The Insulin-Resistance Diet--Revised and Updated: How to Turn Off Your Body's Fat-Making Machine [Paperback]

Cheryle Hart (Author), Mary Kay Grossman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2007

Conquer insulin resistance. Reduce cravings. Eat your favorite foods. And lose weight!

If you have tried every diet and are still struggling with your weight, the real culprit may be insulin resistance. When you have more glucose than your body needs, your body responds by producing more insulin to stabilize your blood sugar level and store the excess glucose as fat. In The Insulin-Resistance Diet, Cheryle R. Hart and Mary Kay Grossman show you how to control insulin resistance and lose weight without sacrificing all of your favorite foods.

Overcome insulin resistance and lose weight with:

• The exclusive Link-and-Balance Eating Method, which balances carbs with the right amount of protein at the right time for maximum weight loss
• Self-tests to determine your insulin resistance and check your progress with linking and balancing
• Real-world strategies for eating at home and out on the town
• Easy-to-make, tasty recipes and livable meal plans

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (November 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071499849
• ISBN-13: 978-0071499842
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Heart Disease
  • #12 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Men's Health > General
  • #40 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Women's Health > General

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Insulin-Resistance Diet: How to Turn Off Your Body's Fat-Making Machine recommends a well-researched health program based on the relationship between insulin and fat. While low-fat foods are a part of the plan, Cheryle R. Hart and Mary Kay Grossman (doctors at the Women's Workshop, a medical weight clinic) arm readers with comprehensible information about smart combinations of foods that allow for genuinely tasty treats. The book will be helpful for people who want a regimen as well as for those who just want to make informed eating choices. ( Mar.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

If you are struggling with weight loss, you are not alone. Two out of three Americans are now considered overweight even though so many of us are forever counting calories and fat grams. But as Cheryle R. Hart and Mary Kay Grossman explain, a medical condition called insulin resistance may be the cause of your weight-loss woes.

A complex relationship exists between food, blood sugar, insulin, and fat. Insulin helps the body transform food into energy and regulate blood sugar levels. When we eat carbohydrates, the body breaks them down into sugar (glucose) to be used as energy. If you have more glucose than your body needs, your body will respond by producing more insulin: the insulin will stabilize your blood sugar level by storing the excess glucose as fat, and this means weight gain. This process is accelerated in people with insulin resistance because they have higher baseline levels of insulin.

So, is the solution to insulin resistance omitting carbohydrates from our diet? Such a diet is neither healthy nor satisfying. Carbohydrates are our bodies' main source of energy and are an excellent source of both antioxidants, which help prevent disease, and fiber, which is essential for proper digestion. Our natural desire for carbohydrates would be difficult to deny. The Insulin-Resistance Diet offers an alternative.

The Insulin-Resistance Diet is really not a diet book at all--it's an eating guide. It allows you to eat all the foods you like in the proper amounts and still control insulin resistance and lose weight. Inside you will find the following features:

• Link-and-Balance Eating Method--links and balances carbohydrates with the right amount of protein at the right time for maximum weight loss
• Self-tests--to determine if you have insulin resistance and to check your progress with linking and balancing
• Food lists--include most foods and serving sizes
• Real-world strategies--provide complete meal plans and snack ideas, lists of name-brand convenience foods, and linked-and-balanced restaurant items
• Recipes--more than forty-five delicious, healthful, and easy-to-make recipes

These features together with in-depth sections on fitness and on understanding our relationship with food comprise a total weight-loss and weight-management program--one that is simple to follow and guarantees success. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 2 edition (November 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071499849
• ISBN-13: 978-0071499842
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.7 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Heart Disease
  • #12 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Men's Health > General
  • #40 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Women's Health > General

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

478 of 502 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not so much what you eat, but how you eat it..... September 27, 2002

By Dianne Foster HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

THE INSULIN-RESISTANCE DIET was written by Cheryle Hart, a medical doctor trained at the Mayo clinic, and Mary Kay Grossman, a Registered Dietician. The authors bring the most-up-to-date research into the discussion of how to lose weight and keep it off. Their theory resonates with me. My experience has shown me that simply eating less (especially fat) and exercising don't make a difference. When I was younger, I used to be able to keep weight off with ease. When I reached my fifties, the going got harder. I eat much less today than ever. I don't drink alcohol or soft drinks. I don't eat desserts. I seldom eat bread, and when I do it's usually multi grain. I eat lots of fish and chicken, yogurt and cottage cheese, vegetables and fruits. I exercise moderately by walking, climbing stairs, parking far from the door. I do stretches every day (sit-ups, etc.).

I've started the insulin diet because it makes sense. Basically, I eat about the same things I have been eating, but do it differently. The authors show you how to "link" foods so that the compliment each other and induce the body to make less insulin. Insulin is the hormone our ancestors needed to deal with the starving times. Today, most of us aren't starving most of the time, so insulin actually becomes dysfunctional. The authors explain the process--how our bodies manufacture too much insulin in response to the foods we eat and when we eat them--and how it can lead to Type II Diabetes. Then they explain how you can change the pattern and be healthier--and slimmer.

Carbohydrates can be a problem, but you should not give them up. The authors suggest carbo-depriving can make you unhealthy. Diets overly reliant on protein can cause kidney damage. Balancing what you eat is the key. Our ancestors did not eat steak everyday.... Survival and reproduction required some protein and fat, but most likely they ate lots of plants and fruits. But this information isn't new. The USDA has been saying for years we should eat vegetables, fruits, protein, and some fats and complex carbohydrates. Grossman and Hart suggest the way you combine these foods can actually help you lose weight and keep it off.

The book contains food lists, recipes, and meals. Also included are lists of items you can order from your favorite fast food joint. Apparently, you can find healthy choices in even the worst circumstances. Read more ›

228 of 239 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Easier to understand, simpler to follow than most diet books September 10, 2002

By Joanna Daneman #1 HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are quite a few books that propose a similar theory about food, diet and health. But "The Insulin-Resistance Diet" is probably the easiest to understand, the best-written and most no-nonsense of the lot.

The basic theory is this: an excess of certain types of carbohydrates, namely sugars and starches, exhaust the body's ability to respond to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that allows your body to use sugar (glucose) which is the basic gasoline that runs your muscles and brain. We break starches and complex sugars like the high-fructose corn syrup in your soda and the sucrose in your coffee, plus the starches in breads, cereals and vegetables down to that basic component glucose. Only then can the body fuel itself.

But, too much starch, too much sugar and the body, over time, loses its ability to respond to the insulin that's released, and we get Type II diabetes. We still can make insulin, but no longer make the receptors that pick it up. When insulin and receptors bind together, it sends a message thats tells the cells what to do with that glucose. The solution here is to eat a combination of carbs with protein to prevent too much insulin from having to be released, and to avoid high-glycemic foods, which means those foods that break down into LOTS of glucose.

This is so simple. I've been doing this for a month, and I've lost a bit of weight, which for me is a difficult thing. I feel far less hungry if I follow the ideas here--mixing cottage cheese with lower glycemic foods like potatoes or whole grain rye, avoiding white rice, sweets and other problematic foods. I still sneak an ice cream or a roll once in a while, but I know how to balance it with a high protein, low fat cheese or tofu.... While I have to watch that I don't eat just carbs for a meal, it is rewarding not to feel so hungry. Hey, this works. Read more ›

248 of 261 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Linking and Balancing Really Works March 22, 2001

By Jackie Adams

Format:Paperback

With middle age approaching, and after several unsuccessful dieting attempts, I didn't think I would ever lose all the extra weight I had been carrying around. I went to Dr. Hart's Wellness Workshop last year truly in despair. Dr. Hart and Mary Kay were genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of my problem. Using their simple-to-follow eating plan, I have lost 50 pounds in the past year, lowered my cholesterol, and I feel great. I haven't been "on a diet", but have learned to change the way I organize my meals and think about foods. I even went on vacation, ate and drank what I wanted, and still came home a pound lighter! Use this book to lose weight, but teach its principles to your family too, so they can avoid developing insulin-resistance and the diseases related to it.

101 of 104 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Changing Book.... January 29, 2006

By R. Mayo

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Are you feeling tired, sluggish, and in desperate need to lose weight and be healthy? If so, this if the book for you. At the advise of my OB/GYN I ordered this book and began following it on February 17, 2005 by June 17, 2005 I had lost 46 pounds and a whopping 13% bodyfat. I went from a size 18 to a size 8. A year later I am still following the plan because it was so easy to make it part of my life. I am off all cholesterol lowering medication, my blood pressure is perfect, and I feel wonderful. I have ordered this book several times because I give mine away when people ask me how I lost the weight. I love this book so much because after 4 years of trying to get the 100 pounds of weight off from having a child nothing seemed to work until I found The Insulin-Resistance Diet. My life is forever changed thanks to reading this book. I hope you find all the same joy I have found through this diet.