19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tremendous Book for Diabetics & Pre-Diabetics, October 16, 2009
This review is from: The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes (Paperback)
If you are diabetic or know someone who it, this book could be a real life-saver. I have several diabetics in my family. I know from first-hand experience how very hard it is for them to lose weight. And yet, losing weight, could be the very best thing someone could do to keep their diabetes in check or even to reverse it.
Dr. Fred Vagnini, one of the world's leaders in alternative medicine, has been working with diabetics for many years. As a result of this work, "Dr. V," as he is know by his patient and many followers, has come up with a innovate five-step plan. Perhaps better than any approach preceding it, his plan helps diabetics and even pre-diabetics lose pounds without having to resort to drastic diets or bypass surgery.
Dr. V's five steps are simple, easy to understand, and they work. After years of struggle, my aunt Elizabeth lost 30 pounds on this system, and has stopped taking insulin for the first time in 25 years. What better endorsement could there be?
Even though I don't have diabetes, I'm worried myself about metabolic syndrome so I read this book and found it chalk full of great information. Herein lies novel insights from a doctor who obviously cares deeply about getting to the root of diabetes and doing something to eradicate it.
This is so refreshing because it seems to me so many other doctors are only interested treating diseases and profiting from them.
I took the self-assessment lifestyle test and discovered a couple things I can do differently that should keep me from becoming pre-diabetic. One has to do with consistency in my exercise program and the other has to do with eating out too often. So, now I'm jogging more, and I'm avoiding the barbeque restaurant I used to visit 3 times a week.
And I can't believe this, but Dr. V has motivated me to eat more salad and raw vegetables, both of which I never thought I would do.
Least my experience be miss-leading, Beating Diabetes is easy to understand but it is not a simplistic "lifestyle" book--it has real depth and plenty of information which I for one was not aware of. For instance, if you take any of the medications that diabetics take, you will find a very important chapter on side effects and how not to mix your meds with the wrong supplements or foods.
Well over 200 pages, there is a lot of "added value" information in the form of charts, lists and self-tests. I found the "week of meals" chart very useful--not that I could exactly follow it, but that it gave me ideas about portions and about interesting and tasty ways to approach meal planning.
The writing style is clear and all the medical terms are defined. Dr. V doesn't speak down to you, nor does he assume you already know the terminology. He has a real knack for educating people by talking (and writing) directly to them.
I totally recommend this book.
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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delivers on its promises, November 14, 2009
This review is from: The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes (Paperback)
This book delivers on the promise made in its title and its subtitle. But it could do better.
With some exceptions, the nutritional material in this book is highly accurate and good to implement. Though this book was written specifically for diabetics, it's one of the best diet-related books I've ever read and even the average non-diabetic would be wise to read it and heed it. On the exercise front, it's good only for people just starting out from the "very unfit" category.
My qualifications for reviewing books that deal with diet, exercise, or health are extensive. A picture's worth 1,000 words and you can see mine at [...]. I reviewed this book as a fitness expert, not as someone with diabetes (I don't have it).
The book is well-written and well-founded on the science of diet and nutrition. With few exceptions, its recommendations are in harmony with the current theory on diet. This is a stark departure from the typical "diet" book, which is based on something other than fact. This book isn't based on whacky theories that don't work. It's based on sound nutritional facts.
The book falls down, however, on the exercise recommendations. Many of those conflict with the science of exercise and I will address those points shortly. They are, however, "OK" for someone who is very out of shape. And they do follow the recommendations of gyms and personal trainers for such people. But they don't fit a long-term plan and after a few months they provide increasing benefit only at a glacial pace or not at all.
I want to emphasize here that there is nothing in this book that will harm you. But some of the information will limit you, and if you have the correct information you can do better.
Mostly, the recommendations are based on hard facts. But some of the dietary recommendations step out beyond the hard science into what may be called "expert opinion." For example, on page 99 Dr. Vagnini says, "I recommend limiting or even omitting wheat products altogether." There isn't hard science for this recommendation, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.
I live in Kansas, and our number one product is wheat. That said, I have been making this very same recommendation for many years. I rarely buy any wheat products. I do not eat wheat products if presented with them in a (rare) visit to a restaurant. And I don't mean just rolls or bread. You find wheat even in soy sauce.
My restaurant philosophy is very self-protective: if I can't identify it, I won't eat it. So anything I order in a restaurant is plain. That isn't how I like my food. I prefer my food well-seasoned, and at home I can choose from many non-toxic approaches to flavoring. You can't do that in the typical restaurant, and one reason why is the reliance on wheat products.
My guess is Dr. Vagnini would agree with me that wheat in itself isn't bad. But there are some problems with it, and if you avoid wheat you avoid those problems:
It's so overused that even if you swear off bread you may be overeating wheat.
Wheat tends to come in highly processed forms, meaning eating wheat products generally isn't much different from eating straight table sugar.
If you find wheat on a label, chances are you will also find hydrogenated oil and/or corn syrup--both of which are unsuitable for consumption by mammals (including humans).
If we flip the page, we come to a recommendation that's based on misinformation. Dr. Vagnini suggests using egg whites rather than the whole egg. This same suggestion appears in the bodybuilding literature, and there's no factual basis for it. In fact, the whole egg is good for you and eggs should be eaten whole. There isn't a toxic part of an egg thrown into the shell with a good part. The yolk contains vitamin D, Omega 3, and other nutrients, and it's in balance with the white. The only purpose served by tossing an egg yolk is the wasting of good food. This assumes, of course, you are properly sourcing your eggs.
The yolk does contain fat, including cholesterol. But the cholesterol breaks down in the stomach's hydrochloric acid and the body does not stupidly reconstitute the results into cholesterol and start jamming up your blood vessels out of some crazy desire to give you coronary disease. That just does not happen. If you were so inclined, you could drink a glass of cholesterol (assuming you could get it) every day and not see your blood cholesterol rise (assuming you kept your total calories to what you actually burn).
The problem with cholesterol ingestion is not the cholesterol itself, but the calories (fat is calorie-dense). So, you just don't want to overdo it. The calories in an egg give you plenty of room, there. I have yet to see a single double-blind study showing causation from cholesterol ingestion to blood cholesterol. There is an incidental link, but incidental links are what we use to form logical fallacies.
Let's keep in mind that cholesterol is a precursor to important hormones like testosterone. You actually need cholesterol to survive. There's a good article on cholesterol in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 13 Number 3 (Fall of 2008). There are many more primary source (the most reliable kind of source) articles that explain the role of cholesterol.
This role has been deliberately misportrayed so that big pharma companies can make millions of dollars selling health-antagonistic anti-cholesterol drugs. The medical literature and medical practice are in conflict on this issue. Unfortunately, doctors are inundated with propaganda from big pharma and have been accepting cholesterol lies as fact. They need to turn to the validated literature.
Here's an anecdote. In my late teens, I began a breakfast regimen of tossing a dozen eggs into a blender every morning and drinking down the slurry (thanks, Sly, for that tip--it really helped me). They were eggs from free range farms in Wisconsin and Illinois, and at the time my rationale for sourcing them that way was they just tasted so much better than the supermarket eggs. I didn't know then what we know now--factory farmed eggs are low in omega 3 (heart healthy) and free range or unmolested chicken eggs are loaded with it. Forget fish, I'll have my eggs please. And by the way, that omega 3 is in the yolk that many "experts" advise us to throw away.
Sometimes I picked eggs right from the nest--no little cages--and occasionally suffered the wrath of a mad hen. It was worth it. There was no danger of salmonella or whatever you get from eggs that are factory farmed in deplorable conditions. Raw was good. It still is, if you source your eggs properly.
This was my breakfast for years, until I mistakenly got scared off raw eggs for a while. But before I stopped, I had a blood test for a job interview and my total cholesterol was 110. When I related this to a doctor, he replied that I was just constricting other sources of cholesterol. I said, "You mean the New York Strip steak I have every day?"
Also on page 100, the authors recommend veal. Do not eat veal. It's toxic. The means of producing veal is sadistic, and the results of that show up in the meat you put into your body if you eat the veal. Go to the Humane Society Website and find the video clip that shows how these animals are starved, beaten, kicked, and jabbed repeatedly with cattle prods by people who need serious psychiatric care. The animals are so weak, they can barely stand up. You want to eat the meat of an animal whose body is pumping out stress hormones at astronomical levels? And who is so nutritionally deprived it can't even walk to its own slaughter?
Also on this page, the authors recommend "whole-grain, non-wheat bread." They need to mention that bread is typically made with two cancer-causing substances, the second of which is also highly implicated in diabetes: hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup. Read the label. If these poisons are on it, don't buy the product. You can find bread that isn't contaminated with these things, but such bread makes up a small percentage of the offerings.
If we really wanted a "national health care plan" we'd forget about the medical insurance part and just stop these purveyors of poison from making people sick with corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. But that would require common sense, so it's not an option for government. Poisoning people is illegal, unless you fund a lobby that has key members of CONgress on its payroll.
Another anecdote. I discovered, to my horror, that Libby's now puts out "pumpkin pie filling" with corn syrup in it. I discovered this while making a pie per the Fit Pumpkin Pie recipe on Supplecity (no sugar, no hydrogenated oil, and it's superbly delicious). I had to toss the filling mix (eggs, milk, spices) down the drain, because I added the Libby's product last and only then realized something wasn't right (it smelled wrong and was too thin). Watch those labels--the sugar people are infiltrating everything. Libby's also makes a non-toxic pumpkin pie filling, and if they had scruples they would make that their only version of pumpkin pie filling.
On page 103, the authors mention brown rice. This is misleading. The color of the rice is not relevant. Brown rice isn't necessarily whole grain rice. The key is you need to eat whole grain rice instead of rice that has had those outer layers removed. Ideally, you will always eat rice with beans so that you get a completed protein. If you buy canned kidney beans, they are probably in sugar water. A crock pot and dry beans will solve this problem.
Not an exercise expert
While Dr. Vagnini hits the nutrition points expertly (except as noted above), he (along with his co-author) errs...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fat-phobia is unnecessary in diabetes control, December 18, 2011
This review is from: The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes (Paperback)
Diabetes management and weight loss are so intricately connected that it would be impossible to talk about one without the other if you are a diabetic. If you have diabetes and struggle with your weight, then you know that getting your blood sugar/insulin levels under control will help shed the pounds and vice versa. Getting a handle on your diabetes is essential and there are lots of medical professionals out there trying to help patients manage this disease. Dr. Frederic Vagnini is quite enthusiastic about the subject of diabetes as you'll find when you read THE WEIGHT LOSS PLAN FOR BEATING DIABETES.
Dr. Vagnini is a cardiovascular surgeon, diabetes and weight loss specialist, radio show host, and author who likes to be referred to as Dr. V.! His book outlines his nutritional philosophy for shedding the pounds and getting diabetes managed. Check out what Dr. V. has to say about his own personal struggle with weight and family history of diabetes, his previous collaboration with The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet authors Drs. Richard & Rachael Heller, why he opposes a high-fat Atkins-style low-carb diet, his aversion to saturated fat because of potential risks associated with cancer and insulin sensitivity, his personal history with the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins, the 5-step program for controlling diabetes through weight loss, why he believes eating fruit is like consuming a candy bar, the supplements and pharmaceutical remedies he uses as part of his program, the best natural way to beat diabetes, why doctors have trouble diagnosing diabetes, why pre-diabetes is really diabetes already, his support for Dr. Simeon's HCG protocol, and so much more. I'm certain you've never a book on diabetes quite like this one from Dr. Vagnini!
I disagree with his stance on high-fat, low-carb diets which have been shown in many recent studies to be an effective plan for reversing the ill effects of Type 2 diabetes. Sure, there are other ways to control blood sugar and insulin, but saturated fat does not need to be unnecessarily vilified as he has done in this book. I do agree that fruit is sugar just as a candy bar or soda is and should be limited for people with diabetes. While weight loss is certainly a goal of diabetics, the BIGGER goal should be normalized blood sugars as the great Dr. Richard Bernstein writes about in his classic book
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars. Overall, it's not a horrible book but there are better ways to get there from here.
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