Customer Reviews

The Serotonin Power Diet: Eat Carbs--Nature's Own Appetite Suppressant--to Stop Emotional Overeating and Halt Antidepressant-Associated Weight Gain

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The Serotonin Power Diet by Judith J. Wurtman, PhD. and Nina T. Frusztajer, MD. explains what serotonin is and why it can help you with your food cravings. Serotonin is the substance that makes you not be hungry. It also prevents you from overeating when you are stressed out. This book guides you through a 12 week program.

The first thing in the program is that you have to snack. This is one thing that most diets eliminate. Phase 1 lasts 2 weeks were you have 3 snacks. Phase 2 are weeks 3-8 were you eat two snacks and from week 9 and beyond it is one snack. The snacks are always carbohydrates.
The book guides you through how to eat the right type of carbohydrates by phases. It gives a menu to follow (with choices) so you are not hungry and are not to overeat or eat emotionally. The book also has a chapter on the type of exercise to do to maximize your weight loss and keeping it off.

One of the chapters that I liked the most was how to eat at restaurants. It gives you choices by cuisine. I think most people will find this very useful whether they are on a diet or not. Another chapter is the one where it helps you troubleshoot problems with your weight loss.

Part four of the book is the part that contains recipes you can use. Chapter 12 gives you a list of things to have on hand for a quick meal. Chapter 13 has basic meals and quick kitchen tricks. Chaper 14 has the recipes.

I did the recipe on page 204 Sauteed Scallops. It was easy to do and very tasty. If the rest of the recipes are just as easy this will be a nice (and tasty) diet to follow.

The goal of this diet is to learn how to eat it in moderation as well as to learn the difference between appetite versus being hungry.

About the Authors
Judith J. Wurtman, PhD, discovered the connection between carbohydrate craving, serotonin, and emotional well-being in her MIT clinical studies. Founder of a Harvard University hospital weight-loss facility and co-founder of Adara Weight Management Center, she has written five books, including The Serotonin Solution, and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles for professional publications. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.

Nina T. Frusztajer, MD, co-founder of Adara Weight Management Services, is a practicing physician and certified professional life coach. She received her Masters degree in Nutrition from Columbia University and her medical degree from George Washington University. She lives in Boston, MA.

Website: http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com/The Serotonin Power Diet: Eat Carbs--Nature's Own Appetite Suppressant--to Stop Emotional Overeating and Halt Antidepressant-Associated Weight Gain
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (December 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594869723

A lifesaver for me! This book answers questions I've asked doctors for 4 years. It is written so it can be understood and it includes recipes and suggestions that everyone can do. I STRONGLY URGE you to purchase this book if you have ever been on a mood altering perscription drug.

The Serotonin Power Diet by Judith J. Wurtman, PhD. and Nina T. Frusztajer, MD. is a very insightful and useful book. It explains what serototnin is and why it can help you with your food cravings.

Serotonin is the switch that turns off your appetite. Serotonin is also the control that restores your good mood after minor and major stresses erode it. When produced consistently and regularly, serotonin prevents the tendency to eat impulsively when stresses occur. So now you ask, serotonin sounds like a very useful thing but how do you produce it regularly? The answer is by eating ....carbohydrates! Hey, Dr. Atkins would dispute that carbohydrates are bad and now you are telling me that they are good?

That's correct. Think about a time when you gave up eating carbohydrates like candy, French fries, ice cream to name a few. What did you reach for when you encountered a really stressful situation...all of the above foods...but did you eat just one piece or one scoop...no you pigged out and then felt bad afterwards. Well your body requires carbohydrates and when it does not get any on regular bases that is the first thing your body craves when there is not enough of it in your system. The goal is to learn how to eat it in moderate as well as to learn the signs between appetite versus hunger.

I like that this book was put into easy to read and understand words. It also talked about other people, just like me, so that I didn't feel like I was alone in the battle. One thing to remember with The Serotonin Power Diet is that exercise is also an important role in staying healthy and losing weight. This book outlines a step by step guide to follow for each week. Chapter fourteen is dedicated to a bunch of recipes that you can cook and stay within the limits of The Serotonin Power Diet. If you are ready to become healthy then check out The Serotonin Power Diet.

In the book The Serotonin Power Diet , the authors explain how boosting serotonin can help curb your appetite and change your mood. Carbohydrates trigger Serotonin production in the brain and this can be used to your advantage. We all have a lot of stress in our lives that can cause us to binge eat and gain weight. The book has a section that helps us deal with stress and gives very useful tips in how we can manage it. There are many recipes that are in the book, but my favorite was the Asian chicken wrap. I have lost 5 lbs. on the program and I feel good about myself. The book also stresses that exercise is a major part in weight loss and there is a chapter dedicated to it.


The book was easy to read, and gave us real life examples of people who shared their temptations and what strategies they used to overcome them. I have always thought that eating to many carbs caused you to gain weight, but if they are eaten at the right time and in moderation they can actually help you lose weight. The plan provides a 12 week guide that not only tells you what to do but why you are doing it. I recommend the program to everyone who needs a jump start to lose weight correctly and for good.(reviewed by Eileen, Melissa's mom)


I received a free copy from FSB Associates for my honest review and I have not been compensated for my review.

There is almost nothing in this book that isn't in most other diet books about emotional eating or carbohydrates. The so-called "solution" is to eat portion of carbohydrates before a meal. That's pretty much all there is to eat... If you're really curious, I recommend perusing the book at Barnes & Nobles or some other bookstore. I promise you that with a 5 minute glance you will get much as out of this as reading the whole book and you will save yourself $16.....

I wish I could say there was some major hidden gems in here based on the author's research, but there just aren't. This is well-known fairly typical diet advice.....

I was very interested in this subject matter because I do have a mental illness that is directly related to a low serotonin level. Having followed the diet for 4 days I notice that my moods are calmer and my appetite has been in control. Since I am a sweet-alcoholic I am amazed that I can eat the sweet snacks and be in control of my sweet tooth..The bonus is that I have lost 3 pounds. I didn't buy the book to lose weight, but what a great bonus!! Vegetables aren't my thing but I'm learning to put up with them.. I highly recommend this " diet " based on my experience of success with my depression symptoms.

The premise of this book appears right there on the front cover--eat carbs to control your appetite and ward off overeating and weight gain. But a simple lesson in biochemistry will tell you that the LAST thing you want to be eating if you are trying to keep down the cravings and to prevent weight gain is carbohydrates. They stimulate appetite by raising blood sugar quickly and then causing your blood glucose levels to crash into hypoglycemia which leads to hunger, irritability, and high insulin levels which pack on the pounds. Instead, why not choose healthy sources of fats with a moderate amount of protein and limited carbohydrates to keep appetite well under control for hours on end with no cravings, normalize blood sugar levels, and to experience effortless weight loss? It's a recipe for success that you're just not gonna find in this book.

The Serotonin Power diet is a lot like other diet books I've read, with the exception of its focus on how carbs-or the lack thereof- affect mood and emotion. The book is marketed toward people who have gained weight due to antidepressant (AD) use, and the accompanying carb cravings that often come with those types of medications. I appreciated the explanation of how carbs affect serotonin levels in the brain, but wished the science was a bit more documented. Footnotes or end notes that cited the studies the authors referred to for proving their claims would've been nice. The authors also admit that certain aspects of serotonin's function in the brain and its relation to weight gain and ADs are unknown, which isn't their fault obviously but was still a little frustrating. More snack, meal, and recipe suggestions would've been appreciated.
Anyone, regardless of if they take an SSRI antidepressant, can follow this diet. The thing that separates it from others is the use of carbohydrates for snacks several times per day and carb heavy meals. Because of this, I don't think anyone with blood sugar issues (such as diabetes or hypoglycemia)would be a good candidate for the Serotonin Power diet.
I also wondered if the carbs are really essential to weight loss as much as they are to craving control.
When you take out the information on serotonin and mood, the diet doesn't seem that new or different: eat small meals, limit calories, exercise, eat healthy snacks to curb binging, use suggested coping strategies for cravings and to fight emotional eating, etc. If you can't live without carbs (and the authors argue that no one should even try), this might be a good diet choice for you.

This is the information I've been looking for for my weight problem. Now to see if it really works.

I enjoyed this book. It's very well written and I learned a great deal. The concepts and principles are explained very well.