The Fast Food Diet: Lose Weight and Feel Great Even If You're Too Busy to Eat Right [Paperback]

Stephen T. Sinatra M.D. (Author), Jim Punkre (Author), Barry Sears Ph.D. (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2006

Lose weight eating at McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and Wendy's?



Yes, it's possible--and this book shows you how!

"Dr. Steve Sinatra is one of the top preventive cardiologists in America. . . . In The Fast Food Diet, he shows readers how to eat smarter and more nutritiously at any fast food establishment in America so they will actually become healthier as they lose weight. What a brilliant strategy and practical approach!"
--BARRY SEARS, bestselling author of The Zone

We're a nation on the go--and we're gaining weight at alarming levels. Chances are you realize you should lose weight and eat healthier foods, but when you're hungry and hurried, all too often you choose the drive-through over a healthy home-cooked meal. This breakthrough guide presents a practical, real-world solution that teaches you how to make healthier fast-food choices and save hundreds of calories per meal--without giving up the delicious taste and convenience of fast foods.

In addition to tips for dining guilt-free at all types of fast-food restaurants, The Fast Food Diet includes:
* A Six-Week Fast-Food Diet Eating Plan that lets you choose among 150 meal selections for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks from more than fifty of the most popular fast-food chains
* Valuable tips for business travelers, holiday revelers, and kids who are fast-food junkies
* Advice on eating well at food courts, sit-down restaurants, airports, and convenience stores
* Recipes for nutritious, home-cooked meals you can prepare in 15 minutes or less


If you cut just 500 calories from your meals every day, you'll lose a pound a week. That's 50 pounds a year--and The Fast Food Diet makes it easy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cardiologist Sinatra used to despair about his patients' fast food addictions, but "getting mad didn't do any good. So I got smarter." This book is the result, a call for good nutritional sense that takes a pragmatic approach toward the often-unwholesome eating habits of contemporary America. The nutritional advice Sinatra gives is basic but essential: eat more fiber, avoid trans fats, load up on fruit and vegetables. His theory is that if you're "eating right about 80% of the time, it's OK to splurge the other 20%." In his final estimate, though, he ends up recommending a very small portion of each menu he considers: french fries and big burgers are out, veggies and fish are almost always in. While there are many suggestions, as well as a comprehensive 6-week plan, for eating on the go, the fact that Sinatra can't quite avoid is that there is no substitute for eating nutritious foods correctly prepared. Instead, he provides transparent equivocations, like letting a Whopper Jr slide but admonishing, "you'll still want to eat leaner foods at home to compensate for the relatively high fat total." Subway sandwiches and "light" menus at sit-down chain restaurants (Applebee's, the Olive Garden) merit predictably higher marks. Perhaps the biggest reward for readers is a clearer understanding of just the body needs to function, and how little the fast food industry cares.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Eat super-sized fries, lose weight, and prevent disease? Not exactly. As cardiologist and nutritionist Sinatra (former chief of cardiology & director of medical education, Manchester Memorial Hosp.; Optimum Health: A Natural Lifesaving Prescription for Your Body and Mind) and Punkre (chief copywriter, Rodale Press) explain, their approach to weight loss is actually quite sensible: greatly decrease caloric intake by making healthier, more nutritious choices at fast food restaurants (fast food consumption should be limited to 20 percent of the daily diet) and increase activity with a 10,000-steps-a-day exercise regimen. The book includes an invaluable chapter listing the calorie and fat content of the offerings at the most popular food chains as well as a suggested meal plan for weight loss that incorporates fast food. Also useful is the chapter on vitamin and mineral supplementation. Michael F. Jacobson and Sarah Fritschner's The Fast-Food Guide covered similar ground but is now outdated. Recommended purchase for public libraries and for academic libraries serving colleges with courses in nutrition.
—Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, New York (Library Journal, June 15, 2006)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 243 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (August 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471790478
• ISBN-13: 978-0471790471
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Sinatra, MD, FACC, FACN, CNS, is a board-certified cardiologist and certified bioenergetic analyst with more than 35 years of experience in helping patients prevent and reverse heart disease. His specialty is integrative cardiology that combines conventional medical treatments with complementary nutritional and psychological therapies.
Dr. Sinatra is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Nutrition, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is a former Chief of Cardiology at Manchester (CT)Memorial Hospital. Dr. Sinatra is author of numerous books, including Earthing, Lower Your Blood Pressure in Eight Weeks, Heart Sense for Women, The Sinatra Solution, and Reverse Heart Disease Now, as well as the author of a popular monthly newsletter--Heart, Health & Nutrition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An eye opener!, June 25, 2007

By 

Cherry Hill (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fast Food Diet: Lose Weight and Feel Great Even If You're Too Busy to Eat Right (Paperback)

This is a great book for someone like me who doesn't like to cook. It has a lot of the same cardiac health information available in other books and resources - decrease transfats and simple sugars, exercise, etc....nothing new on that front. But I do eat out quite often or raid the vending machine -- that's where the real eye popping information was in my opinion. One of my favorite fast food "healthy choices" was a sandwich that turns out to contain 720 calories!!!!! Nearly 1/2 of my alotted total caloric intake for the day - I had no idea! I think anyone with children, who resorts to fast food should read this book as well - just yesterday the little girl next door told me that she had pop and french fries and chicken nuggets for lunch...would her mom have made the same choices if she knew the nutritional content of that menu? I finished the book feeling much more positive about the health benefits that can be achieved without constantly being in the kitchen chopping and measuring.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just okay, January 12, 2007

By 

C. Gagnon "Cheri" (South Burlington, VT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fast Food Diet: Lose Weight and Feel Great Even If You're Too Busy to Eat Right (Paperback)

Starts off with common sense information and many things we've heard before. Talks about the author's decision to accept need to adjust food recommendations to fit within people's busy schedules. Midway through book gets into particulars about specific fast food establishments and selection choices. I wish it were more comprehensive and a little better organized. But suggestions are helpful and I use them all the time.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great experience, May 19, 2010

By 

Darla Brochu - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Fast Food Diet: Lose Weight and Feel Great Even If You're Too Busy to Eat Right (Paperback)

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