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73 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I would give ZERO stars if I could., October 15, 2009
This review is from: The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes (Paperback)
I was EXTREMELY disappointed in this book. And I was very excited to get it too. I discovered on my own that I needed to follow a very low starch diet to control my blood sugar. So I was hoping this book would support my dietary changes that keep me in perfect control. Not the case. This doctor offers a low starch diet, but also is a BIG advocate of diabetes drugs and insulin. He throws in a chapter about exercise and then the sample diets are HORRIBLE for a diabetic. In one sample dinner he has you eating a cup of grapes. If I eat more than 5 grapes I get a BS spike. He has you drinking a lot of milk. MILK!! even whole milk puts my BS so high I have to go work out for an hour to get it back down. He says "sugar" is not the culprit....it's starch. However, all of his "sweet" recipes have Splenda in them. He then goes on to say it is o.k. to have a small amount of sugar to satisfy your sweet tooth. With a disclaimer that if you find sugar addict, you better skip this allowance. Geez...sugar is one of the most addictive substances on earth. If I had a handful of jellybeans after dinner like he says I can...I'd be in a coma....and wanting more later after the fog head wore off. Here is his advice: Low starch diet Metaformin (as soon as possible...just ignore the nasty side effects it can have) Exercise Insulin That is the gist of the entire book. Poor poor. The word "solution" indicates you have found an answer. Something that works. He attaches it to "low-starch" when in fact his diet would not work without the exercise and copious amounts of drugs he says you should take. His sample diets would have me on insulin. He talks about his recipes and says there is no alternative to gluten. That is utter BS. 10 minutes on Google will have you tons of recipes that switch out gluten for other ingredients to make muffins, etc. And some are low carb (use eggs to hold it together). I am Celiac so I know this to be true. I make gluten free goodies for holidays once in awhile that people cant tell the difference!! What has worked for me is: very low starch diet, low sugar fruits (berries), lots of green leafy veggies, no corn, no dairy, no grains, no rice, no beans, no potatoes, real fats such as coconut, butter, olive oil, meats, eggs, nuts and seeds. That's it!! Exercise everyday for 45 minutes. S.I.M.P.L.E. And most importantly no drugs or insulin. VERY DISAPPOINTED!! Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing new. And NOT A SOLUTION to anything!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
best book ever overall for this subject, September 6, 2011
This review is from: The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes (Paperback)
First of all, I am a retired doctor who has had diabetes for about 15 yrs. This is the best, clearest, and most realistic book on this subject that I have read. I would say that this doctor's experience mirrors mine except I took longer to get the message. It is good that he doesn't dismiss medication and insulin because some diabetics, like myself, need these things even if we eat zero carbs. Believe me I have tried it and my sugar remains higher than I would like. This idea of burned out beta cells is relatively recent and it is very important to address it which he does in the book. Most important, his approach works and I have dramatically dropped my medication and insulin requirements and have lost some 25 lbs in about 4 months with relatively little hunger using this approach. His book is understandable but still interesting to an educated reader. I should put educated in quotes because so much of the medical information out there is so wrong still. I read his book on my kindle and it was easy to do so. And he does not advocate medication per se for everyone, only those who need it. And he gives the pros and cons and the science in the process. Like him, I could stop my medication, and I have for periods but even with perfect eating the fasting is still about 150 and inches up to 170-180 even if I eat only a little protein. I have experimented and those are the facts. So, the doctor is right and maybe some don't like that but those, again, are the hard facts. So, again, I like his approach and I do not think he is overly aggressive or dogmatic about it, just realistic, scientific and giving his experience. Also, he tells you what is backed up by science, what isn't and what is his experience and one can judge it from there. I will be recommending this book to all my friends who are diabetic and even some who are probably prediabetic. The only place where my experience is different from his is that for me the Atkins is not too hard to follow because of "cravings". I do find Atkins helpful and complementary which he does not. One can't agree on everything and I suspect he feels this way due to his patient experience and, perhaps, his personel experience. Certainly, there are plenty of cookbooks out there for Atkins and low carb that are compatible with his approach. Also, one helpful thing he doesn't talk about is pork rinds, the one great low carb snack that is allowed. Wow, I used to make fun of people who bought these, but now I buy them because they are the only low carb snack type food I have found that is allowed when you want something like chips and they make wonderful breading ground up. I should note that age and exercise plays a role in the medication thing since when I was younger and first diabetic I could eat low, low carb and drop my blood sugar to normal or exercise a lot and do likewise. With age this is not so and now in my 60's this does not work. One has to be flexible and realistic. I say this and again return to this issue of medication because of the review by the person who excoriated the doctor for advocating medication when it is needed. What can I say, these are the limitations of our genetics for some of us and also the legacy of many years of stressing our beta cells. Had I know all of this when I was younger maybe I now could be without medication but I and many others did not know this because it was not known then. Be flexible I say and experiment but still face facts when you must. This book helps you do that. For that I am grateful to the doctor.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another outstanding product from Dr. Thompson, October 17, 2009
This review is from: The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution: Six Steps to Optimal Control of Your Adult-Onset (Type 2) Diabetes (Paperback)
Given the high quality of Dr. Thompson's previous works, I made sure I obtained "The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution" as soon as it was released. I was not disappointed. While this book does repeat some of the information from his previous books, it references several recent studies to back up his findings. Also, unlike a previous reviewer, I found the information on diabetic drugs quite informative. It's great if you can totally control your diabetes without them, but many of us can't. I've recently read Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution and do not doubt the successes he has seen with his methods. However, I do not think many people could handle the Atkins-like diet that he describes (I know I couldn't). Therefore, it is refreshing to see an effective alternative, such as the one described in "The Low-Starch Diabetes Solution" that is easy to follow every day.
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