Customer Reviews

Confident Choices: A Cookbook for IC and OAB (Confident Choices for Interstitial Cystitis)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Julie Beyer's latest book, "Confident Choices: A Cookbook for IC and Overactive bladder" will be a lovely addition to IC libraries around the world. A perfect complement to her first book "Confident Choices: Customizing the IC Diet," Julie uses this new publication to walk the novice patient through essential IC diet basics and she does it in a style that is simple, easy to understand and inherently practical.

As the first book written by a registered dietitian with IC, Julie's focus is on educating a patient about healthy, balanced diet, particularly for patients who feel confused and overwhelmed about what to eat when you have a tender, irritated bladder. It's a perfect resource for patients who are afraid to eat for fear of causing an IC flare. The section on "rescue menus" will be greatly appreciated by patients currently struggling with a sensitive bladder. Yes, Virginia, you can eat when you have IC but you must choose your foods carefully.

With a positive and encouraging tone and style, Julie reminds her readers about key nutrition basics. She focuses on keeping the IC diet simple and practical. Her are some highlights:

* She offers an excellent list of IC friendly food substations. For example, pear or blueberry juice can be used in place of lemon juice or vinegar in many recipes.
* For patients embarking on an elimination diet, she offers a step by step guide on how to determine which, if any, foods you are sensitive to.
* She offers sample menu ideas for every meal
* A variety of very appealing recipes for each meal are included
* The printable shopping list will help patients ....

Some of you may wonder how this book differs from the best selling "A Taste of the Good Life: A Cookbook for an IC Diet," written by Bev Laumann. Like Bev, Julie has an impressive knowledgebase. You know that you're reading material that has been created with a tremendous amount of thought and research. Where Bev's book is ideal for patients who love to cook and spend time in the kitchen, Julie's books are perfect for patients who want to approach diet simply or who simply don't want to spent a lot of time cooking. The recipes are simple and very appealing.

As a source book for Interstitial Cystitis, this is very useful. As a cook book, it's not entirely trustworthy. The recipes I have used all have needed modification to work well. For example, the recipe for Spinach Feta Quiche calls for 2 ten ounce packages of frozen spinach, and a nine inch pie crust. I tried that, and the filling overflowed the pan when I put it in the crust. I used 1 package of spinach the next time, and it was just the right amount, and was delicious. Don't even try the microwave scrambled eggs. Like eating a sponge!

I guess I was dissapointed in the book as the list of items I was givin to not eat does not necessairly coinside with the book.

It's recipes are strictly written for the existing food list making many unsuspecting suffers feel that the recipes, even though they may have foods that they might not be able to tolerate, are now magically safe to ingest. IC is an individualized disease and as such some of us are able to eat for example a pear and others of us will be in flair hell from one bit!

In other words this book is not the solution for everyone. Be very careful with your choices. If a food has been known to cause you problems, it may still and if you make these recipes as they are written they could be a recipe for a flair!
As with everything in the IC survival world remember, it's your body and you know how it will react to the wrong foods.
Be cautious.

The author is known for her well placed wisdom when it comes to coping with IC and OAB.
As a fellow suffer of these illnesses I was eager to get my hands on this much needed cookbook to navigate me through the painful pitfalls of eating the wrong foods which result in a flair. However, It did not meet my needs, maybe it will be a good fit for you.
I also felt that the lack of nutritional breakdowns was another downside to this book. Everyone reads labels for the content, especially if you suffer from IC or related illnesses.