Customer Reviews

Low-Carb Dieting For Dummies 

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

BEWARE LOW-CARBERS: This is NOT a low-carb book. Let me repeat. This is NOT a low-carb book.

If you are livin' la vida low-carb (and I am after losing nearly 200 pounds on it!), then this book will NOT teach you anything about the principles of low-carb. This is indeed disappointing to me considering it is supposedly the official "Dummies" book about "Low-Carb Dieting." What a shame!

An even better "Dummies" book that features a REAL low-carb supporters is "Healthy Carb Cooking For Dummies" by Jan McCracken. Jan is the real deal and shares what it REALLY means to be on the low-carb lifestyle.

Whatever you do, DON'T buy this book if you want to learn more about low-carb living. You might try Jonny Bowden's "Living The Low-Carb Life" instead if you want to educate yourself with the facts about livin' la vida low-carb.

YOU HAVE BEEN FAIRLY WARNED!

I've read tons of low carb books, and most are really useful. As much as I tend to enjoy the Dummies series in general, though, this book is a bit questionable.

I don't mind at all that Dr. Chauncey has written a diet book - I object that she titled it a "Low Carb" book. She repeatedly refers to this diet as a "Whole Foods Eating Plan" diet thoroughout the book - sometimes 8 times or more on a given page. She is very much pushing her own diet plan, which in many situations conflicts directly with a low carb plan.

In fact she makes many statements *against* low carb dieting, and even promotes some myths about low carb diets that have been disproven by studies. She promotes the drinking of fruit juices, even though most fruit juices have as much sugar (if not more) than soda and few nutrients.

There's little things too. She claims broccoli is America's favorite vegetable when clearly statistics show that is the potato. She says that shopping only once a week is great for dieting, when most people find that shopping for fresh food is best for finding great deals that are healthy. She says to avoid chicken wings, which is mind-boggling since most low carb dieters find this to be the ideal low carb food.

Dr. Chauncey says "don't count carbs in fruits" when fruits are often incredibly sugar-filled. Yes they're fine in small amounts, but gorging on fruit is hardly a pathway to health. She continually says to only "consider vitamin supplements" when there is no way that I know of to get all nutrients you need in a normal daily diet. She explicitly says "microwave ovens are great for vegetables" when studies have shown that microwaving vegetables destroy many of their nutrients.

There are of course some good things in the book. Many of the recipes are quite healthy. She is promoting her own diet which is a mix of low-fat, low-calorie, low-sugar and as a result, some recipes are natural food based and good. But she invents a new green / yellow / red system of coding foods which adds yet another level of complexity to an eating system. The items she puts into each category are not always logical.

She does talk about the importance of breakfasts, and the value of asking for healthy substitutions in restaurants. She talks about how, if you cheat, it's important to simply figure out why you did so and make plans to handle it in the future. She discusses how to arrange your fridge and shelves so that healthier foods are in front, so you're more likely to grab those first.

But again, those items would be mentioned in any healthy eating book. There certainly are other Dummies books on healthy eating. This book was supposedly positioned as a book on how to do a low carb diet, and it spent a fair amount of the book bashing or contradicting the low carb way. This would be like writing a Dummies books on dogs, and then spending a portion of the time talking about choosing cats instead. It just isn't why people would buy the book.

I really recommend that the Dummies crew redo this book with a real low carb writer, and rename the current book to 'Whole Foods Eating Plan for Dummies". That, after all, is what Dr. Chauncey refers to her plan as, over and over again.

This book is in no way a book about a low-carb diet. It is a Whole Foods Eating Plan, as stated by the author. The only low carb foods the author wants you to eliminate are cookies, cakes, candies and other processed foods with high sugar. This diet allows you 5 carbohydrate food choices every day. How is that low carb??

The one thing I found helpful in this book is how eating less carbs helps you lose weight. It was also interesting to learn about the dangers of eating a very low carb diet.

I would not recommed this book for someone who is looking for a true low-carb guide.

While this book's emphasis on choosing a whole food diet is commendable, some of the food choices recommended in the book are not just high in carbohydrate, they are dangerously loaded with simple sugars and trans-fats. For example on page 149, the author has breakfast recommendations for the following pancreas taxing and artery clogging foods: Orange juice, oatmeal, raisins, margarine, honey and brown sugar. With possibly the exception of a small bowl of unsweetened, slow-cooking oatmeal, these foods (and many more that the author recommends) are stictly forbidden on most of the popular low-carb programs.
It angers me that I was duped into paying $21.99 for a book that uses it's misleading title to sell itself. I strongly recommend
"The Schwarzbein Principle" and "Protein Power" and the rest of the books in their respective series. While certainly not books for "dummies", they explain how our health can deteriorate on a diet rich in simple sugars and man made fats.

The title of this book is misleading. After reading it , I realized what it actually means. A dummy wouldn`t know that the diet descibed in this book is a low-fat, low-cal diet. If you really want to know about the low carb diet, get 'Dr. Adkins`New Diet Revolution' or even 'The South Beach Diet'.I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy my new beverage of choice. Made from 100% organic soy, taste just like coffee and no caffeine. Finally, I got rid of that wired up feeling all day and feeling great. Look for it on the net by googling "s o yfee".

Chauncey's program encourages dieters to build meals around whole, unprocessed foods. Her "whole foods" plan allows unlimited "Green Light" foods including lean meats, reduced-fat cheeses, and most fruits and vegetables. She doesn't count the carbs in fruits or vegetables (except for those in potatoes, bananas, and a few other "Yellow Light" foods).

Chauncey allows 3 servings of low-fat or non-fat dairy per day, and 5 daily servings of carbs (one carb serving having about 15 grams of carbohydrate). She counts only net carbs, first subtracting grams of dietary fiber.

The book is packed with helpful information, tips (dining out, fast food, buffet tables, what to do if you've gone off your diet, how to figure out if you need vitamins, etc.) and encouragement. The recipes are not complicated (I've only made a couple). The diet is much more traditional than South Beach, Atkins, and so on, but is still designed to reduce your intake of processed, refined carbs. There's no initial restrictive "induction" phase; there are suggestions for moving gradually towards healthier choices.

The author makes so many mistakes as to make this book laughable! I'm NOT a doctor and I know WAY MORE about low carb eating than she. Following the healthy Atkins diet I've gone from a size 18 to an 8 and am healthier than at any point in my life. Don't waste your money on the misinformation in this book!

People picking up this book are looking for the basic rules of low-carb. This book is false advertising.

That is nice that the author has made up her own fresh-foods diet. She should have sold it under a title that reflected the true nature of the diet, NOT low-carb.

It is apparent that the author has NO UNDERSTANDING of true low-carb. As a matter of fact, she takes every opportunity to undermine low-carb.

Kind of like a company that makes their money polluting calling themselves "fresh air".

Low-carb is NOT steak all day, and it is NOT no carb. It is about detoxing our bodies from the deluge of sugar in our environment, and SLOWLY re-introducing more healthy carbs (vegetables and some fruit) into the diet.

Is her diet lower carb than the diet of someone who eats 3 meals a day at McDonald's? Yes. Does it advocate fresh foods? Yes. That is about all it has going for it.

Everyone buying this expecting a low-carb book should demand their money back!!!!

I bought this book years ago, and had great success with it. I lent it to someone, so now I'm buying the kindle edition for my kindle fire. I look forward to using the techniques again to lose weight in a healthy way.

I understand what people are saying about this not being a traditional "low carb" book. But it is about healthy eating, and it does put you in a direction towards meeting weight loss, as well as healthy living. For that reason, I give it five stars.

This book goes way beyond low-carb dieting. It should be called low-carb healthy eating for life and it changes the way you think about food. It simply categorizes all foods into either green, yellow, or red light. Green light foods can be eaten without weighing/measuring, etc.and have no limit. The foods that are green light that include carbs are most of your fruits and veggies. Yellow light foods you can eat, but you need to be careful of what kinds and how much. These are the traditional carbs - bread, pastas, beans, starchy fruit (bananas) and veggies (squash and potatoes). You are restricted to 3 servings (1 serving = 15 grams) of those a day. Red light foods should not be eaten. Add in some dairy, fat, and you have very clear guidelines how to eat healthy for the rest of your life with a focus on whole, unprocessed, foods. Some really good recipes are included as is lots of more technical information, if you are interested. But you don't need to even read that to see the common sense behind this plan. It finally puts together all the different diets, pyramids, plans, etc. into something that just makes good sense and is easy to follow.