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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
South Beach Supercharged: Kindle vs. Printed copy, January 18, 2011
I highly recommend this book--in printed form, not Kindle. I bought it for my Kindle, and it's just not formatted well. Testimonials interrupt the flow of the main text in ways that are confusing; the formatting makes it look like a new section, then you return to the original flow of information without warning. I have to backtrack too often. Also, there are many references in the text to specific pages for further information, which can be useful if you are pursuing a particular topic. However, the page references are useless on the Kindle (unless there is a way to find a particular page number that would correspond to the printed copy location). So if I want to find these pages, I'm searching randomly or using the search field, which is not efficient, since the key words are repeated everywhere.
In addition, it's just not easy to page through the recipes or go directly to them when you need them. The Kindle doesn't work as a cook book for me.
An author friend of mine who writes self-help books stated Kindle is not a good format for that type of book, especially when they are not written linearly. I love my Kindle for its convenience and breadth, but I wasted my money on this title. I have to spend more to get the paper copy. Grrrr.
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312 of 359 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Carbs, Good Fats, Food Lists, Recipes, Moderate Interval Walking, and Body Toning Directions, May 15, 2008
If you have never read The South Beach Diet, buy this book instead: It's much more helpful due to the exercise section and latest research on healthy eating and physical activity. If you already have a copy of The South Beach Diet, you need to buy this one as well so you can do the exercises.
I'm a big fan of The South Beach Diet. It helped me lose a lot of weight when nothing else worked. I felt comfortable losing the weight and looked great when I was done, rather than like a survivor of starvation. Whenever I gained a bit of weight since then, returning to Phase 1 quickly took it off.
But there was a problem: I clearly wasn't exercising enough. In the past, I've done a lot of walking and weight lifting . . . but I didn't get much benefit in terms of medical measures like reduced triglycerides. In fact, eating oatmeal and taking omega-3 supplements does more for my cholesterol level than exercise. I know that I need something different.
My eyes opened wide when I got to the section of this book that talked about how moderate amounts of walking (20 minutes every other day) with short intervals of fast movement spaced between moderate walking would do me more good for burning fat than doing all that walking that I used to do at one speed. Now, that sounded great!
Between walking days, you do some moderate body toning. Here is where I had some concerns about the book: The photographs show a lot of stress being put on the back. That's not a good idea for me: I have back problems. I'm not quite sure what to do, but I've ordered the DVD to see how these exercises are to be done and hope there will be detailed instructions there for people with bad backs.
In this book, Dr. Agatston does a good job of describing the various physical ills in joints and feet that baby boomers develop from the wrong kinds of activity and exercise. He even helped me understand how I create vast shoulder pain when I shovel snow the wrong way . . . and now I know what not to do.
If you are under 30, you can probably use this book just as is. If you are older, be careful with the body toning!
The remainder of the book is the same wonderful material on eating good carbs and good fats while avoiding bad carbs and bad fats . . . plus the latest validations of scientific research supporting the assumptions underlying the diet. There are lots of phase 1 and phase 2 recipes, and you can buy separate cookbooks if you want more.
But the best part of the book comes in reading the personal testimonies. They make the book come alive.
Great work!
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149 of 190 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Comprehensive Plan for Diet, Exercise, and Healthful Living, June 15, 2008
Instead of repeating other reviewers, let's focus mostly on seldom-discussed details of this book.
The South Beach diet centers on natural foods. Agatson contends that portion size usually takes care of itself when natural foods are eaten. He opposes the taking of supplements with the exception of fish oils (p. 314), because he doesn't believe that supplements can adequately replace the nutritive content of natural foods. Fish oil is effective at reducing the inflammatory response that is part of the metabolic syndrome. (p. 81)
Agatson traces the obesity epidemic in the western world. He points to the overconsumption of refined carbohydrates and other foods with a high glycemic impact, and the increase in sedentary living. In fact, he shows that NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis) has declined not only since the Industrial Revolution, but even at much more recent times, owing to such inventions as the e-mail. (p. 57) Even subtle declines in everyday activity levels add up, over time, to increased fat accumulation.
He points to the irony of the fact that American children are overfed but undernourished. This causes a host of problems beyond the most obvious ones. For example, the attention span of children in schools has declined in recent years. (p. 87) As an experienced educator, I fully agree.
Belly fat is the most dangerous, as it contributes to the inflammatory process that leads to cardiovascular disease, strokes, etc. Agatson shows how crude weight measurements and the BMI have been superseded by measurements of the waist-to-hip ratio. It should not exceed 0.8 in women and 0.95 in men. (p. 64)
Agatson prescribes many different kinds of exercise. He also stresses interval training, pointing out the fact that this facilitates fat-burning. Also, more intense exercise gives a longer afterburn, which is the time that fat burning is still occurring at above-resting rates after the exercise session has been finished.
There are numerous menu ideas presented in this book. There is also a helpful table of food substitutions (p. 242) for use in the Phase 1 of the South Beach diet. For instance, mashed potatoes can be replaced by mashed cauliflower or pureed navy beans, and potato chips can be replaced by baked zucchini chips.
This book concludes with a list of references, to articles in medical journals, which the research-oriented reader can use for further study.
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