Dr. Citron's Evolutionary Diet and Cookbook (Hardcover)

by Ronald S. Citron (Author), Kathye J. Citron (Author) "Imagine this: A doctor tells you that you can lose weight and live to be active and in good shape until you're 100 years old..." (more)
Key Phrases: Citrons Evolutionary, Marinate Time, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Cholesterol" is one of the most confusing words in the health world. Most people assume that because excess cholesterol in your blood is a bad thing, cholesterol in your diet must be dangerous, too. But, as Ronald Citron points out, the two things are unrelated. Excess cholesterol in your bloodstream comes from too much saturated fat in your diet. Eating high-cholesterol food such as shellfish and game meats is extremely healthy; they're generally low in fat and, more important, are extremely low in saturated fat. That's the "evolutionary" part of Citron's plan: if you eat the way our hunter-gatherer Cro-Magnon ancestors ate, you'll avoid health problems because you'll be eating the foods our bodies evolved to consume. More than half of the book consists of recipes and menu plans for putting Citron's theories into practice.

Product Description
Cancer specialist Dr. Ron Citron spent years watching his patients dying of an illness that he felt could be prevented--a disease caused in part by poor eating habits. After much research into this area, Dr. Citron has created an anti-cancer diet based on the eating habits of our Cro-Magnon ancestors. Now he makes his "evolutionary diet" available to all. 16 color photos.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Hay House (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561703540
• ISBN-13: 978-1561703548
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,030,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hunter Gathers Ate No Grains, Cro-Magnons not our ancestors, March 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dr. Citron's Evolutionary Diet: Help Prevent Cancer and Heart Disease -And Lose Weight Naturally-By Following the Diet of Your Cro-Magnon Ancestors (Paperback)

My review title tells it. You're a great cook, but next time, PLEASE do your homework before writing a book. Grains were not part of our diet until 10K years ago. The next person who writes something about how our ancestors ate whole grains for the 2.6 million period of human history should have their laptop taken away from them! Stick to cooking!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Same Old Stuff, February 26, 1998

By A Customer

The promise of the book is that it is a novel approace to diet based on the diet of our Cro-Magnon ancestors. Unfortunately, the author ignores much of the evidence from the paleontological record and picks and chooses whatever supports the standard low-fat noncense (the author is in a panic about saturated fats). While I will give him credit for incorporating wild game and other "flesh foods" into his program, he also includes foods that Cro-Magnon people rarely, if ever, consumed (such as dairy products and grains). He also includes sugar in many of his recipes. For a really compelling understanding of food as it relates to evolutionary theory, I suggest reading Peter D'Amamo's book "Eat Right For Your Type". Also, the Paleolithic Diet Page on the web has great articles and information.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A philosophy that makes sense. Great recipes., July 12, 1998

By A Customer

This book makes sense. The premise is that our bodies evolved to eat food that could be hunted and gathered. That means fruit, vegetables, nuts, some whole grains, and some meat. (If we could catch it, we could eat it.) The no-nonsense message is that a diet that includes a range of whole foods (we didn't evolve to eat Cheetos and Whoppers!) can taste great and keep you healthy.

The recipes are really tasty. Some are exotic. Some take only ten minutes. There's enough variety, spice, and substance to keep me satisfied.

I read The Zone and realized that it was fundamentally a low-calorie diet -- of course you'll lose weight, but I can't believe it's healthy. If you really follow it you don't eat enough! I tried McDougall's plan and found his recipes bland and tired after a while. I liked Ornish's recipes but found myself craving tuna salad sandwiches and eating way too much dairy. Citron's book is balanced and less restrictive than Ornish or McDougall, and it makes complete sense from a scientific standpoint. Thumbs up!