Customer Reviews

The Soy Zone: 101 Delicious and Easy-to-Prepare Recipes

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

 

 

I've tried the very low-fat Ornish diet and very low-carb Protein Power diet, and this diet definitely makes me feel the best, and it does work for losing weight at a safe rate. I mostly just throw together a meal with my favorite soy and veggie foods, as the recipes given can get a little complex (10+ ingredients usually). This book also finally got me to give up being a junk-food vegetarian, and got me to appreciate fresh vegetables. I highly recommend this book to any vegetarian who wants to lose weight and/or gain energy. Good Luck!

I recently had my baby and since I'm breastfeeding, my hormones are still out of control. I was a bit depressed and feeling exhausted all the time. I was seaching the internet for information on hormonal imbalance and how to help in a natural way. I found out that soy is among the best source for women in menopause, to help balance their hormonal imbalance. I said to myself, I'm not menopausal (I'm 26), but I'll try to include soy in my diet, and hope it will help balance my hormonal changes. Besides, vegetarian diets are supposed to be healthy. But the problem with vegetarian diets is that if you are a vegetarian, especially if you are a vegan, you might not be getting enough protein on a standard high-carb diet, and this way of eating has left me with lots of cravings, mood swings, and I was not losing those pregnancy pounds that easy. So I decided to take the Soy Zone approach, for a low carb way of eating. The great thing about the soy zone, is that it goes beyond any fad diet of high protein consumption. It goes for a balance, not too cold, not too hot, but in a perfect balance. And this is great for those hormones going out of control. It works. There has been only a week that I have tried it, and my mood changed dramatically, and best of all, I have more energy. I'm also excercising and doing yoga (whatever my daughter allows me to do if she is not hungry or crying). But the Soy Zone system has helped me feel a lot better. To me, this way of eating is by far the best for energy, hormonal balance, cravings (I have very few compared to before), creativeness (I get more creative in cooking discovering many spontaneous dishes I can do with veggies and tofu), and overall wellbeing. Don't see this as a diet, but take its principles, and add them to your lifestyle. It's the healthiest thing you can do for yourself.

This book is useful in that it gives low carbohydrate vegetarian recipes. Annoyingly, however, it also doesn't explain very well how the zone diet works-- I don't think it ever tells you what a zone block is, for example, you will have to get the regular zone book to find out. Of course the author wants you to buy his other books, but it seems inappropriate not to include the basic information of what a zone block is in the book.

Worse yet, some of the recipes obviously have incorrect quantities. For example, in order to make "savory lentils with goat cheese" work out as a single serving of a four zone block entree the way it was supposed to, I had to cut the goat cheese in half, and the lentils by about 1/3 of a cup. (The recipe is also unclear on whether the lentils are measured raw or cooked. Cook first, then measure.) Given the mechanics of the zone diet, this is a fatal flaw. If I wanted to fiddle around checking recipes and adjusting them to fit the "zone," I would do it with a regular vegetarian cookbook, I wouldn't have bought this one.

Wish there were more like it! This book got me started and helped me to plan out my menus. The diabetic diet that was drawn up for me wasn't half as helpful as this book.

If you are a vegan, vegetarian, or just a person looking to add more soy into your diet because of the health benefits you've heard about--oh yeah, and you're interested in the Zone way of eating--get this book. One more thing--bypass Sears' frist book "Enter the Zone." First of all, "Enter the Zone" is only offerred in hardback...uh, it's been out for amost 10 years now, so I think a paperback is warranted. Much of "Enter the Zone" is about how fabulous Barry Sears is and how his diet has worked for all these olympic level atheletes--great! But certainly not me. "The Soy Zone," on the other hand, includes all of the important information from "Enter the Zone," including how to calculate your lean body mass in order to figure out your protein needs, and once you've got that, you can figure out how many blocks of protein you need to consume--the basis of the Zone diet. "The Soy Zone" also goes into detail about how the Zone works by regulating insulin and glucagon levels, and everything else you'd need to know--without the self-aggrandizing. And it's in paperback! Wahoo! The recipes offer an easy way to add soy into your diet if you are not a vegetarian/vegan, and if you are a vegetarian/vegan, the recipes show you how to beef up (er, soy up) the amount of protein in your food.

Four years ago I lost 35 lbs on the Zone diet and I have kept it all off since then because this diet teaches you a new way of life, a new way to prepare food and truly understand what you are eating. I have been a vegetarian for almost 20 years and this book makes sense and offers healthy meals. I'm only ordering it again because my copy is so worn out. If you want a no nonsense way to lose weight and you can remain dedicated, then this diet WILL work for you, but it's mind set that is a large part of weight loss, you can't just think that buying this book and eating some of the food will make you lose weight.

The soy zone is a wonderful book, I purchased this one, because I thought it was full of recipes. Instead it was just a paperback copy of the Soy Zone. I rated the Soy Zone 5 out of 5, it is really a wonderful book for Vegetarians wanting to follow the Zone diet.

I'm quite amazed at how my hormonal levels have balanced out using his diet plans for chicken and fish.
I bought the Soy Zone to broaden my food recipes, but the recipes could be a lot better. I don't know anyone who wants to eat 8 ounces of tofu at dinner, or even at one sitting. I think someone on his team needs to do serious research and find better cooks. There's far better food out there which could be converted to the Soy Zone, but if you're a vegetarian, I do feel this is a good place to start.

A great book for those who want to improve their health and ESPECIALLY those who have dairy alleries (like I do). The recipes are great, and the food menus are good, too.

I find that even if you do not plan on partaking in the Zone diet... since I know a lot of people do not like counting carbs every day, the recipes in this book are wonderful! Sometimes being a vegetarian it is hard to find recipes for new things, this book is wonderful in helping you find the protein you need in your diet, but also making things taste good.