Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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!

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

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!

That's the number of daily meal combinations that you can create Dawn Jackson Blatner's mix and match menus/recipes. Part 1 explains her purpose behind the five by five by five plan: five is the average number of ingredients people run into the grocery store to buy after work for that night's dinner. Five small meals a day to fuel your metabolism: 300 calorie breakfast, 400 calorie lunch, 500 calorie dinner, and 2 150- calorie snacks which equals 1500 calories a day. Need only 1200 calories? No problem eliminate snacks. Need 1800 calories? No problem. Double up breakfast. That's the whole point of being FLEXIBLE. The calorie count design allows me to be lazy and have the occasional Amy's Mattar Paneer Tofu(vegan) with a broiled banana for dinner without feeling like I've blown anything. It even has a quiz where you can see where you are one the flexitarian scale.

Part 2: Introduces you to some vegetarian foods you may not be familiar with if you are a carnivore. She also talks to you about setting up your healthy pantry, getting in more fruits and veggies (even into the picky veggie-hating eaters in your family. Nuts, cheese, and barbeque or sweet and sour sauce anyone? There is a chart that tells you how long to cook different grains such as quinoa, teff, kasha etc. I love the fact that this info is all in handy chart form making it easy to use for those of us, like me, with short attention spans.

Part 3 has those mix-and-match meal plans that I love so much. She has 5 different week with 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, 7 dinners, and 7 snacks complete with shopping lists should you want to follow the plan exactly. Note: the shopping lists assume you've stocked your pantry so, if you skipped that part, you might want to go back and reread it.

All the recipes are for one person which it ideal for those of us who are the only vegetarians in our family. But, you can easily double, triple, or quadruple the recipes to fit your family needs. I consider this a plus. I've bought quite a few vegetarian cookbooks that make 4, 6, even 8 portions. WAY too much for me.

This book is great for anyone who wants to be vegetarian some, most, or all of the time, and is just too TIRED to plan it all out.

Incidentally, I tried this for 3 weeks before posting a review. I found that I ate vegan 20 out of 21 of those days simply because those are the recipes I picked. I substituted soy and almond milk for regular milk, scrambled tofu for scrambled eggs, and soy yogurt and vegan cheese (note: some "vegetarian cheeses have casein so read labels). My point being that you CAN use this book if you or someone in your family is vegan. Oh. And, I lost 8 lbs. Not too shabby.

I have been a vegetarian for over 14 years, but I've never been very good about using the full range of grains and vegetables at my disposal. Consequently, I'm one of the few vegetarians (only 6% according to Dr. Jackson Blattner) that have become overweight. I was searching for a book that would give me easy vegetarian recipes that were healthy and filling. I never expected to get so much more out of the book! To be sure, "The Flexitarian Diet" has great recipes. Some of the best I've ever tried...in any book. And as promised, they are some of the easiest recipes to make. Most take me about 15 minutes to make. (And for those of you who aren't vegetarians, it is quite easy to include meat in many of the recipes.)

What I was surprised by is how incredibly delicious the recipes are. I've read so many recipe books that claim the recipes are better than restaurant food. I always roll my eyes because they never live up to the hype. Well, this book does! I bought another weight loss recipe book geared toward vegetarians (from Weight Watchers, which I highly respect) and that book doesn't hold a candle to "The Flexitarian Diet." I can't say enough good things about this book. Buy it today if you're in search of a book with healthy, easy, flavorful recipes.

Much of the weightloss information in "Flexitarian Diet" will be familiar to those of us who've dieted in the past 5 or so years. By now, who doesn't know that we should be eating lots of produce, and moderate amounts of whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats? What this reminds me most of is a mostly vegetarian version of wave 2 of The Sonoma Diet: Trimmer Waist, Better Health in Just 10 Days!. I actually pulled out my Sonoma book to check the percentage breakdown of the various food groups, and they're nearly identical. While the advice is not new, it is sound.

All the recipes I've tried so far from this book have been delicious, even ones I was initially a bit skeptical about. They are so tasty that I don't feel like I'm being deprived (which is always a big concern with diet dishes). The ingredients are relatively easy to find- most of the stuff I could get at my local Safeway with only a few things needing to be bought at Whole Foods.

One thing to be aware of is that the recipes are written for a single portion size, so if you are cooking for a family or want leftovers you'll need to do the math to adjust.

Highly recommended!

I have been interested in vegetarian diet plans for many years but have found it hard to stick to 100%. Vegan? Forget it. But vegetarian is easier to follow and enjoyable for me. However, I found that I was one of those people who needed more protein and found vegetarian ptotein substitutes just didn't work for me. This book gave me the option to have the "on again, off again" veggie lifestyle that I was looking for. The science made a lot of sense, the plan is extremely easy to stick to and took out some of the "guilt" of being the almost-veggie that I've been for years. This is a great plan for people like me who want healthy options but want a wider variety of foods.

I got it over the weekend and have read it cover to cover!! I LOVE IT!!!!

I've recommended it to several people already.

As far as I'm concerned it is all anyone would need for an education of eating whole foods. This is exactly what the world needed.

It is so helpful. She explains so much in simple to understand terms. I found the section on whole grains particularly helpful. And the tip about using index cards to keep the recipes is brilliant.

I can't wait to start making the recipes for my family. Also going to start to make extra batches and sneak some nutrition into my picky mother!

As suggested in the book, I added pureed black beans into store bought brownie mix and my family loved them - the whole pan was gone in a matter of hours. They had no idea they were getting the extra fiber and protein.

I really loved this book and it has given me confidence to cook up and try vegetables and grains that are new to me. I grew up in a home that bought into Big food and everything we ate was highly processed and I never learned how to cook real food. I have been a pesce-vegetarian for over five years and bought vegi cook books & magazines and none have inspired me to cook every night like this one. I bought a week's worth of groceries (the book provides lists!) in the time it took me to plan for some of the more complicated veggi dishes in other books. The dishes are really yummy and I love how fast and simple they are! If you want to learn how to stock a vegi home and cook lots of great meals--this is for you!

Ever hear a meat-loving man (or woman) ridicule a vegetarian? He or she may be laughing all the way to the grave. Most people who eat a lot of meat do not understand the tremendous benefit of a primarily plant-based diet, as outlined so thoroughly in The Flexitarian Diet. From weight loss to decreased risk of diabetes and cancer to longer life expectancy, the flexitarian or vegetarian diet does wonders for your health.

When I was a young girl, I was an extremely picky eater. I didn't like meat at all . . . not even hot dogs or hamburgers. The only way my mom could get me to eat roast beef was to shred it and scatter it on my mashed potatoes and smother it all with gravy. I was so thin my mom and dad took me to the doctor, who made me drink a chocolate milk shake with a raw egg in it every night. To this day I will not drink a chocolate milk shake or eat chocolate ice cream. Jealous?

I did outgrow my dislike of meat, and over the years I also outgrew my clothing. So fast forward 40 years. Here I am at 57 reverting again to my primarily plant-based diet. Weight lost? You bet. Fewer allergies? Sneezing and sinus infections . . . gone. Have I beat the diabetes gene which runs rampant in my family? Oh yeah! Aging well? Guessing by the look of surprise on the faces of people who find out my age, I'd say yes. So now you have the "why".

The Flexitarian Diet gives you the "how", which is the main reason people are not flexitarians . . . they don't know how. The author give us the lowdown on five flex food groups, a five-week flex meal plan (including 35 breakfast recipes, 35 lunches, 35 dinners, and 35 snacks), keeping the ingredient list to an average of just five ingredients, five flex fitness factors, and lastly five types of flexlife troubleshooters to help you overcome the hurdles of healthy changes and weight loss. In this case, five is a very lucky number!

If you've ever thought about becoming a vegetarian, but you're not sure how to do it, this book's for you. You can begin by becoming a flexitarian, and perhaps later on a vegetarian or vegan. If you want to reduce your consumption of meat for health benefits (and not because of The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food), then perhaps flexitarianism is for you. Give it a try . . . the recipes are easy, delicious, and totally satisfying.

Lynette Fleming, Coauthor of Lunch Buddies: Buddy Up for a Better Diet