Customer Reviews

Genocide: How Your Doctor's Dietary Ignorance Will Kill You!!!!

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I have tried the two main low carb diets that are available and though they work, why I should remain on the diet was never fully explained. I read the books, followed the diet plan, and after a tremendous effort, I would eventually go back to the foods I was eating before. After reading Genocide, I now understand WHY I can't eat those foods. Genocide is a no nonsense approach to healthier living through correct nutrition and the application of simple scientific facts. In our society of instant gratification, plentiful amounts of any food, and the ability to buy most anything, sticking to the dietary example of Dr. Carlson is hard, but it is truly worth the effort. I understand the need to keep my distance from sugars and carbs, and because I do I have no problem sticking to the dietary changes offered by Dr. Carlson. Once you read this book, you will want to buy copies for your friends. You could pass on your copy, but then you wouldn't be able to read it again and again.

I have been a patient of Dr. Jim's for 6 years and have been following his advice regarding carbs, fat and cholesterol. I have experienced every benefit he describes in this book (with wit and wisdom mixed with solid facts).I have never been healthier. As a 60 year old grandmother my cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure are all great and I take no medications. Everyone should not only read this book, they should buy it for their families and friends. Share the knowledge. Do it for someone you love!

Genocide, a book about eating healthy by avoiding sugar, has a subtitle of "how your doctor's dietary ignorance will kill you!!!!" That quadruple exclamation point gives you an indication of how this book will read.

The first thing to be aware of here is that this book did not go through much editing. Normally I am all in favor of self published books, but the process requires a solid team of "friends" who do the editing for you. It was really missing in this case. You have to be very patient to read through this, past the many errors, the multiple strings of !!!! and !?!? and SHOUTING LANGUAGE and back and forth commentary. It several instances this "technique" of writing makes the actual message very hard to understand.

Even more strange, he left justifies EVERYTHING in the book so the paragraphs all run together, and he has massive spacing between lines making the book much thicker than it needs to be. Does that make the information seem more weighty?

On to the message. Author James Carlson has been a doctor for many years and has always advised his people NOT to follow low carb diets - until he read an actual book about low carb diets and realized just how they work medically. Suddenly he understood that they were about removing sugar from your system, and he realized just how critical that was for his patients. Almost overnight he switched to a low carb diet himself and put all his patients on low carb diets - and saw amazing results.

He explains that cholesterol in the body RARELY comes from eating cholesterol. Most of the time it comes from eating sugar that the body then converts into cholesterol. In the same way, triglycerides don't come from eating fat. They come from eating sugars which get converted in the body. These are medical facts that most people aren't taught. Therefore, as they gobble up high-sugar diets with soda and cookies and ice cream, they are causing their own cholesterol problems and triglyceride problems. Their doctors then blame the issues on them eating meat and fat - so they cut back on those, and things only get worse.

James talks about why looking at "calories" in a food item can be meaningless. Literally, the biological measurement of a calorie is taking a food item (say a Big Mac), putting it into a beaker and lighting it on fire. The calories is simply how much heat (actual heat with a thermometer) that Big Mac causes. The problem of course is that a human body digests foods quite differently than a burning match! Just as one example, you can set fiber on fire. It burns quite nicely. However, when you EAT fiber, it goes in one end and out the other, sort of like a scrubby sponge to keep your system clean. It doesn't cause you to gain weight or anything. There are many other similar situations in the human body where the way we digest (or do not digest) something is vastly different than how a match would burn it up in a beaker.

James warns against the dangers of trans fats - something we should all know by now. He warns that the food pyramid with its emphasis on eating tons of grains is wrong. I agree with those. On the other hand, he bashes vegetarianism as being completely unhealthy, which I disagree with. Also, he claims stevia is a blend of hundreds of herbs. Actually, stevia is a green, leafy herb that grows in Central and South America. The official name of the plant is Stevia rebaudiana.

Still, there are only minor errors in a book chock full of solid medical history and explanation. One quote that every doctor should read is on ketones. He says, "I have heard some docs say that you can lose weight but there should never be any ketones in the urine. This is dietary ignorance at its finest. There is absolutely no way to lose fat without the creation of ketones, because ketones are the byproduct of fat digestion. If we are digesting and getting rid of fat, ketones will be created. End of story."

He has several sections dedicated to PCOS and pregnancy, explaining how many women he's helped by getting them to cut sugar from their diets. Many women who were infertile suddenly got pregnant once they reduced their sugar intake and began eating more healthily.

He had one patient with a blood sugar of over 400. In only a few weeks of cutting out sugar and focusing on low carb, his blood sugar was at 150. He has story after story with these results. He's helped people with GERD, and since overweight / obese size has been directly linked to cancer rates, he honestly feels this is saving lives every day.

Finally, for people living on a budget, look at this stat. $65.7 BILLION dollars a year are spent just on coronary artery bypass grafts and angioplasties. Another $22.9 BILLION dollars a year are spent on diabetes II care. We all pay those prices in our insurance premiums. The money you pay into taxes and health care premiums could be vastly reduced if we weren't all paying out those high costs for drug companies to fix people and pump drugs into them. Think of what our society could do with billions of dollars "free" and available for people to spend on other things! It is a sobering thought. One can only hope that more doctors - and food pyramid creators - read this information and start to actually understand it.

So to summarize, the message is great. The science provided to prove the message is great. It makes very clear even to a layperson why every human should be vastly reducing their sugar intake. My only wish is that the book go through a serious editing process, so that it becomes readable to many more people.

As a final note, author James Carlson is a Doctor of Osteopathy, which is "separate but equal" to a Medical Doctor. I had no idea there were two "types" of doctors in the US which were both equivalently licensed to practice medicine. It's very intriguing, and worth a read on Wikipedia.

When you want to get somebody's attention, sometimes that means using language that underscores the severity of a problem. That's precisely what Dr. James E. Carlson has done with his new book. Regardless of your stance about low-carb diets, you owe it to yourself to read this book and learn from a doctor who has seen unbelievable improvements in ALL of his patients who have implemented the low-carb lifestyle into their health routine. The more unhealthy and obese that you are, the better you'll feel when you are livin' la vida low-carb. Whether you have diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, PCOS, or any of hundreds of other health ailments, low-carb could be the answer you've been looking for and Dr. Carlson shares why in this masterful book. If you want to know the truth about why the dietary ignorance of your doctor is leading you on a direct path to the grave, then READ THIS BOOK! You'll be glad you did.

I am a very new patient of Dr. Carlson's. So new, in fact, that I had no idea this book would be out till I saw a stack in the front office and snagged me one (double co-pay!) out of curiosity about my new doc-guy. I had time over this weekend and read the book. OK, Dr. Jim is somewhat repetitive in his style, but many of us need that. He is also funny, which all of us need. What's better, I agree with him! I have no medical background to speak of, but I have been resisting fad diets and fad findings all my life since, at the age of 10 in my case, butter had been in and out of grace several times. At that point--early rebellion--I decided to eat what I like to eat and skip the rest. Lucky for me, I do not like sweet things. Now I am justified. But I don't like butter either, so where does that leave me... All in all, I am a very healthy, I believe, late-middle-aged woman, and I firmly believe that my good health (apparently I have beat Crohn's...) is due to my diet. Go with Dr. Jim! He rocks! And life is much sweeter without sacrifice, and without a bad conscience!

Dr. Carlson does a superb job exploiting the perpetual misconceptions of the ever so recommended low fat- low cholesterol diet. The author is so informative in giving the reader the biochemical explanation of the metabolic pathways in regard to the role of the consumption of triglycerides, cholesterol, and carbohydrates. (in laymen's for those not in the medical/scientific community). While I certainly do not claim to be a conspirative theorist, one can not go without questioning the medical community and the drug companies. They are supposed to be there for the greater good; are they not? Why are they keeping this dietary evidence out of the public eye; and continue to give the public incorrect and dangerous information? Big $$$ for them. I have yet to stop conjuring up all these mind-blowing excerpts from this gem from the moment I completed its 303rd page. This is a MUST read for anyone interested in living a healthier lifestyle through their diet. I have MADE 3 people order this book. It quite possibly can be one of the greatest gifts one can give themselves. This is real eye-opening stuff. I can only wish that every Doctor, Dietician, and Nutritionist would read this book and help disband a priori reasoning from their professions....Remember sugar is sugar is sugar.

Using his extensive knowledge of biochemistry and cellular physiology, Dr. Carlson explains why high carb/low fat diets are detrimental to our health. He believes that promotion of this type of diet is causing genocide around the world. Prior to reading "Genocide" I really had my doubts about how this could be possible. Carb and lowfat foods are most commonly touted as being beneficial to our health. After reading this book, I have a better understanding of the biochemical processes involved in digestion and how eating high carb foods contributes to producing harmful cholesterol.
After observing the positive results on thousands of his patients following a nine year period, Dr. Carlson noticed that they experienced greater health benefits following the lower carb, higher fat, higher protein diet. Blood panel studies proved this. He also personally benefited from making changes in his own diet.
"Genocide" is written for persons with medical backgrounds and lay people who are looking to improve their own health. Dr. Carlson presents the information with scientific jargon and then he breaks it down into layman's terms. In doing this, he will be able to convince doctors why this diet works by reminding them of what they learned about science in college, not what they have been encouraged to promote without scientific evidence.
This is not a diet book. It is a book that scientifically explains why following a nutritional program like this would be beneficial to one's health, as opposed to a high carb/lowfat diet. He recommends that you consult a doctor that understands why low carb diets work to assist you with making changes. He also offers a list of recommended readings. If you are suffering from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and gastric reflux problems, you really should investigate these claims. Personally, I experience PCOS, IBS, fibromyalgia and eczema. Dr. Calson discusses how this diet can benefit all of the issues that I have listed except fibromyalgia. He does discuss how this diet can improve symptoms of auto-immune diseases and foods that promote inflammation. I suspect that fibromyalgia probably falls into this area. I definitely plan on making some changes in my diet. I look forward to seeing an improvement in my health and a reduction in my weight.

I AM A PATIENT OF DR. CARLSON'S AND SO ARE MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN. BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY HE KNOWS HIS STUFF!! I AM A DIABETIC AND I HAVE FOLLOWED HIS DIETARY RECOMMENDATIONS OVER THE YEARS. MY GLUCOSE HAS BEEN IN NORMAL RANGES NOW WITH NO MEDICATION AT ALL. I FEEL GREAT. I HAVE SEEN TOO MANY DOCTORS IGNORE NUTRITION AND JUST KEEP WRITING PRESCRIPTIONS AND OVER MEDICATING THEIR PATIENTS. THANK YOU DR. CARLSON FOR CARING ABOUT YOUR PATIENTS AND TAKING THE TIME TO ALWAYS EXPLAIN AND ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS.

The author has credentials galore, including an MD, an MBA, and a JD. So I have to wonder how it is that such an educated person failed to have the text edited and proofed prior to publication; even the best writers know that this needs to be done. As a result, it is virtually impossible to get through two consecutive paragraphs without stumbling over egregious examples of writing that's in serious need of attention. Check out the excerpt provided via the "Search Inside!" link and you'll see what I mean.

1. You'll find extraneous commas that impair readability, while necessary commas are often missing-in-action.
2. There may be more semi-colons in this book than you've seen in all of your prior reading combined, and virtually none of them is used correctly.
3. There are very basic factual errors that would not have gotten past even an average editor. Example: "A vegetarian is someone who does not eat meat. There are your lacto vegetarians, those who don't eat meat or drink milk [wrong: lacto-vegetarians specifically do drink milk]. And there are your lacto-ova vegetarians, those who don't eat meat, eggs or drink milk [wrong: lacto-ovo means they DO consume milk and eggs]. (I see that the author has acknowledged this error on this website, but my point remains valid.)
4. There is no index.
5. There is no table-of-contents.
6. This should be a 150-page book, not almost 300. But combine wide margins with the largest line-spacing you've seen in any book (again, check-out the online excerpt and you'll see what I'm talking about), and that's what happens.

Yet, there is a *LOT* of important information in this book and I believe that most readers will learn a lot from it. There will be very little in it, however, that you'll need to refer back to later. Given that it's really only a 150-page book, I'd recommend looking for it at your library.

It makes sense that when you understand how something works,you'll get better results! Reading this book is like having your own private appointment with Dr. Carlson. If you have every wondered why its almost impossible to lose weight even when you are doing the "right things" then this book is a must read for you. Warning: Be prepared to lose weight. I wish this book was written years ago.Buy this book for someone you love:Yourself.