Informal "Book" poll

[Korban]

First, I read Bernstein's latest edition and learned a ton. He makes a compelling argument but not quite sure I am ready to fully drink the koolaid.

Next, I read Gretchen Beckers The First Year and learned more and appreciated her mindfulness.

I am a new to insulin (Lantus), Type 2, a believer in Lo-Carb, and beginning to normalize my bg's. Do any of you think there are other "must reads" or just strongly suggested reads out there? I love to read and to learn. Alternatively, I suspect that I could just begin a more informal web learning process (which I have begun). Also, I am thinking about joining a Low Carb Health & Technical Forum that specializes in Dr. Berstein & Diabetes... ;)

Recommendations are appreciated.

/smile

P.S. I am fairly capable technically if that is a necessary requirement for a specific reference work.

[Rose1942]

Many of us have read and enjoyed Gary Taubes' book 'Good Calories, Bad Calories'. It is a comprehensive study of the hows and whys of the obesity, heart disease and diabetes epidemics in America. Totally a low carber's dream book. Once I got into it, I was so hooked that I couldn't put it down, and even after I finished it I was referring back to chapter after chapter to read again. Available in public libraries, bookstores, and on amazon.com.

[dancinbr]

Now, you are going to make me look up Gretchen's book the First Year.

Thanks,

Ralph :D

[triplemom]

I think Gretchen's book is excellent. It's one of my favorites. I re-read parts of it all the time and think it's very "user friendly." I just started Barry Groves' book, Natural Health & Weight Loss. It's not just a book for diabetics, but for low-carbers in general. I just started it last night and will let you know what I think.

[dancinbr]

I think Gretchen's book is excellent. It's one of my favorites. I re-read parts of it all the time and think it's very "user friendly." I just started Barry Groves' book, Natural Health & Weight Loss. It's not just a book for diabetics, but for low-carbers in general. I just started it last night and will let you know what I think.

Keep us posted :D

Thanks,

Ralph

[Korban]

Thanks for the two recommendations. I might just read both of them. I guess there aren't many "must reads". :)

I heard a Taubes' (70 minute or so) lecture on the web and it was quite provocative as he methodically attempted to smash the prevailing paradigm of weight gain/loss... Alternatively, I still need to lose about 50 pounds...........

/smile

[MizKitty]

I'm interested in the new Barry Groves book, thanks for reminding me of it.

Korban, Atkins last book (working on when he died and finished by Mary Vernon) was Atkins Diabetes Revolution. It's worth a read.

[RobLL]

I have not read the Taubes book yet, it is on my list. The one caveat is that his view of exercise is just a little quirky. Some of the weightlifter/nutritionists have gone ape-mad about it. Most just note the caveat. the Wt-lifter community is well aware that diet is 80-90% of any weight loss, but weightlifting and short bursts of intense exercise help a whole lot. And few of us get hungry from it. Taubes was writing a nutrition book and not an exercise book, so it can be excused, but his trashing exercise was not really helpful. From what I have heard he may have been talking about long relatively slow "cardio" exercise. Which most wt-lifter nutritionist/physical trainers with advanced degrees would concur does not help lose weight.

[Nancy LC]

I think everyone needs to stop putting words into Taubes mouth about exercise. As I recall it, he was pretty much saying it isn't terribly useful to try to use exercise as the main way to lose weight and he talks about what I remember as being aerobic exercise. He had examples of people who jogged all the time and were still quite fat and quite a few studies showing that exercise really didn't help most people lose weight. I think by exercise, he meant aerobic exercise.

His real criticism is that we're being given terrible advice on diet and exercise to lose weight. Nowadays they're recommending what, 90 minutes a day? I can't tell you how many times I've run into women on this message forum that are doing HUGE amounts of exercise and are totally stalled.

He would say, I'm sure, lets find out if some other sort of exercise is more useful than aerobic exercise by doing the research. And even more importantly I think he would really want people to make public policy about diet and exercise based on real science, not just what someone pulls out their posteriors and gets echoed by all the personal trainers of the world.

He also never says exercise is bad for your health, and doesn't discuss that at all. Just that there isn't much out there showing it helps lose weight, anecdotal evidence aside.

[Rose1942]

Nancy, I tend to agree. Taubes related his own experiences with excercise in the book. He said that no matter the level of excercise, and he was doing quite a lot of it, it didn't have much of an effect on his weight.

I used to work in restaurants - did it for 30 years. That meant that for 4 or 5 nights a week I was running my fanny off, back and forth, up and down ramps, sometimes a few stairs, carrying trays, some of them heavy, some not. Then lowering them to a tray stand to serve. I even worked functions, where it is nothing but carrying load after load all night long. It was a LOT of excercise! Yet my weight fluctuated all the time. If I was going through a fat period I would stay fat. If I lost some weight it was due to dieting, not the amount of excercise, because that stayed the same. I did have fantastic muscle tone though, and I suppose some of the weight on my body was muscle weight, but that can't account for an extra 20 pounds that would creep back on.

Look around in restaurants. You will see some women who are pretty heavy doing that work and they are pushing themselves to the limit all the time. If excercise made you lose weight, there would only be skinny waitresses!

[Korban]

Thanks for the added comments. Actually, Atkins Diabetes Revolution was the first book I read and it got me started on Low Carb - and I am grateful that someone had sent me a copy. My bgs had been running 240 - 285 while taking glipizide and metformin... I was about ready to give up, literally, so I thought I would give "induction" (20 g carb per day) a go. The first three days no change, the fourth, my bg was 212, by the fifth it was down to 150 with no other changes... then on to Lantus,... Bernstein,... etc.

When I finally got my bg numbers down to "normal", the black cloud of deep depression mysteriously lifted and I found I had more energy. I like Bernstein's book much better but it was Atkins' book that got me started in the right direction. I find Atkins to be more of a eat low carb on diabetes until you lose weight and lessen your IR, then add more and more carbs until the point at which you don't gain weight... Bernstein seems like more of a diabetic's nuts and bolts approach to eliminating or minimizing long term issues with his 6-12-12, normalizing bg's, and Law of Small Numbers...

Have a nice day
/smile

[Lottadata]

Korban,

The Atkins book showed very little understanding of diabetes and had statements in it that were out and out wrong. It was helpful to you because any book that tells you to cut the carbs is a revelation when you are eating the crap that dietitians tell people with diabetes to eat.

But I think that Atkins diabetes book was rushed to press to take advantage of the success of his diet book. I am not even sure he wrote it. A dirty little secret of the publishing business is that famous doctors often have ghostwriters who write the books published under their names.

Bernstein and Becker both have diabetes, so they aren't just repeating what they read somewhere and using it as a springboard to promote themselves. They've been there, done it, do it every day, every meal. That, plus their intelligence, makes them great books.

[Korban]

/nod


/nod


/smile

[waltc]

I've had great success with the Bernstein book, and there are some good websites associated with low carb and diabetes.

[Rose1942]

You are partly correct, Jenny - Atkins did not write the entire book. The Atkins Diabetes Solution was published after Atkins' death. The manuscript was in progress at the time, and was finished by two others. The blurb on Amazon says:

"Amazon.com
Two colleagues of the late Dr. Robert Atkins take on the obesity epidemic's deadly twin: type 2 diabetes. Dr. Mary Vernon and Jacqueline Eberstein, RN, adapt the carb-cutting, fat-allowing Atkins nutritional approach as a preemptive strike against this fast-growing killer. Diabetes--defined here as a condition in which glucose or blood sugar is above the normal range--is viewed as a preventable problem. "

[Korban]

Re: Atkins Diabetes Revolution (2004) - In the book Dedication (to Atkins of course) it is interesting that Vernon and Eberstein only give him credit for the fact that "His vision inspired us and influenced our professional careers." They do not give him credit for penning a word of it. In the Foreword they do say that they "wrote this book" and issue a bold, if not somewhat arrogant, statement that it is "really his voice speaking loud and clear". Alternatively, this may be a euphemism for - we edited his (partial or whole) manuscript. 8-)
/smile

[CarolynC]

I have "Atkins Diabetes Revolution" on CD-audiobook. My interpretation of what it is said in the book regarding its authorship is that Dr. Atkins was planning to write a book on diabetes and had put together an outline and started to assemble material, but he died before writing began and therefore Dr. Vernon and Ms. Eberstein wrote the book.

[Nancy LC]

A dirty little secret of the publishing business is that famous doctors often have ghostwriters who write the books published under their names.
I don't see what is so dirty about that. Just because someone hires a ghostwriter doesn't mean it isn't their thoughts in the book. It means they know they're not good writers or they're too busy to dedicate the huge amount of time it takes to actually author a book.

We've got a boat load of Presidents, actors, first ladies, etc that hired ghostwriters to write their memoirs. I doubt the ghostwriters just pulled the info out of the air, they got the notes and probably spent a lot of face-time with the subject and had the oversight and supervision of the person they're writing the book for.

[Rose1942]

Oops, I said Diabetes Solution' - it is of course 'Revolution'. Senior moment there:)

Well we will probably never know the real skinny on who wrote the book, I guess. Lot of that going around, as Nancy said!