner--in a far more concise and readable form. Gone are the stories, the humor, the horror, the amusing dialogue, and the semitravelogue--all that was, for me at least, very delightful--but it also made the book perhaps too long and chatty for some, especially those just seeking a quick, focused, factual read. This book will most certainly appeal to a wider audience. It reads more like a practical manual for the general public.

I was hoping this new book might give me some further clues. It did that, but not as much as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I am happy that I purchased it, and read it. The most important thing it did for me was to reinforce all the lessons I'd learned from "Omnivore's Dilemma," and to present them to me with more justifications and updated scientific findings.

Hopefully, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" will go on to become another national bestseller, and in the process continue to spread Pollan's healthy food revolution. A "Manifesto" sounds serious and political and Pollan speaks in the book about people "voting with their forks." It must be working, because many of the folks in my neighborhood appear to be voting with their forks, and the local farmers, ranchers, and grocery people are listening. There is a small revolution stirring and perhaps this book will help move it along.

I recommend this book highly to all who have not yet read "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and to those that have, I recommend this book as an inspirational updated refresher course.

Simply Not as Good as The Omnivore's Dilemma, January 6, 2008
This was not a bad book, but the biggest problem I had with it was that it was too short (just over 200 pages of text in large typeface) and it often repeated points without elaborating on them in as much detail as I would have liked. Pollan goes back to the theme of "Nutritionism" throughout his book, and discusses how the interests of food scientists and manufacturers have aligned to create the food environment we have today. This is a very fascinating story, but he seems too narrowminded on the theme of nutritionism and how that has ruined our food system and doesn't detail other potential causes.

Other interests (such as the beef and dairy lobbies, which he briefly alludes to a couple times in the book) have also had a tremendous influence on the national diet. Moreover, the way we live our lives, busily, without time to eat, is a tremendous contributor to poor health that Pollan again only alludes to. Lifestyle is a huge part of the food culture that Pollan encourages, but he doesn't specify what elements of lifestyle are common in the most successful food cultures.

My other major bugaboo with the book was that he barely touched on the notion of vegetarian and vegan diets, which are becoming increasingly popular in the States. The question of whether these diets are safe and healthy was not mentioned much (about a paragraph or so) and some insight into these two movements would have been appreciated.

Overall, it's a quicker read than the Omnivore's Dilemma, but less detailed and with fewer eye-opening moments. A book that should be read, but I recommend you save your money and wait until the paperback edition is released.

Want health?, January 4, 2008
". . . no people on earth worry more about the health consequences of their food choices than we American do--and no people suffer from as many diet-related health problems."

What to do? Like so much today, food truth is hard to find. We can't trust government to tell us the truth because it is influenced by the industrial agriculture giants that produce most food. We certainly can't trust labels using "natural" to describe chemical agglomerations. And, frankly, we can't trust doctors because they are simply not educated about food. Nutritionists? Many are educated, but how do we learn their bias? And, can they overcome "the pitfalls of reductionism and overconfidence?"

I trust Michael Pollan. He has now written enough books regarding food that we know who and how he is. If he has a bias, it seems to be that he really gives a damn about we American consumers.

Pollan shows how, starting in 1977, government dietary decrees began to speak in terms of nutrients rather than specific foods. This was due to the pushback from the meat industry against the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Senator George McGovern's committee had made the fatal mistake of suggesting that Americans should eat less red meat and fewer dairy products. Enter agribusiness lobbyists. And that changed the whole story of the Western Diet. "The Age of Nutritionism had arrived." No longer would certain foods be extolled; now we would be sold nutrients. No matter that these mysterious and unpronounceable ingredients might be manufactured rather than grown.

At the end of the day, and near the end of this most valuable book, is the suggestion: "Cook and, If You Can, Plant a Garden." I relate well to that. I was lucky--I grew up in a poor family that raised most of our food. The proof of the eating is that my parents long outlived their eight younger "buy it at the store" siblings; Dad died at 93 and Mother is still avidly gardening at 94.

If we can't raise food we can buy from small producers as close to us as possible--we can be locavores. The more we know about the people who produce what we put in our body the more we can trust our food-buying decisions. And when we buy food we vote our values. The shorter the distance from field to plate, the less oil is consumed. Win-win.

So buy from nearby growers. Buy from farmer's markets and CSAs. Spend more money on best-quality food and spend less money on health insurance. It's an essential choice.

I won't be a spoiler and tell you about the new and contradictory information about fats, cholesterol and heart disease. I won't bore you with the stories of how our present unhealthful dietary condition came to be and the many businesses and agencies who have created it. And I won't tell you what you should do, beyond this: read this book and act on the uncommon commonsense knowledge it gives you.

Disappointing follow up to Omnivores Dilemma, April 14, 2008
I'm a huge fan of the Omnivores Dilemma and recommended it to more people than any other book I've read so `In Defense of Food' had a lot to live up to but somewhere something what badly haywire.

American's are getting fatter and fatter with average life spans that are considerably out of sync with the wealth of our nation. `In Defense of Food' takes an outsiders view of nutrition in the U.S., throwing stones at the establishment including nutritionists, food manufacturers and the FDA. Michael Pollan's argument is that it is our very obsession with food that throws the system off and we need to just relax and enjoy food. It sounds like the same advice being expounded in the book about how French women are supposedly never fat. Unfortunately we can't relax because we are constantly bombarded with calorie dense foods specifically designed for massive consumption. The author's suggestion is to step back, avoid the processed foods and start spending more on `whole foods' and items purchased from local farmers markets.

The main emphasis in the book is on eating a `traditional' diet. Something great-grandmother might have created. The author blames `western diseases' on a `western diet' but it's hard to know what constitutes a western diet, after all, three of the countries he suggests emulating are France, Italy and Greece. Are they not western? American's are definitely growing fatter but if it's due to synthetic substances like Margarine, Crisco and Nutrasweet why have American waistlines continue to grow as these substances have grown decreasingly popular? And if eating natural food is the magic elixir why do I find overweight farmers at my local farmers market? Shouldn't they all be aglow with vitality living to 120?

My wife is from Malaysia and her fathers' parents consumed a very `traditional' Chinese diet all their lives and yet died in there early 60's. Her grandmother passed away from a stroke brought on by high blood pressure and her grandfather by a heart attack. The way Michael Pollan talks this doesn't sound possible. I would also say that for an author who insists on taking a holistic view of eating as opposed to a reductionist one he completely omits taking into account cultural lifestyles in people heaths. Perhaps it's the high quality health care system in France that makes the difference or perhaps not but the author never even considers anything but consumption.

The advice that Michael Pollan gives is sound but most of it is so simple that it could probably fit into a pamphlet rather than a 200 page book which may explain why the book seems to veer off into unnecessary directions. Eating more vegetables is always good advice and the author even admits that every hated nutritionist he's talked has offered exactly that advice so how exactly is Mr. Pollan different from nutritionists? He lambastes nutritionists for taking a reductionist view of nutrition but then goes on at length about maintaining a proper balance of Omega-3 and Omega-6 in your diet. Did great-grandmother worry about the ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 in the food she served?

Morgan Spurlock of `Supersize Me' probably hit the nail right on the head. It's the amount of calories that American's eat that's doing us in. Avoiding synthetic foods is probably good advice but it's advice like avoiding swimming after eating a meal and not likely to make much of a change in your life. I lost 50 pounds last year and it had nothing to do with eating traditional meals or avoiding margarine. I reduced my intake of calorie dense food including soda and fast food. This is the kind of advice any nutritionist will give out.

What bothered me most about this book was how Michael Pollan went on the attack when none of his advice is that far off from what other nutritionists and dieticians are recommending. It's a decent book but lacks focus and has difficulty defining what he's talking about when he uses terms like `Western' and `Traditional' diets. Quite frankly, this book is more of just a subset of Omnivores Dilemma and if you've read that one you could probably skip this one.

Our relationship with food, how it has changed, January 5, 2008
Pollan has written a far-reaching, easy to read and very informative book that breaks through the nonsense of reductionist nutrition or what he refers to as "nutritionism." He steps back from the Western diet to expose how science, industry and culture have created this strange departure of human beings from their historical relationship with food. A radical break from tradition began in the mid 1800's with the ability to grind grains down to their smallest elements. At the same time as the birth of refined grains, scientists declared that metabolism could be explained in terms of a few chemical nutrients. This approach to nutrition continues today with the USDA MyPyramid nutrition guidelines.

But is that how nutrition really works? Pollan exposes many scientific mistakes that have been made since the mid 1800's. In our quest to isolate nutrients from their food, we ignore the reality that nutrition is as complex as a symphony orchestra. Rather than associating a health outcome as the result of including a nutrient in our diet, we are beginning to see that many health outcomes are due to the exclusion of another nutrient we have yet to identify! Heart disease is no longer linked to saturated fat in the diet but more likely due to the fact that the animals we eat no longer eat grass and the non-traditional use of grains.

Why with all of this science and information do we see an increase in chronic degenerative disease throughout the Western world? Could our approach be wrong? What should we do? After Pollan's in-depth look at the progression of medicine, government policy and the food industry over the past 150 years, he gives his solution. "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Sounds simple and it is. Something simple for a complex problem; that's refreshing! But, it's not easy. It requires more time and more money for less food but greater health.

Eat whole foods, traditional foods, avoid processed foods, buy from local producers, eat green (leaves) and eat foods (animals) that eat green. Eat wild foods, game and wild caught fish. Other than his omission of recommending lamb as a source of omega-3 fatty acids, his coverage of omega fatty acids, the latest nutrient `craze,' is one of the best I've seen.

Non-Western diets may be healthier not because of some `magic bullet' in these diets but because they eat more variety (our refined grain diet consists primarily of wheat, corn and soy), they don't snack, they prepare their whole food at home, they sit down together as a family to eat and most importantly... food is a tradition that they love and embrace. If we regarded food with that same joy, rather than fuss over its health consequences, we might even see a reversal in chronic degenerative disease. At the very least, we would once again have a healthy relationship with food.

A good companion book for Pollan's book is "Real Food" by Nina Plank.

Naked Lunch, March 31, 2008
"In Defense of Food" is a fine book, cleverly written in clear and musical English, and I recommend it to everyone in the hope that the victuals of this benighted land eventually improve.

I go out of my way to obtain decent food, so I'm in agreement with Professor Pollan in much of what he has to say, but as to his central premise, that refined and manufactured food is poisonous to the degree that it is causing the present epidemic of obesity and diabetes -- not to mention all the other maladies he lists-- I remain skeptical.

Certainly there is nothing new about Professor Pollan's hypothesis. Admonitions about the deleterious properties of sugar have circulated for many years; Hitler was said to be a sugar addict, and there is a song of warning called "Poison Sugar" on the Holy Modal Rounders' 1978 album, Last Round

However, I am ancient enough to have lived in a time when the quality of food was even worse than that under which we suffer today. In the 1950s, no food package bore the label All-Natural or No Artificial Ingredients. Instead, food was marketed as being new and improved, modern, and scientifically advanced with secret ingredients such as Platformate. Unlike the culinary utopia that Professor Pollan depicts in those days, television advertising had ensnared American minds, and families were more likely to dine on what were then called TV Dinners (each of which came in an aluminum tray) rather than mother's home cooking. The standard lunch which children carried to school in their Roy Rodgers lunchboxes consisted of a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich on Wonder Breadďż˝. If a child expressed hunger upon return from school, he or she would be encouraged to eat another such sandwich, because the jelly came in decorated glass tumblers which, when emptied, served as attractive tableware in which to serve Kool-Aidďż˝, the standard drink of the day.

The "peanut butter" in these meals actually contained little that was derived from peanuts, but instead about 60% of the paste was hydrogenated cottonseed or corn oil (as were all foods made by the Corn Products Refining Company and the Union Starch Company). When children drank milk instead of sugar-water, it was often enhanced with Boscoďż˝ corn syrup. At my best friend's house, they used Similacďż˝ powdered milk, and before corn flakes came encrusted with sugar, it was common to sprinkle granulated sugar (a lidded sugar bowl was always kept at the center of the table) on one's cereal.

Bacon grease was saved in a jar that was kept in the ice box, but later Criscoďż˝ and Swiftďż˝ shortening became more popular for frying. Everything, all cooking, was fried, and the remaining grease was saved like a precious substance. Hot dogs were even more popular than they are today, only then, the casings of these floor-sweepings from the abattoir were supplemented with non-meat extenders -- often cereal or starch byproducts.

Penny candy was sold, and after school, children would load up on it at the corner store. Penny candy was what one might consider to be on the fringe of food. For instance, a common candy was buttons of colored sugar stuck to a tape of paper. Another was tiny wax vials containing dyed (but not flavored) sugar water -- some kids even ate the paraffin wax. One which survives today is bubble gum. Can any of these things actually be considered food? Whatever the answer, many such substances were consumed.

The era of air freight and food transportation had not yet arrived, so it was the utopia of local food that Professor Pollan rhapsodizes over. Unfortunately, this meant that fresh produce was unavailable to most of the country for the winter months. During this time, canned fruits were popular -- all canned fruit having been packed "in heavy syrup."

In short, the American diet of the period (the postwar diet of Europe was far worse, and our family charitably sent canned goods and sugar to the old country) was exponentially worse than even the most egregious crimes against the palate Professor Pollan describes in this book. If refined sugar and the wrong type of fat and artificial food are so patently malefic to the human body, why is it that diabetes and obesity were as rare in those bygone days as appendicitis is today? Since we Americans --obedient as always to the orders of the all-seeing TV eye -- ate nothing but processed food swimming in cholesterol, sugar and number-10 red dye, how is it that any of us lived to tell of it? Why didn't Americans vanish from the face of the Earth leaving the ruins of supermarkets as a warning for future archeologists?

In fact, this worst of all imaginable diets seemed to exhibit no symptoms among the populace. Hyperactive Attention-Deficit Disorder had yet to appear in children. It may be argued that it was there, lurking, but hadn't yet been discovered, but to this I would suggest that it was kept in check by the power of fear. Anyone "acting-out" (as I believe it is now termed) in a classroom would be administered swift and cruelly-painful corporal punishment. Obesity was rare and rarer still in children, because most people were employed in manual labor, and in my city, there were no such things as school buses. For that matter, there were never any snow days. Even in those brutal winters --and this was in the era before Global Warming eliminated winter forever-- we were expected to be in school and on time every day. After school, boys spent most of their free time injuring each other.

On the other hand, in times past the wealthy few who could afford the type of diet Professor Pollan advocates -- unadulterated, minimally-processed, unpackaged, natural food in wide variety; fresh-picked produce and prime meats that had been fed on wild clover and fallen peaches; wines without sulfites -- such gourmands often developed gout (the cure for which was a diet of Jell-Oďż˝ with the tiny marshmallows mixed in).

Upon casual consideration, Professor Pollan's call for a return to the "good ol' days" is admirable, but for those of us so unfortunate as to have been born before the advent of such food messiahs, how is it that we apparently thrived? Actually, Professor Pollan is but one of a long line of food prophets foretelling our doom if we don't repent, and as with all the others, he's getting rich doing so.

There's the real lesson! ... Read more

Editorial Review

At last! The cookbook based on the bestselling The Paleo Diet

Dr. Loren Cordain's The Paleo Diet has helped thousands of people lose weight, keep it off, and learn how to eat for good health by following the diet of our Paleolithic ancestors and eating the foods we were genetically designed to eat. Now this revolutionary cookbook gives you more than 150 satisfying recipes packed with great flavors, variety, and nutrition to help you enjoy the benefits of eating the Paleo way every day.

• Based on the breakthrough diet book that has sold more than 100,000 copies to date
• Includes 150 simple, all-new recipes for delicious and Paleo-friendly breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners, snacks, and beverages
• Contains 2 weeks of meal plans and shopping and pantry tips
• Features 16 pages of Paleo color photographs
• Helps you lose weight and boost your health and energy by focusing on lean protein and non-starchy vegetables and fruits
• From bestselling author Dr. Loren Cordain, the world's leading expert on Paleolithic eating styles

Put The Paleo Diet into action with The Paleo Diet Cookbook and eat your way to weight loss, weight control maintenance, increased energy, and lifelong health-while enjoying delicious meals you and your family will love. ... Read more

Reviews

Excellent Cook Book and then some...., December 7, 2010
I have begun "cooking my way through" this cookbook and am very impressed! It is a combination of a great book (summary of the paleo diet), great reference, as well as a thorough cookbook. The recipes are fantastic - simple yet flavorful, easy yet complex and just plain delicious. Frankly, this is the best damn cookbook I have found if you want to cook and eat real food. Hands down a great buy and worth every penny! I took the book to kinko's to cut the binding and replaced it with a ring binding and laminate the cover and back so it is a bit more durable. I am adding my own pictures and recipes in the back. I could not be happier (and in better shape).

Another Paleo Cookbook..Finally, December 4, 2010
Okay so I received the cookbook and was excited to get it. The saddest thing of it all is it could have been an amazing cookbook instead of just average. No pictures is a major (no no) on a cookbook. Also I think it should have been a hardback book. I wish they would have taken some cues from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook, with that said it does have some merits.

Pros: 150 recipes, Cost, Smoothie recipes look good, A couple good chapters on what a Paleo Diet is and what your Kitchen should consist of to be Paleo. More Recipes than The Primal Blueprint Cookbook, Different recipes than the Primal Blueprint, so it is awesome to add to my choices of foods to cook. Paleo Diets are easy and they work.

Cons: No Pictures, Not Hardcover

Conclusion: This could have been a amazing cookbook but it is not, its good and cheap but they really messed up when they did not make it hardcover and no pictures. If you own the Primal Blueprint Cookbook, then get this one...If not go Primal first. Just don't expect this cookbook to be even come close to the excellence of the Primal cook book. Now with that said I have not begun to cook out of this book yet, but I will update this review on how the food comes out. Making the recipes is the true test of it all. Still I would say they could have had a amazing cookbook, instead of "I like it" cookbook.

Disappointing, December 3, 2010
There are no pictures of any of the recipes written in this book. It is a recipe book for sure, but unlike its main competitor (The Primal BluePrint cookbook) it is recipes and nothing else. No real idea about how your dish is supposed to look. Very disappointing because it shows pictures of some dishes on the cover but inside the book, nada. Perhaps it was written somewhere that there were no pictures of any of the dishes but I didn't see it.

Pretty good, December 23, 2010
This has a large assortment of recipes and an decent intro to the paleo diet. I will use this often! HOWEVER, it is paperback, so I don't know how well it will hold up for regular usage and WHERE'S THE PHOTOS? A cookbook is so lacking without pictures. The The Primal Blueprint Cookbook: Primal, Low Carb, Paleo, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free and Gluten-Freeis what I got first. It has REALLY good recipes that are so easy to prepare! I've used about half of them, and they have all turned out to be great! I recommend getting that one first.

Paleo-Culinary-Superb, December 12, 2010
This recipe book really takes Paleo cooking up a level to great tasting dishes and a learning cooking experience. It remains beautifully simple to make. I feel like with these recipes I could rival those great Seattle chefs who insist that butter and cream, with grain dishes are the only true flavours. How wrong they are! Thank you Nell Stephenson!

Well organized and easy to follow., December 8, 2010
This is a great cookbook! It is well organized by categories and the recipes are eazy to understand and to follow. Many of these items can be made with ingredients we have on hand or with a quick trip to the store. Whether you are interested in the "diet" part of the Paleo Cookbook, or you are just looking for a delicious change for dinner; this is the cookbook to have. I highly recommend "The Paleo Diet Cookbook." I give it two thumbs up.

Fantastic Book!, December 7, 2010
The book is full of great recipes for novices as well as for people of advanced culinary training. The introduction to the Paleo diet is fantastic. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone looking to get healthy the way the body designed it! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Proposes that a person's blood type can both influence health and explain individuals' reactions to foods, and presents four different plans, based on blood type, for diet, exercise, and good health. ... Read more

Reviews

Try it yourself, January 20, 2001
Two of us have been following this plan for over 1.5 years. My partner lost about 20 pounds in the first few months, without counting portions or calories, and has maintained his ideal weight without effort. His energy returned to a level not experienced for several years - one of the keys was putting MODERATE amounts of organic beef back into his diet. Eliminating wheat, dairy products and foods with problematic lectins, while emphasizing beneficial foods such as leafy dark-green vegetables also helped. Since he's Type O and I'm Type A, the protein part of our diets differs somewhat, but we've quite easily found ways to cook together. We both noticed much clearer sinuses after just a week. He eliminated asthma symptoms and my allergies improved. I no longer suffer from PMS. I lived with knee problems since childhood, but these have now disappeared, as did the stiffness in my fingers and back in the morning. Digestive problems and stomach aches, a major problem for me since childhood, eased greatly in the first couple of months and are still improving. My complexion cleared and my heart stopped "skipping beats" - I could go on and on.

I have been interested in nutrition and have kept abreast of various schools of thought for the last 25 years. When I first heard of Eat Right I dismissed it as a fad diet that was not based on scientific evidence. Before reading Eat Right I consumed what I believed were "healthy" foods for many years: whole grains, little or no meat, lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, "good" fats, spring water. Very few additives, prepared or fast foods or medications. However, some foods that were healthy according to the literature and research were healthy for other blood types but not for Type A. When I eliminated these foods and ate more of the beneficial foods I immediately saw results.

I just read most of Live Right 4 Your Type and highly recommend it. Eat Right 4 Your Type was a great introduction, but it's several years old and much research has taken place since then. For someone new to the eating plan, reading both books would be helpful. The information in Live Right is more current, more specific for individuals and a little more technical. Beyond food recommendations, Live Right's information about cortisol and stress was very useful for me.

Read the reviews of people who have actually tried the eating plan, then try it for a month and decide yourself!

Receipt for better living : "Eat Right for Your Blood Type", October 21, 1999
While working in a health food store in Wichita, Kansas about a year and a half ago, I was exposed to Dr.D'Adamo's book. It took me a while to decide to take small bited of his recommended diet for my blood type. Quit frankly it seemed to me that I would have to give up every food I liked, and that staying on this program was a jail sentence which I was most likely to abort in a few short days. The theory made a lot of sense, but after many years of "yo-yo" dieting, I must admit I thought this was just the latest diet fad. I felt that I needed to do something about the way I was feeling both physically, and emotionally. I decided to make some suggested changes a bit at a time, finding at one point that I was ready to make a full commitment to the doctors advice, as I had started to feel better, and wanted to see if what I was experiencing could possibly get even better. I went to my family doctor who agreed to support me in my efforts, after she agreed to read the book! She took base line blood work,checked my vital signs, including a physical. She found that my blood pressure was too high, my triglyceride level was unacceptable, cholesterol was elevated, and my energy level was extremely low. I had complaints of leg cramps, fatigue,irritable bowel syndrome,depression,and carbohydrate cravings. I had also put on over 50 pounds in the past 3 years. Being 50 years old I was also struggling with postmenopausal symptoms. After 20 weeks of following Dr. D'Adamo's suggestions many of my symptoms subsided, and much to my delight I have dropped 27 pounds. I am even more motivated to continue my eating life style changes due to the drastic changes I have obtained. I highly recommend for anyone to explore this wonderful perscription for staying healthy, and see what taking control of your life feels like. The rewards are well worth the personal commitment toward living longer and, having the quality of life that makes you want to face every new day.

It's not just another nutrition book., July 4, 2000
I have to disagree with the customer review that stated that this book was just another way of saying, "Eat better and exercise, and you'll lose weight." I have type O blood, and one of the many helpful recommendations Dr. D'Adamo gives is for type O's to avoid wheat, which is quite contrary to most health recommendations. I've tried all my life to eat whole wheat products because health experts recommend it. Little did I know how hindering it was to my body and my weight loss efforts to eat wheat. I also found that not all people benefit from strenuous exercise. For some blood types, yoga and tai chi can be more beneficial than strenuous aerobics. The whole point of this book is that people cannot follow the same diets and exercise programs to get the same results, and I completely agree. If this wasn't true, people who are trying to follow traditional health recommendations for exercise and eating wouldn't be finding themselves overweight and unhealthy, despite their efforts. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to lose weight, reduce stress, and increase their overall health. I have lost weight, but more than that, I am more healthy than I've ever been in my life. I don't believe Dr. D'Adamo would have done such strenuous research, nor would people be doing so well on the diet, if it was just another way of telling people to eat right and exercise.

Too much arm-waving, February 22, 2000
I bought this book from Amazon after a referral from a friend who lives by it. The biggest problem I have with it is that the author presents virtually no scientific justification or research results behind any of the claims he makes. He freely dispenses all sorts of advice (e.g. type As shouldn't eat oranges because they interfere with digestion) and then expects readers to just take his word for it. As the world's biggest skeptic, I would normally advise people to stay well clear of this one, except for one little problem: the diet does in fact appear to be working, at least in my case. I didn't modify my lifestyle, and I haven't followed the diet to the extent that the author would have liked me to. I have, however, made a concerted effort to cut down on many of the foods he warns against for people of my type (A). In the 2 months since buying the book I've dropped an astonishing 20 pounds, down from 190. I don't know how well it works for other people, and I really don't like the unscientific manner in which the information is presented, but my own results force me to begrudgingly give it 4 stars.

The Blood Type Diet Works--It's Real--It Changed My Life, July 30, 2000
Eat Right 4 Your Type is great. It works. I'm a Blood Type A and it worked great. Believe me, I was skeptical when I read about it, but after getting the book and reading it, I decided to give it a try. It helps to read all of the book. Don't just go to the part about your own blood type and skip over the rest. After just a few days avoiding the foods the diet says aren't good for my blood type, I noticed a change. I started feeling better. I had more energy. I had trouble with my stomach for years, digestive problems. And I was overweight. The diet has helped to change that. I didn't feel sick to my stomach so much. The more I kept to the diet, the less my stomach hurt. Then it stopped hurting at all. And I started losing some weight. It wasn't any miracle weight loss, but after almost 6 weeks following the book, I lost about 12 pounds. Weight is still coming off. I feel better than I have for years, and I'm in my fifties. My wife bought Cook Right 4 Your Type also, for ideas about meals for people with different blood types. That's the hardest part, giving up almost all of the fast, easy stuff. I still want to eat Italian bread. I try not to watch the food commercials on TV. I miss fast food junk like that. But I love Eat Right and Cook Right. They helped me so much, and my wife. I'm still surprised. Dr. D'Adamo and Catherine Whitney make it all so easy to understand. Read this book from cover to cover. There's really good information here for everybody. My wife is Type O, and she feels great right now from following the blood type diet. There's also a blood type web site to get any questions answered. There's a message board in there that's a real help. Buy the book, read it, and then use it in good health. You're going to be surprised. The blood type diet works. It's great. I give it a Five stars rating, plus. I hope this helps you.

It Seems To Be Working For Me, August 26, 2000
I purchased this book because I had been having a lot of digestive problems, like embarrassing gas everyday, and heartburn that was becoming more frequent. Also, during the past few years, I had gained 10 pounds and nothing I did seemed to make a difference. I attributed it to the fact that I was "middle-aged" and began to dread getting "old". I found the book to be very interesting, but wondered about the scientific aspect. Was he making this up, or could it be true? I decided to give the diet a try, just to see what would happen. As a "B" blood type, the information in the book revealed to me that the almost total vegetarian diet I had adopted in the past five years was incorrect for my blood type. I read the food lists, and discovered that many of my favorite foods were on the "avoid" list. I made some simple substitutions, giving up "avoid" foods, and replaced them with foods from the "highly beneficial" and "neutral" lists. I added meat and fish back to my diet a few times a week. To my great surprise, within three days, all of my digestion problems cleared up. The gas and heartburn disappeared, and have not returned for four months. An added benefit has been that I have lost nine pounds. This happened within the first two months. My energy has increased, and I feel pretty good! A few times when I have splurged and eaten foods from the "avoid" list, I have developed temporary digestive problems, but they immediately go away when I return to the Blood Type Diet. I asked a physician friend to read the book, and he refused to do so, because it had not been "peer-reviewed" in the medical journals he reads. He expressed concern about the unqualified people writing books and taking advantage of the simple people, like me. Well, all I can say in answer to him is that it simply seems to be working for me, and I cannot argue with the positive results I have seen. I am back to my high school weight and feel good.

IT CHANGED MY LIFE, August 16, 2001
The blood type diet has changed my life for the better and I challenge all the scientist rubbishing it to try it themselves! From the age of 27 I started to suffer from acne and increasing weight gain. My Doctor prescribed anti-biotics for the acne and I ate less and less to loose weight; nothing worked. The weight gain although upsetting did not effect me like the acne as it completely took over my face and back and destroyed my self confidence. I suffered like this for six years until last year when I met my Nutritionist who I can only described as an 'Angel' at a business meeting. She, just by looking at my eyes told me I had serious digestive problems and to go and visit her. That day was the turning point in my life. I underwent a food tolerance test and the results were amazing. Every food that I had been eating, which I thought were healthy, my body could not tolerate. The list was endless of foods which I should not eat. The subject then came up about blood type and I was given a copy of ER4YT. When we compared my test results to the book I was amazed to see that every food I had shown an intolerance to was listed in the bad foods; from that point on I was converted.I am a B type and ate huge amounts of chicken, wheat, pasta and tomatoes, thinking they were healthy but they were the worst things I could have eaten. I left her office in shock but convinced this was the answer, it made sense! I changed my diet from that moment on and have never looked back. My skin cleared up almost immediately and I have lost the weight I wanted to.My energy levels have increased ten fold and I am a much happier. The most fantastic thing was it was so easy. OK cutting out bread was a bit of a problem at first but I now eat rice bread and rice pasta. The scientific evidence may not be there but what other evidence do I need? I have a clear skin, I have lost weight and I have my confidence back. STUFF the science, it works!

A Promising Hypothesis, September 24, 1999
I had heard about the ER4YT book about two years ago and considered it to be a bunch of bunk at the time. Friends told me about it and I didn't even bother to read it before I condemned it. How could I, a Type A, who eats healthily, be told to avoid such delicious foods as whole wheat, tomatoes, mushrooms, potatoes, etc.! The corrleation between food selection, health, and blood type seemed to be complete fiction, especially since I had no health complaints with my current eating patterns.

Well, curiosity got the best of me and a month ago I bought the book version of ER4YT. I was intrigued when two acquaintances related their almost miraculous improvements in their well-being by following Dr. D'Adamo's advice.

My wife insisted I check out the book with our family doctor before I became a fanatic of ER4YT. My doctor was quite dismissive of the whole idea and said that as far as she was concerned there wasn't any research to unequivocally back up D'Adamo's hypothesis. I left her office feeling like I'd just been hoodwinked by another book-fad. For another perspective I called my brother-in-law who has a doctorate in biochemistry and is currently doing research in San Diego in immunology. He said that various lectins are regularly used in his lab to induce tumours in lab animals and that the link between health, cancer, lectins, and blood type is only beginning to be understood. Ah ha!

Anyways, I have read the book and have been on the Type A diet for 2 weeks and these are my impressions:

o the anthropological info is amusing reading but it seems extraneous to the rest of the book

o the chapters on blood type, lectins & diet, cancer, etc. are well-written and convincing

o the diet is cumbersome to get used to -- some of the ingredients are hard to find or just strange to incorporate into daily life (would you like another scoop of steaming kasha?)

o I have been on it for 2 weeks and have noticed no health benefits excepts a great reduction in gas, which is nice. I also have noticed that when I stray from the diet my digestion feels very unhappy. I will give it more time and hopefully I will become a full convert to the ER4YT gospel!

o the most important thing to me is that my doctor said that the diets Dr. D'Adamo prescribes are NOT harmful, and in her opinion, the reason why most people notice improvements in their well-being is because they are finally incorporating fresh whole foods in their diet instead of fast-or-packaged foods. She's probably right, but I'm also banking on D'Adamo's hypothesis.

Does it work?, January 24, 2004
Let me get a few things out of the way before reviewing the book itself. I've been on the Blood Type O diet for 9 months now and have lost 30 lbs. To give you some background I started a new job in a new industry about 3 years ago and had gained nearly 25 lbs due to the long hours and free snacks and dinners (which I ate because I was working 60-90 hours a week) - in addition to the 20 lbs I had gained since getting married almost 7 years ago. Both my wife and I searched for a diet that would work for the both of us. My sister and her husband had some success with the Atkins diet, but it seemed too stringent for us. It was my wife who suggested this diet and I admit to being sceptical.

After reading the book I searched the internet for further information about Dr. D'Adamo's research. Not much came up other than the "official" website. Does this mean that Dr. D'Adamo is wrong or that his book is just another diet clothed in new language? Perhaps, perhaps not. And therein lies a caution I would give you: be careful not to glorify this diet or Dr. D'Adamo beyond it, or his, relative worth. I've met many people over the years who have tried a variety of diets with varying degrees of success. Many tend to dismiss the diet if it doesn't work for them and, on the other hand, present it as the one-and-only true diet if it does work.

My criteria for deciding whether or not to try the Blood Type diet was twofold: 1) is it a radical diet that emphasizes one or two types of food to the exclusion of all else or does it recommend a balanced intake of a variety of foods, which in my opinion is the right way to go and 2) is it something that I can incorporate as a lifetstyle change rather than being a fad. In my opinion, and my experience, the answer is yes to both. However, I would also say that your success with this diet may be different as I believe a number of psychological factors are also applicable, to any diet e.g. willingness to follow a regime and a recognition of when it is ok for them personally to "cheat".

The book itself provides information about the different diets and, in general terms, why they work. Dr. D'Adamo doesn't provide details of his research - though he does describe some case studies, again in general terms. While that isn't the purpose of the book the fact that you virtually can't find the information if you wanted it is a little disconcerting. It provides a few recipes, but you should buy the supplemental recipe books if you have trouble creating them on your own. The first three chapters cover general information about Dr. D'Adamo's approach and the next four cover diets for each blood type. Chapters on the individual diets give some background information and then a list of foods categorized as Highly Beneficial, Neutral, and Avoid. At least for the Blood Type O diet a list of the foods that encourage weight loss and a list of foods the contribute to weight gain are also given.

I gave this book 3 stars for a couple of reasons. The lack of further detailed information about the research leading to his conclusions and the contradictory categorization of foods that are beneficial, neutral, and to be avoided throughout the "series" of Blood Type books. The end results is that I have lost 30 lbs and have been able to keep it off. But I must also give myself some of the credit for being able to make the lifestyle change necessary to make it happen.

Magic, November 10, 2001
Hello. This book gives me the type of feeling I get when I watch "Street Magic" on TLC. I'm Awed. Incidentally, I am a BRUTAL reviewer. If I smell a quack or a fraud, I go for the jugular, (to save someone time and money). D'Adamo knows his stuff. Here's the lowdown: I am an O+ blood type. Recently I had serious health problems. I saw a lot of doctors and did a lot of research, and it turned out to be Candidiasis and serious food allergies. I took a test called ELISA/ACT to find out what stuff I'm allergic to. Now, when you develop food allergies and intollerances, the first things your body starts rejecting are: 1. The stuff you never should have eaten, that your body could somewhat put-up with before, when you were younger and stronger. and 2. The stuff you ate on a very regular basis during the period of increased immune response (brought on by Candida). You want to know something? About 90% of the stuff I can't tolerate is on D'Adamo's Avoid List. DAMN IT! Magic. (The other allergies are to some stuff I ate EVERY DAY, which is normal). So my particular case helps prove him right. You want to know what else? As a child I was a very finicky eater. I loved certain foods, and I hated others. Most of the ones I hated as a kid are on his Avoid List. DAMN IT! Magic again. How does he do that? Do yourself a favor and A) Get this book. B) Get a gluten intollerance test if you are an O+ (gluten is in wheat, oats, etc...). C) Get the ELISA/ACT test (very expensive, but your health is worth more than that patio furniture you want). Here's food for thought: Most Americans are O+. Wheat is a HUGE staple here. Most O+ people are intollerant to wheat to some extent (which increases as you grow older). Some people are FLAT OUT allergic to it. Some people get different levels of A.D.D. from it. Some people are AUTISTIC because of it. Get that GLUTEN intollerance test PRONTO (and you might say good-bye to the inexplicable moodyness and lethargy you get after eating).
Good luck in your search for better health! ... Read more

Editorial Review

For thousands of years humans have enjoyed the taste and nutrition of fermented foods and drinks. We rely on the transformative, almost magical power of fermentation to preserve and improve all sorts of food, making them tastier, more digestible, and more appealing. Author Sandor Katz takes readers on a whirlwind trip through the wild world of fermentation. The book is divided into chapters that focus on particular types of food and Katz provides readers with delicious recipes-—some familiar, others exotic—-that are easy to make at home, including vegetable krauts and kimchis; sourdough breads and pancakes; miso and tempeh; beers, wines, and meads; yogurt and cheeses.

The recipes provide a veritable smorgasbord of tastes, like homemade tempeh, sauerkraut, and borscht, along with a basic description of yogurt and cheese-making, complete with vegan alternatives.Whether you prefer to wash down your meal with Elderberry wine or Nepalese rice beer, there's something here to satisfy any palate.

Katz, a leading expert on the history of these foods, has written a revolutionary and informative culinary guide he calls "a cultural manifesto." He has experimented with many forms of fermentation and has developed and collected a wide range of techniques and recipes from around the world. ... Read more

Reviews

Wild Fermentation, September 15, 2003
This is the only cookbook that I know of that you will read from cover to cover. It is not the dry "do this in this order" kind of book, it walks with you on your culinary endevors like your mom or grandma would, telling you stories along the way, including the secrets that make not just sourdough bread, but unforgettable sourdough bread.

Sandor doesn't just tell us, he shows us, how to be self-sufficient about making and storing food (with little need for a stove or a refrigerator): making sourdough, cheese, miso, making tempeh, making wine, beer and, it seems, almost every other fermented food made the world over. And he gives you a list of resources where you can order the most mundane and exotic of starter cultures and even seaweed from our own Atlantic coast.

And your concept of "self" will never be the same again. He shows us how to reclaim and restore a part of ourselves that has protected us like the ozone layer protects the earth: the world of microbes in and around us, the protective cloak of the microecology that is meant to be a part of us like our skin.

Fermented foods restore a health balance like no probiotics and vitamins can. Happy reading, happy fermenting, happy eating!

viva fermented foods!, October 29, 2003
To refer to this as a 'cookbook' is disingenuous; it's a book about life and living foods! Having first read through a 20-ish page xeroxed copy of Katz' guide to fermented foods, I welcomed the increased breadth and volume covered in this published edition. I especially appreciate the cited references, although some works are relied on too heavily and there is a relative dearth of scientific citations. That said, there are some and the critique is balanced by the realization that Western science and nutrition have not been overly interested in such topics. A friend with Krohn's disease is hopeful it will help him to find foods he can more easily digest. Katz' book is an unconventional guide to storing foods with methods proven useful over centuries of preservation....and years in his own kitchen. It's detailed, thought provoking and contains a host of colorful characters worth reading about all on their own. It gets four stars because I look forward to a 2nd edition - thanks for a fine book!

OH So Good!!!, December 2, 2005
I love this book! I've tried a few of the recipes and just love the results! I can't believe none of the "back to nature" type books and publications I read talk about the simple and healthful ways of preserving food through fermentation!

Sandor does a fantastic job of taking the mystery and careful measuring out of fermentation. Most of the recipes I've read for fermentation say you must follow the recipe exactly or risk food poisoning. I'd rather play around with the recipes, so this is just perfect for me! I'm also impressed with his research into traditional recipes.

I just read that kimchi may cure Avian Flu, and the recipe in this book is a fantastic hit here! We use it as salad dressing with some sesame oil!

This is the cookbook of my dreams!, October 8, 2003
This cookbook has all the mundane and esoteric recipes I've ever wanted to own but have not been able to find all in one glorious place. Non-vinegar pickled pickles? It's there. Amazake? No problem! Kimchee? Likewise! And it's all written in a very intelligent, humorous and engaging manner with short and entertaining anecdotes that do not go on forever or stray far afield. **This book is a gem.** I recently attended a cooking class conducted by the author, who is just as amazing as his cookbook. He is full of energy and enthusiasm for spreading the gospel of these traditional and oh-so-nourishing foods. I own about 60 cookbooks, by the way, and this book is in my top five. I can't say enough good things about it. Buy this book!

Highly Recommended Modern Treatment of Ancient Technique, June 26, 2004
`Wild Fermentation' by Sandor Ellix Katz appears like a living fossil of the sixties counterculture, surfacing after forty years of being both shaped and scarred by the currents and tides of the last forty years. The author is a member of a very sixties hippie influenced rural community whose lifestyle seems to be grown directly from the soil laid down by `The Whole Earth Catalogue', `Easy Rider', `Alice's Restaurant', and the Hog Farm, but without any trace of the Merry Pranksters' antics or inclinations towards mind-altering drugs. The shaping of the last forty years is seen in the author's being HIV positive AIDs infected young man with a major interest in sharing his passion for fermented foods with the rest of the world through modern publishing and scholarly rigor.

Fermented food products are probably much more common in our lives today than they have been since the advent of the processed foods industry. And, this is a fact that even the average foodie may not be conscious. A quick inventory of fermented foods commonly used in modern American homes will show how widespread they have become.

The most obvious fermented product is beer, which has always been with us. Their cousins, wines and meads are also the product of fermentation. Virtually all cheeses are produced by fermentation, and our interest in and consumption of artisinal cheeses is rising fast. Yogurt is a close cousin of cheeses and consumption of yogurt has been rising since the early seventies. Sauerkraut and Choucroute have been with us since the beginning, but Asian fermented cabbage such as Kimchee and other fermented vegetables are becoming more popular. Pickles have also been a part of western cuisine for millennia Another part of the increasing interest in Asian foods is an increase in consumption of miso and tempeh, both from fermented soybeans. Asian fermented fish sauces from Thailand and Vietnam are also much more common today than they were 50 years ago. The granddaddy of fermented foods for Western cultures is yeast bread, especially sourdough breads.

Fermentation has at least four beneficial results, two of which have been known since prehistoric times. The first and most important effect is that fermentation is a method of natural preservation by the creation of acetic acid (acid in vinegar) or lactic acid (acid from milk sugar). The second, represented most clearly by the brewing of beer, is in the action of microorganisms on sugars to produce ethanol (alcohol in beer, wine, and liquor). The third is based on our physiological salivation response to acidic foods, or even the anticipation of acidic foods, thereby making the mouth feel of these foods more succulent by the combination of natural food moisture and our own saliva. Ancients may have sensed the last beneficial result, but it probably has not been fully realized until the 20th century. This is the ability of fermentation to break down foods which were hard to digest into different products which are both easier to digest and more nutritious. The two best examples of this action are the conversion of soy carbohydrates into miso and the conversion of milk into yogurt.

All of this has made fermentation into a darling of vegan advocates, as it broadens the range of useable non-animal protein and makes it all more palatable. It has also made fermentation into a favorite of alternate lifestyle nutritionists such as Sally Fallon, the author of the excellent book `Nourishing Traditions' who supplied a Foreword to this book. Fermentation is also one of the hallmarks of the slow food movement. Aside from the North African method for preserving lemons, I know of no other culinary methods that take as long to complete.

Anyone who has made pickles, sourdough bread, or beer should have a very good idea of the times involved in fermentation. And this doesn't even get into some of the olfactory `delights' that accompany the process of fermentation.

The author covers all of the types of fermentation mentioned above, devoting the greatest amount of space to vegetable, bean, and dairy fermentation. Bakers should not miss the lesser attention paid to breads, as for every book on yogurt, pickles, and kraut, there are ten books which cover artisinal baking with its sourdough sponges, poolishs, and begas.

On the political front, the most active issue regarding fermentation is the issue of unpasteurized cheeses being imported into or made in the United States. It is truly ironic that the home of Louis Pasteur relishes their raw cheeses while the squeaky-clean US won't let it in.

Aside from the thoroughly careful presentation the author gives of his material, the veracity of the book is strengthened by the extensively footnoted research behind his statements and the fact that the fruits of fermentation are essential to the lifestyle of the author and his comrades at their rural homestead. The similarity to both the hippie counterculture doctrines and the Amish lifestyle are unmistakable. One would almost take them for being scions of the Amish except for the names cited in the acknowledgments that I found myself checking against the names of the communities' goats. We owe this book in part to humans who go by the names Echo, Nettles, Leopard, Orchid, Spark, Book Mark, and Ravel Weaver.

I also thank Echo, Nettles, Leopard, et al and author Sandor Ellis Katz for this deeply thought out exposition of a pervasive and growing part of the modern culinary and nutritional environment.

This book may not be for everyone, or even for every foodie, but if anything I said sounds a chord in your psyche, I recommend you get a copy of this book and read it carefully.

There is no guide better than this one!!, January 31, 2004
This book is trully awesome. My husband has Crohn's disease which affects his digestive system and he was told that he needed to recolonize his gut with good bacteria and one of the ways is to eat fermented vegetables. This book guided me thru the process joyously and easily. Well researched and fun to read. Recipes for all kinds of vegies, dairy ferments and breads. Makes you pine for the simpler life in an intentional community.

Not a "Flip Open and Cook" Kind of Book, April 11, 2010
While the introductions to the chapters and the recipes definitely catch my interest and make me want to prepare these recipes, I am finding over and over again that the recipes are not written in a way where you could flip to the page and go.

Frequently, the instructions refer in an unclear manner to a different recipe that you need to follow in part, but make some changes.

Other times one of the ingredients is a recipe in itself, but no page number is given for where to find these extra instructions. For instance, many recipes call for "honey water," but give no information about how to prepare "honey water" or where in the book to find this concoction, leaving you to page through and search for it. Once you find honey water, you find that it is in a recipe for honey wine. Are the the recipes that call for "honey water" intending for you to use the ingredients from this honey wine recipe or use the final product? No answer is apparent.

I feel like I will have to re-write each of these recipes to include their FULL INSTRUCTIONS to make them user friendly. I don't know whether this was a choice made to save space, a sign of a disorganized mind, or simple laziness on the part of the author.

The stuff of life, January 17, 2004
I didn't expect how much I'd get into this when I picked it up, but Sandor's writing is clear and engaging and the subject is universal. I love that he talks about the history and the culture of fermentation alongside the concrete details of just making it work yourself with the kinds of things you have at hand.

It's true that fermentation is a fundamental chemical process that human beings have used for thousands of years to make food edible and tasty, but we've lost touch with that when we peel back the plastic on store-bought food. We've also forgotten the magical transformations involved, and this book lets you do that for yourself. Now I just have to find a good crock somewhere.

Awesome, October 19, 2005
I love this book, I have made sourdough bread and ginger beer. They both turned out great. I am now looking to make kimchi and sauerkraut. Recipes are easy to follow and taste great. Love it.

For those looking for an introduction to fermenting, April 9, 2005
In response to the two-star reviewer...could you direct me to the pages where you found those anecdotes and transexual behavior? Because I've had the book for a few days, read most of it, and didn't find any of those anecdotes. I skimmed through the whole book to check, and I didn't find any. The closest he comes to doing so is describing his experiences in dealing with AIDS, and how his passion for fermented foods have aided him in this process. That's far off from anecdotes about sexual behavior. Maybe you were reading an earlier edition of the book.

Anyways, I like this book because it addresses all of the subconscious thoughts that I had about fermentation, such as why we ferment foods, how we discovered the process, and the subjectivity of distinctions between foods fermented to perfection and rotten foods. Most of all, I like how he encourages us to experiment and tells us that fermentation does not require precision and control, as others may tell us. The simplest recipe in the book involves leaving fresh apple cider out. I also like his desire for us to recycle foods as much as possible, such as by making fruit peel vinegars. He gives us about fifty recipes, which includes all of the popular items, such as sauerkraut, miso, and beer, along with a few more obscure ones, and he encourages us to experiment with these. Although over half of the book seems to be anecdotes and stories, they give helpful knowledge for anyone new to fermentation. You may find his writings on the analogy of fermentation to cultural revolution and the process of life cheesy. (Damn, I spent more time on this review than I wanted to.) ... Read more

Editorial Review

Gluten free doesn't have to mean taste free, and chef Robert Landolphi proves it with his new work, Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook.

Landolphi is the up and coming gluten-free cookbook author. His dishes aren't just delicious, they're also quick and easy, and take living without wheat from endurable to enjoyable.

It's lots of flavor without the fuss. This cookbook includes more than 100 recipes for contemporary dishes ranging from main courses and sides, to soups and chowders, biscuits and muffins, pies and puddings, and cookies and sweetbars.

* Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook is one of only a few gluten-free cookbooks written and developed by a professional chef.

* This cookbook provides a fresh and progressive voice for gluten-free living. ... Read more

Reviews

Excellent gluten-free cookbook!, September 18, 2009
I was recently diagnosed with Celiac disease and needed a good "every day" cookbook. I followed the reviews here, and I was not led astray. This is by far one of the best cookbooks I have ever owned! My husband (who is not GF) and I have been very impressed with every recipe we've made from this cookbook. The recipes are easy, the ingredients aren't hard to find (which is a big plus if you live in the boonies like we do), and the food you will make is far better than non-GF food (really!). I highly recommend it!

This Cookbook is Simply "Fabulous"!, May 31, 2009
I bought this book because of an interest in gluten free eating, but this cookbook is great for even those not following a G-free diet. I find the recipes all very interesting and delicious. I made the "Coffee-Encrusted Beef Tenderloin with Port Wine Sauce" for dinner last night, and I only wish there was some left - it was amazing! I'm making the "Hazelnut-Encrusted Salmon with Cilantro-Lime Creme" tonight. I can see myself using this book frequently. The Gluten-Free Basics section at the beginning helps with understanding how to cook G-free. It seems this book will make this transition to a G-free diet very easy. I highly recommend this book!Gluten Free Every Day Cookbook: More than 100 Easy and Delicious Recipes from the Gluten-Free Chef

Gluten Free Goodness!, May 6, 2009
I had overheard a few people discussing this book and decided to buy a copy for myself to try. I have one relative with Celiac Disease and thought this book would be great for holidays or just when the family gets together. At our most recent family gathering my family members raved about the Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin Recipe! The recipe directions are to the point and very easy to understand. I look forward to trying every recipe in this book!

Great Recipes, March 7, 2010
I ordered this book in an attempt to try my 6 year old son on a gluten free diet. Eliminating gluten from his diet has helped him to calm down in school and he has become less "angry" which I believe was a side effect of gluten in his diet. This book has a lot of basic information about gluten free ingredients. I especially appreciated the descriptions of many non-wheat based flours. This cookbook has excellent recipies including one for flaky biscuits and awesome chocolate chip cookies. It's a great book to start or add to a more healthy living cookbook collection.

Really Great Recipes, November 7, 2009
I've tried out a dozen of the recipes in the book so far - and all have been winners! The real proof can be found in the fact my father (a picky eater through and through) happily eats at my house when these recipes are on the table. Straight forward, easy to follow, but a different take on each recipe.

And the romantic in me can't help but be touched that a chef would go gluten free and work so hard just to make sure his wife got tasty food!

Lots of great gluten free ideas and helpful cooking and prep information, July 10, 2009
I had been searching for a new cookbook recently, which can be challenging if you can't eat gluten. My friend gave me a copy (actually signed by the author) and was immediately excited about finding lots of easy to follow recipes that contain many ingredients that are easily accessed as well. It also contains many simple tips about special food prep and cooking ideas that can take your recipe over the top. Although, the only meat that I eat is select fish, the meat oriented recipes can be replaced with meatless sources too. Lots of cool dessert recipes that even the most discerning gluten eater would enjoy!

gluten free cooking, November 28, 2009
This is a wonderful book for anyone, gluten consceience or not, who enjoys cooking and wishes to create healthy dishes. Author Rob Landophi offers his reasons why he became involved in gluten free cooking and his personal experinces add a special touch. The love and dedication he feels for his family come through in each recipe. The book covers all the different areas of cooking in easy-to-read text with fabulous explanations of gluten free products for the beginner.

What a find! - Best gluten free cookbook!, June 1, 2010
No. 1: This is one of the few gluten free cookbooks written by a certified chef.
No. 2: Everything is superb!
No. 3: I can now make biscuits better than I could when I was on a gluten diet.
No. 4: A nutritionist was involved in its creation.
No. 5: It teaches you how to cook whether it is gluten free or not.
No. 6: It teaches you about the gluten free ingredients and its purposes.

What an easy decision. Buy this book! It has great recipes. I can't wait to try the pizza dough recipe!

I've been sharing this book on my blog and with my over 3400 Facebook fans and they love it, too!

He recipes are INCREDIBLE!, November 14, 2009
All I can say is THANK YOU for these great recipes. My seven year old son finally likes something that is gluten and dairy free. The shrimp recipe is to die for!!!! I can't wait until the next book comes out :-)

Great Book - Great Food!!, August 20, 2009
This book has been such a delight. I was struggling with how to cook some favorites and this was the answer. Clearly written with great suggestions for products and sources. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The first cookbook from the author of Gluten-Free Girl and GlutenFreeGirl.com

Combining tempting recipes with an authentic love story, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef is a narrative cookbook for anyone who loves food.

A must-have for those who need to eat gluten-free, this cookbook offers irresistible stories and plenty of mouth-watering meals. From the authors of the much-loved food blog, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, the book includes evocative photos, cooking techniques, and 100 chef-tested recipes that are sure to give joy in the belly.

• Illustrates the working day of a talented chef and what he does to put delicious food on the plate
• Contains great-tasting recipes that everyone can cook and eat
• Meant to be read cover to cover

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef inspires anyone who has to eat gluten-free to say yes to the food he or she can eat. ... Read more

Reviews

This would be Julie and Julia copy cat is going to make all 100 recipes, September 14, 2010
I have read this book cover to cover, twice. Captivating story, stunning photos and a plethora of recipes for me to work my way though this fall. Well, maybe not all this fall, after all I am going to heed the advice about cooking in season. I am going to be a Julie and Julia copy cat and work my way though each of the recipes. O.K. maybe not the smoked salt carmel ice cream which seems really overwhelming and intimidating. I love how the book approaches the idea of cooking, connecting with people and providing joy to the belly. While I consider myself to be a very good cook I still found the tips and suggestions through out the book very helpful. For example, how to season food with salt and pepper to evenly distribute the seasoning, why you should use fresh herbs instead of dry, how to braise, and finally a recipe for veal stock that I think I can manage. Offering variations for each recipe is also a wonderful sidebar to each recipe. Most importantly I find the writing and the stories, especially the stories of each recipe compelling and satisfying. I love knowing the history behind the food, how the recipe evolved. I am drawn to long, slow days in the kitchen and this cookbook is going to carry me far in expanding my kitchen skills. At the expense of being critical of other gluten-free cookbooks it is finally time for classy, upscale approach with a hardback cookbook that earns distinction. Finally, here it is!

This one earns a permanent spot on my Counter!, September 14, 2010
I pre-ordered this book so that I could be one of the first to receive it. I just got it yesterday and I must say that it is not often that i can curl up and read an entire book, cover to cover, in just one sitting (especially with two young children running around). But that is exactly what happened with this book. The beautiful recipes have been intertwined with an amazing love story - i could not stop reading it. Shauna and Danny Ahern's love story reminds me very much of my own (and of my parents). The story was as addicting as the recipes and images themselves. And with Fall descending on us, many of these recipes look so enticing, especially the crusty bread recipe, the braising recipes, and a particularly fascinating cassoulet that I am really excited to try for a Sunday night dinner!

I have made many of the amazing recipes from The Gluten Free Girl's blog in the past, so I know each of the recipes in this cookbook have been perfected and tested with the same total love that the recipes on her blog recieve! Bottom Line: This one has earned the coveted #1 position in my cookbook holder on my counter...

A gem!!!, September 14, 2010
I love reading Shauna's blog because it is real and genuine. Life is messy sometimes, but how we bounce back and keep going speaks to our character. These two individuals have lived and taken risks, have experienced pain on many levels, and have also experienced amazing amounts of joy. Watching the vimeo videos with the Chef and Shauna gives you a hint to their love and adoration for each other, for food, and for living.

My copy arrived yesterday and I could hardly put it down. This is a cookbook that is more intimate than your typical cookbook- you get another peek into the lives of these two incredible people, and it is a gift. Say YES to this cookbook and YES to life. The tips from The Chef are helpful, and it is written in a way that is easy to understand (and actually use!!)

An Every Person Book, September 15, 2010
Both my husband and I eat gluten free and we have for almost a decade. Frankly until Shauna's first book arrived (Gluten Free Girl), we were working very hard to bake and cook gluten free with little inspiration. I think I've gifted that first book to more than a dozen people by now because it is that good. This one is no different and even more inspiring. I've been able to have a ringside seat watching the two of them create this book by keeping up on their blog, and I've tried many of the recipes that are now in the book. I cannot thank them enough for helping bring gluten free baking and cooking into the mainstream. Sure, there are folks who also need gluten free-diary free- vegan, but many of us love butter, and dairy and do fine with it. I wanted to bake gluten free, not taste free. And if you are thinking that you want to do the same, then buy this book. And follow their blog. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for making this book possible. And now since Lu is getting to the right age, how about a gluten free kids cookbook? Just saying....

Worth the Wait!, September 13, 2010
I usually don't bother to write reviews on Amazon. I am gluten free (I don't believe I have full blown celiac sprue, but I am definitely sensitive to it). I've been following Shauna's blog since she started it and I follow both the Ahearns on Twitter. I pre-ordered this book as soon as Shauna mentioned it on her blog. It came today and I've already read it (and dog eared most of the recipes). I fully expect it to be covered in sauce splotches and dustings of flour soon. It will not sit all pristine on my cookbook shelf pretty, but unused. The language is beautiful and evocative (what I would expect from Shauna), the pictures are gorgeous and the recipes are clear and seem easy to follow (I've been cooking for awhile, so I can't speak to how a beginner would fare). I especially like the way Danny broke the instructions down into steps, like forming the crumble, preheating the oven, preparing the filling, baking the crumble. It helps keeps things organized and since I'm prone to having 2 or 3 dishes going at once, it's really great. I also appreciate the sidebars with substitution suggestions, since I am lactose intolerant and keep kosher, which means beef tenderloin is out. I am excited to start cooking from this book.

As far as the language goes (and that's the main reason I'm bothering to write this review), yes, there's some swearing. Meh. It's in the dialogue and it isn't gratuitous. Some people swear and some people don't - to each his own. I am not bothered by it and would not recommend anyone pass up this book just because of words some find offensive.

An extraordinary contribution, September 15, 2010
Shauna James Ahern and her husband chef Danny Ahern have made an extraordinary contribution to the world of gluten-free cooking and to the wider world of food lovers as well. As someone who has cooked gluten-free for 30 years, with 3 Celiacs in the family, I am so grateful for the delicious food, the innovative recipes, and the loving voices of the authors. It is an insightful book about becoming a family and learning to live, love and cook together. Of course our family needed three copies for each gluten-free household, and we are thrilled that they have arrived!

Amazing!, September 15, 2010
This is an incredible haute cusine cookbook- even if you are not a celiac or have a gluten intolerance, it is a must for every kitchen!!! Fabulous details and pictures!!!

long awaited and worth it!, September 13, 2010
My family and I are mostly gluten-free, loved Shauna's first book and love this one. I hope the previous review does not put anyone off because this is a wonderful book. Anyone who is offended is now fore-warned and is free to read many other lesser cookbooks which speak to the gluten-free life (and the bountiful life of the Northwest) - but you will be missing the best! Shauna is a beautiful, creative spirit who has enriched my life and countless others with her honest and sensitive writing about her own journey (check out her blog - [...]

EXCELLENT!, September 15, 2010
I've read one of Shauna's books, and it was excellent! She is heart warming, captivating and inspiring! Anyone who has Celiac Disease will be able to relate to her experiences and her challenges. The cookbook will be a sure hit for anyone eating gluten free or cooking for someone who is. They will be thrilled! Sometimes her recipes are challenging; but she is awesome! She's constantly striving to feed us well! You can tell she has a heart of gold. She inspires me to be better in the kitchen! She's a blessing!

One of the best gluten free cookbooks ever!, September 15, 2010
Shauna & Danny are incredible people! This amazing cookbook is about so much more than gluten free recipes. It's about real cooking in your kitchen. It's about learning techniques & using new ingredients. It's about being willing to experiment with gluten free baking if you've never tried! Shauna's warm & humble voice shines through this love story that is so elegantly written it's hard to put down. Danny's calm guidance through each and every recipe is encouraging and makes you want to cook. Danny wants you to cook. You will learn so many things about what it means to show love through your cooking & baking skills and it's just a good story. Buy the book. Give it to friends & neighbors. Hold a Gluten Free Girl & Chef Cookoff one afternoon with friends and try the recipes. Thank you once again Shauna & Danny for making my gluten free kitchen a glorious place to be! ... Read more

Editorial Review

A powerful call for a paradigm shift in heart disease therapy.

Based on the groundbreaking results of a twenty-year nutritional study by Dr. Esselstyn, a preeminent researcher and clinician, this book illustrates that a plant-based, oil-free diet can not only prevent and stop the progression of heart disease but can also reverse its effects. The proof lies in the incredible outcomes for patients who have followed Dr. Esselstyn's program, including a number of patients in his original study who had been told by their cardiologists that they had less than a year to live. Within months of starting the program, Dr. Esselstyn's patients began to improve dramatically, and twenty years later, they remain free of symptoms.

Complete with more than 150 delicious recipes, this book explains the science behind the simple plan that has drastically changed the lives of Dr. Esselstyn's patients forever. It will empower readers to take control of their heart health. ... Read more

Reviews

Meet Dr. Esselstyn, say goodbye to your cardiologist, February 10, 2007
Dr. Esselstyn's brand new book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, delivers just what the title promises. 21 years ago, Dr. Esselstyn took 17 people who were very sick. They had had heart attacks, bypass operations, angioplasty, pills, you name it. These people had by and large been sent home to die by their cardiologists, their heart disease so severe nothing further could be done. Doctors told several they would be dead in "less than a year."

But they didn't die. Instead, each agreed to become part of Dr. Esselstyn's study, and adopted a low-fat plant-based diet as their medicine. 12 years later every one of these patients was alive, free of heart disease, and living full, active lives. Even those originally given a death sentence of "one year to live" are alive today 21 years later; and all thank Dr. Esselstyn for giving them knowledge, inspiration -- and recipes -- to save their lives. Their experiences as well as the many in his ongoing counseling, are documented in this amazing, highly readable book and backed up by 20 years of rock hard, peer reviewed science.

This is not a book just for people with heart disease (one out of every two Americans will die of heart disease). This is a book for anyone wanting to regain or preserve their health, anyone wanting to enjoy great health throughout their entire life.

The infomation in Dr. Esselstyn's book can save your life, and the recipes alone make it a must-have.

The land of Esselstyn... where the living is easy!, September 6, 2007
My cousin turned me on the Esselstyn lifestyle. Her husband, who has suffered from genetically high cholesterol, had seen many male family members die before their time due to heart disease. When vegetarianism and then veganism didn't solve his problem, they went hardcore into the Esselstyn lifestyle.

In 5 short months, my cousin (average size 12 American female) lost almost 30 pounds, much of it by foregoing the core of their vegan diet: olive oil, nuts, avocados, etc. Her husband also lost weight; better yet, his high cholesterol finally responded and is now in the excellent range.

My cousin then recommended the Esselstyn book to me, as my husband's cholesterol has stubbornly remained above 200, and he, too, has a history of heart disease in his immediate family. Though we believed we were already eating a healthy diet, several hours of reading through Esselstyn's findings soon proved we were wrong. We made a pact to try the diet for just 1 month and evaluate where we stood.

Well, 1 short month convinced us that this is the way to eat for life! We've now been following the program for 37 days, and the changes are already obvious. My husband has lost about 12 pounds and 3" in his waistline. He feels "lighter" and less bloated, and is "completely satisfied" (his words) by the wide variety of natural and delicious foods we eat.

As for me, I have lost about 9 pounds and a total of 12"; I will soon need new jeans! My mid-afternoon cravings are miraculously gone. And no one was more surprised than I to discover that we do not miss eating the staples of our previous diet, such as grilled salmon, eggs, olive oil, fat-free dairy products, dark chocolate, and an occasional 96% Laura's Lean sirloinburger. Another side benefit is that we are spending less at the grocery store!

If you're on the fence about this one, do what we did... try it for just 1 month (but be sure to give it 100%) and then make your decision.

Probably accurate but very difficult to follow, March 5, 2009
After searching for books on reversing cardiovascular disease I came across this one. He makes an excellent case for reversing heart disease and provides before & after angiogram pictures as well. I have no argument with the science. I also have a bone to pick with experts that don't like this doctor because he is not a heart specialist. Since when do all things correct have to come from only specialists? This guy treats patients that cardiologists have given up on when their invasive treatements fail. Angioplasty & bypass only relieve symptoms & do not cure the disease. My father found that out! After seeing what he was like after bypass surgery perhaps we need to do nearly anything to avoid that like the plague.

While the science is very compelling, and I believe it is right, the diet itself is extremly hard to follow unless you really love eating beans & vegetables, some fruit, and grains (no white bread or white pasta). The basis of his recommendations are no dairy at all, no meat, no fish, no eggs (not even egg whites), no cheese, no oil of any kind, no high-fat vegetable sources like nuts & avocado. Pretty sparce eating to me.

The author says that eating any oil at all, whether in animal or vegetable form, affects the arteries in a negative way & in at least one patient contributed to his angina. That statement ups the ante and leads you to believe that oil is not just undesireable but extremely dangerous. I find that eating out is nearly impossible as just about all food not prepared on your own is cooked in oil or has oil as part of the food....refried beans, soup, bread, crackers, tortillas, etc. Wanna eat out? You are pretty limited to steamed vegetables & some fruit, maybe rice (no sauces unless they are totally fat-free, and who can know if the marinara sauce has soybean oil in it?). Thinking that eating salad will solve your problems? Naw, not unless you like to eat it naked or carry around your own homemade dressing. Commercial fat-free salad dressing is NOT fat-free, and ANY vegetable oil at all is not allowed.

Sticking to this diet has been a huge struggle, but I've only been on the diet for 14 days. The hardest part is finding prepared foods, like bread, that have no fat at all in them. So far I've only found one manufacturer and the loaf costs $4.00. Can't even find tortillas that meet that criteria, and you really have to pay attention to labels. Fats go under other names like glycerin, mono & diglicerides, lethecin.

Do I sound frustrated? Yeah, I am. Most of the positive reviews I've read are written by folks with blocked arteries who welcome anything to keep them out of surgery, and having had a parent who had quadruple bypass surgery I totally get that. My dad's mother died of a heart attack, and so did her father. So, despite my frustration I'm going to adhere to this diet because I am convinced the author is right & I hope to avoid the fate of my relatives.

I have cooked many of the recipies in the book and did not like the majority of them. I don't like vegetables very much, and therein is my struggle. Try them anyway........

Do I like the book? Yes, it's very thorough. Do I like the diet it recommends? Nope, but I'm going to do it anyway.

A must read for anyone who wants to remain alive as long as possible, February 8, 2007
This is an extremely important book. Dr. Esselstyn has conducted the longest-running study, with the most impressive results, of any study in which heart disease has been arrested and reversed. I have read it once and plan to read it a second time. I had known of Dr. Esselstyn's work prior to reading this book, but it is wonderful to have all of his thinking and recommendations available in one easy-to-read book, together with a treasure trove of wonderful recipes supplied by his wife Ann Crile Esselstyn. Dr. Esselstyn points out that everyone over 60 who has been eating the standard American diet has some level of heart disease and it is increasingly found to be starting in children and young adults.

I used to think that there was nothing one could do about the chronic diseases of aging such as heart disease and strokes. It is exciting and heartening to learn that there is something one can do to prevent, arrest and even reverse heart disease. The proof is shown in the stunning photos of actual angiograms before and after Dr. Esslestyn's treatment (you can actually see that the arteries are wider after the treatment!) and more importantly, in the remarkable improvement in his patients that he tells about.

I have decided to follow Dr. Esselstyn's lifestyle guidance and I encourage all of my friends and associates to do the same. I direct a residential special needs school and have changed the menu plans for the 230 students at our school to follow Dr. Esselstyn's guidelines. I plan to send a copy to a cardiologist I know. I wish every physician would read this book. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It could be a life-saver, literally.

Matthew L. Israel,Ph.D.
Executive Director
Judge Rotenberg Center
Canton, MA 02021

Lucky To Be Onboard!, February 21, 2007
I was lucky enough to find Dr. Esselstyn almost 3 years ago after a stress test showed an insufficient blood flow during exercise. Rather than undergoing a quadruple by-pass operation (standard procedure), I adopted his healthy life style and my last two annual stress tests showed no blood flow deficiency. Each day I eat healthily I feel in control of my life. My stamina has returned, my indigestion has gone and my optimism is back. Don't feel deprived. Feel empowered! Edward Flax, Syosset, N.Y.

Does it really work?, April 4, 2008
With all of the promises being made regarding health cures it is hard to figure out which ones really work & which are vehicles to remove dollars from your wallet. I am a skeptic about these apparent fad cures & diets because most ultimately fail while an author or guru gets rich.

I have heart disease and things were going well after my bypass over 7 years ago. After the surgery I changed to a lowfat diet, exercised more and felt good. Throughout my 20's I was a triathlete and was top condition - training 2 to 3 hours 5-6 days a week and understood, so I thought, the value of exercise and an effective diet.

Thinking I had my heart problem beat (pardon the metaphor) after favorable results from 2 extensive thalium treadmill tests 3 & 5 years ago, I went about eating the great American Diet that included the occasional burgers, sodas and the rest.

I found that I was short of breath during heavy exercise (Jiu Jitsu), I decided to have my heart tested with the elaborate systems in the hospital - thinking that it must be my age of 53 years catching up with me and nothing else. I got the shocking news that my heart condition had gotten 50% worse since I had the same test 3 years before! That was truly bad news...

Being fully depressed but determined to not have my quality of life wither away, I decided to do something about it and not wait for the doctors to give me more meds since surgery was not an option. My doctor said that the only reason he could see for my diminishing condition was an increase in cholesterol in my diet that has started to block other heart vessels.

I stumbled upon this book with this bold title including "reversing" written by a heart surgeon - a heart surgeon indeed!

I read it along with the China Study (if you want a tech book about the western diet, this will blow your mind) and made the dietary change - of course, family members gave me grief for eating a plant based diet.

Four months later my results are as follows: Cholesterol went from 230 to 150. Weight 236 to 202, great for someone who is 6'4". My energy during exercise is 50% better than before my checking 4 months ago. Mental clarity improved significantly and that is the short list.

So, does it really work? Try it and find out.

PS
One family member & wife who scoffed loudly is now on the diet simply by seeing my results (I had no interest in defending or arguing about my choice because I decided to extend my life). They read the China Study as well and decided to give the fast food industry a miss from their eating habits. Read it and you will think twice about it as well.

Caldwell Esselstyn, June 7, 2007
This is the best heart book ever written period. I have about 50 health books. Ornish's book made me think about it, Esselstyn's book made me do it. All other health and heart books are just noise, they will just confuse you. This one is the best in many ways. In many ways the study is more powerful, and the book is more powerful than the Ornish books by far, though I think Ornish is admirable. This book really should be read along with The China Study, as the two authors refer to one another and their work in the two books. The China Study goes more in depth about the science and rational behind what Esselstyn is suggesting. The China Study is also an outstanding book. Congradulations to Mr Esselstyn, he is by far the best thing going at the Cleveland Clinc, this from one of its angioplasty patients. The only addition I would make to his analysis, is once you are able to, you need to add reasonable exercise, it is essential. But I understand his reasons for sort of omitting it. I suggest Mr Esselstyn write a Reversing Heart Disease Part 2, or "Advanced" there I am sure he would suggest strongly about exercise, as seen with himself and his own family. And I am sure he also has a lot to update us on. Great book, a must for anyone with heart disease.

Buy This Book For Everyone You Know, April 18, 2007
I am a cancer survivor who went whole foods vegan the moment I got my diagnosis in early spring of 2005. I experienced no side effects during six weeks of radiation treatment, and my other health benefits were swift and, frankly, miraculous. Chronic pain in my back, leg, and foot that I'd had for nearly two years was simply gone on the 8th day of "veganism". The pain never returned. My weight dropped to 120 and has remained there regardless of how much I eat. My cholesterol dropped from 191 to 127, and my blood pressure is 90/60 on average. If I pull a muscle or a tendon, I'm good as new the next day. I recently cut my finger chopping vegetables and two days later it was completely healed. When I tell people my story I feel like an impossible testimonial, yet here I am: almost 46 years old and feeling about 18!

I collect low-fat vegan cookbooks and as soon as I saw this book with "150 recipes", I grabbed it. These recipes are the most delicious and easiest to prepare that I've ever encountered. What a PERFECT collection! Everything I make comes out gold! I recommend this book to anyone who wonders, "What do you eat?" This recipe section is all anyone needs to make the switch to low-fat vegan easy and delicious!

As for the rest of the book, I've read it four times already, determined to commit memory everything in it regarding the effect of fat and junk food on our arteries. Dr. Esselstyn has done a tremendous job of writing a book that includes only what's necessary to clearly illustrate a path to health. I appreciate the fact that he avoided "filler" and got right to the point, pictures and all. I wish I could buy this book for everyone. It should be required reading by the time kids reach 5th grade!

Have a Heart--Save Yours!, February 8, 2007
Anyone with a heart problem or who wants to avoid heart disease needs to read this book. Dr. Esselstyn details the results of a 20-year study that proves that heart disease can be reversed. This reversal was accomplished not by surgical procedures but by a nutritional program that has been remarkably effective. Unlike other doctors who tell you to eat a balanced diet, Dr. Esselstyn spells out the foods you must eat and those to avoid to promote a healthy heart. To help those who need guidance in preparing meals, the book provides over 150 easy-to-prepare recipes.

Dr. Esselstyn is a remarkable man who has written a remarkable book that dares to challenge his professional colleagues. In an era where so many people are eating themselves into chronic illnesses like heart disease, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease presents a simple nutritional solution to a problem that has evolved into a national health crisis. His recommendations empower each individual to take charge of his/her health instead of turning to the medical profession for surgical intervention.

He says, "I have an ambitious goal: to annihilate heart disease--to abolish it once and for all." His goal will be realized only if his message is widely disseminated and people to turn their backs on unhealthful eating patterns to embrace a lifestyle that encourages their wellbeing.

Hopefully, doctors, instead of mocking and marginalizing practitioners like him, will change their focus to prevention instead of surgical procedures that cost thousands of dollars and offer no cure. He points out that surgery is far more lucrative for doctors than providing nutritional guidance to make that surgery unnecesary. As Esselstyn concludes, "We can start teaching people how to walk alongside the edge of the cliff instead of trying to save them after they fall off."

JUST SAY NO to heart disease, May 6, 2007
This is a very clear, very concise book.

A plant-based diet can prevent and reverse heart disease.

It has the potential to save millions upon millions of lives.

My cardiologist suggested that I try the South Beach Diet. Somebody slap him for me. Living proof that medical school nutritional education is NOT only pathetic, BUT actually DEADLY. I'd love to be able to say that this was a joke. Actually, it was. But true too.

Luckily I had read Ornish. McDougall is great. Esselstyn is the clearest and most up to date AND he recommended a vegan diet PLUS statins, with ZERO further cardiac events for those who followed the program. What more did you want? Did my cardiologist thank me for excitedly passing on that information? HA! Have you got a lot to learn ...

BUT you are not alone. You have Drs. Ornish, McDougall and Esselstyn and (biochemical) Dr. T. Colin Campbell. As for an actual live family practioner or a cardiologist, you may get lucky, but unfortunately I wouldn't count on it. When you have a new diagnosis of heart disease and you are petrified, or 'they' are shoving a coat hanger up your leg, is that tough? Oh Yeah ;-).

Younger doctors may be more open and/or have less to lose? (Sample size = 1 ;-) ).

Find support on McDougall's online forum and see if Dr. Esselstyn starts one. The very best of luck to you.

May you be as lucky (and Iron Willed) as those already happily following the advice.

(REMEMBER the one about the Formula One driver in Australia. A spectator says to a friend of the driver, "He's very lucky." To which the outraged friend replies, "Yeah mate, and you know what? The harder he works, the luckier he gets!"). Trust Drs. Esselstyn, Ornish and McDougall, be lucky and you'll do fine.

Esselstyn recommends reading The China Study. Having now done so, all I can say is "My God. What you don't know can SERIOUSLY damage your health." So that is why Ornish, McDougall and also Esselstyn say NO DAIRY. Got Cancer?

Can't do it? Willpower of a gnat? That's too bad because from here on heart disease is surely suicide by fork and spoon.

Tip - You can start with partial adherence; get used to it; then gradually increase the compliance. % compliance is entirely up to you. Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all? Plus the secret is: following the diet becomes extremely easy as it becomes a daily habit. In about a year. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Thanks to processed and fast foods, being overworked, and feeling stressed while eating on the fly, it is increasingly difficult for most of us to eat anywhere near a balanced diet. We may not be obviously sick, but may suffer from lack of focus, insomnia, sluggishness, or any host of symptoms caused by nutritional deficiency. Green Smoothie Revolution takes aim at this silent epidemic by restoring balance to our diets.
 
Combining nutrition and know-how with recipes that pack a powerhouse punch, Victoria Boutenko reintroduces long neglected fruits, vegetables, and greens in the most persuasive style for our busy lives: with fast prep and delicious results. Featuring 200 recipes, Green Smoothie Revolution offers both simplicity (4 ripe pears, 1 bunch parsley, 2 cups water; blend well) and enough variety to keep taste buds happy and nutrients coming from a wealth of options. ... Read more

Reviews

This is the answer to my big question, October 3, 2009
I loved Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" in which he summed up his research into what we should really be eating by saying "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I then thought, O-K, that's great advice but how do I do that? Salads?

Victoria Boutenko's book answers my question so completely that you would think that she was wondering the same thing. Many of the plants that are the healthiest for you (the dark green types) are difficult to eat raw in any meaningful quantity; kale, mustard greens, spinach, collard greens, etc. This is why so many people either cook them to death or smoother them with high calorie dressings. The Green Smoothie Revolution book showed me how I could add all of things that I believe are healthy for us (leaves, fruit, and berries) to my diet in an easy and fun way.

I was introduced to the Green Smoothie by a friend who had been eating this way for a while. I have to admit that when I made my first one I looked at it and said "Really?" It looked like something that Yoda, the swamp dwelling Jedi master from the Star Wars movies, would eat. Green, thick and kind of bubbling. I pride myself on my cooking abilities, especially in making a dish look appetizing by skillful plating. This did not look good; as a matter of fact my other friends used quite a few "colorful" expressions to describe my concoctions, none of which are appropriate here. The taste however is an entirely different matter. The simple blend of bananas, strawberries and kale was sweet, earthy and fresh. I was hooked!

In addition to the wonderful recipes for green smoothies (with alluring names such as "Hawaiian Hibiscus", "The Laughing Gorilla" and "Green Monkey Face") the book also offers moving testimonials and, most importantly, sage advice from Mrs. Boutenko. I have grown to really enjoy mustard greens as a part of my smoothie meals but she gives a great reason to "rotate" your choice of greens. It seems many plants have ingredients in them (including alkaloids) that could become slightly toxic if eaten in large quantities in order to encourage animals to vary their diet so that the plant would not be eaten to extinction. By regularly changing my choice of greens I can avoid this problem as each plant has a different chemical make-up. Another thing that surprised me is that pets enjoy this type of food as much as people do.

I will have to admit that I am not planning to eat 100% raw foods. I believe that humans are omnivores and that a varied diet is a good thing. However, I feel much better now that I have made my daily Green Smoothie my major meal of the day. I still enjoy my cheeses, breads, butter (I LOVE good, cultured Vermont butter) and meat, but I am eating much less of each of them. Thanks to a great friend and this book I have finally learned a practical way to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Great Intro to an Easy Way to Improve your Nutrition, August 22, 2009
This is a nice primer on a very easy way to amp up your nutritional habits.

I've been studying raw foods eating for the past week and the Boutenkos are definitely pioneers. The book has a brief testimonial from Victoria, a really neat Russian lady whose entire family at one point was diagnosed with severe medical conditions. Desperate for answers she met a lady who introduced her to the raw food diet. The entire family went 'cold turkey' and despite complaints and grumbling the daughter's asthma went away, and the son who was recently diagnosed w/juvenile diabetes, noticed that his blood sugar readings were dropping. Eventually the family was healed from all their medical conditions and they became sold on the raw foods way of living.

The Green Smoothie was a culmination of Victoria's efforts to figure out why her family had seemed to reach a plateau. She researched chimpanzee diets and found that leafy greens comprised a high part of their diet. However she admits that she had very little tolerance for raw leafy greens and found them disgusting.

After trying to blend the raw greens in a blender, which resulted in a stinky mess, Victoria added a banana and realized the fruit masked the smell of the greens. So she and her family began incorporating this vital nutrient into their diet by making 'green smoothies' w/fruit, water and greens.

The book contains a testimonial, important pointers for preparing smoothies such as rotating greens to avoid buildup of 'alkaloids', opinions on what ingredients add to or detract from an effective smoothie, a section w/smoothie recipes, and an appendix, which contains a testimonial from a 400 pound guy who found that green smoothies were the only way he could cut his cravings and effectively complete a weight loss program.

It's a very nice little book and it's something anyone can do. All it takes is water, greens, fruit and a blender. It would make a very nice gift for someone who needed a simple way to start improving their diet.

I have actually been drinking them and notice a big difference in my energy. Raw foods can be intimidating but this is such an easy first step. The book also has footnotes is well researched.

Inspiring, informative and entertaining, August 26, 2009
Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko
Review by Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor
Inspiring, informative and entertaining

As the author of a raw food book myself, I rarely come across a related book in which I find many new facts. But it is clear that Victoria did her homework, because I found myself highlighting sentences on nearly every page. Though Victoria includes ample science in her book, the tone is very conversational and easy to read.

I was delighted to come across many surprising new tidbits such how, if you blend the greens you only need half as much as you do if you eat them in a salad; green grapes, tomatoes, apples, bell peppers (and more) are really unripe fruits; a zinc deficiency can create a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, and much, much more!

Victoria also teaches us how processed foods have created degeneration that progresses with each generation! She found that ear lobes get smaller, which reflects a lack of cartilage in the body. She points out that the current generation of children is not only more obese than ever, but also is using more psychiatric drugs, braces for the teeth, and glasses. Our lack of good nutritious food (especially greens) is clearly degenerating us as a species.

I was most impressed with the research Victoria did on greens. For example, I used to have a nosebleed at least once a week until I switched to a raw diet 7 years ago. From reading this book, I realize now it was a lack of Vitamin K. Victoria lists the many symptoms that come from a lack of Vitamin K, which is found abundantly in greens. There plenty of other useful lists, such as cultivated greens, wild edibles and weeds, herbs, medicinal herbs, and most important: poisonous plants (with a stern warning to learn how to identify these before going foraging for wild plants!)

Victoria assures us that if we start blending the greens with plenty of fruit we will love the smoothies. She argues that this is good food combining, since greens are not really vegetables--because they are not starchy. Then, as we get used to them, we will not need so much sweet fruit, but will crave and enjoy the bitter greens. There is info on how to get even your cat to eat green smoothies (dogs are easy!) and also guidelines and tips for green smoothie production.

The book also contains personal stories, such as the delightful one about how her grandchild became hooked on green smoothies while in the womb, and another about leaving green smoothies out for wild animals -which led to, among other creatures, a bear coming for green smoothies! In one appendix we learn about how the Boutenko family went raw, and in another we read about how one guy lost 230 pounds in a year by doing green smoothies. (When will the TV "Biggest Loser" contestants catch on to this?)

All of the above makes the book worth the price even without the recipes. Yet the recipes make up the half of the book--there are 72 pages of them! Many are donated by readers from all over the world, and there are even green smoothie soups, puddings and body care recipes!

This book has truly inspired me to get back on track with more green smoothies. I had gone down to just one a day because of my fondness for chewing. But reading this has definitely inspired me to upgrade my "raw glow" to a "green smoothie glow."

What great receipes..., August 12, 2009
I have been eating about 90% raw since February, and am used to "green" juices, which I love, and these receipes expand my opions 100 fold. Many recipes contain combinations of the same ingredients, so you can easily shop and pick and choose what you like. Me, I love the spinach, or kale with mixed summer fruit! If you don't want to drink 2 qts. in a day, put the extra in a glass jar and save until tomorrow! Have given some to people who have never had a green juice, and they loved it. If you are in to eating healthy...this is book is a great addition to your library. Oh, yes, you absolutely need a Vita Mix or other high speed blender. My only addition to the recipes is to add a few ice cubes to the mix prior to blending - as the final product is quite thick, this is better than adding ice cubes to your glass.

What a disappointment, February 27, 2010
First of all, I highly recommended the author's Green for Life - it is the definitive work on green smoothies. Oddly, this highly anticipated sequel is the same book, but with less information. Instead of expanding on the ideas in the first book, she simply cut all out all the background research on the importance of greens and added more recipes. If you really need hundreds of smoothie recipes, you may appreciate this book, but for most people, once you have a few recipes down you'll feel comfortable experimenting on your own. I have no idea why this book was written. But buy Green for Life - it's what this book tried to be and so much more.

Green Health for Everyone. Cheers!, September 25, 2009
One of my favorite books is GREEN FOR LIFE, by Vicoria Boutenko. This book had a big effect on me, convincing me for the first time in my life to eat kale. I always tried, but never liked it and only ate it dutifully and smothered with earth balance when I did. Green For Life taught me to put leaves of raw kale in my blender with fruit for an ultra nutritious beverage/meal. I got that book two years ago and green smoothies have been a big part of my life ever since and for that I'm grateful to Victoria.

Her latest effort, GREEN SMOOTHIE REVOLUTION, has about 150 recipes for those needing ideas. There are also many stories of how individuals were able to transform their health by the simple addition of green smoothies into their diet. Public health could be completely revolutionized by following Victoria's advice, so I think it's an apt title.

After two years of green smoothies, I feel like I can't live without them. I often joke that if my house were on fire, the first thing I would grab after my son is the blender. You get hooked. My son loves them too, we drink them several times a week, and in the summer, at least once a day. Green smoothies are for everyone, not expensive, and she even tells you which greens you can find through foraging.

There is an interesting back story. Her family had some health issues the medical system failed to cure or even provide manageable care for. So she did a ton of research and her family transitioned to a raw food diet. Their health dramatically improved and then hit a plateau at one point. After doing extensive research on the chimpanzee diet, Victoria realized the missing link was greens. The story is fascinating, illuminating and very exciting. Why wasn't this obvious to all of us all along--it's so simple!

Green Smoothie Revolution stands on its own, but I would highly recommend Green For Life first. You don't have to be a raw foodist or even heading down that path. This is for everyone, and that's the beauty here, it's accessible to all. If you feel like you need to boost your nutrition levels or know anyone who is suffering from ill health or a chronic condition, these books could be potentially life changing. Highly recommended.

Green Smoothies - The NEXT Generation, September 7, 2009
Victoria Boutenko's first book on green smoothies, Green For Life, covers the subject so thoroughly and clearly that I wondered what more she would find to create the basis for a second book. I was not disappointed! Green Smoothie Revolution offers dozens of new recipes that show off the smoothie's versatility and inspire you with new creative ideas. You can make a thicker smoothie and serve it as a savoury soup. Or make it thick and sweet and voilďż˝ -it's a satisfying pudding! There are also recipes for children or those who are new to green smoothies, and super green smoothie recipes for those who are wanting more green intensity! Some recipes feature wild or unusual greens, like grape leaves and milk thistle.

In addition to the extensive recipe section, there is a brief chapter to inspire pregnant moms (and dads!) to drink green smoothies every day to ensure a healthy pregancy, comfortable birthing time and super healthy baby. I use this chapter - and green smoothie snacks - in my Hypnobabies childbirth education class.

In another chapter, Clent Manich tells how he lost 230 pounds and gained strength, endurance and health benefits (and climbed Mt Whitney) in a year on a primarily green smoothie diet - very inspiring!!

The book contains enough basic information about preparing and drinking green smoothies to get you on your feet and blending! To gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of the subject, I recommend that you read both of Victoria's ground-breaking books - Green For Life (indispensible and very enlightening) AND The Green Smoothie Revolution (for the REST of the story). Why not have it all?

Brilliant Book, August 23, 2009

Green Smoothie Revolution: The Radical Leap Toward Natural Health

Hi Victoria.

This Spring, a friend of mine told me about you and your Green Smoothies and how they were changing his life. Although I have been mostly vegetarian (no meat and no milk products; fin fish and eggs occasionally) for 24 years, I was reluctant to try the Green Smoothies for a few reasons. The major reason is because of my allergies to many fruits; and the fact that I cannot tolerate a lot of sugars of any kind.

In June, I started adding spinach and other greens to my rice protein smoothies. I noticed a difference in digestion immediately. In July I purchased your Green Smoothie Revolution book. What a great book! I started experimenting two weeks ago. For the last 5 days, I have been using your recipes (modified to reduce the amount of fruit by 1/3 to 1/4 of what is recommended) and drinking Green Smoothies 2 to 3 times a day. In between the GS, I am eating one to two meals a day. I am already noticing a major difference in the way I feel, in just 5 days.

My digestion is getting better and better almost daily. My mood is improving (this is a big deal for me). My energy level has increased slightly. I am hoping that as I continue with the GS, my energy levels will climb.

I cannot wait to see what happens in the next few months!

I am so excited to be doing something for my health that actually seems to be working positively for me. I have told several family members and friends about your book.

Thank you very very very much for sharing your knowledge. Your GSR book is brilliant. I could write more, but I think this is long enough. :-)

Tammy

Sometimes Mothers are smarter than Doctors., September 17, 2009
What Victoria Boutenko has contributed to the field of practical nutrition is nothing short of a miracle. After first turning around the health of her immediate family with raw food, she tackled the subject of an optimum raw food diet. The leap to drastically increasing greens in the diet, making them palatable by mixing with fruit is sheer genius. She certainly did a lot of research, both on wild chimpanzee dietary habits, and an inspired 30 day green smoothie experiment with real people. She tops the book off with enough recipes to satisfy any palate. Finally, she includes the inspirational first-person account of a man who lost 230 pounds, conquering cravings by consuming green smoothies throughout the day along with fresh raw fruits and vegetables.

The Boutenkos had doctors who couldn't fix their health problems. The 400 pound man had doctors who gave him "an FDA-approved diet and exercise plan" which failed to get the weight off. It took a housewife willing to do research and go out on a limb with a revolutionary food concept to bring them all to a state of health. Not since "Lorenzo's Oil" have I read such an inspiring story of one mother's determination to use logic and science to create a food solution to health challenges.

Sometimes Mothers are smarter than Doctors!

Thank you, Victoria Boutenko.

This is too easy ..., November 8, 2009
I know I need more vital nutrition in my diet. I've tried raw, vegetarian, master cleansers; I just find it difficult to continue things long term with my busy work and life schedule and my completely carniverous husband. I'd experimented with this "green" smoothies in the past, but this book surpassed my imaginations on what you could do with a few leafy veges and some fruit - that can literally change your life. In just a few easy minutes I can have an absolutely delicious drink that's extremely filling, energizing, cleansing, and clarifying. I take to work and now several coworkers are starting thier own green smoothie revolution. I'm starting to experiment on my own now ... like adding whole golden flax seed to my blender before the vege/fruit - and grinding for 20 sec - then adding all the other ingredients ... or adding different spice blends for say umm - apple pie green smoothies. What's even more amazing is that my husband is becoming a fan - he actually is starting to make them on his own even when I am not around. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Between your full-length mirror and high-school biology class, you probably think you know a lot about the human body. While it's true that we live in an age when we're as obsessed with our bodies as we are with celebrity hairstyles, the reality is that most of us know very little about what chugs, churns, and thumps throughout this miraculous, scientific, and artistic system of anatomy. Yes, you've owned your skin-covered shell for decades, but you probably know more about your cell-phone plan than you do about your own body. When it comes to your longevity and quality of life, understanding your internal systems gives you the power, authority, and ability to live a healthier, younger, and better life.

The flagship book of the YOU series, which spawned three subsequent New York Times bestsellers, has now been expanded and updated to make you understand your body even better—perhaps too well.

YOU: The Owner's Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition challenges your preconceived notions about how the human body works and ages, then takes you on a tour through all of the highways, back roads, and landmarks inside of you. In this update, the doctors have included a new chapter on the liver and pancreas, which will finally demystify the most exotic parts of our bodies; a new workout chapter that will finally get you moving; and nearly one hundred Q&As asked by you, the reader. It has also been updated throughout to give you up-to-the-minute know-how to not just understand what to do to keep fit, but also why and how.

The book opens with a quiz, "How Well Do You Know Your Body?," which sets the stage for the following chapters. After taking the quiz, you'll learn about all of your blood-pumping, food-digesting, and keys-remembering systems and organs, including the heart, brain, lungs, immune system, bones, and sensory organs. Each chapter also contains common myths of the particular body part that the authors will debunk.

Just as important, you'll get the facts and advice you need to keep your body running long and strong. You'll find out how diseases start and how they affect your body—as well as advice on how to prevent and beat conditions that threaten your quality of life. Complete with exercise tips, nutritional guidelines, simple lifestyle changes, and alternative approaches, YOU: The Owner's Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition gives you an easy, comprehensive, and life-changing how-to plan for fending off the gremlins of aging. To top it off, this new edition includes even more great-tasting and calorie-saving recipes as part of the Owner's Manual Diet—an eating plan that is designed with only one goal in mind: to help you live a younger life.

Welcome to your body. Why don't you come on in and take a look around?

Reviews

Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies, May 8, 2008
In short, just a very fun and informative book with several worthy goals. For one, it educates your average person in the inner workings of the human body. It does this quite entertainingly through frequent quizzes, trivia, facts, and interesting pictures- for instance the authors use a lot of elf cartoon. Corny, but fun.

Additionally, the book also gives one many helpful tips on how to keep their body running smoother and it is a pretty informative and amusing read that should enhance the well-being of many- especially middle-agers like me who want to learn more about how their bodies work so they can keep it running smoothly in the years to come. Aged readers may also be interested in Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff to keep the shoulder working well- 54% of people over the age of 60 have a torn rotator cuff.

Note: People who have read the first "You The Owner's Manual" will notice additional information on the liver and pancreas, as well as a new workout chapter.

Your body is a wonderland, May 13, 2008
What a fun and important book! Everyone with a body should have a copy.

When I first cracked it open I landed on page 234: Figure 8.1 The Male Dipstick (yes, that's how it's titled). At first glance the full-page illustration of the male reproductive organs appears to be from any science reference book, but then I look again. Mr. Peanut is drawn hanging onto a tubule inside the scrotum.

This kind of silliness permeates "You: The Owner's Manual." The humor and breezy tone makes it a surprisingly easy read.

The first two-thirds of the book covers everything in the human body, from the heart and brain to the lungs and liver. The last third focuses on ways to keep your body healthy. A 70-page chapter called the Owner's Manual Diet has more than 30 recipes, enough for a 10-day trial. The diet isn't so much about losing weight, but about "making you feel better, helping you live younger, and slowing the effects of aging." The following chapter, the Owner's Manual Workout, illustrates some simple exercises.

Throughout the book are fun "Factoids." Did you know that pound for pound, the tongue is the strongest muscle? Also scattered throughout are lots of little quizzes.

Under the dust jacket is a plain red cover.

Here's the chapter list:

1. Your Body, Your Home: Super Health
2. The Beat Goes On: Your Heart and Arteries
3. Do You Mind: Your Brain and Nervous System
4. Motion Control: Your Bones, Joints and Muscles
5. To a Lung and Healthy Life: Your Lungs
6. Gut Feelings: Your Digestive System
7. In Your Trunk: Your Liver and Pancreas
8. Sex Marks the Spot: Your Sexual Organs
9. Common Sense: Your Sensory Organs
10. Sick Sense: Your Immune System
11. This Gland is Your Gland: Your Hormones
12. Hell Cells: Cancer
13. The Owner's Manual Diet
14. The Owner's Manual Workout
15. FAQs

Good Information Buried in a Sea of Jokes, September 27, 2008
I'm having a very hard time with this book. I've started and stopped reading it about dozen times already in the past 2 weeks. My problem? There is a lot of good information in here (really!) but it gets lost in the constant barrage of sarcasm and jokes inserted by the authors to (apparently) make it "entertaining". For me, the sheer number of jokes starts out as annoying, and finally becomes so distracting that I usually have to put the book down after about 20 minutes.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from page 176 under a heading of "Mouth":

"The food-consumption process starts right here--in your body's food processor. Though opera singers, politicians, and courtside fans are known mostly for what comes out of their mouths, what makes our mouths so special is how we handle what goes into them. For starters, consider you mouth to be like the guy who buckles you in on a Ferris wheel--it's there simply to prepare the food for the journey."

The paragraph then goes on to describe crocodile teeth and elephant teeth, but I'm so distracted with thoughts of "what do opera singers and Ferris wheels have to do with MY mouth?" that I'm no longer learning, I'm ruminating on low ratio of information-to-jokes in the text. (Out of the 7 sentences in that paragraph, I felt the relevant information could have been boiled down to 2.)

Like I said, the book has a LOT of good information. If you are someone who can filter out all of the "noise", you'll get a lot out of it. However, if you're like me, and find all the sidebars distracting, it's a grind.

Excellent, May 12, 2008
There is a reason Dr. Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. Roizen write best-sellers--their books are excellent. You: The Owner's Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger, they outdo themselves. This edition has been carefully updated and expanded to teach the reader everything we need to know to keep our bodies healthy and young.

Specifically, the updated version includes a chapter on the liver, new recipes and a new workout. The book also includes a 100 FAQ's from their reader's inquiries.

The book resembles the Dummies in layout and tone and the authors write simply and, at times, with humor. Included are "Factoids" and the like.

The book begins with information on how to achieve superior health. There are chapters on the major organs and how they function, cancer, workouts and recipes.

There is an extensive index, a must for this type of book.The reference book is a must for every library.

By the author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.

Love the book, love the audio CD better!, May 27, 2008
Ordered the book and audio CD at the same time, but the book came in first. I started the book which I found to be a slow read. Then received the CD's (8 hours/7 disc). . . I love them!! I'm able to listen in the car and when I get home, I highlight in the book things that are important to me. This way I don't feel I have wasted time reading sections that don't pretain to me but I have listened to it all. The CD's are narrated by Dr's. Roizen and Oz. I highly recommend both versions.

Every Home Should Have this Book!, June 7, 2008
I LOVE this book!!! Enough that I bought this "improved and expanded version" after having bought the original, and that is rare for me. It is written with a hint of humor and such a plain layman's language that EVERYONE can understand what is going on with their bodies, how they work, every organ in your body, what its job is, how to take care of it, how to protect it, improve its doing the job its meant to do, thus helping one to avoid many ills they could get, and thus less visits to the Dr. or how to better communicate with your Dr. to help them help you. Every home should have this book!!! I believe this is the only book of this kind and so complete for the ANY person. It definitely is NOT a boring read, but written in such a fun and interesting way everyone who wants to understand how their body works or is concerned about how to take care to feel better, would enjoy learning from this book. It has many drawings showing how your internal parts work . I HIGHLY Recommend it!!!

Simple & easy guide to your body - it is not just for dummies, good for even the most "well read folks", October 16, 2008
There is so much information about our body, diseases & fitness on the internet that most of us would think that we do not need to read another book on our bodies, hmm, well think of it again - do you really understand what and how does our arteries get clogged, what might cause cancer, or did you know that exercising more could actually do more harm ...

I used to think that I am well read about my body, not until I read this book - some of the most common ailments and body functions are so well explained with diagrams that you will never get this information on the internet - not on wikipedia, not on webmd - you may find lots of information, but not in a way in which we can understand.

The book may seem silly at times, grouse at times, but a very informative and helpful book if you are planning to be live a healthy life on this planet for a couple of years/decades to come.

How did this book help me:
- Understood more about heart diseases & cancer
- Importance of flavinoids in our diet
- Importance of drinking good amount of water for many common ailments
- Controlling stress is a more important than anything else and cannot be stressed enough
- Exercising more can be bad (limit to 30 mins per day) - alternate between cardio, stretches & weights
- Importance of deep breathing
- Free weights are better than machines

& lots more

simplistic, July 2, 2008
A little bit goofy, a refreshing sense of humour, but not a lot of in-depth information. Good for a teenager, perhaps--but not especially informative for a well-read adult.

full of useful information, June 4, 2008
When I ordered the book, I did not expect the extent and breadth of information that it contains....I have learned a lot from the information and would recommend it to anyone.

A Good Introduction to the human body but..., September 18, 2009
Overall, I learned a good bit of information. But that information is buried in nonsense jokes and weak writing. I feel it was geared at folks who don't read as a hobby. If that was the case, then this book would probably meander along well enough to keep the attention of a non-reader. But I found the style a distraction and found myself wishing they'd drop the want-to-be-your-friend act and just get to the info.

The diagrams were cutesy and wouldn't help much if you were studying for an anatomy exam, but understandable enough to the average person. I did enjoy the paragraphs in the margins with interesting trivia and facts.

This book is a good start if you slept through high school biology (like me) and need a refresher in how the body works. But don't expect anymore then that. ... Read more

Editorial Review

THE KEY TO A BETTER BODY—in shape, energized, and youthful—is a healthy brain. Based on the latest medical research, as well as on Dr. Amen’s two decades of clinical practice at the re­nowned Amen Clinics, where Dr. Amen and his as­sociates pioneered the use of the most advanced brain imaging technology, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body shows you how to take the very best care of your brain.

With fifteen practical, easy-to-implement solutions involving nutritious foods, natural supplements and vitamins, positive-thinking habits, and, when neces­sary, highly targeted medications, Dr. Amen shows you how to:

* Reach and maintain your ideal weight
* Soothe and smooth your skin at any age
* Reduce the stress that can impair your immune system
* Sharpen your memory
* Increase willpower and eliminate the crav­ings that keep you from achieving your exercise and diet goals
* Enhance sexual desire and performance
* Lower your blood pressure without medication
* Avoid depression and elevate the enjoyment you take in life’s pleasures.

Whether you’re just coming to realize that it’s time to get your body into shape, or are already fit and want to take it to the next level, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is all you need to start putting the power of the brain-body connection to work for you today.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Reviews

Just an infomercial!, April 6, 2010
If you are looking for something new or scientific, skip this one. The book is short on actual science, uses simplistic anecdotes, but more importantly is nothing more than a written infomercial for Dr. Amens to try to sell you his vitamins and supplements. Once you identify the "type" of overeater you are, the book recommends supplements to help you "change your brain" all of which are available on the Amens web site for outrageous prices. The book is one long, giant infomercial. You can get all of the same informaiton for free on the website, and get instantaneous "personalized" results from the "test" there, along with recommendations of which overpriced supplements you should buy from the web site. Nothing new in this book, so save your money. Just go get the pitch from the free web site, and decide whether to fork out hundreds of dollars for supplements there. You won't need this book to make that decision. Just Google "Amen clinics".

Good info with unimportant info, March 21, 2010
The book is not bad. There are very interesting information on brain types.

The big problem with the book is frankly a lack of focus. You may very well come away with an OMG-now-what feeling. That's because the author attempt to cover many possibilities that contribute to the same problem. Let's say you suffer from anxiety, by the end of the book, you will have been given 50 different things that could have contributed to you experiencing anxiety - and when you try to summarize all those "solutions" it tends to lead you to basic good commons sense: eat well, exercise, don't stress. Great! Now I know how to live.

That is not to say that book doesn't give good advice or that it doesn't have added information. But for 80% of the book, you would have already known the common sense information if you paid any remote attention to the usual batch of health and fitness related articles and magazines.

The big draw for me to purchase this book is to learn about the different types of brains that Dr. Amen has identified. And how each can be best managed via supplements? I focused in on supplements because I already have fairly good regime when it comes to food and exercise. He does provide the info I seek, but I had to shuffle through different parts of the book to piece the information together. The author did not make that easy. At the end of it, I came up with a one-page of summary from all those scattered writings. I'm OK with it but it is clearly not the best. It also indicate the value of your money, assuming you had some common sense about diets already.

The point is, if you don't know a lot of basic information to begin with regarding good eating and brain habits, then this book will be very valuable. If you know the basics already, you will find information that you've not seen before but it takes some work to extract out the info and it puts to question the real value you are getting.

Specious SPECT, May 14, 2010
Dr Amen is a board certified psychiatrist and is well-informed. He knows what he is talking about. He has read the journals and mastered the textbooks. He has published work in peer-reviewed journals cited in PubMed. The treatments he suggests in this book are only mildly unorthodox and some of them, such as hypnosis, meditation, relaxation and eye movement desensitization have been shown to be effective and are overly neglected by mainstream medicine. Some of them, such as samE, St John's wort, glycine and omega-3 fatty acids are on the cusp of scientific respectability. "Dr.Amen's Brain and Memory Recovery Solution" and "Dr. Amen's Craving Solution" are perhaps less likely to receive FDA approval, but maybe his application is pending.
His diet suggestions are for complex carbohydrates and frequent meals. He is against the Atkins diet. He recommends exercise but avoidance of cycling and skate boarding (because you might bang your head).
I think his appeal is not so much because of the treatments he offers but because of the explanations he offers. It can be frustrating for sufferers from severe anxiety or depression to learn that all their blood chemistry and X-rays are perfectly normal. Amen gives the public an organic reason for why they feel mentally bad. Not all of his reasons are totally spurious. Variations in cortisol really can affect feelings of well being. Epinephrine really can produce feelings of anxiety. Thyroid abnormalities really can cause mental symptoms.
There is more of a problem with his use of SPECT, which involves injecting a radioactive substance. The SPECT scan has a scientific basis and some valid medical uses. The two major imaging methods for looking at the brain in clinical use are the CAT scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. These can show tumors, or bleeding, or parts of the brain that have become softened or liquefied.
Positron emitting tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (f MRI), regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), and the kind of rCBF called single photon emitting computerized tomography (SPECT) can show up localizations of disordered brain function that were not apparent from CAT or MRI. For example, decreased metabolism has been found in frontal areas with schizophrenia, and in parietal brain areas with dementia. Dr. Abel claims to be able to use SPECT scan to diagnose a variety of emotional conditions. However the Brain Imaging Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine has offered Dr. Amen an opportunity to test some of his claims and he has refused, according to a report in the American Journal of Psychiatry (May, 2010, volume 167, page 598).

Amazing Book!, February 18, 2010
Dr. Amen's new book, "Change Your Brain Change Your Body", is a great book to have as a reference on hand to anyone who has struggled to lose weight in the past. It presents scientific reasoning behind why individuals have such a difficult time when trying the latest and most popular diets but it is written so that you do not have to be a medical doctor to understand it! Once you read this book, you will be able to understand how your particular brain functioning will help you to lose the weight and gain a more healthy lifestyle.

As a Neuropsychologist, I have found it very valuable to help many of my patients deal not only with weight issues, but also hormonal imbalances, anxiety and depression. Understanding your brain type and how is can affect so many different aspects of your life is critical to the first steps in recovery. The chapters on the skin, hormone and skin solution are fabulous! A lot of my patients suffer with sleep issues, are stressed out and think in a very negative way. This book is fabulous in that it explains why these issues are key factors not only in the way you feel emotionally and cognitively but why they affect your weight as well!

I would definitely recommend that every therapist have this book in their bookcase and every patient have one at home!

A Valuable, Well-Written Book, March 9, 2010
In "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" Dr. Amen explains how he has used SPECT imaging to study the blood flow and activity patterns in the brain. SPECT is an acronym for single photon emission computed tomography.

He offers many examples of how he has used SPECT to obtain critical information about the brain function of his patients, and determine the best treatment to help those individuals to overcome a wide variety of problems, from depression to obesity to colds and headaches. The book makes use of illustrations of brain scans taken before and after treatment at Amen's clinics. He clearly explains how he interprets these scans, and how he determines the appropriate treatment for an individual.

Dr. Amen presents 15 solutions to assist you in boosting your brain to enable you to attain and maintain the kind of body and sense of well-being you have always wanted. Among the many benefits that can be derived by learning to love your brain and apply the easy-to-follow solutions are increased energy, sharper memory function, and relief from unwanted stress.

Sounds to good to be true? Not really. I can attest to many of the strategies and techniques this book offers because I have used them and taught them with amazing results for four decades. What's really new and different about Dr.Amen's approach is that he is employing some recently discovered scientific diagnostic equipment such as SPECT along with his unique treatments.

Back in the 1980's, I presented health conferences at the University of Minnesota and other colleges featuring "pioneers" in using the brain/mind for healing, and maintaining good health. Participants in those conferences included Norman Cousins, O.Carl Simonton, Bernie Siegel, Deloris Krieger, Norman Shealy, Raymond Moody, Gerald Jampolsky Karl Menninger, etal. Dr. Amen is to be congratulated for building on their work and currently being on the cutting edge of discoveries and treatment in this field. The world could use more like him.

This is a valuable, well-written book, and deserves five stars.

This really works!, March 3, 2010
I have been struggling with weight-loss for the past 8 years. I have tried everything from diet pills to hypnosis. I am a veteran so you would think I already had the background to exercise properly and eat right, but this simply is not true. After I had my children, something in me changed. I no longer wanted to deal with life, and it was almost as if I was stuck in a depression state without any exits. I purchased the audio-book version of Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential by Dr. Amen, and was impressed from the start. My husband and children noticed the difference in me after I started taking the St. Wort and L-Tyrosine supplements. I was on GABA already for a different reason, but the combination of these three items helped regulate my mood.

Then this wonderful book came out. I was eager to read it since I already had success with a previous book by Dr. Amen. I immediately put a lot of ideas into action. For instance, I maintained my intake of the supplements, plus I found a way to get back into exercising. I love to do research on my computer, so my husband brought me a special stand for it. This way I can exercise on my stationary bike while working on my computer at the same time. This motivated me to continue on with other positive things for my body, like eating more fruits and vegetables too. This book will go into detail about how to improve your attitude (brain) in order to affect a positive change in your life. Just to let you know, I went from 251 @ 5'8" to 228 in eight weeks. I achieved this by riding my bike slowly while reading this book, and/or working on my computer. Order your copy today, because I have read this book four times already and I learn something new every time.

Do not recommend this book, March 16, 2010
(See my other review under CHANGE YOUR BRAIN, CHANGE YOUR LIFE). I wanted to believe in Dr. Amen. He was smart, he was funny, and everything he said seemed to make sense. Moreover, his lecture was being broadcast on PBS, so he had to be legitimate, right? I was disillusioned when I went to his website and took a "free" online test that diagnosed me with every mental problem but bipolar syndrome, and proceeded to recommend products that would have cost me more than $200 a month, all this without knowing anything more about me than what I put on the questionnaire. Some of the information was contradictory, because it said that I should not take products with fish oil or gingko, but many of the recommended products included one or the other.

I'm no medical expert, but I cannot find any information other than that given by Dr. Amen or his supporters that SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) is a legitimate diagnostic tool the way he claims it is. Even Wikipedia says the evidence is "anecdotal" and an article on SALON points out the problems in more learned language. As far as the "prescriptions", they all come with a disclaimer that they are not FDA approved.

I have also written to PBS asking them to vet their programming more carefully. I recommend getting this book out of the library and talking with your physician before rushing to try any of his products.

caution, March 14, 2010
I always read customer reviews before purchasing a book, and when I ordered this one the reviews were all 5 star. I thought this book was going to change my life! I was very disappointed....

First, as with many "self-help" books, the author takes about 10 pages to say what could have been said in 1 page. After all, self-help "magazines" don't sell and make money--you have to stretch your material out into book format. I found myself reading the same information over, and over, and over again.

Second, I found some of the advice to be a little impractical. I purchased this book because I'm having a difficult time getting motivated to lose weight. I know I need to eat right and exercise, but I'm just so tired and feel so blah that I just haven't been able to do it. So Dr. Amen's premise appealed to me--it's not my lack of willpower, it's a problem in my brain. If I just follow his advice, my brain will be "fixed" and I'll be eating all the right foods, in the right amounts, and working out like crazy. Well, a large part of his advice is to eat right and exercise. Not how to get there, just to do it and my brain will start getting "fixed." Hmmmm.....

Third, Dr. Amen suggests a number of supplements that will help brain function. Upon researching some of these supplements, I find that many have not been approved by the FDA. Some have been linked to rather serious side effects, and other medical experts caution that they should not be taken without further research. Personally, I don't want to be a guinea pig. Unless there is overwhelming support from the medical community that indicates a supplement is safe to ingest, I'm not going to put it into my body.

I feel this book was a complete waste of my time and money because I didn't learn a thing. If you don't already know that lack of exercise, poor diet, and negative thinking has a negative effect on your brain, then you could probably benefit from this book. But if you know those things, just not how to implement them, you may want to look elsewhere.

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body is a must read!, February 17, 2010
I never realized how much my brain chemistry has to do with my body, especially in dealing with food addiction and weight loss. I have learned that I cannot live my life switching from diet to diet but that I must make a complete lifestyle change that will support the brain/body connection. In this book Dr. Amen taught me how our society lies to us about food consumption! Is risking our health by supersizing or eating at buffets really worth the few dollars that we save? To me, No! Since finishing this book, I have begun making permanent changes in my life and am already noticing a dramatic difference! My moods have improved and I've already noticed an increase in my energy level. The concepts in this book are simple, yet so practical and effective! This is a must read!

Disappointing and very unscientific book, May 19, 2010
I was very disappointed in this book. I will give it one star because it might be motivational for some people, but it basically boils down to common sense tips (eat less calories than you burn to lose weight!), theories about the human brain (via SPECT imaging) and unproven nutrition tips. I was shocked by how often the author made statements like "some studies suggest..." rather than finding real, scientific proof. Many of the studies he uses to make claims are anecdotal at best and have been subjected to no scientific rigor at all. One of the worst examples is where he hypothesizes that Lamar Odom is an inconsistent basketball player because he eats too much candy. He might be right, but he offers no evidence to back it up. It would be equally valid (or equally invalid) to say that his inconsistency was a result of not eating enough candy. Without evidence it is all pure conjecture. The only anecdotal evidence presented is a quote from Odom saying that he had his best games in the playoffs after eating candy for breakfast. This actually disproves the authors claim, so he dismisses it.
I was also turned off by the numerous links to the website where he sells his products. His "research" is really just a vehicle to sell his products and probably explains why he doesn't subject his theories to real scientific method where doubleblind testing with placebos might show different results.
This is very unfortunate because I think a lot of his ideas/theories might in fact stand up to testing. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

I Have Cookies Again!, January 18, 2010
This is really a wonderful book. I'm not sure why I was so surprised to find this the case - I've read their website for months and always enjoyed their recipes and style of writing... but I think I had been so disappointed by some other gluten free cookbooks, that I was trying to not get my hopes up. Now, this and Carol Fenster's 1000 gluten free recipes are the first two books I reach for when its time to cook.

The flour blend works beautifully. My first attempt was their chocolate chip cookie recipe. I think in the 8 months I've had to deal with my celiac I have made 20+ recipes... and most ended up in the trash. Either tooth shatteringly hard, weird flavors, or a consistency more in keeping with Floam (the children's aerated play sand) than a cookie. Theirs? Chewy. Soft. Delicious! I have cookies again! I haven't been that excited about the thought of sitting down with a cookie and a glass of cold milk since I was 6.

Breads, soups, main dishes, desserts - all presented in a wonderful style. Great recipes, easy to follow - no weird ingredients that you can't track down! After months of not knowing what to cook - I can't wait to have friends over for dinner again. I don't have to worry that folks won't want "weird" food - its all wonderful. And just happens to be gluten free.

Artisinal Gluten Free Cooking - a cookbook where "from scratch" translates into GREAT FOOD that is easy to prepare with little e, October 28, 2009
When I see the words "from scratch", three thoughts immediately pop in to my head: way better food for sure, but probably more time and more effort. However these recipes are crafted to economize your time and effort AND provide useful tips and instructions that you can translate to all your food preparation to make it easier, faster, and guarantee terrific results. While these recipes are from around the world, they were written for the American kitchen. In fact many of the entrees can be prepared in the same amount of time it takes you to go and pick up take out! But most importantly these recipes are delicious and flavorful; full of variety and good nutrition. This book also offers a great deal of very helpful information on being Gluten-Free; not only the last places you would ever dream of finding gluten; but how to navigate the supermarket, set up your kitchen, and stock your cupboards. Artisinal Gluten-Free Cooking is fun to read - a book to be enjoyed and kept on your kitchen shelf.

Truly Tasty Recipes for Gluten-Tolerant People, Too!, October 19, 2009
These are truly delicious recipes even for people who are gluten-tolerant. I am one of those people, and I have to say that this cookbook contains the best belgian waffle recipe I have ever had. The variety and little "tidbits" make it a fun and tasty cookbook. I also appreciate the way the authors have kept the from-scratch recipes simple enough that even a busy mom of a 2 year old can make.! I really look forward to exploring other recipes in the book, especially that mouth-watering lasagna on the front cover.

Gluten-Free Cooking - Easy and Tasty!, October 20, 2009
Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking is a great resource to have in the kitchen, even for those who don't have to eat gluten-free food. I have seen a couple of other cookbooks geared toward the gluten-free lifestyle but they can't even compare to this one. So far, in my experience, the recipes in this cookbook are all easy to follow and turn out great! No more flavorless gluten-free packaged food for me! The pictures make me hungry just looking at them. This cookbook is unique from many others because of the wide range of cuisines it covers, the food trivia and cooking techniques taught throughout, and the stories that introduce each recipe and bring them to life. I enjoy eating a variety of foods and having them together in one book makes it much easier for me; now I look forward to cooking!

Recipes sound good, but sorghum flour not very digestible, February 14, 2010
The baking recipes (which are what I need help with in gluten free)sound really good. But the first thing I made the cinnamon rolls and they bothered both my stomach and my husband's. I'm assuming it's due to the amount of sorghum flour in the flour mix. After doing some reading, I found that sorghum flour is hard to digest and is insoluble fiber. Unfortunately, I won't be making any more recipes out of this book. My stomach has been bothering me for 2 days.

Yummy and Easy, April 15, 2010
I love this book because it has an amazing standard gluten-free flour mix. I can trick anyone into thinking they have a gluten baked good in their hand with this flour mix! The recipes range from easy to medium-hard in difficulty so anyone can cook from this book! These recipes are also high in quality, with layers of flavor that can be hard to find in some gluten free meals. These recipes are ones that I would make for dinner too, no funky names or unpleasant flavors. I usually have all the ingredients required and don't have to go to a specialty store for strange items. I have Celiac disease and I love to cook so this book worked out great for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who can cook! It is a great, easy, and fun book to cook from!

Best Flour Blend Out There, February 17, 2010
I'm a gluten free blogger, and I've been reading gluten free blogs for almost 3 years now. I have tried many recipes out there (internet, books, word of mouth), and usually the flour mixes vary by the recipe. It is so nice to have a blend that will substitute 1:1 with many gluten containing recipes, as well as one that works for EVERY recipe in this book.

While a few recipes had to be updated from the first version (which I own) due to misprints (like on the bread recipe, which is a very important recipe and can be found on the AGFC website), I stick by this book and the writers 100%. They've been available to answer my questions when I've had them, and they've always been extremely kind.

I do hope they market their blend at some point (as I haven't a large enough bowl to make a 12 cups batch yet), but until then I'll happily mix away when I want something yummy to eat.

My favorite recipe so far has been the snickerdoodle cookies. My mom used to bake me a batch every now and then and mail them to me, and I remember her making them for me as a child. Now she can't bake any cookies for me, but I can think of her when I am baking these.

Mahalo Peter and Kelli!

Finally!!! Success!!!, May 22, 2010
I have been cooking & baking gluten-free for about 2 years now, after
discovering my own sensitivity to gluten. Since then, my brother has
discovered that he's sensitive to gluten as well. I've bought numerous
GF books, & have done alot of recipe browsing online, but have never
found success or had my cravings satisfied from any of my baking attempts.
Until now!

I am surprised this book is getting so few reviews! I bought this book
about a month ago, and have tried a good number of recipes so far - each
one of them has been Fabulous! The Peanut Butter Cookies are A-MAZE-ING!!
(I added a cup of mini Chocolate Chips! YUM!) The Chocolate Chip Cookies
are sooooo good! Almost too good. I have a hard time eating less than 4
at a time. (hint: try them with butterscotch chips too!)

These are the first cookie recipes that I have actually enjoyed. And it
isn't a fluke... I've tried the recipes a couple different times juuuust
to make sure they turn out as good each time... ;) The cookies do not
crumble; They hold together, & they are actually Chewy!! The texture is
just a touch different than the regular cookies I used to make (using
regular flour) but the flavor is absolutely delicious!
This book uses an Artisan Flour Blend which includes 6-7 ingredients, not
merely brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch like most books
use. The flavor is great, the texture is fantastic! I have another book
which states that their Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookiea recipe is the BEST
ever, but compared to this book, their recipe is pitiful.(Gluten-Free Baking Classics)

In addition to the cookies, I have also tried the Deep Dish Pizza, Zucchini
Cake, Apple pie & Regular Bread recipes. Every last one of them has been a
delicious success! The rest of my family eats gluten, and they can't believe
they are GF! If you are looking for a yummy Gluten Free Book with a unique
compilation of recipes... or even if you just want to sink your teeth into a
delicious Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie... You've gotta try this book!!!

Best gluten free cookbook for me, BAR NONE, February 21, 2010
I was diagnosed with Celiac disease 12/2008, so I've only been on a gluten free diet for a little over a year, but I've spent 48 eating wheat, and one of my favorite thing is baking. I started with the most popular and widely read gluten free cookbooks, and thank god for those books and authors, but I can't STAND the taste of bean flour which most of those books use. I prefer finely ground brown rice flour or white rice flour, sorghum flour, and prefer to add in a bit of flax meal. In addition, I've spent many a day baking gluten free only to throw it in the trash. Not any more!! Thank GOODNESS, this cookbook uses NO bean flour in recipes!!! Yeeee HA!! Recipes taste great, and no the point that no one would know they are gluten free.

I do have to say, I was raised and born in the same part of the US as the authors, so I find that many of the recipes are ones that are extremely familar to me.

This book has some of THE BEST recipes and ones I've dreamed of making gluten free, but couldn't find a recipe for. These include:

Molasses cookies (like what my mom used to make)
Zucchini cake
EASY 6 ingredient brownies
Peanut butter Chocolate bars (like that famous recipe that makes bars that taste like peanut butter cups!)
Magic Bars (like that famous "7 laver bars")
Chicken Piccata
Scalloped potatoes and ham
Chicago style deep dish pizza
gnocchi
6 kinds of rice
Mozzarella sticks
And many, many more tasty and interesting recipes: such as home made tamale's, home made torillas, tasty soups, asian noodle bowl, crab cakes, cinnamon rolls, frittatas, ............the list goes on and on.

Try this book, you won't be disappointed.

Great recipes, October 20, 2010
Wonderful recipes. It is worth every penny and I highly suggest you buy this book. Yummy, yummy and yummy! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Parents will do almost anything to get their kids to eat healthier, but unfortunately, they've found that begging, pleading, threatening, and bribing don't work. With their patience wearing thin, parents will "give in" for the sake of family peace, and reach for "kiddie" favorites--often nutritionally inferior choices such as fried fish sticks, mac n' cheese, Pop-sicles, and cookies.

Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine, faced the same challenges with her two young daughters, and she sought a solution. Now in The Sneaky Chef, Lapine presents over 75 recipes that ingeniously disguise the most important superfoods inside kids' favorite meals. With the addition of a few simple make-ahead purees or clever replacements, (some may surprise you!) parents can pack more fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants in their kids' foods. Examples of "Sneaky" recipes include:

-No Harm Chicken Parm
-Power Pizza
-Incognito Burritos
-Guerilla Grilled Cheese
-Brainy Brownies
-Health-by-Chocolate Cookies
-Quick fixes for Jell-O(R)

It's a book chock-full of strategies that will help any parent incorporate better health for the whole family. ... Read more

Reviews

I can't say enough good things about this book!!, May 29, 2007
This book is truly amazing. I have two children who won't eat a mini-carrot between them, and they are now downing veggie after veggie without suspecting a thing!! Here is the funny thing- it works on my husband too! He claims he doesn't like sweet potatoes, but he has eaten them in so many things now- I just wait and tell him afterwards (haha, guess what you just ate?!). Do I feel guilty about sneaking veggies? Not at all! Whatever I can do to help my family be healthier, I would do in a heartbeat. I have a couple of hints- first of all, buy all of your veggies at once and spend about 3 hours one afternoon once per month making the five most common veggie purees. Pour them into individual serving size freezer bags and then put all of the little bags into a gallon bag (one per type of puree), label them, and you are good to go! This is much easier than trying to puree veggies for each meal, it would become so time-consuming that you would be tempted to change your mind at the last minute and make something easier (and less healthy). I grab a bag out of the freezer, quickly defrost and then stir it in with the kids mac n' cheese, chocolate pudding, and all sorts of other "treat food" that all of a sudden become vitamin-rich dishes. I also pre-make some of the breading and flour mix too, and keep them vacuum-packed...it really simplifies things at dinnertime. Likewise, I make the breakfast cookies in a triple recipe, and save them and freeze them for a quick, easy and healthy breakfast. The meat recipes in this book are also excellent- the sloppy joes, meatballs, and the meatloaf- as well as the baked ziti and the pizza- are especially fabulous. This is the first book that I have felt compelled to write a review about, but I felt I absolutely had to do it! We have been eating almost exclusively on recipes from this book for a month now and we all feel so much healthier. Kudos to Missy Chase Lapine! Thank you!

Mixed thoughts but overall favorable, October 10, 2007
Let me first say I like this book and I am glad I purchased it. I echo other reviewers who question the idea of hiding foods instead of teaching your children to enjoy them. However, this is certainly a way to sneak some in while you are attempting the teaching.

My kids are not THAT picky, but they are children after all so of course they would prefer nothing but cookies for the rest of their lives.

I have made all the purees so far and have tried many of the recipes. I have also used the concept in my own recipes with great success.

Like other reviewers, I am also wondering how much nutrition is left in the food once you boil it down to nothing. In some cases, I have added the water I boiled the veggies in to recipes in other ways. Don't know if that helps anything, but it made me feel better about it.

Now for my disappointment about the book...the recipes don't have nutritional values listed. yes, there is a list of nutrients provided by the sneaked in foods, but no real nutrional value - ie calories, fat, fiber, etc. My next project will be to calculate nutritional value based on my old recipes versus adding the new recipes. I am not certain how much I am actually changing the value - in other words, am I doing a fair amount of work for little improvement? The sneaked in foods seem to be in such small amount sometimes I am just not sure that there is a real value in it. I guess something is better than nothing, but since my kids already eat fairly well, I am not convinced that it is worth all my extra effort.

I should say for the record that I have 4 children -infant, 2,4 and 13. The overall concept is not THAT much work, but I decided to go gung ho and made every puree over a couple of days - many tiny containers in my freezer now with 1/4 cup dollops of purees. Also, I have a managerial job where I work 50-60 hours weekly away from home. I cook meals ahead of time and leave them for stay-at-home husband to put in the oven. He is NOT in on the sneaking (just for fun). I have included my 13 year old in the plan b/c she is a very healthy and adventurous eater -so this is our little joke on the rest of the family. As I mentioned before, I have been able to incorporate the concepts into my own recipes and have had no problems so far. I usually cook large quantities in advance - ie 4 gallons of chili or meat sauce - then separate and freeze for quicker meals later. The purees figure quite well into that plan because I can whip up a batch and add the entire amount to my stock pot instead of measuring out these tiny amounts for later. AND I have not had any problems with my frozen dinners. I can tell no difference from before I began adding the purees.

My last concern about the book is that (much like me in this post) she spends almost the first half of the book going on and on about how great it is before ever starting to tell me what to do. Also, the recipes are certainly not difficult or gourmet quality, but they do require a little bit of cooking knowledge. Sometimes they act like I haven't a clue about the kitchen "makes about 1 cup of puree...double the recipe if you want more" (gee, never would have thought of that). Other times they can be a bit ambigous "makes 8 large muffins...scale quantities for smaller muffins" - well "large" turned out to mean the normal size muffins, not the larger muffins I had hoped (not a big deal, you just have to figure out what they mean).

Overall, useful book...gave me several ideas I had not thought of before. I have been able to use the recipes in the book as well as incorporate the concepts into my recipes. After several weeks and many recipes, we have had great success...no flops, and no one has suspected a thing.

Just what we needed!, September 30, 2007
I wanted to serve one meal to everyone in our family and quit playing short order chef. I never have wanted food to become a battleground for my kids. And, I wanted to incorporate more veggies and fiber in to all of our diets. This book has some fantastic ideas on how to alter my cooking to accomplish my goals.

I made macaroni and cheese last night and watched both my boys (2 and 3) devour sweet potatoes and carrots without a complaint. This stuff works. I cooked more carrots and sweet potatoes that I needed for the puree, and served some of the chunks on our plates. I enjoyed the cooked carrots, and my kids didn't throw the chunks of veggies off their plate onto the floor. One of them actually licked the carrot in curiousity. I'll continue to serve sneaky nutrition AND undisguised versions on the plate. Eventually, my kids will eat the undisguised versions.

What works for me is to plan on preparing ONE puree a day, preferably when it is quiet. I freeze the puree in ice cubes by the tablespoon, and then can add them as needed to recipes. I can rotate thru the purees and not feel overwhelmed. And if I skip a day or two, I have frozen reserves to fall back on. That also lets me make the purees using on-sale produce.

We dont care who did it first, the Sneaky Chef is the one that works.,, December 17, 2007
We dont care who did it first, the Sneaky Chef is the one that works.,
Sleep Doctor "Dr. Mom, MD" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food (Spiral-bound)
This weekend 7 friends and I got together to compare recipes from The Sneaky Chef(TSC) and Deceptively Delicious(DD). Our primary loyalty is to our kids and getting good food into them. We don't really care who did it first, just what works. We've been successfully sneaking for months and need more recipes now, so we were eagerly awaiting the release of Deceptively Delicious.

We chose six duplicate recipes from each book (12 total) and did double-blind (where neither the server nor the child knows which is which-only the cook keeps track) side by side taste tests. The whole process took all day Sunday. We chose to make mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, peanut butter & jelly muffins, brownies, chicken nuggets and meat loaf.

Summary: For one reason or another, kids clearly preferred the recipes from TSC. The main reasons seemed to be that DD's were too sophisticated in flavors and the textures were off. The cooks felt that TSC was more geared towards kids' tastes, especially where picky eaters are concerned, and addressed the needs of the cook better. Roughly half of the recipes in Deceptively Delicious are the same as in The Sneaky Chef, which was disappointing since we're starved ; ) for new recipes at this point.

The following are the detailed results:

Mashed Potatoes: Kids' preference: TSC. Main reason: "Creamier." DD was called "watery" by most kids. Cooks found both recipes easy to make and would do so regularly.

Mac n cheese: Kids' unanimous preference: TSC. Main reason: "the same as they're used to." Kids rejected DD version as "adult food" and would not eat it. Cooks' also preferred TSC. Reasons: DD has too many ingredients, is too expensive and time consuming to make regularly.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Muffins: Kids' preference: none. A clear tie. This was probably due to the dominating peanut butter flavor in both recipes. Kids did prefer the appearance of DD, though, as the jelly was visible on top of the muffin and TSC is hidden inside.

Brownies: Kids' unanimous preference: TSC. Main reason: DD had a slightly bitter to some kids but all found the texture "too pasty." Cooks found both recipes easy to make and would do so regularly.

Chicken Nuggets: Kids preferred TSC overall. Main objection to DD: "too spicy and mushy." Cooks' also preferred TSC. Reasons: DD has too many ingredients and the flax meal contributed to the too-soft texture.

Meat Loaf: Kids unanimously preferred TSC. Unanimous objection to DD: "too spicy and mushy." Cooks' unanimously preferred TSC for texture and flavor.

Note: The layout in DD is more clear and concise, and having the photos next to the recipes is also very helpful. TSC would take a lesson here.

Finally, we hope that many more authors get on this sneaky bandwagon-we need more recipes

An excellent primer, October 25, 2007
This cookbook gives you excellent suggestions on how to get more nutrition into your children by adding it to their favorite foods. But let's face it...there are sometimes when I really can't stand looking at another vegetable on my own plate and don't even get me started on my husband's eating habits. Enter this book with it's easy to make kid friendly recipes for the kid in all of us. I was able to find all the ingredients at my regular grocery store..a major plus. So far I've only tried a few of the recipes-breakfast cookies (made with wheat germ,whole wheat flour and total cereal), sneaky strawberry smoothies (this has avocado in it but you can't taste it!) mac and cheese (this hides cauliflower, zucchini, yams and carrots) and they are excellent! My teenager has even requested the breakfast cookies for her midmorning snack. My toddler who is an EXTREMELY picky eater has eaten everything that's been given to him and wanted more. Mrs. Lapine has even included suggestions for improving the nutrition of exsiting food like oatmeal and applesauce in addition to suggesting what baby foods to use if you just don't have time to make the purees. This book got me thinking of ways I could boost the nutrition in our family favorites as well. An excellent resource.

Great cookbook for EVERYONE!, October 19, 2007
I bought the Sneaky Chef after purchasing Jessica Seinfeld's book. I wrote a rather long review of Jessica's book, so now it is Missy Lapine's turn. It is hard to compare the two of them, believe it or not, as the two books are laid out and set up differently. One big difference is Missy's book is set up where you see all recipes in order of the purees, so you can look up Orange Puree or Purple Puree and see what you can make. It is also laid out in terms of meals: Breakfast, Lucnh, Dinner, and Snacks. There are more photos in Jessica's book than Missy's if photos are important to you.
WHY ONLY FOURS STARS? For two reasons: The binding of the book is not in a spiral fashion. I have a thing about cookbooks being able to lay flat on the counter. An odd thing, I know, but to me it matters a lot. The other reason is her recipes have cute names like "Maxed out Meatloaf" or "Gotta Lotta Lasagna" - in other words they are not in alphabetical order. Again, some may quibble but I like my lasagana to be listed under the letter "L." Want to make a burrito? Look under the letter "I": Incognito Burrito.
Jessica Seinfeld's book has purees that are one ingredient: Sweet potato, borcolli, etc......in Missy's book the purees are two ingredients. The juices you can add to recipes are one ingredient. My advice: Look at both books, compare and see which one you prefer. I prefer Jessica's book because the recipes are a bit simpler and again, I like the binding on Jessica's book. Both books offer up a lot of nutritional advice for making everyday foods a bit more healthy, namely boxed macaroni and cheese, pizza bagels and Spaghettio's. As I said in my review of Jessica's book, wouldn't it be wonderful if all of us ate five servings of fruits and vegetables a day? Let alone kids? I like adding purees to my own foods to get more fiber in my diet, along with flaxseed for better health.
MAKING THE PUREE: Don't be intimidated, it is not that hard. I used a Vita-Mix as my food processor and a rice cooker to steam the veggies (don't boil them to a pulp, just steam them.) Even if you don't have these items, you can always start with the sweet potato. You can bake it, clean it out and whip up a puree with some water and a fork and there you go. Another thing: some folks have complained about using so many small plastic bags. I used very small serving Gladware containers so you have a single serving to pull out of the freezer. What else happened to me was I used the small plastic baggies, but they were a little wet when I put them in the freezer. Then they froze together. Ooops! I really believe both books have a lot of merit but people are unfairly picking on Jessica because of her personal life. That is not fair to eother cookbook author as it takes away from the real issue: getting all folks (little and big) to eat better, get more minerals and more fiber. As I also said in my other review per lying to our kids....big deal. My kids see the puree, they see me add it and they do not care. I only wish I had done more of this when they were younger so they could have reaped the benefits at even younger age.

Will This Book Help Your Picky Eater?, August 1, 2007
Here are details about what's in each of this book's 3 parts:
1.It starts with a discussion about how sneaking healthy food into other food does away with the need to fight over eating, adds nutrients to the diet, and makes parents feel better about what their kids are eating. Plus, the author believes kids just don't need to know everything you do to keep them safe and healthy. Next, this section offers a "bag of tricks" for getting picky eaters to eat healthier food. A few examples of the 13 "tricks" are: pureeing foods to mix into other foods, mixing healthy and less healthy foods together, adding sprinkles and chocolate chips as distractions, and avoiding frying with lots of oil.

She recommends not telling the kids when you are using these tricks, and side-stepping any questions they might ask. She seems to understand that many parents, myself included, will object to being less than honest with their kids. And though she makes a good case for avoiding the truth in the name of nutrition, I was not convinced. However, parents can still use the techniques in the book, while being forthright with their children about what's in their food--especially if they are older or it they ask.

2. In the second section, she gives the recipes for 13 "Make-Ahead Recipes." These are mixtures that will be snuck into other foods. They include:
* 4 vegetable purees consisting of steamed vegetables (one also includes blueberries), water and lemon juice processed in a food processor.
* 3 fruit juice recipes made by boiling, mashing, then straining fruit, specifically cherries, strawberries or blueberries. I'd like to point out that these recipes aren't as healthy as the purees since the fruit's fiber is strained out and some sugar is added. Anyway, most kids will eat fruit plain.
* A recipe for spinach juice, also made by boiling, mashing and straining. Again, this removes fiber. However, the spinach juice is probably more useful than the fruit juices because fewer children eat spinach plain.
* 2 types of beans purees made in a food processor with a bit of water.
* Frozen bananas.
* A mixture of grains and nuts to use as breading.
* And, finally, a flour mixture that's a combination of whole-wheat flour, wheat germ and white flour to use when baking from scratch.

In sum, you can use these mixtures in recipes to add one of the following to a child's diet: veggies, fruit juice, whole grains, bananas or beans.

3. The last and longest section includes lots of recipes that incorporate one or more of the 13 mixtures listed above. (A few recipes do not use a make-ahead mixture, but are simply kid-friendly recipes.) Most of the recipes are classic kid favorites, made from scratch, like fish sticks, stuffed potatoes, pasta dishes and cookies. Other recipes are fun novelties, such as green scrambled eggs, roasted chickpeas, frozen applesauce and flavored milk. Several are quick fixes for popular, prepackaged kid's fair, including fixes for: boxed mac-n-cheese, jell-o, lemonade, instant pudding and SpaghettiOs.

Most of the recipes use just a few teaspoons of the added healthy mixtures per serving of food. Since many of the recipes are already healthy, they just get an extra nutritional boost from these additions. However, with the small amounts of puree or juice, those recipes high in sugar and/or saturated fats (cupcakes, brownies, boxed mac-n-cheese, Jello-O, etc.) are obviously not transformed into health foods. They are just healthier treats. Still, the added nutrition is certainly better than nothing for kids that refuse all vegetables (or fruit juice, beans, whole-grains or bananas).

In addition to the above, this book is sprinkled with useful "Sneaky Tips" on cooking, fascinating statistics about kids and nutrition, and a wonderful sense of humor. It's well organized and very attractively laid-out. The full color pictures in the middle of the book are beautiful. Best of all, this book makes an excellent case for not turning the dinner table into a family battleground. She points out, correctly, that kids will never like foods they are forced to eat. And she adds the important point that family meal times should be a time for enjoying each other.

There are, of course, lots of ways to side-step eating battles-- and tons of ways to help kids enjoy getting the nutrition their growing bodies need. "The Sneaky Chef" is a very useful, fun-to-read, how-to manual for one technique: sneaking healthy foods into kids' favorite, already-familiar foods.

by Pamela Gould, author of Feeding the Kids: The Flexible, No-Battles, Healthy Eating System for the Whole Family

Missy Chase Lapine is my children's "Tween Contessa!", April 11, 2007
I have a daughter 11 and a son 7 who have just had your "Camouflage Joes'" for dinner and have gone to bed with the knowledge of having COOKIES for breakfast - and I am a kitchen rock star! The kids ASKED FOR SECONDS on dinner( I had a better chance of having Brad Pitt call me for a date before this happened!) The "Breakfast Cookies" (I've sampled three so far) are amazing and I have been cackling wickedly with the knowledge that my children have finally met their match. As a result of what you have accomplished (no mother alive has been happier since getting her first full night of sleep) we are discussing erecting a monument in your honor!

Sneaky Desserts- Worth the Price Alone, August 3, 2007
No book is perfect but I certainly am very pleased with the authors offerings. The Brainy Brownies are worth the price of the book alone. Food does take a bit more effort, but everything can't be Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals. Healthy options do take more effort, but once you get accostom to the method and prefreeze the purees it's easy and you can design your own meals.
I would like to have seen nutritional information (calories) for the recipes. I would like to have also seen alternatives for the very few recipes with white sugar but i just substituted raw cane sugar on my own with great results. I may experiment with honey or agave since white sugar should be avoided when possible, although in an occassional dessert like these Brownies she did put minimal sugar in them, so she certainly made an effort to cut back which is a great start.

I can also see experimenting with the purees to make my own recipes. Whether you have kids or not, this book has some good ideas you can incorperate the concept in to a variety of things, starting with your own home made smoothies. Make a Spinache Blueberry Blast!

This is not a Raw Foods Bible or A Vegan Bible or A Tofu Everything Book or an Orthodox Health Cookbook filld with Flax, Quinoa, Barley, Sprouts, Xanthan Gum, Tapioca Flour and Spelt recipes. But it does try to incorporate whole grains, vegetables, beans, nuts, some tofu and fruits into recipes that otherwise wouldn't have them, but still be recognizable that dont' look like you brought it home from Health O Rama Cafe. Her aproach keeps the recipe ingredients easy to find and a concept that those who are not Orthtodox Health Practicers can find some middle ground with.

This book should be incorporated into Home Economics Courses around the country. The nation needs to have a variety of health options learned so we can take our health back and rely less upon the Food industries lack of healthy options in pre-packaged products and fast food places.

Lastly, those that are more mindful of healthful choices are less likely to become obese. This is not a weight loss recipe guide, but because the author cut back some of the fat and sugars in traditional recipes while still keeping the food delicious without using fake sweetners like SplendaSweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet, and the FDA May Be Hazardous to Your Health you are making a healthier choice over the traditioanl options, espeically those that want to slowly transition into some of the healthier foods without being a full on health nut.
Every little bit of change you can make in your diet toward overall healthier options even if they are not 100% perfect is a great start.

Lastly, don't forget to check the author's website SneakyChef. She does make a change to the Spinach Puree Recipe:
Make-Ahead Recipe #1: Purple Puree
3 cups raw baby spinach leaves (loosely packed or 3.3 oz)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (no syrup or sugar added)
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 - 2 tablespoons water

Good food, but..., September 24, 2007
I was reluctant to purchase a book that "hid" veggies from kids verses utilizing recipes that allow kids to learn to enjoy healthy foods as they are. As one reviewer wrote, are we not doing a disservice to children by pureeing the heck out of wonderfully fresh fruits and veggies for the sole purpose of put them "under cover?" How will kids ever learn to enjoy healthy foods if we don't expose them to whole grains, fruits, and veggies? I stand by this theory.

This book does, however, hold a potentially valuable place in your family cookbook library. If you have a child who is at a "failure to thrive" stage and must get him to eat something, this could be your answer. If you need to prepare snacks or desserts for your kids and her classmates and friends, "The Sneaky Chef" provides some wonderful options. If you occasionally want to serve familiar American comfort foods with the bonus addition of pureed whole foods, all of the recipes in this book work and taste GOOD. Don't, however, use this as a SUBSTITUTE for preparing fresh produce for your children at all or most meals. If they never eat the real thing, how will they learn to appreciate and enjoy healthy foods? ... Read more

Editorial Review

Everyone knows they need to eat more fruits and vegetables, but consuming even the minimum FDA-recommended five servings a day can be challenging. In Green for Life, raw foods pioneer Victoria Boutenko presents an overlooked powerhouse of nutrition in this equation: greens. For their bounty of minerals and nutrients, greens exceed other vegetables in value. Green for Life details the immense health benefits of greens and suggests an easy way to consume them in sufficient quantities: the green smoothie. This quick, simple drink benefits everyone, regardless of lifestyle, diet, or environment. Green smoothies eliminate toxins, correct nutritional deficiencies, and are delicious as well.

Green for Life includes the latest information on the abundance of protein in greens, the benefits of fiber, the role of greens in homeostasis, the significance of stomach acid, how greens make the body more alkaline, the healing power of chlorophyll, and more. Also included are the results of a pilot study demonstrating the effectiveness of adding just one quart of green smoothies a day to one’s diet, without changing anything else in dietary intake. Green smoothie testimonials and recipes give readers confidence and motivation in exploring green smoothies for themselves. This updated edition offers important new research on the role that omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids play in metabolic health and includes nutritional data on select green smoothies and updated findings on organic versus conventional produce. Offering more in-depth nutritional and experiential information than Boutenko’s recently released Green Smoothie Revolution, Green for Life makes an ideal companion piece to its recipe-rich successor. ... Read more

Reviews

The way to healthy living, October 28, 2007
I used to do a lot of juicing in the past but it is very time consuming and really messy. My problem is over since I got Green for Life. Making smoothies is a great alternative to juicing. It is much faster, less messy, and you also get some fiber in addition to juice. In addition to great recipes for making smoothies the book is also a good source of information about proper nutrition, the importance of hydrochloric acid in the stomach and much more. Get this book!! Another great volume that you may not miss is Can We Live 150. These two books together make a perfect gift of showing the way to healthy living just for anyone.

Green Smoothies get rid of junk food cravings!!!, March 6, 2006
What a wonderful book! For the past 20 years I've been on a quest to eat more natural foods,and my health improved drastically. But I still suffered from junk food cravings...until I discovered Green for Life!

Following Victoria's advice, I added lots of GREENS to my fruit smoothies, and the first day I did so MY FOOD CRAVINGS STOPPED. Bang. Just vanished. Just like my brain's "cravings switch" was flipped to the OFF position. Apparently my body had been craving minerals all those years, and once I started eating GREENS the cravings stopped. And I'm finally trimming down!

Victoria's research in this area is much needed, and much appreciated. I especially love the chapter on the chimpanzees and their daily eating habits.

My wife and I participated in one of Victoria's Green for Life teleconferences, and we loved it. She speaks from her heart, is really a nice lady, and this was one of the best conferences ever. We love Victoria! And we sure love the changes that are happening in our bodies!

Get this Green for Life book, make yourself some green smoothies, and watch your food cravings vanish. This is the secret to losing weight! :)

Thanks, Victoria, for Green for Life!

Attention all IBS sufferers, June 30, 2006
I was diagnosed with IBS almost a year ago, and tried my best to control it through diet (check out Heather VonVorous' Eating for IBS), but I would still have flare-ups, especially during stressful times.
The green smooties are not only easy to digest (b/c its all blended for you) but they do wonders to regulate your GI tract. I have not had a flare- up since I started drinking my smoothies. If you have IBS, acid reflux, heartburn, or any other digestive issues you owe it to yourself to read this book.

Transformed! Thanks, Victoria!, May 18, 2006
My boyfriend and I have slowly been making our way towards foods that are alive, but we were struggling. And then I found Victoria's book. Reading chapter after chapter I found myself wanting to give these green smoothies a try. So, we finally bought the VitaMix blender, and away we went! Now, after food cravings have diminshed, toe nail fungus' vanished, and acne is a past memory...we are HAPPY, calmer and loving our daily green smoothies. Thank you so much, Victoria! You've had a dramatic impact on our family! I would recommend this book to everyone...and I do!

This is extraordinary work, March 5, 2009
I've been studying nutrition with an almost overly-zealous passion since I was about 18 years old and I've run through so many paradigms and points of view they run the gamut from athletic old-school nutritional ideas (like loading up on big juicy steaks before athletic events) to "the Zone", food combining (of which I am a practitioner and believer), anti wheat/gluten/dairy/meat lifestyles, high protein fads (never even tried this because it made NO sense on any level to me) to the strictest Candida cleanses out there (lived on the Body Ecology Diet for years, and it did change my life at the time) and then finally found my way to the whole raw foods movement.

Eating raw foods for the enzymes, pure nutrition and life force just felt right to me, but when I'd pick up raw meals or look at recipes I saw the need for expensive kitchen equipment I neither wanted nor could afford, and overly complex recipes I didn't even want to think about attempting. In what might be an intuitive aspect, I hate cooking! I used to joke that if there was some kind of drink or mush we could live on in perfect health, like Robocop, and it tasted good I'd be all over it!

Well, I got closer when I found Dr. Doug Graham's book "The 80/10/10 Diet", which has some fabulous concepts and ideas, but when I applied them it wasn't quite the perefct fit. Close, but no banana, so to speak. This whole green smoothie concept came to me through Facebook of all things, and while I've only been adding these to my life for about a week, I am already a firm believer that THIS is the missing piece to the nutritional puzzle for me.

I began reading this book last night to augment the knowledge and recipes I'd already found in doing online research and I absolutely love this. Victoria speaks from the heart but also obviously put so much time and focus into looking into this from a scientific standpoint, the research is admirable. Personally, I don't really need science to tell me what works, I try things out (other than Atkins) and see how I feel. But the science is certainly interesting and validating. Some people might scoff at using champanzees as nutritional models for us to follow or look to for advice but if you leave aside human ego for a moment and open your mind the tiniest bit there is SO much to be gleaned from this point of view.

I've had the oddest and most overwhelming cravings for fast food and junk food my whole life, especially lately and I'd find I could eat incredibly healthy and hydrate myself so well for a while, then I'd swing into ridiculous binges. When I read another review on here raving about these smoothies stopping those cravings I literally went to the store that night, loaded up on gorgeous greens and fruit and tried it. And they were right. The cravings were gone before I was halfway through my evening dinner smoothie. I wasn't hungry or thirsty and even my emotional comfort food trigger was silenced. That seemed impossible but it happened. So I kept at it all weekend, making sure I always had at least one good pint per day, preferably two. Here's what I've noticed in just this first week:

- better memory
- increased clarity and ability to focus at work
- while everyone here, even the healthy folks, are dropping like flies with some virus floating around, I have no symptoms whatsoever
- physical pms symptoms that were present recently are gone
- chronic asthma is lessening day by day
- better sleep
- several really great bowel movements per day
- waking up easily and before my alarm even! (haven't done that in ages)
- decreased appetite and cravings for sugar, etc

And this is just from having about one per day for 6 days. Seriously. This book answers many questions for me and gives me yet another fabulous tool in my quest for total well being. I've always wondered why I found greens in quantity so hard to digest, even when taking enzymes with them, and she explains that very clearly and logically here. Now I know that by blending these greens, we are essentially "pre-chewing" them for our bodies until they relearn how to digest what we are meant to rely on for most of our nutritional needs; greens. And since these include ample amounts of fruit these smoothies taste great.

I'm so grateful to Victoria for her tireless work and for sharing this with everyone ready for really stellar health. If I feel this wonderful just adding them into my usual daily routine, I can only imagine what awaits.

I used her husband's smoothie recipe this morning (spinach, lime, banana, apple and water) and it's fantastic. Replaces my long-time cravings for some kind of sweet breakfast (which used to be a blended or iced coffee drink with a scone).

And personally, I love that she shares the experiences of herself and her family along the way as anecdotal support for her journey into this way of living. It takes interesting concepts and makes them more relevant and real for me. But nothing replaces my own experience, as she wonderfully points out in the beginning of the book, and for me this has been life changing already.

EXCELLENT!! Very informative & great intro to the world of green smoothies:), March 28, 2006
I just received this book yesterday and spent a considerable amount of time last night browsing through it. The book is EXCELLENT....very informative and well written. It made me realise just how much I have been missing out on this much-needed part of the diet that is so necessary...and how easy it is to eat this way. I have been juicing a lot of greens but haven't tried "green smoothies" before. I made my first one last night and was HOOKED...really really good stuff...now I know why others are so addicted. And the fantastic thing is that it is so SO good for you!! Green smoothies really make it easy to consume lots of greens...and quickly too! Juicing greens is a nightmare because you have to spend so much time and use soooooo much green veggies to get such a little bit of juice....doing it this way, the "green smoothie" method, makes all the difference in the world...and you get ALL the goodness. I learned a lot about other things too that I hadn't known about before....the importance of hydrochloric acid in the stomach for example. Get this book!! It is a valuable & necessary addition to your health foods library!

Simple but utterly profound, July 22, 2006
In this book, Victoria Boutenko explains why eating raw greens is so important. Although nutritional recommendations often seem to shift with the winds, one consistent and clear piece of advice has always been to eat lots of those leafy green vegetables -- filled with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. The big problem, of course, is that these foods are often not too palatable unless smothered in fat-laden, salty, or otherwise dubious dressings. What if there were a way to eat your greens and actually enjoy the experience? That is what this book offers. I have followed the recipes and enjoyed almost all of them (there was one clinker), and I have enjoyed real health benefits from eating my greens. It's clear from the study that she describes (with detailed information about the experiences of the study participants) that I'm not alone in finding great benefit from her green smoothies. I recommend this book to everyone. It is truly a book that will help everyone who follows its advice.

You are, May 9, 2006
WHAT YOU EAT! I flirted with raw foods for about two years but never fullly committed until reading this book. Now I better understand the chemistry and it seems right. I'm losing weight and feel more energetic. Boutenko has done her research and written a very fine book.

Great, Accessible Information, March 3, 2006
In her most accessible book yet, Victoria Boutenko brings the benefits of greens to everybody--not just those willing to commit to a 100% raw food lifestyle. The information she shares in Green for Life will improve the diet and nutrient assimlation for the heaviest meat eater, to the occasional vegetarian, to the 100% raw fooder.

Green smoothies make "objectionable" foods like heads of kale, lambquarters, or carrot tops completely palatable. Through the magic of blending fruits like watermelon or bananas with greens, they become tasty liquid treats that help everything from insufficient stomach HCL to arthritis.

I found this book surprisingly engaging. Admittedly, I enjoy eating greens. I've even been known to make the occasional kale-raspberry smoothie; however, I had no idea of the science behind these strange cravings. Victoria has collected nutritional profiles of specific greens, results from a scientific study about the effect of green smoothies on stomach acid, favorite recipes and some impressive testimonials from participants in the Roseburg Study.

I found her observations about chimpanzees especially refreshing: they share so much of our DNA that scientists ruthlessly experiment on chimps by giving them all kinds of human diseases. Victoria turns this similarity around and suggests we look to wild chimpanzees for ways to stay or become healthy, rather than inflicting illnesses on them in captivity. Chimpanzees naturally eat far more greens than humans.

Green for Life is filled with practical observations, and it contains Victoria's characteristic analytical and experimental quest for "what works." When she finally finds something reliably great, she wants to share it with as many people as possible. Her passion is as infectious as the green smoothies are delicious. Yes, I like greens anyway, but I have personally witnessed non-greens lovers actually enjoying the smoothies I make. These same Standard American Diet people now regularly request large helpings of raw fruits and vegetables. Thank you, Victoria, for such an easy way to make a difference in people's lives!

Get it, June 18, 2007
If you aren't familiar with green smoothies, this book is great for getting started. The first part is information and motivation. Then there are recipes. We prefer the savory green drinks to the sweet ones, but both are good. Our favorite is any combination of green stuff -- spinach, cilantro, romaine lettuce -- with water, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and avocado. It's like a cross between salsa, gazpacho, and guacamole; it goes down easy! We were so surprised! We find kale a bit 'tough' to blend -- it wants to stay in larger flake, so mostly we just skip the kale. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Forget everything
you’ve heard about
health-conscious baking.

Simply, BabyCakes is your key to an enlightened, indulgent, sweets-filled future. This is important news not only for parents whose children have allergies, for vegans, and for others who struggle with food sensitivities, but also for all you sugar-loving traditionalists. The recipes in these pages prove that there is a healthy alternative to recklessly made desserts, one that doesn't sacrifice taste or texture.

Having experimented endlessly with alternative, health-conscious sweeteners, flours, and thickeners, Erin McKenna, the proprietress of beloved bakery BabyCakes NYC, developed these recipes–most are gluten-free, all are without refined sugar–in hopes of combating her own wheat, dairy, and sugar sensitivities. In BabyCakes, she shares detailed information about the ingredients she uses (coconut flour, xanthan gum, and agave nectar, for example) and how to substitute them properly for common ones–all the while guiding you safely through techniques she’s spent years perfecting.

When BabyCakes NYC opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2005, it helped propel the gluten-free and vegan baking movement into a new stratosphere. Suddenly there was a destination for those with wheat allergies and other dietary restrictions–and, soon enough, celebrities and dessert lovers of every kind–to indulge freely in delectable muffins and teacakes, brownies and cookies, pies and cobblers.

Enclosed within these pages are all the “secrets” you’ll need to bring the greatness of BabyCakes NYC into your own home as well as raves and recommendations from devotees such as Natalie Portman, Jason Schwartzman, Mary-Louise Parker, Zooey Deschanel, and Pamela Anderson.

For confectionists of all kinds, delicious alternatives lie within: Red Velvet Cupcakes, Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas, Strawberry Shortcake, and BabyCakes NYC’s celebrated frosting (so delicious it has fans tipping back frosting shots!), to name just a few. Finally, Erin’s blissful desserts are yours for the baking! ... Read more

Reviews

Beautiful, fun book but not entirely GF or easy to make, May 9, 2009
I feel slightly torn about this book. I had pre-ordered it because I have Celiac and have loved every gluten-free thing I have tried at the Babycakes NYC Bakery. Most recipes for gluten free baked goods contain high amounts of sugar, or require mixing your own flours or are all kind of generic and blah. This book promised to be free of those things without compromising taste. However, I've found there's good and bad to being a different cook book.

The Good:
It's beautiful; the photography is stunning, the products look amazing, it gets you in the mood to bake and have fun with it. I love the personality in it, I love the colour and food shots. It's so nice to have it feel part photo-book and part-recipe instead of the standard recipe books. And the size is nice whether you're cooking or curled up the couch reading up on it.

The recipes are laid out really well; most are just a page which is nice for those of us who don't like long directions and 17 steps. The write-ups about the items and little stories are fun. The celebrity-endorsements are kind of weird (except the "fat pants" - that's pretty awesome).

There are lots of different kinds of baked goods to make from cakes to cookies. Recipes I hadn't seen before that look incredibly delicious. No more boring cupcakes and cookies for me! The Myer Lemon and Cherry Cupcakes is on my baking list for sure.

The not so good:

As a few people have already said, none of Chapter 2 (scones) are gluten free and there's a couple more elsewhere that call for spelt flour. Although Erin makes a comment about spelt in the beginning of the book and how it's not gluten free, it seems odd to have as a tag line on the FRONT of the book "gluten free" - especially since it says "mostly sugar free." I found this to be very misleading and I felt kind of left out. Maybe that sounds silly but when you're anticipating a gluten free cookbook and you can't use a whole chapter, it's disappointing.

The ingredients are costly. I shop exclusively organic and at Whole Foods so high prices for ingredients aren't a new thing for me. But I found a lot of the ingredients in here either hard to find (even at Whole Foods) or very expensive. The soy milk powder she recommends for so many things is about $20 on average I've found (you can find it on Amazon). Coconut oil, which I already use, is about $10 a jar but her recipes can go through about half of it (a whole thing if you're making cupcakes + icing). A few of the supplies she mentions having on hand can also add up. I can understand using the best ingredients but it's something to consider when ordering this book. If you bake regularly or for a large family, your baked goods can add up quickly. GF baking isn't cheap by any standards but these recipes are definitely a little bit more.

I followed the instructions perfectly for the cupcake (of course this would be first!) and, like another reviewer, I was really disappointed by the vanilla frosting. Looking at the photographs in the book and recalling what I ate at the bakery, I was so excited to make this but really disappointed in eating it (and it takes at least 6 hours to chill and then come to room temperature so there's no instant satisfaction). The cupcakes were OK.

I haven't made any other recipes yet so I'm hoping the book redeems itself. I am very interested to try out the gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies (I just have to find some of the ingredients I haven't been able to find yet).

In any event, I would re-purchase this book as it has inspired me to get back into baking, to have fun with it, and more importantly, to share what I bake with my friends. It really is a beautiful, inspirational little book but it does come with a few flaws that I can live with but wish I would have known about ahead of time so that I wouldn't have been disappointed and more prepared for what I was getting into (IE can't bake right after getting it if you don't generally have all the things on hand).

(Update: Babycakes NYC has answered a lot of questions about the book on their site at [...]. I found this really helpful and hope it helps with the baking).

Update 01/03/10: I purchased a Kitchen Aid stand mixer a couple of months ago and I have to say, that (along with some of the edits in the link above) have made a HUGE difference in baking and in the icing. I really think when using the coconut oil, you really need to mix it really well in order for great results. I tried some recipes using a regular hand mixer afterwards and just could not get the same results. I have since had success with the cupcakes, the icing, cakes and banana bread. Yes, a stand mixer is a huge investment as is baking using this cookbook. But, for me, it's been well worth it since I can eat sweets in a healthy way instead of a process (gluten free) mix way.

This book could have been so much better...., May 13, 2009
I was *so* excited when I learned that a Babycakes cookbook was in the works. When it arrived, I sat down and excitedly read it cover to cover with a pen and paper in hand to make my baking grocery list. It was then that I came across upon several issues:

1) As mentioned by many others, the book is only about 2/3 gluten-free. I know that Babycakes bakery bakes spelt items, so this was not a surprise to me. However, the book sub-title calling it Gluten-Free is misleading.

2) A large amount of the recipes call for Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour. There are two problems with this. First and most important to me, this flour is N A S T Y. It has garbanzo and fava bean flour in it, and those have a very strong and bitter taste. Many bakers, including myself, hate this stuff. Second, I was dissapointed to see that the book even suggests using a mix at all. On the Martha Stewart show when Erin and Martha make the Allergen-Free Cinnamon Toasties, Martha asks as she is stirring the flours together, 'Do you use mixes at your bakery?' Erin answers no. If this is the case, then why on earth is the cookbook directing me to do so? If the recipes had the true list of flours and starches used at the bakery, I would have an easier time making substitutions, like swapping garfava flour for, say, a combo of sorghum or rice flour, or subbing potato starch for arrowroot or cornstarch.

3) Coconut oil and agave nectar. These fabulous, spendy, and sometimes elusive ingredients are frequently used in hefty quantities in the book, and unfortunately we are left a somewhat in the dark about the details. Yes, the resources give us brand recommendations (aside: Did you look into the coconut oil source? small jar and big $$), but does not specify if it matters if we use virgin coconut or regular coco oil or light or dark agave. Since I don't want to go broke buying coconut oil, I googled and found an extra-virgin organic coconut oil by Nutiva that comes in 54 oz. containers and is reasonably priced. The same goes for the agave nectar. Madhava has a raw organic agave nectar that you can find right here on Amazon in bulk for a decent price. Hopefully these will so the trick.

4) Frosting. I do not believe these are the frostings used at the bakery. For example, a red flag to me is that the cookbook recipe for vanilla frosting is called 'Vanilla Frosting/Vanilla Sauce" but the Babycakes bakery frosting is called "Creamy Vanilla Frosting". While on Martha Stewart (the episode where they made the Allergen-Free Cinnamon Toastie loaf), Erin casually mentions some of the ingredients of her famous frosting. Among the ingredients is coconut milk. Unfortunately, there is zero coco milk in the book recipe, but there is liquid and dry soy milk. Babycakes NYC is a soy-free bakery. This is so disappointing to me, as I was really looking forward to making the real deal.

While I enjoy the aesthetic and the creativity of the book, I think it fell short in a number of critical areas.

I appreciate the effort, despite the misleading title., May 9, 2009
I commented on an earlier review below, which pointed out that all the recipes in this cookbook are actually NOT gluten free, as the title implies, because they use spelt flour. I knew spelt products were offered at the bakery, but assumed the cookbook would contain both gluten free and spelt versions of each.

I have celiac disease and wanted to be able to quickly identify which recipes I can't use, so I highlighted them (both the flour ingredients on the recipe pages, and the page numbers on the chapter header pages) - spelt recipes pink, gluten free recipes yellow.

Some sort of notation like this in the second edition would be helpful. As well as some information on how to substitute for the spelt flour in any of these recipes, if that's even possible (personally, I don't think I'll bother trying). And if it isn't possible, at least a sentence saying so. And of course adding a "Mostly" in front of "Gluten Free" in the book title, or some sort of subtitle/disclaimer indicating that all the recipes are NOT gluten free.

In any case, I decided to buy the book despite the spelt recipes and all the Bob's mix and garbanzo fava flour, which I've never been a big fan of. I know it will be a good resource for special occasions when I have the time and money to make some of these baked goods. This is also just a really lovely cookbook, I so appreciate that it contains photos of most of the recipes! And I can't help but like this girl for opening the bakery in the first place, and then sharing her gluten free recipes.

I thought I'd make a list of the specific gluten and not gluten free recipes in the book, for those who aren't able to look through the cookbook at a bookstore before buying it. Because had I ordered it not knowing that 1/3 of the recipes were not gluten free, I'd have been pretty bummed upon receiving it. Cupcake frosting and drink recipes are all gluten free. Hope this info helps at least someone out!

*Gluten Free Recipes (23):

Apple-Cinnamon Muffins, Ginger-Peach Muffins, Pumpkin-Spice Muffins, Cornbread, Jalapeno-Cheddar Cornbread, Banana Bread / Banana Chocolate Chip Bread, Apple-Cinnamon Toastie, Lemon-Poppy Teacake, Gingerbread, Gingersnaps, Chocolate Chip Cookies / Cookie Sandwiches, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sugarplum Cookies, Macaroons, Brownies, Agave-Sweetened Brownie Gems, Blondies, Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, Healthy Hostess, Carrot Cupcakes, Meyer Lemon and Bing Cherry Cupcakes, Ice Cream Pie

*Not Gluten Free Recipes (13):

Zucchini Muffins, Blueberry Muffins, Spelt Biscuits, Strawberry Shortcake, Raspberry Scones, Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas, Johnnycakes, Volcanoes (though you could make these with Vanilla or Chocolate Cupcake Crumb Base), Red Velvet Cupcakes, Cherry Cobbler, Apple Pie, Blackberry Peach and Oat Cobbler, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Yech..., May 25, 2009
I am a professional chef who cooks for gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan diets. I looked forward to the release of this book with great anticipation. I realize that the author spent a great deal of time perfecting recipes for her bakery but these recipes don't translate well to home cooking. The textures are rubbery, flavors are bland, and errors exist in the instructions. The concept and photography are lovely; if the recipes themselves can be edited and/or improved, I'd be delighted to own a copy. As for this edition, mine is going up for sale.

wouldn't buy this again, May 16, 2009
I have tried the banana bread which had to bake 30 additional minutes. I also tried the lemon poppyseed tea cake. It was a total disaster. It to had to bake 20 extra minutes to pass the toothpick test. After cooling it fell in the middle and after being cut it is a glob of oily heavy mess. Had to go in the trash. I feel I'm experienced in the kitchen, baking for 40 years!. I won't waste anymore supplies to this book.

Do Not Waste Your Money!!, May 22, 2009
This has to be the worst cookbook ever and I have a lot of cookbooks. I really wanted to like this, but every recipe was lacking in something. The cooking times are inaccurate (plan to bake everything for much longer than suggested). The ingredients are numerous and expensive. I tried several recipes and they were all bad. The only halfway decent one was the blueberry crumb cake, but that called for way too much lemon extract. It was very overpowering. I used the vanilla cupcakes from "The Joy of Vegan Baking" as the crumb topping instead of the cupcake recipe from this cookbook. Those cupcakes are the only thing that saved the dessert. I am very annoyed that I wasted my money on this cookbook and urge you to not buy it.

THIS BOOK IS A TOTAL LIE, May 29, 2010
As others have mentioned, these are NOT the recipes for the baked goods offered in the shop. While these recipes are indeed badly proportioned, full of errors and you will waste a lot of time and $ in making them, the real annoyance is that throughout the book Erin mentions how people "love" this icing, how they "go crazy" for their cupcakes, etc - as though these recipes will make those items. I find it deceptive and greedy that she has led us to believe we can get the same results from these half-baked recipes. The icing contains soy milk powder and Babycakes is a soy-free bakery! Come on, who are you kidding, Erin? She is famously secretive about her ingredients - she doesn't even let the majority of her staff know how to make her stuff - of course she would put out a cookbook with the wrong recipes just to make people have to keep going to her store. Conveniently they now have several shops in the States and offer shipping anywhere. So far I have spent and wasted over $100 in exotic ingredients - and I am a professional cook who knows how to bake. Erin, you should be ashamed of yourself. Not cool!

i don't have time to read more than what is in the actual book!, November 10, 2009
the GOOD:

* the book looks nice. i like the girls and their uniforms. pretty. i have been to the store in NY, and, well, it's a really small store next to chinatown. the book makes the store look much bigger and nicer, but i guess it makes the book look nicer so i marked that as good

* i like the celebrity quotes. although, yes, this is a form of marketing and the fact that i like that thin natalie portman and pamela anderson love the place makes me one big sucker (yes, i feel ashamed that i fall for this marketing stuff!)

* i like the page where erin tells you how to naturally color frosting. neato! have not tried this yet though because...

the BAD:

* like everyone else who has tried to make their fabulous frosting (sooo good in the store), mine flopped big time! i'm not a full-time vegan (guilty! i know!) because i do not have really big food allergies, so i do bake regular food as well and i was VERY excited to see that erin's frosting does not require me to heat egg whites, or use my kitchen aid standing mixer (hated washing the thing twice, once for cupcakes, once for frosting usage). unfortunately, after buying tons of ingredients, my frosting was not thick the next morning. i had to junk the whole thing. it also was not sweet enough.

the UGLY:

* i don't like extra work. i do not like extra clean-up. i do not like extra reading from other sources when it should all be in the same book. after my frosting disaster, i had to go to Babycakes website and read their entire FAQ section on the cookbook on how to fix the dang frosting. then i had to go to martha stewart's website to find the right recipe. then i also read the blog on Babycakes site to see what this one woman did to fix it (added coconut milk, changed the measurement of ingredients). THEN i had to skim read the beginning of the babycakes book to find out that erin does not even use soy milk at all even though her recipe states soy milk (she uses rice milk). sorry, i do not read cookbooks cover to cover, i read recipes and read what i want when i have time. THEN i find out in the FAQ Babycakes section that she uses a special proprietary blend of rice milk powder and it's not on the freakin market!!! it's like a milk powder monopoly only available for the elite with a patent on it that won't allow us common folk to purchase it. what the heck?!

* so bottom line is when i went to Babycakes NYC, i remember the cupcake tasting OK because well, it is a healthier vegan cupcake but the frosting was amazing. when i made the cupcakes, i ended up with a tasty healthy cupcake better than the ones in the store, but a really screwed up frosting. btw, i used, for the first time, king arthur black cocoa powder to give the color a darker hue and king arthur dutch processed cocoa to give it that great chocolate taste. my first time being a pretentious cocoa baker but i had to try and i think it did make a difference. but, the black cocoa does not specify how much to put in. i used 1/4 c black cocoa and 3/4 c dutch processed in the healthy hostess recipe and it turned out fine.

(NEW!!! Updated Sept 2010)
TIPS:

1. Frosting: Have not tried this yet, but I found this information on Martha Stewart and on Erin's Babycakes site although it seems to have been deleted now)
Use 3/4 cup rice milk INSTEAD of soy milk
If you can find it, use rice milk powder INSTEAD of soy milk powder (which I cannot find)
maybe use 1 cup of coconut oil instead of 1.5 cups. If you turn to the chocolate frosting recipe, it's 1 cup over there so I'm not sure which one is right. I still need to try it myself). Either way, if you do the exact recipe as printed you will end up with a liquid slop that will not thicken enough to sit on a cupcake.

2. Just made the apple-cinnamon toastie:
Do NOT POUR the entire batter in the loaf pan. She made a vimeo video stating not to do this. This recipe can be either for TWO loaf pans or use the leftovers to make muffins or whatever. The batter rises A LOT so don't fill it more than half-way before adding the darker sugar added batter that makes the dark swirl.
Notice it calls for 1 cup of roasted apples. When you roast 2 lbs of apples, you get like 4 cups! I made the mistake of not reading and added all 4 cups to my loaf batter. Makes it more watery. So, yea, also notice on the actual apple cinnamon muffin recipe, that she still only says to add 1 cup of apples. So WHY BOTHER making 4 cups? I HAVE NO IDEA!!! Also when you make the sugar dark brown swirl mixture, don't fold the apples in before doing it like she says to. I have no idea why she said to fold them in beforehand, but it just screws up the mixture and the apples kind of get in the way. Anyways, my family still loved it and ate it. I loved it and ate 6 slices in one day. But, I want to make a better loaf next time so that is my advice.

Let's just say, I'm determined to make her stuff even though the book is an illogical mess. I keep a sharpie next to the book and write all over it so I remember what to actually do next time to make it right.

Also, evaporated cane juice is a screwed up marketing word for fine cane sugar or Florida Crystals. Don't get lost asking everyone that works at the grocery store for evaporated cane juice because you will think you can't get it when it's actually there and NOT CALLED evaporated cane juice. Found info on this when I looked online. GOOD LUCK!

Subtitle is misleading - these recipes are all WHEAT free, May 11, 2009
The good points: The photos are lovely and the desserts look luscious.

The bad points: If you have a gluten-intolerance, you're not going to be able to eat a distressing amount of the luscious-looking goodies at all.

I bought this book because I wanted to branch out from your basic gluten-free baking. However, fully a third of these recipes are *not* gluten-free; they're made from spelt flour. Chapter two, which is the scone and biscuit chapter, has no gluten-free recipes at all. The pie crusts aren't gluten-free, the cobbler recipes aren't gluten-free, which just leaves me with recipes for desserts that I already had access to.

If I had known how many recipes were completely inaccessible to my family, there is no way I would have wasted the money pre-ordering this book. I'll donate it to my library. With a subtitle reading: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free, I was fooled. Buyer beware.

Not Completely GF, Not Easy, Disappointed, June 12, 2009
I am new to gluten free baking so I too purchased this book with high hopes. I read the book from cover to cover, went to the store and purchased all of the expensive ingredients and started baking a banana bread. It was a disaster! The bread passed the toothpick test. I followed the recipe exactly, waited longer than suggested to remove it from the pan and it was a TOTAL flop. It ended up a gooey mess on my counter. The ends which did manage to bake did not taste good. I agree that the Bob's Red Mill All Purpose mix is not the best. I do not want baked goods with a horrible after taste. I luckily stumbled upon Elanaspantry.com and pattycake.ca. They have some terrific recipes. Elana's pantry uses mostly almond flour and I have made terrific baked goods with no after taste. The only downside is for those on a budget, it could be costly, but those eating GF already know GF cooking and baking is not inexpensive. I was also excited for a red velvet cake recipe but it is not GF - like 1/3 of the recipes in the book. I would not recommend this book, sorry Babycakes. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Wheat-Free Cook is the ultimate cookbook for those with celiac disease and everyone else who has found that they simply feel better when they avoid wheat. Veteran cookbook author Jacqueline Mallorca takes gluten-free cooking into the mainstream by creating delectable recipes that appeal to everyone at the table.

Inspired by her travels in Europe as well as the wine country cuisine of northern California, Mallorca presents approachable recipes for everything from breakfast and quick weeknight suppers to elegant dinner-party fare. Boneless trout with crispy crumbs takes just five minutes to broil; chicken meat loaf wrapped in prosciutto doubles as a tasty pâté; rustic seed bread looks and tastes as though it comes from an artisanal bakery; and chestnut and sausage dressing upstages the holiday bird. In addition, Mallorca presents a nutritionally sound, lighter style of baking that results in fabulous cakes and cookies. If you like to eat but without the wheat, The Wheat-Free Cook should be at the top of your shopping list.

Reviews

Glutenus Maximus, March 26, 2007
One of my closest friends is a hardcore "foodie" but has a horrible wheat allergy. She must take antihistamines in order to indulge in her favorite foods, which is fine for the rare oppurtunity when we dined at Perse but not something you want to take everyday. So, when I found The Wheat-Free Cook, I took it upon myself to prepare a meal for her from scratch. Now first off, I don't like to bake but I knew bread was going to be a big deal for her. I made the recipe on page 133 (quick flatbread) and found it not only easy but extremely delicious! Luckily, I doubled the recipe as the rest of the diners devoured it along with the delectable short ribs on page119. This book offers classic cooking (a la Julia) and brings "gluten-free" out of the dark ages (nasty health food store selections, ugh). It's easy enough to use for the novice cook and innovative enough to inspire the toughest "foodies." I recommend it for ALL cooks-wheat free or not!

Inclusive Dishes, April 24, 2007
For people who have wheat allergies and other food related conditions, e.g. lactose intolerance, check out this book. Diet does not mean deprivation; rather it means accomodating different needs in re food.

This book has a good selection of wonderful recipes that are not just merely palatable. It brings gluten free into the sun of mainstream meals and out of the dark ages when gluten free meant drab and bland foods from specialty shops. You can cook wonderful dishes and nobody will be any the wiser that you are making inclusive meals that are gluten free. (Of course, if you wanted to, you might clue them in).

I highly recommend this treasure for all cooks regardless of food needs.

The BEST Wheat Free Cookbook on the market, January 8, 2008
The Wheat Free Cook is a fabulous resource for the Gluten Free Community. It is thorough in describing the flours and ingredients available. The recipes are quite easy to make, the end product is absolutely delicious and the best thing about the book is that finally there are nutritious recipes to be made, something that is not seen in many gluten free cookbooks.

I have had the book for more than 6 months and I would be truly lost without it.

Thank you Ms. Mallorca for simplifying cooking and baking in a gluten free world where now everyone in my family is eating gluten free (they do not have to) but they are choosing to because they LOVE the meals I am preparing. Thank you for the humor. GREAT BOOK

Perspective, with Chocolate Cake, June 1, 2009
A lot of the recipes in this book are just normal/good food, but that's important when faced with a restricted diet. When you find you can't have something, it's hard to think about what you CAN have.

The Chocolate-Walnut Cake is practically worth the price of the book.

I like that it's written by a seasoned food writer who just recently had to eliminate wheat, which sets it a world apart from life-long wheat-free cookbook authors who can't remember or don't know what really good pastry/crepes/etc taste like.

Healthy cooking for all, December 2, 2007
This book opened up my cooking to a whole world of delicious and creative meals. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know how to use Quinoa, Amaranth and Buckwheat in interesting ways.

The recipes are well written and not complex to prepare. The introductory comments at the beginning of each recipe are amusing and informative.

Amazingly, I also found that I felt better and had more energy after eating more wheat-free meals. This book has been greatly appreciated by my celiac friends.

The Wheat-Free Cook, January 12, 2008
All I can say is thank you to Jacqueline Mallorca for her wonderful book.
I'm allergic to wheat and cow's milk products and I called Williams-Sonoma
to ask her some questions and they reached her and she called me back with
some great advice.Sustitute goat's milk yogurt and goats milk for regular cows milk products. I have missed rye bread so much but if you make her rustic seed bread on page 140. You won't have to miss it.This week I'll
be making pizza. Kudos to the author.

Excellent Cookbook, September 17, 2007
Excellent Cookbook - high quality food. Have tried a handful of the recipes and all are excellent.

Excellent!, April 6, 2009
Out of all the recipes and resources I've used to create gluten-free meals for my family, this book is the very best. I've tried many of the recipes and they have all been delicious. One reviewer remarked that many of the listed ingredients may not be found in the ordinary kitchen, but really, people with a gluten intolerance/allergy really need to investigate new food ideas. It's all stuff that can be found at the health food store. The last recipe I tried was the citrus/poppy muffins, and my 3 year old is scarfing them down. Get this book for the gluten-avoider in your life!

Absolutely Delicious Breads!, June 18, 2009
The bread recipes in this book are worth the price of the book alone! Anyone who doesn't eat wheat knows how dense and un-flavorful these alternative breads taste. The recipes in this cookbook are easy to make and are moist and flavorful. I couldn't believe how lovely and delicious my long loaf of "Quick Flaxseed and Chickpea Baguette" bread came out! All of the ingredients can be found at your local Whole Foods. The recipes call for items such as yogurt (I substituted it for Redhill Farms Goat yogurt), eggs, xanthan gum and tapioca starch.

Since I'm allergic to rice and therefore rice flour, I substituted it with barley flour and the bread was delicious. I substituted the sweeteners for Agave syrup, and grind my own buckwheat flour in a Krups seed grinder. So easy, and you know the flour is fresh. For those of you who don't eat dairy and miss the taste of butter, try "Earth Balance" Organic Natural Buttery Spread. It's quite amazing and not made with junk.

The Wheat-Free Cook by Jacqueline Mallorca, May 2, 2010
I received this cookbook earlier this week, along with several other wheat-free cookbooks. My six year old son with food allergies had never had apple pie before today, and I was determined to make a safe one for him. This book did not contain my first choice of apple pie recipe, but when I didn't have enough brown rice flour on hand, I made Jacqueline Mallorca's apple pie with a rich cornmeal crust on page 185. It is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! The crust was crisp and much more flavorful than pie crusts containing wheat. I used Granny Smith apples and left out the raisins (not my son's favorite). I used Ener-G egg replacer in the crust as my son can't have eggs, either. OK, as I write this, my oldest son, who can have wheat, says he likes it! The pie was not too sweet. If this one recipe is a representation of what's to be expected from the rest of the book, I eagerly look forward to enticing my son to eat more foods! Thank you so much, Jacqueline Mallorca. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

She outdid herself!, November 3, 2010
I received my copy of "Color me vegan" in the mail yesterday and I couldn't wait to start cooking. I think I read every single recipe and I was excited to see that they were original and covered a very wide range of produce. I was wondering how Colleen was going to manage writing recipes for starters, soups, main courses, side dishes and desserts of every color. Well, she did. From then creamy avocado mousse (delicious green recipe) to the red chard pie (red recipe, of course) , this book is chock full of tips, nutritional information, variations, and even some food history.

I like the fact that you don't have to constraint yourself to the ingredients listed in the recipe. The book packs some much information that you can make your own choices about how you would like your recipe to look and taste like. I recommend that you read the entire recipe, as well as the notes on the top and bottom before you start cooking.The book itself is very easy to read, it has clear instructions and doesn't call for too many ingredients like other books do. The ingredients are easy to find if they aren't in your pantry already. There isn't a picture for every single recipe, but the pictures in the book are really beautiful. They make you want to cook.

If you are new to veganism, this is a good way to start cooking new food. After testing some of this recipes, you will realize that vegan food is not "rabbit food" or bland food. Rather, it is healthful and delicious.Last night I made a pie, a dessert and a vegan cheese. Everything was yummy!

Fabulous!!, November 8, 2010
This book is amazing! Love the concept, there are tons of pictures and I actually am excited to try every recipe. Most cookbooks I own I try some of the recipes but not all. Every recipe in this book looks delicious, doesn't have crazy health food store ingredients and isn't just another book trying to mimic meat dishes. Colleen actually showcases the vegetables and lets them shine. I've been vegan for a long time and I have a bookshelf full of vegan cookbooks so I know what I'm talking about. I've already tried the beet burgers (which passed the meat eating friends test) and the blueberry ketchup and I'm completely sold that everything in here is going to be fabulous. I've already ordered three more copies for Xmas presents. For a good collection of books I recommend Color Me Vegan, The Vegan Table, Viva Vegan, Vegan a go go and vegan cupcakes take over the world.

Another Outstanding Effort, November 4, 2010
I've been a fan of Colleen's work for many years, and I couldn't be more thrilled to add her latest book to my collection. If you've seen The Joy of Vegan Baking or The Vegan Table, you know that Colleen and her publisher produce some of the most beautiful vegan cookbooks available. This one is no different. It's filled with gorgeous, large color photographs on high quality paper. The presentation and organization are outstanding.

Color Me Vegan just arrived in my mailbox yesterday, so I can't speak to specific recipes just yet, but there's no doubt that they're phenomenal and healthful. Colleen's recipes always are. Nori Wraps with Orange Cashew Cream, Muffuletta Sandwich, and Butternut Squash Orange Ginger Soup are the first three I'll be trying out. I've sampled several other recipes at Colleen's cooking classes and events over the years (Mushroom Barley Soup, Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Pecans). They were delicious, and can't wait to make them again myself.

Another thing that sets this book apart is the wealth of information it contains. Anyone who listens to her podcasts knows that Colleen isn't just a vegan chef, but an educator. This book is a testament to that as well. Whole pages are used to discuss a wide range of topics, from food history to the science behind phytochemicals to why salmon are pink. I'm a student studying to become a Registered Dietitian, but even so, I've learned a great deal just flipping through the book. Even without the 150 recipes, this book would be a tremendous resource. I can't recommend Color Me Vegan highly enough.

Color me HAPPY!, November 6, 2010
I was thrilled when I received my copy of Color Me Vegan in the mail the other day. It's even better than I anticipated. It's hard to call this a cookbook because it is so much more than that.

Until now, the only way I knew how to cook my veggies was to steam them, bake them or saute them. I had no idea how to season appropriately and how to incorporate them into more than just 2 or 3 meals. This book contains a bazillion ways to do so.

This book is SO much more than recipes - It is a wealth of information for anyone that EATS. It is not just for VEGANS! If you want to increase your vitamin and mineral intake and increase phytochemicals and phytonutrients in your diet you need this book. It explains what each vegetable and fruit contains based on its color. You will never look at a tomato or eggplant the same again.

Thank you, Colleen! This book is my go-to and I may have to send it to my entire family! I think I know what everyone's getting for the holidays.

Beautiful & Enticing, November 3, 2010
I love Colleen's books and this one is no exception. Mouth watering recipes, gorgeous layout and some absolutely beautiful food photos. The emphasis on health in this one is something I really appreciate. If everyone were cooking and eating food like this, we wouldn't have a heath care crisis.

Get it!, December 13, 2010
I bought it last weekend at Borders, made four recipes: Cajun Red Beans and Rice, Tamale Pie, the pea-guacamole and the banana/date dessert, especially frozen. The Cajun dish was fantastic; it tasted very authentic. I really liked the frozen banana dessert too. The Tamale pie was okay but a little on the dull side. It also asked for lemon juice in the listed ingredients but didn't specify where to use it in the directions. I didn't enjoy the pea-guacamole that much; I found one I liked better in Vegan on the Cheap. On the whole, the recipes look really good and the factoids she includes about the nutrients make for interesting reading. I think her spicing is more on the conservative side, but then again, it might just be my palate because I prefer bolder flavors.

YUM!, November 29, 2010
I pre-ordered this and was so thrilled when I received it. I am a loyal follower of Ms. Patrick-Goudreau and this cookbook is just as spectacular and useful as all of her previous ones. Among my favorites so far: Nori Wraps, Banana Oat Date Cookies. Can't wait to try more from this book. I love how a lot of the recipes are very health conscious. Many vegan cookbooks don't always follow the healthy path, but this one is full of yummy and healthy recipes which are not difficult to follow either.

Fantastic!, November 27, 2010
This book is full of healthy recipes that are non-intimidating. No weird ingredients, no mandatory trips to five grocery stores to get all the items needed, and simple preparations. Love it!

Gorgeous book!, November 11, 2010
This is a really beautiful book. I love the concept and the way it was carried out. I have a passion for cookbooks (vegan ones in particular) and what I love about this one is the nutritional tips and thought-provoking inserts throughout the book. It is one of those cookbooks that is fun to just pick up and browse. Also, the photos are spectacular and make the mouth water! I have just made the raspberry muffins which are absolutely delicious, and plan on making the red beans and rice recipe for dinner tonight. I already own The Joy of Vegan Baking and The Vegan Table by the same author, both of which are excellent cookbooks as well. Colleen Patrick Goudreau never disappoints!

Color Me Healthy + Happy!!, December 19, 2010
I just got my copy of Color Me Vegan and have been perusing it over the last week waiting to get through the weekly menu my husband and I put together so we can start playing with some of these recipes! I have made and shared many a delightful meal courtesy of The Vegan Table, and my sweet tooth has been indulged many times over by The Joy of Vegan Baking. Now, I not only have the pleasure of adding an array of healthful, delicious new recipes from Color Me Vegan to my repertoire but also a whole new way of thinking about the various ingredients that go into every meal.

It is clear how much effort and care went into the writing of this book as it is so much more than your average cookbook with fantastic recipes. The book is gorgeous, and I really love the pictures as they bring out the whole color theme! (Yes, good food porn!) I really appreciate all of the nutritional information woven through the book as well. If I feel like learning why antioxidants and chlorophyll are so beneficial, I have the option to see the produce at the weekend farmer's market in a whole new way. Then, again, I can also choose to just whip something up and enjoy. It's just really nice to have options that the book's author provides. She is dedicated to empowering her audience to make healthful food choices. I love the positive message--for the people who eat the food and for the animals who are no longer the food as a result of those choices.

So, where did I start with respect to these recipes? Well, I had to try the chocolate cherry cookies, of course! They will be a perfect treat for the various holiday parties that I'll be attending this year. The Edamame Salad is so fresh and lively and quite quick to prepare, which will be great addition to my lunches during the week! I'm very interested in the recipes incorporating fennel. I tried fennel years ago in a salad in Italy but have been at a loss as to how to cook it, so now I have some options! I also love the idea of some of the recipes that incorporate fruit in some interesting ways like the Nectarine Agave paninis. Is summer here yet? ... Read more