Customer Reviews

Atkins for Life Low-Carb Cookbook: More than 250 Recipes for Every Occasion

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A wonderful tribute to Dr. Atkins' philosophy and a MUST for low carb diners. This cookbook's first asset is the at-a-glance check as to which phase of Atkins each recipe applies. It has wonderfully useful chapters addressing holidays and parties, dinners for one, using slow cookers, grilling and making lunches to brown bag. Tips suggest how to use, store and keep fresh the various ingredients. Full of tasty, real life recipes -- even a section dedicated to family fare. And the photos will whet your appetite as surely as the recipes!!

Granted - even in the introduction (which I instruct any reader to read thoroughly), Veronica Atkins mentions that this cookbook is intended mostly for those at 'maintenance' level, where only 'healthy' eating (rather than weight loss) is the goal. Were someone not seeking to lose weight, or at any rate no substantial amount, the main dish recipes could be useful - they could find that they no longer needed snacks and the like because they had sufficient protein not to be ravenous. But most of the recipes are useless for low carb dieters who either actually want to lose weight or do not want to regain weight they have lost on the Atkins programme.

A few main dish recipes and side dishes are valuable, but most of the items in this cookbook are of little value. I doubt too many people are worried about relatively low carb Halloween drinks, for example. There are other dishes which anyone wishing to lose weight on a low carb programme would never touch, such as pasta.

I found it rather annoying. Robert Atkins was a true pioneer in the nutritional field, and now the very approach which many dieters found to be a godsend is being sacrificed for this new 'healthy nutritional approach not aimed at weight loss.' The recipes too often are a blatant advertisement for Atkins products - none of which are necessary to following the diet at all. I imagine this book was intended to attract a new market, or to satisfy those who want to think that Atkins dieters are increasing their intake of grains, but I found it largely useless.

You don't have to be on the Atkins Diet to use and enjoy this book. This low-carb cookbook offers over 250 recipes designed to let you indulge in gourmet type dining, with minimal carbs. The book is a compilation of popular low-carb recipes from the Akins Center, and is written by the wife of the late Dr. Robert Atkins. It is printed on glossy paper, which is great for use in a kitchen environment, and many of the recipes are complemented by full-page color photos of recipe presentations. It's a beautiful book, that you can also use as a coffee table book, but its practical recipes makes it more than just decoration.

The book includes 100s of tips for low-carb dieting, and each recipe includes detailed nutritional statistics. The recipes are divided into sections for 30-minute meals, tight budgets, bag lunches, snack, and desserts. About half of the book is dedicated to recipes for specific holidays and seasons. I highly recommend this book.

Don't get me wrong: I love Atkins and I'm a low carber myself. But I don't know what they were thinking when they put this cookbook together. Oh wait, I do know: they were thinking that total carb count is all that matters. Anyone who really understands low carb knows that it isn't just the total number of carbs you consume: where those carbs come from matters at least as much. So I was surprised to see recipes in this book calling for ingredients most low carbers wouldn't dream of touching on a regular basis. There also seemed to be an over-reliance on Atkins products, and overall, it looked too much like someone took a regular cookbook and just substituted artificial sweeteners for sugar and Atkins bake mix for flour and thought the recipes would fly. Not only did I make the decision not to buy this book, I didn't even like it enough to check it out of the library after reading through it. I hope the next Atkins book is closer to the mark.

I received this cookbook for Christmas 2004 and have already made a half dozen or so recipes - every single one was thoroughly enjoyed by my non-low carbing husband! I figure that Veronica Atkins has been eating low carb longer than just about anyone - she has a lot of great recipes to share! If you want to make low carb living your way of life, you will want to have this cookbook on your shelf.

I bought this book from Amazon.com and it is really a good diet book works for me I lost 80#s
and still losing ,got check out yearly physical and alls well a lot healthier then a year ago,
and only been using this book for 7 months no exercise Dr, Atkins really knew what he was doing when he wrote this book
very very little carbs , no sugars human killer #1 . you will lose weight.I even went against the diet with little carbs
and I still lost, look for not more then 5% carbs less is better.Happy dieting don't give up only you can make a difference.

The book gives you lots of reciepes to choose from. It even has recipes for the holidays which can be a challenge when you are doing low carb and following the Atkins plan. Atkins does work just watch your sevings and plan on measuring if you are trying to take the pounds off.

i got this book for christmas. at first, i was a bit skeptical. because of the way it is laid out, it was a little hard to get into at first. it is organized by holidays, easy weekday meals, grilling, etc. not the normal layout for a cookbook, so at first that was a bit of a turnoff. but after sitting with it and flipping through it a couple of times, i started picking out the recipes i would like to try. i have about 10 bookmarks in the book for things to try. i am feeling totally rejuvenated about low-carb eating because of this book! we had the chicken tortilla pie last night and it was simple to make and delicious! i made the cabbage meatball soup: yum! flemish beef stew: amazing and SO easy to put together! i haven't tried any of the desserts yet, but coffee flan, frozen lime mousse, and pumpkin cheesecake?! yes please!

it is true that there are not many recipes that are suitable for induction in there, but induction is supposed to be like 2 weeks out of your life. i think the recipes in here are enough to get you through it, along with plenty of resources that you can find on the internet. even the coffee flan is induction-approved! this really opened my eyes to things that you can eat in moderation when you're in maintenance. a small amount of sweet potatoes or beans here and there. even 1/2 a small banana once in a while. i thought these foods were off limits forever, but they are incorporated in small amounts in creative recipes here.

overall it is a great mix of slow cooker, quick and simple "semi-homemade" dishes, fun party stuff, and more fancy-pants holiday fare. yes, there are quite a few recipes calling for the atkins brand baking mixes, but i just googled recipes to make my own. like any cookbook, there will be some times when you have to substitute and times when it's worth it to go out of your way and order what the recipe calls for.

i am so excited to try many many recipes in this book!

The format leaves a lot to be desired. Recipes are basically the same as the previous cookbook, so if you have the older one, don't waste your money on this one.

I needed a quick weight loss program because of the amount of weight I wanted to lose (120-140 and down 47 right now). HCG is fantastic and doing the trick, but then every 35 pounds I have to stabilize for three weeks and wasn't sure where to turn. I didn't want to go back to the way I was eating and remembered the Atkins Diet from years ago. The recipes in the book are amazing. I can use them exactly or to help me modify my "old family recipes" that weren't too healthy to begin with. I'm loving this cook book. I picked up some of the Atkins bars too. Thanks for getting me the book so quickly. I will certainly order from you again.