Customer Reviews

The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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 greatly in the exercise area. As noted earlier, their advice works OK for people who are very unfit. But it will plateau you out very early in your fitness program if you stick with it.

On page 128, they talk about serious weight training and say "...working on one or two body parts per machine." Serious weight training does not use machines. With free weights, you activate the stabilizer muscles and properly load the muscle chain you're working. This produces several benefits that don't occur with machines.

On the next page, they recommend resistance exercise three times a week. This directly contradicts the body building literature, basic physiological science, and actual results over decades of practice. You will quickly plateau on this limited schedule. One reason why is you either extend the recovery cycle too far out between workouts, or you overtrain in every workout while sacrificing intensity. Gyms like to have people on this schedule for a variety of reasons, none of which have to do with putting your body in its best condition.

Gyms also like "circuit training" which involves insufficient-intensity exercising of all muscle groups in the same workout. This violates several fundamental concepts of training, but it's easy to stick to if you don't mind getting poor results. If you get poor results, you're likely to quit before using up your annual membership fee. Good gyms discourage circuit training and encourage actual workouts because they want long-term memberships and they want to deliver maximum value to their members. Most gyms focus on that one-year cycle, which is rather cynical and short-sighted in my opinion.

If all you want is to be minimally fit with minimal effort then, yes, you can do three times a week. But the real benefits come in "the last 10%" and you never get into that zone on a three times a week schedule.

On the page 130, the authors recommend doing cardio and weights together. This directly contradicts the body building literature and basic physiological science. It is appropriate for someone just starting out, because that person isn't capable of generating the intensity required for proper resistance training. But after you reach a "ground level" of fitness--typically that takes less than a month--this practice works against you. If you are doing your weight training properly, you've already pushed your cardiovascular system hard (front squats, for example, make my heart feel like it's about come out of my chest because they heavily load the core) and you are too drained to "do cardio."

If you still have energy for "cardio" after your weight workout, you did that workout wrong. If you do cardio before that workout, you will do that workout wrong. The human body is capable of only so much. The points I just made assume you are at the intermediate or higher level of fitness and capable of intense workouts.

On page 131, they provide an intensity scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being maximum intensity. They recommend keeping your workout intensity between 3 and 4. This flies in the face of exercise physiology. At this level, you will not get the hormonal response or the adaptation that should be the goal of your workout in the first place. If your body never approaches anywhere near its limits, there is no reason for it to adapt. So you make no further progress no matter how many years you work out.

This low intensity issue is exactly why 3x/wk gym rats look about the same after five years as they did on month number six of their gym membership. They usually do lift more weight, but only because they cheat on the exercises (for example, rounding shoulders forward in the bench press). In my own case, I shoot for a 10 with every workout. I usually hit an 8 or a 9.

Intensity doesn't mean "more weight." There's a good article about it on www.supplecity.com, and it's titled "1 Key to Fitness." If you get everything else right but don't have intensity, your workouts are simply maintenance and not the best use of your time.

So, what do I think of this book overall? It's perfect for someone who is in the condition Dr. Vagnini was in when he started his fitness quest. Very obese, really out of control physically. But once you get things stabilized and your eating habits corrected, you need to move beyond the entry level exercise recommendations to things that give you a high return on the time you spend exercising. It's very motivating when you see outstanding results. Why limit your motivation by limiting your workouts?

This book consists of two Parts and six Chapters, plus two Appendices.

Part One consists of two chapters and explains what this program is about, what you can expect from it, how it can benefit you, and what you need to do. It also lays out five sensible, achievable steps you can take toward putting yourself in control of your eating and your diabetes. Amazingly, these chapters focused on the needs of the reader rather than the needs of the author.

Part Two consists of three chapters. These are, in sequence:

Chapter 3. Women, Diabetes, and Weight Loss.
Chapter 4. Stress, Diabetes, and Weight Loss.
Chapter 5. Diabetes, Family, and Weight Loss.

Appendix 1 looks common medications for diabetes and discusses their effects (in medical parlance, "side effects" by which they mean the effects of the drug).

Appendix 2 provides some quick recipes. If you eat exactly as laid out here, you will be orders of magnitude healthier than the typical American--who is on a diet of processed grain and damaged fats. I'm aghast when I look in the typical shopping cart, and you should be too. For 90% of the population, this is "can't go wrong" advice--diabetes or not. But you can go beyond these recommendations to optimal nutrition.

One thing I noticed about these meals is the portion size. These are all small meals, which is key to having a healthy body composition (% body fat).

Another thing I noticed is there are only three meals given per day, and that's not good. However, this may be remedied by substituting a fruit and small protein for each of the other three. Supplecity has an article, "Single Digit Body Fat on Six Meals A Day" and it explains the six meal a day concept. It's a fundamental concept in nutrition in the body building world; it's a useful concept outside that world as well.

As a final note, the authors look favorably upon the Body Mass Index (BMI). This is a crude, inaccurate tool. As you move from obesity toward a healthy body composition, it becomes increasingly useless. Body fat scales are inexpensive and give you useful information. In my own case, I'm lean and muscular as my photo at Supplecity shows. I'm 6 feet tall and in that photo weigh 153 pounds (5.5% body fat). Per the BMI, I'm suffering from lack of muscle. That obviously is not the case. So don't use BMI. Use a body fat scale.

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.

This is a great book written by a real deal expert on diabetes weight loss and staying young. Advice is spot on and not just old rehashed material but important new findings. Well written and user friendly anyone can use this book. I recommend it to all my patientts with diabetes Dr Dave

I didn't find anything in this book that I couldn't have found researching on the internet. It was a total waste of money.

I heard Dr. V speak at an anti-aging conference in Las Vegas. He is the real deal. If you want to stay young and beautiful forever read this book! It is not just for diabetics. This book is for anyone who wants there body and mind to age slower. Dr.V teaches you how to keep your body from glycating or producing Aged Glycation End-products(AGEs). This book is ANTI-AGING!!! If you do not know this already Diabetes is the disease of aging.

"Glycation is a process where sugar and protein molecules combine to form a tangled mess of tissue. Glycated tissue is tough and inflexible, leading to wrinkling not only of the skin, but also of important internal organs. Furthermore, glycated tissues then produce Aged Glycation End-products [AGEs], which further compound the problem by producing large numbers of damaging free radicals.

All in all, glycation is a nightmare process which degrades important body tissues. It must be dramatically reduced if aging is to be minimized." Quote from [...]

I just became a Type 2 diabetic, and after reading other somewhat confusing books, this book, BEATING DIABETES has at last helped me with becoming a Type 2 diabetic. It tells how to lose weight despite having diabetes without causing blood sugar problems, what the different medications available do for the diabetic, and sensible meal possibilities. I can't deal with TOFU BARBEQUE like I found in another diabetic book! Yikes! There is a complete section of suggested meals/snacks that I can live with and feel normal. This book is an easy read, not swamped with too many technical reasons for the different problems diabetics have, of which I am painfully aware. If you want a realistic book BY A DOCTOR, who has helped thousands of diabetics throughout 20 years, this is the book for you!
M

This book is more than a diet plan. It is a reference book, an encyclopedia entry, a "how to" book on managing diabetes. It has everything: charts, tables, quizzes, recipes and meal plans (of course), plus a personal history of how the author beat diabetes himself. (He says he was a 300 lb couch potato before friends told him about carbohydrate addiction: he dieted down 100 lbs.) The book is designed to help the diabetic manage and/or to help the prevention-minded person avoid what is today an epidemic in the United States.

For the reader who is currently suffering diabetes, the book is a virtual diabetes counselor. It has a chapter on medications used to treat diabetes - and there are many. And this is more than a list with the generic and commercial names of the drugs and how they work. It is also a commentary on which drugs are appropriate for the various manifestations of diabetes and how effective each is. For example, how certain drugs function in relation to weight loss. This is valuable information for the diabetes patient to have when he or she sits down with the doctor to set up a treatment plan. There is also an Appendix on the side-effects of diabetes drugs.
For the health-minded reader who needs to know the risk factors and the signs of diabetes, The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes includes a check-off list to assess your overall health, descriptions of the various tests for diabetes, a chart to measure your body mass index, and a questionnaire on lifestyle that may help you head off the disease.
Every diet book includes recipes, and The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes is no exception. There is a short Appendix with recipes for diabetics and pre-diabetics. But more practical is the book's section on meal plans for a week and for a month, plus how to stock your pantry and your freezer with diet friendly foods.
Other miscellaneous items included that surely will be of interest to readers: women and heart disease (because diabetes doubles the risk for heart disease), bio-identical hormone therapy, and exercise mats. The book is the mind of the practitioner-author presented for easy reading by his collaborator. If you are or ever have been a patient of Dr. Vagnini (as I have) - or listened to him on his WOR radio show - every word and idea and piece of advice will be familiar to you. This book is a good review for your good health maintenance resolves. And it is an excellent place to start for everyone else.

When one is past 50, this must be read. You may not have diabetes-- I do not, but recent blood test had me "close to border line-90. Over the years I have enjoyed hearing Dr.V on different radio shows, but this book allows the non diabetic & the diabetic or ANYONE who wants the best in their life. You read abouit his change in lfe, his love of pasta,family &friends. Read it, follow the plan & work at it. If you have not heard Dr.V on the radio, once you have read this, you will think of him as family. Makes a great Christmas gift or gift at any time.

Sorry, I just did not get much out of the book. Perricone, MD wrote one book that was inspitational on nutrition, which remains the gold standard for my evaluations on such health books.