Customer Reviews

Feed Your Tiger: The Asian Diet Secret for Permanent Weight Loss and Vibrant Health

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It is an early winter morning and I am reading Letha Hadady's FEED YOUR TIGER: The Asian Diet Secret for Permanent Weight Loss and Vibrant Health. This is obviously a different sort of diet book, a venerable but new (for some Americans) approach to weightloss. The aim, says the jacket copy, is "a slim physique, potent energy and stamina, optimal health," I could use all of that! The author, by her photo, is also new as diet books go: a very attractive blonde with a knowing look. Frankly, I am tired of being told how to live, let alone eat, by homely guys waving pages of statistics--whose hand I wouldn't want to shake.

While TIGER's method of weightloss appears to be based on four animal types of Chinese martial arts--in combat, you not only assume a pose, you imagine yourself to be a tiger, dragon, bear, or soaring crane--the book is not all that Asian. The author is Hungarian, the endorsements come from a couple of French chefs, a Turkish researcher, and a French physician. Lessons learned from all those delicious cuisines permeate the book's style and approach to dieting. It is sophisticated in the best sense. As your appreciation of good foods increases, you will lose weight permanently. Taste more, eat less--the author, also the French, the Japanese and Thais have figured that out. As the author notes, "Good cooking enhances all areas of life."

Basically, the book instructs you on how to determine your energy type and then which foods are dangerous for you and which are beneficial. For example, bears are gregarious, have broad facial features, tend toward weight in the middle (a paunch), are at home in the kitchen and love sweets. I and my Russian ancestors plead guilty! The remedies offered by TIGER, in addition to carefully tailored diets, include the herbal and the homeopathic, all easy to obtain in health food stores, supermarkets and pharmacies, and online. Easy exercises and massage techniques are explained. I particularly like the Korean hand massage to tone circulation for the entire body. My computer keyboard is my, and maybe your, best pal and worst enemy.

Miss Hadady has realized--eureka!--that successful weightloss and health are about what you eat and enjoy your life long. Failed dieting is about those foods (carbs, red meat, sugar, salt, chocolate--is there anything left?) that you abstain from for a while, then go ahead and binge on. Back comes the weight and a loss of self-esteem. The author stresses that eating fat and being fat is essentially an addiction, and so is binge dieting. Her point is for the reader to lose weight as he/she gains energy and feels and looks better--once and for all. Gee, that might put the vast American weightloss industry out of business! But the TV pill pushers and hawkers of prepared meals needn't worry. There is a fifth animal type that will keep them in business forever--the crab.

The crab is a bottom feeder with a hefty bottom. He/she will eat garbage, feel bad about it, go on a fad diet and pinch anybody who comes in his/her way. The crab can't see very well, can't think straight, and is washed about by the tides (fads). The crab believes the whole ocean is made for itself and what it needs ought to just come floating by to be grabbed. The crab can make for a tasty cake but only after being declawed, pounded, and cooked. This is a type I like to stay away from.

In contrast, this TIGER of a book will feed your belly, heart, and soul. I buy and sell gold for a living. I like the golden tiger in the wild, and this book's golden author. Ignore the crab. Go for the gold!

This is the only lifestyle book I have found that treats food addictions, including emotional bingeing, as an opportunity for weight loss. Using the Feed Your Tiger baseline diet recommended for everyone, I lost weight because it simplifies eating without counting calories. Following the author's recommendations for teas, spices, and simple dishes I finally lost weight after years of trying. No diet ever lasted longer than a week because they were boring. This one is not.

I love the idea of being a dragon - instead of an overweight person!! Most weight loss books stress "don't" foods or push extreme foods. I have applied the Feed Your Tiger diet to my own Italian meals--a smaller portion of whole grain pasta, more salad, more hot spice, and lots of tea. Lots.

This book has recipes for cooks - not my thing-- and easily available supplements for non-cooks. My favorite new snack food is spicy popped corn. Now I also devour toasted seaweed. I even ordered a reishi mushroom extract. WOW - It gives my day a charge!! I feel great and after eating like a Dragon for a month my friends have asked me: What happened to you? This book deserves at least 10 stars.

I gave this book as a gift to my sister who's been battling weight loss with "quick fixes" for the past 15 years. After her success with "Feed Your Tiger", I tried it myself. I was never overwieght or chubby really, but the book was excellent in unlocking my inner eating beast and helping me stay in control of my crazy cravings and urges to binge! Thanks to the recipes I can satisfy myself without the guilt. The recipes themselves are exotic and my boyfriend absolutely loves "my new cooking style". None of our family dinners are now complete without one of Letha's recipes. The trick is in confronting your wieght issues at the core issue and assessing what type of eater you are. After all, acknowledging your specific emotional or stress issues, for example, is half of the solution to managing your weight.

Last November I came home to find my husband glued to the television set, watching a DVD from our local library called "Asian Health Secrets". I watched the video three times and immediately googled Letha Hadady. I was pleased to find out that she was conducting a tour of Chinatown in NYC on November 18, 2006 through the NY Open Center. My husband and I immediately signed up, along with two other friends. In the meantime I purchased Letha's first book "Asian Health Secrets", which has become one of my treasured books on wellness. Letha's tour of Chinatown was highly educational and we are incorporating many of the herbs into our daily routine. I couldn't wait to purchase "Feed Your Tiger" and bought three copies, for friends and family. This book too is a wealth of information. By following the Crane plan I did not gain one pound over the holidays, and actually was down a few pounds. The resource list is invaluable and I have purchased seaweed, mushroom drops,mushroom tablets and various teas from Letha's sources. The recipes are good, particularly the Thai BBQ Sauce. Like any nutrition program, you must be open minded and glean from it what is doable for you personally. I cannot say enough about this wonderful book. Traditional Chinese Medicine is finally getting the acclaim it deserves, thanks to people like Letha.

I love Asian art and culture. Maybe that's another reason why I like being a Dragon. I love this book! The recipes are delicious. I connected right away with the energy types: Dragon, Bear, Tiger and Crane. I am a Dragon because I have water weight and slow digestion. Sometimes I put on pounds by simply looking at food. I like my sweets--some part of me is also a Bear I guess.

This book is fun. It engages the reader in health and wellness without preaching. It is easy to understand and the foods and herbs in it are fully explained and available in many stores and online. The back of the book has a handy natural foods and products resource guide with contact addresses for ordering products and sources of additional information.

First and formost this is a healthy lifestyle book that helps us achieve our fullest possible potential and protect health and wellness while we lose extra pounds. I lost 40 pounds but just as important I reversed a serious health condition with this diet. Anyone who thinks we should all eat the same is nuts. The energy types presented in this book give us the opportunity to really get involved with our wellness and reverse bad eating habits that have existed since childhood. I highly recommend it for parents, singles, anyone who wants to look and feel healthy and attractive.
Also see the same author's Amazon Short: "Feed Your Tiger: Lose Weight and Love It"

A friend gave me a copy of this book and I am eternally grateful to her! The wealth of information in this book is mind-boggling! Letha presents a common sense approach (based on Asian principles) to losing weight and improving one's health. I, for one, welcome this approach since Western medicine has failed miserably (and continues to fail) on the subject of nutrition as related to overall health and well-being. Letha wisely knows that no two human beings are alike and therein lies the genius of this book. With her guidance, the reader can customize a plan to his/her precise needs. Try obtaining this level of attention from your friendly, disinterested family physician.

For a 6ft 4in male I was chronically thin until I hit 42, when 170 turned into 250, locked in place by work and personal stress and long sedentary commutes into New York City. Like a number of men I found one diet plan appealing and it worked when I was doing it, but stuffing myself with protein and fat really wasn't that satisfying in the long run.

I met Letha Hadady at the New York Open Center and caught part of a workshop two years ago that was leading up to this book. At the time I picked up only one idea, that in some ways I was bear-like, needing sweets to feel nurtured. (Of course in other ways I'm all tiger.) I've avoided artificial sweeteners but found I liked the herb stevia just fine. That one change (in my 4-5 pots a day of tea, and on my morning oatmeal) has tipped something in my metabolism so that I'm slowly losing - maybe a pound a month - without feeling that I'm on a diet.

Now that the book is out I'm cherry-picking it. I've looked at other diet books but owned only the Atkins. Perhaps for a narrow regimen this has too many ideas and choices, but Letha has always been focused on choices, on feeding the senses. She's done tours of Chinatown markets and Little India spice stores for twenty years. I may never read this volume cover to cover, but I'm now convinced that I will never have to "be on a diet" again, because I will find satisfying and available foods that take care of both my stomach and my psyche.

Do yourself a favor and buy Feed Your Tiger. I was given the book by a friend at work. I saw it had good reviews from 2 French chefs quoted on the cover. So I tried the diets - all of them for all the types. They all taste good.

I like salt like a dragon, sweets like a bear, spices and liquor like a tiger and cigarettes and pizza like a crane. What does that make me? A satisfied reader. The author has good suggestions for all my addictions.
So I started eating seaweed for my salt craving. I like it. It's crunchy. Then I started using stevia for my sweet tooth. It's not bad. At least its sweet. I used a couple of homeopathic remedies suggested in the book and finally started to lose weight for the first time in many years.

I have continued to use the diet suggestions and I highly recommend this book. It's fun fast reading. All my friends at work are trying to figure out their animal types. I work in a hospital and there are lots of bears and dragons around. Some of us have started a club --former fatties now addicted to Feed Your Tiger.

I loved the recipes in this book! Apple rhubarb pie, Hunter's Chicken (or tofu), home made digestive bitters, leek pie, steamed salmon with pineapple and red onion, pasta with tree ears, healthy coq au vin, nouvelle ratatouille, a fast easy sukiyaki and Indonesian noodle dish. The desserts like chocolate berry pie were a revelation. Anyone can make these and stay slim and healthy.

I know I am a Bear who loves to eat. With this book I lost 38 pounds and am still getting thinner and happier every day. This is the only way to lose weight and keep it off--eat well, eat less, drink tea, and Feed Your Tiger!

The minute I opened Feed Your Tiger I couldn't stop leafing through it -- the Table of Contents clearly and accurately defines the content of the book. I found myself jumping from chapter to chapter, being drawn into Letha Hadady's detailed descriptions of ailments and having my personal "Aha! That describes me!" moments. The reader will appreciate having the prescribed remedy suggestion right there.

I found the book useful and fun to read whether I jumped around or started from the beginning - each section has information that makes me want to read further or use the excellent index in back to find a particular topic. I found myself underlining and hilighting practically every paragraph, and was pleasantly surprised to see various treatment modalities discussed (homeopathy, Chinese and Ayurvedic remedies, superfoods) as well as psychological real-life issues that affect our health and wellbeing. Feed Your Tiger lays out individual eating plans along with the appropriate supplements and also provides easy to follow recipes. The book provides the reader with all necessary tools and resources to help their own healing process in an easy to read, conversational tone.

I highly recommend Feed Your Tiger as a valuable reference book for any library, and a MUST READ for health and self discovery!