Customer Reviews

The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook: 80 Delicious Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes Made Easy with the Glycemic Index

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When my husband developed acid reflux, it was recommended that he lower his carb intake. As long time lacto vegetarians (no fish, meat or eggs, yes to dairy), this sounded particularly challenging.

I bought 3 different low carb cookbooks from Amazon a month ago: "Low-carb Vegetarian" by Celia Brooks Brown, "Carb Conscious Vegetarian: 150 Delicious Recipes For Healthy Lifestyle" by Robin Robertson and "The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook: 80 Delicious Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes Made Easy with the Glycemic Index" by Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller

After a month of consistent cooking I have rarely used Brown's "Low-carb Vegetarian" which is laden with ~50% recipes that use eggs. There are some great recipes in there if you eat eggs though.

On the other hand, my copy of "Carb Conscious Vegetarian: 150 Delicious Recipes For Healthy Lifestyle" by Robin Robertson is a bit dog-eared already. Delicious, innovative recipes with new ways to use foods common to the vegetarian and wonderful exploring of unusual but easily available new veggies and protein options.

"The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Vegetarian Cookbook" by Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller was rich with information and great recipes. It taught me a lot.

But by far Robertson's "Carb Conscious Vegetarian" is the best.

I will say that I don't know either of these authors and am doing this to help a buyer who may be wondering which one to get...

By the way, a low carb/lower acid diet has really eased the acid reflux my husband suffers from. We eat a main meal during the day and a protein drink at night, even if working: switched when consuming. And I am starting to lose weight...

Hope this helps!

This book is small in size (4inches by 6 inches), small in length (133 pages), and small in content. If you are looking for a book of glycemic values of foods, this is a poor choice. There are only 53 pages of food values and they are mostly generic, such as coca cola, apple, raisin bread, rather than specific cokes, apple varieties, or whose raisin bread. The list is woefully incomplete and what values are included, are hard to locate. Foods are listed by type (Beverages, fruit, soups, etc.) rather than alphabetically arranged. Most of the book is about what the GI value means and how to shop for lower GI foods. It's more of a rough pocket guide than a book.

I bought this book expecting to learn how to identify and use low-GI ingredients.

Why I'm disappointed:

(1) The recipes for more substantial dishes have a lot of rice and pasta. While technically these are low-GI, their glycemic load is high because portion sizes of these are typically largish and/or they have a lot of available carbs. I had hoped to learn about alternatives to these kinds of ingredients.

(2) The photos are attractive and the recipes sound good and aren't too complicated. But too many of the use foods that I want to diminish in my diet. They are pretty conventional in the sense that no light bulbs went off as I read through the recipes.

I hope this helps.

The little guide is useful as far as it goes, but so many of the products listed are from some other country than the United States. Meanwhile, common American products are not listed. I'd like to know where General Mills Cherrios breakfast cereal falls on the glucose scales but it's not on the list while cereals I've never heard of are listed. Are these Australian products? Nigerian? I don't know.

What is the most useful are ratings of foods that are not manufactured such as potatoes or grains. Since I mostly cook from scratch, knowing which foods to prepare and which to limit is very helpful.

But I'd still like to know about good old Cherrios.

This cookbook is the best! I've made 6-7 recipes from the cookbook already and all of them have been delicious. Also, I lost about 5 lbs. the first week following low-GI and most importantly I'm not hungry. Also, I've noticed that I have more energy.

Not an exhaustive list by any means. Very few brands. Some of the ratings seem inconsistent(white rice is equal to brown?) same for pasta. I don't think you could rely on this book as the only source of shopping information, which is what I was looking for.

After 20 years of ovo-vegetarian living, I embraced this book. It offers a lot of delicious and new (to me) vegetarian recipes, and also presents helpful information about low GI eating and sound nutritional habits. Overall, the selections I've prepared have been consistently good and not too fussy. A favorite is the buckwheat pancakes with tofu, basil, and sun-dried tomato.

The book's shortcomings are that (1) it's not especially friendly if you're cooking for one, as many of the recipes don't keep well, and (2) some of the nutritional information provided is a little unbelievable (i.e., black bean soup on p. 94 has 624 calories per serving???).

I purchased this cookbook after my father was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. I quickly fell in love with it. Not only is it beautifully put together, with many vegan as well as vegetarian recipes, but the food really is fantastic. I haven't had a single dud recipe from this book. The recipes rely on a lot of fresh produce and whole grains, so are good for anyone looking for a healthier lifestyle. I have no blood sugar issues myself, but after eating from this book for a couple weeks, I felt great. I'm ordering my own copy today, because this has become one of my favourite healthy, vegetarian cookbooks. I really appreciate, too, that the book does not rely on processed ingredients or trying to imitate or substitute for meat, but instead focuses on whole foods and international flavours.

The reason I haven't given the book five stars is this: There are some exotic ingredients which may be hard to find if you're in a small town, and that can be frustrating. I do think that most of the more exotic ingredients can be found on the internet or substituted for if you're a confident cook. (We ended up buying a case of organic soba noodles -- something we cannot find locally -- just to make one of our favourites from the book, the Avocado, Pickled Ginger, and Tofu Soba Noodle Salad). We also found that the recipes were not guaranteed to keep my father's blood sugar from spiking after meals so it may be worth heeding the other reviews about the recipes being low GI, but not necessarily low GL, if your diabetes is serious.

In a nutshell? I own a lot of cookbooks, and I love to cook. This book is full of fresh, healthy, delicious, and easy recipes anyone can enjoy without feeling deprived.

This book has given us lots of information on managing glucose levels (be sure to read all the introductory materials on nutrition) as well as some delicious recipes. We've also used many of them as starting points to venture out into being creative with new foods and ideas (who knew a Shepherd's Pie with lentils and sweet potatoes would be so excellent?!)

I took it with me to the supermarket and it was of very little use. On the one hand there is too much information to wade through and the other too little. The too little is the 'guide' part. What we need is a little book with comprehensive listings only for quick reference in the supermarket aisle. I subsequently took some time to do my research, then made my own list and had it laminated!!