Customer Reviews

Lose Weight the Smart Low-Carb Way: 200 High-Flavor Recipes and a 7-Step Plan to Stay Slim Forever (Prevention Health Cooking)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Typical of publications from the Prevention magazine staff, "Lose Weight the Smart Low-Carb Way" takes into consideration the latest medical research to create a diet that helps you lose weight the healthy way. Unlike other low-carb diets like Atkins, it doesn't go to extremes. It doesn't recommend you go into a state of ketosis (the body's alternate way of getting energy when it doesn't have enough carbs), but rather, it advocates somewhat reduced carbs and choosing less harmful types of carbs.

Authors Bettina Newman and David Joachim first explain the whys behind low-carb dieting. I found particularly useful a section which addresses common concerns about low-carb diets such as whether the diet will have a detrimental effect on cholesterol levels. Newman and Joachim don't load you down with a bunch of theory on your body's metabolic response to this or that. In fact, theory and diet plan make up only about 20% of the book, and some of the 20% are personal triumph stories and diet menus for various calorie ranges. The majority of the book is recipes.

They then outline the diet plan. Although they start out with the basic principles which can be used alone, for those who do better watching grams and calories, more specific diet recommendations involving calorie counts and grams are provided. A simple calculation based on how active you are tells you how many calories you should aim for. For those who can't make the switch the book encourages a slow weaning from our previous eating habits, as even making one little change like not eating sugar can cause weight loss. Sprinkled throughout the book (including in the recipes section, so make sure you go through every page) there are valuable tips such as how to recognize alternate names for sugar ("hidden" sugar).

The recipes so far range from good to very good. I've made about 4 or 5, and I plan to make all the ones I've tried so far again. They are very easy to make, so they fit into a busy lifestyle. One I prepared took much less time than I thought, so I had to take a break and play computer games with the extra time I had allotted for cooking dinner! Most use very common ingredients or have substitutions suggested for more exotic ingredients.

Since I already ate largely the way it says to when I got the book, I can't attest to losing so many pounds which were a direct effect of this book's diet. When I did switch to eating this way, however, a small amount of weight mysteriously disappeared without any effort (I'm about average weightwise, so I wouldn't expect much more), even though I was eating more oils. I also stopped snacking constantly, and my blood profile improved immensely.

Those of you who get this book as their first diet book will be lucky. I had to read several diet and health books, consider the information, and combine the best pointers from each to come up with essentially what "Lose Weight the Smart Low-Carb Way" advocates. If you want to lose weight or ever just eat healthier and are feel fad dieting is not for you, give this book a try. It is a reasonable diet plan which people can stick to, based on the latest medical research.

While still villified by some in the medical community and particularly by the low fat gurus, low carbohydrate diets are proving to be successful and healthy. The problem for me, as one who has used the Atkins' guidelines is that low carbohydrate diets are BORING!! To maintain a state of ketosis requires a daily carbohydrate intake of between 20-30 grams. The list of Atkins' approved foods is limited at best. Certainly, it is great to be able to eat all of the meat and eggs that you want, but let's face it, bacon and eggs for breakfast gets old very quickly. Green veggies are great and low in carbohydrates, but I love carrots and it is a real sacrifice to give up all root vegetables. Fruit too, is pretty much disdained by Atkins and this too, adds to the tedium of the dietary repertoire.

So along comes 'Lose Weight the Smart Low-Carb Way', which articulates a seven step approach to losing weight. To my absolute delight, the first two steps say to eat more grains and eat more veggies and fruit. To be sure, the remaining steps focus on sensible choices (lean meats, smaller portions, avoiding 'trigger' foods)and all of a sudden, what for me has been a short-term diet is now a reasonable and easy-to-maintain lifestyle. By the time you have reached page 79,(and you might want to re-read pp. 1-79), you will have a thorough understanding of why a low-carb diet works, how to get started, and how to make the program work for your lifestyle and tastes. The authors will give you lots of tips for food selection and substitution.

The bulk of this book is dedicated to cooking low carbohydrate meals. You may note that the recipes employ a liberal use of spices and herbs to enhance the flavor. This of course allows you to tailor the dish to suit your tastes. Most of the ingredients are readily available and preparation time is minimal. Nutritional information is provided with each recipe and for diabetics, diet exchanges are also itemized. Many beautiful photos of recipes are included and there are success stories printed throughout. The index is very well laid out and you will find it easy to use.

Overall, I like this book. There are some recipes that are high in carbohydrates and should be used sparingly, but for the most part, this is a book that will help you to shift your current eating habits to a healthy low-carbohydrate lifestyle. I don't think of this as a 'diet' anymore....it tastes too good!!!

I've been looking for a low-carb diet that I can actually stick with past 90 days. One that doesn't require me to run to Whole Foods or a specialty grocer every other day to get some arcane ingredient. I've investigated Atkins, both pro and con, it's ok but I have serious questions about sustainability. I can't figure out the new age mumbo-jumbo on The Zone's website. I just want a lower carb, not fanatically low but lower, diet that I can stick with using "normal", easy-to-find and cheap ingredients. THIS IS IT!

I've read all the reviews, I guess you either love it or hate it. It seems from my research and experience with Atkins followers that Atkins is quicker, and better for flash weight loss. But if you're willing to take the slow road and are in this for the long haul, I highly recommend this book. Contrary to the more militant Atkins Addicts, there is a middle road between Induction and Binging.

Common sense, sustainable, real-world, few special ingredients. That's what I was looking for. And I found it with this book.

When I first saw the title with the words "smart low-carb" I had hopes that this book wouldn't disappoint, as so many others have. Well, hooray! It didn't. This is one of the best diet books I've read and I have a bookshelf full of them. The book is well written and plenty lucid and the suggestions are sensible. The authors tell you straight out that portion size is important and that calories count: you can't gorge yourself and expect to lose weight. I've tried some of the recipes and they are tremendously delicious. The book is a keeper.

Apparently eating "Smart" low carb means eating four pancakes with blueberry syrup! Sorry, but that would send me into a diabetic coma (even though the recipe was for "low carb" pancakes in the book). There are recipes for muffins, breads, pancakes, sweet desserts and so on... definitely NOT low carb fare. Pancakes on the cover should tell you something right there!!!

Most servings of these things are well over 20 grams of carbs, and I saw several well into the 30's (one recipe had 37 grams of carbs per serving)--if you add everything up to make a meal you'll definitely be way over any low-carb limits. This is nothing more than a run-of-the-mill diet book with some "low-carb" verbage to make it more marketable in these days when lower carb ways of eating are in vogue. Any reduction in carbohydrates is due to smaller servings of higher-carbohydrate foods, not exactly new information, huh?

My main beef with this "diet" book (it's NOT a cookbook, by the way) is that the information is not new. The glycemic index information, which is what most of their claims are based on, is over 10 years old and is in nearly every single diet book these days.

Also, the before and after pictures do not add evidence for this way of eating. I could only tell a difference in one of the people (out of maybe 8-10 pictured), although they all supposedly lost (and kept off) sizeable amounts of weight (most 30 pounds or more). If their stories are real I applaud their accomplishments, but honestly, I suspect that these testimonials are not accurate. I understand that not everyone wants to or even can look like a fitness model, but you would expect to be able to tell *some* difference after losing 30+ pounds.

Some of the recipes in this book do look interesting (and I DID try a few)--like the meat and vegetable ones, but for an overall low-carb diet book, keep looking. For the recipe section I was really wanting a celebration of naturally low-carb foods (lean meats, fibrous vegetables, low-glycemic fruits) and practical advice for daily low-carb living, but instead I got recipes for foods that make me want to go on a binge. This is NOT a book for someone who is a carb junkie looking for practical advice (which would include me).

As an accomplished amateur chef, I find that a much better book for interesting low-carb cuisine is Deborah Chud's "The Gourmet Prescription." The focus there is on beautiful, fresh, naturally lower carb foods.

I think it is irresponsible for the authors to market this book as "low carb." As a diet, this may work for some people, but do not be fooled--if you lose weight on this it's because you're eating low calorie (not low-CARB). I have no beef with low-calorie diets--they work for some, but not for me.

On the positive side, this book does encourage people to eat healthier fats and focus on better choices for carbohydrates. While the grains they advocate do indeed rate low on the glycemic index (GI), unfortunately the processing and added sugars necessary to make the recipes for the breads, etc... significantly *increases* their GI. The focus should be on *whole foods* not small portions of highly processed goodies. But I guess it's better than eating refined white flour and white sugar products. From what I've seen, this usually works for people who are significantly overweight and eating SO poorly that any positive change in their diets will bring about some weight loss--but not enough to bring them into the "healthy" range... but for those of us who only need to lose 20-30 pounds this isn't enough.

Since this book pretends to be something it's so obviously not (low carb) I must give it one star.

This book is all about intelligent low-carb choices to trim excess sugars (and fats and calories) out of your diet. It is not--thank God!--a high-maintenance program that you will fall off of at the first opportunity. If you want tasty low-carb recipes, sensible guidelines to low-carb living, and well-written facts on how this kind of lifestyle works, this is the book to get. I agree that Prevention could have made better editorial choices (pancakes on the cover is really stupid), but they're no worse than what you see in every issue of a diet magazine (showing a photo of a huge chunk of cake when the recipe's nutritional analysis calls for a razor-thin slice).

This book is not for low-carb "eat a slice of bread and die" fanatics . If you are a sensible type, disregard the hateful reviews, consider the sources, and give this book a try. I did and lost 25 pounds in two months.

...you could ALMOST call it a "reduced carb" book but even that is debatable for some of the dishes. For those looking for true low carb recipes and advice, I definitely wouldn't buy this one -one dish will take up most of your daily carb allowance. Prevention Magazine, while a fine grocery store publication, does not do a good job with this book - at the very least they should not have called it a low carb cookbook.

For those with a true carb sensitivity - where excess carbs cause wild blood sugar surges, etc. this book will simply leave you in a coma (kidding) or at least in a serious state of carb cravings. Skip it..

This is my favorite recipe book. Every weekend, I pick out 7 recipes for the next week, buy the groceries for those, and then cook a different recipe every night. We haven't found a recipe yet that wasn't easy to make and very tasty. There's a recipe in there for chocolate cake which uses ground almonds instead of flour...and very moist and tasty. There's also lots of well researched information about what to eat and what to avoid. I have shown the recipes to other friends, and purchased at least three more books to give as a gift. The Avocado Black Bean Salad is just excellent!

I don't typically take the time to write reviews but I was actually looking for this book to replace one that I already have. I was shocked to see some of the reviews because I usually go by the reviews before I buy a product. The fact is, I use this book so often it literally fell apart! I'm no health expert, just an average female who wanted to lose a little bit of weight, but ultimately, start a healthier lifestyle. This book gave me basic information to start off with. The introduction wasn't filled with so much jargon that I was bored to tears, but rather, it helped me to understand what my body was doing with the foods I was consuming. It was just enough information to keep me interested. As far as the food, the recipes consist of common, everyday ingredients that I already have or can easily find in the grocery store. And, most of the recipes are delicious and easy to prepare. You obviously still need to use common sense and portion control based on the results you want to achieve. The bottom line is that the recipes in this book give you a healthy and tasty alternative to the guilty recipes you already love. It's a great start for anyone who doesn't want to go to diet extremes.

I should have known that with Rodale as the publisher, this would not be a typical low carb cookbook. There is a push towards foods they consider healthy--soy, whole grains, lots of fruit. Fine, but not in my diet. If you like Prevention magazine recipes, you'll probably like this book. I'll put mine on eBay.