The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life (Hardcover)

by Dawn Jackson Blatner (Author)
Key Phrases: refrigerated products, time crunch, green spring salad mix, Flex Swap, Flex Food Group, Week Four Recipes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you'd like to have all the health benefits of a vegetarian diet--but can't imagine giving up meat . . .
If you'd like to lose weight, increase energy, and boost your immunity--but can't stand following a bunch of rules and restrictions . . .
The Flexitarian Diet is just for you!

"With her flexible mix-and-match plans, Dawn Jackson Blatner gives us a smart new approach to cooking and eating."
--Joy Bauer, M.S., RD, CDN, "Today" show dietitian and bestselling author of Joy Bauer's Food Cures

"The Flexitarian Diet is a fresh approach to eating that's balanced, smart, and completely do-able."
--Ellie Krieger, host of Food Network's "Healthy Appetite" and author of The Food You Crave

“Offers a comprehensive, simple-to-follow approach to flexitarian eating-the most modern, adaptable, delicious way to eat out there."
--Frances Largeman-Roth, RD, senior food and nutrition editor of Health magazine

“It's about time someone told consumers interested in taking control of their weight and health how to get the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle without having to cut meat completely out of their life.”
--Byrd Schas, senior health producer, New Media, Lifetime Entertainment Services

From the Back Cover

Thanks to the growing health movement known as “flexitarianism,” you can manage your weight, increase your energy, and lower your health risks with a flexible nutrition plan that minimizes meat without excluding it. The Flexitarian Diet is not a diet in the strict sense of the word but a smart new way of cooking, eating, and living that's as flexible as you are. You can eat what you want with the Five-by-Five Flex Plan--five basic five-part guidelines that you customize to your taste:

• Five Flex food groups
• Five main-ingredient recipes
• Five types of FlexLife troubleshooters
• Five Flex fitness factors
• Five-week Flex meal plan

Here's how it works:
There are no rules and no restrictions. Just eat more plants during your regular meals--and try to do the best you can. It's that simple. Once you understand the basics of “FlexFoods,” you can swap your ingredients, change your dinner plans, beef up your main dishes with “meaty” alternatives, and spice up your vegetables for fully satisfying meals.

The secret is “flexibility,” according to registered dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, the creator of The Flexitarian Diet. As health columnist for LifetimeTelevision's website, she knows what dieters are looking for. As spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, she realizes that vegetarianism keeps us slim and healthy. But as a “closet meat-eater,” she understands how hard it is to live exclusively on tofu and sprouts. That's why she developed this wonderfully flexible plan-so you can make your own choices and go at your own pace. (If you're worried about how everything will taste, relax--Dawn is an experienced cooking instructor!)

The choice is yours. Just follow some of the suggestions some of the time, and you can still lose weight, improve your heart health, decrease your risk of diabetes and cancer, and live longer--with the veggie-smart diet that let's you have your meat and eat it too.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071549579
• ISBN-13: 978-0071549578
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #39 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Vegan
  #84 in	Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Healthy
  #90 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Diets & Weight Loss > Diets > Weight Maintenance

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, Easy, and Delicious, September 24, 2008

By	Carol Svec "health writer" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book could have been titled Healthier and Thinner in Five Easy Steps! The premise of this book is that you don't have to go to extremes to be healthy. As Dawn Jackson Blatner says on page 1, this diet isn't about rigid rules, it's about eating more plants and doing the best you can. She never judges you for what you eat, but makes suggestions about how to add healthy foods and habits to your busy life.

The Flexitarian Diet is filled with yummy recipes (most have no more than five ingredients!), shopping lists, and expert suggestions for curbing cravings and generally feeling good. The book focuses on five main areas of eating: meat alternatives (although meat is still "allowed"), fruits and veggies, grains, dairy, and sugar and spice. The author introduces one area per week, describing the nutritionist's favorite ways to incorporate new foods into your diet, or new ways to enjoy foods you already eat.

I tend to eat pretty healthily already, but I learned a lot from this book. I've tagged the pages with the recipes I've tried and loved, as well as at least a dozen I can't wait to try. But I think my favorite thing about it is that it supports the way I like to think about health and eating. I used to be a vegetarian, but I went back to eating meat a few years ago. I always felt a little guilty about it, as though I wasn't strong enough to resist the smell of a steak on the grill. Flexitarian eating is about trusting yourself and understanding that diet is flexible, and that flexibility is a strength, not a weakness. Thank you, Dawn Jackson Blatner!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, October 1, 2008

By	Jackie Newgent, RD "Culinary Nutritionist" (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a registered dietitian, chef, and fellow author, I find few diet books worthy of recommending. But The Flexitarian Diet is one that I do highly recommend. It's based on sound science. It's written in a witty, easy-to-follow style in a way in which you know that Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, is passionate about what she is suggesting.

I love that everything is based on straightforward fives--five food groupings, five-week meal plan, and more. But it's not based on a gimmick like so many diet books. And it's not really a "diet" as it's not based on avoidance. It's a positive, no-guilt approach to eating, which is the most effective approach to healthy eating for a lifetime. In fact, this fresh flexitarian approach is how I eat and what I tell those who are not already vegetarians to strive for. That means if you really want a little bit of meat, it's okay on occasion.

Plus, there are many, many recipes (with short ingredient lists!) and shopping checklists included that make eating healthfully and following a meal plan simple--without sacrificing flavor.

You will enjoy this smart book while getting healthier at the same time!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Is The Flexitarian Diet?, October 7, 2008

By	Kelly J. Jadon "Founder: www.BasilAndSpice.com" (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

From: www.BasilAndSpice.com

Book Review: The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life (McGraw-Hill, 2008) by Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN

A licensed and registered dietitian and a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, Dawn Jackson Blatner is also the hostess of a "Healthy Eating' segment on Chicago's Fox News in the Morning. Once referring to herself as a "closet meat eater, she now openly calls herself a flexitarian. Dawn is mainly a vegetarian who eats a little red meat on occasion--a flexitarian.

Dawn Blatner writes that the word "flexitarian" was chosen by the American Dialect Society as the Most Useful Word of the Year (2003). Also, a 2003 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition sampled 13,000 people and found that 2 of 3 vegetarians eat this way.

Key Points to The Flexitarian Diet:

* Eating a plant-based vegetarian diet is the smartest thing we can do for our health.
* The author has taught flexitarian eating to thousands of clients and has seen them lose 20-80lbs.
* Phytochemicals in plants protect us from all types of disease.
* Vegetarians live 3.6 years longer on average than non-vegetarians. (They have less disease.) They also weigh approximately 15% less than non-vegetarians.
* The Flexitarian Diet is a gradual shifting to a healthier way of eating. It promises a 15-30lb weight loss within 6-12 months. Benefits also include improved: energy, self-esteem, arthritis, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep, triglyceride and glucose levels. Also associated with this type of diet is a reduced risk of: cancer, diabetes, heart disease.
* Contains 100 recipes, but no photos of them. Divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, it includes "swaps" for how to add poultry, fish, or red meat to a meal. Nutritional information is listed and the recipes are calorie-controlled, meet the American Heart Association's certification for sodium and saturated fat levels, contain no artificial ingredients, trans fat, or sugar substitutes. Shopping lists and meal plans are supposed to benefit the reader's weight loss.

Examples to try:

* Burger with Broccoli Raab
* Black Bean and Zucchini Quesadillas (with cheddar cheese)
* Pad-Thai-Style Tempeh
* Pinto and Cheese Poblanos

The Flexitarian Diet includes a fitness chapter covering the various aspects of how to get moving and get into shape. Advice is given regarding types of exercise, gym memberships, how to maintain motivation, type of shoe to be worn, and how to beat exercise barriers. (Excuses for not exercising)

Dawn Blatner has 10 pages of references and blocks of facts throughout highlighting important points. The meat of the book discusses vegetarian issues related to food groups, beans, tofu products, flavoring, cost control, organic vs. conventional, etc..

The Flexitarian Diet certainly catches the eye with a beautifully photographed cover which illustrates the book's content well. The Flexitarian Diet is a healthy way for the beginning weight-loss conscious person to start. And it is also for those who wish to really make a change for long-lasting health, taking a new approach to how they shop, prepare, and enjoy their food.

As diet books change into wellness books, more emphasis is put into total body health. The reader should be able to ask such questions as, "How will bad cholesterol be reduced? Will I be able to walk farther? Am I sleeping better?" The Flexitarian Diet hits this mark.

5 Stars