A couple of new books of interest

[dvdmon]

Hey guys! I thought I'd post about a couple of new books which might be of interest. One is by Michael Polan (author of Bottany of Desire) called The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a fascinating report of how food gets to us from it's original source to our dinner plate. Polan looks at 4 different meals, a fast-food meal, a standard grocery-store meal, a meal from ingredients bought at a health-food grocery store (Wholefoods), and a meal from ingredients he hunted and gathered for himself. He may also have a meal stuck in their from ingredients from local farms (ala farmers markets) - I'm not sure as I just started listening to the audio book. However, there are several pieces on NPR with Polon that you can get a lot of the info from the book without having to purchase it:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5553550

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5530010

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5435740

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5342514

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5336252

Here's a link to the book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=leviwallachshome&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduc t%2F1594200823%2Fqid%3D1152890165%2Fsr%3D2-1%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_b_2_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26 n%3D283155

It's also available as an audio book through Amazon or Audible.com.

The other book I don't know nearly as much about but recently heard an interview with the author on NPR. It might be an interesting read, although it's probably still from a fairly establishment-oriented source. It's about trans fats and their dangers and how to avoid them. It's called The Trans Fat Solution by Kim Severson. In the interview she talked about the .5g loophole in food labels, so that was promising. Here's a link to the interview:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5539138

And another link to the book on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&tag=leviwallachshome&camp=1789&creative=9325&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fproduc t%2F1580085431%2Fqid%3D1152890301%2Fsr%3D2-3%2Fref%3Dpd_bbs_b_2_3%3Fs%3Dbooks%26v%3Dglance%26 n%3D283155

If anyone's read either of these yet, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Ottawa]

I have not read either although they both sound great and I have seen press on both of them.

Another new book The GI Diet is gaining popularity within my extended family. My wife picked it up and I browsed it but gave up after talking to my BIL who is a strict GI Diet follower with his nurse-practitioner wife.

It is much like South Beach crossed with Weight Watchers, with two levels of participation, Losing and Maintaining.

The gyst of it is removing high Glycemic Index foods ... and most fat ... and limiting calories. At 6'4" he is working towards 170 lbs. and a doctor that was here at the house said he looked gaunt when he was by on thwe weekend.
We had already discussed PP and PPLP last year, prior to the GI Diet, and he has eaten a few of our meals which he found "quite heavy" with too much fat. He also found it restrictive.

This week we discussed what foods he can eat ...
Since it is lower carb, low fat and low calorie all he could have was a tea and a few soy chips when he was over although he had a few nuts now and then. We had some of the new Lindt Chocoalte bars at 10 ECC with no artificial sweeteners. After reading the ingredients he said it was too many calories for him. The same with the Soy chips even though a whole bag has only 4 grams of fat and 140 calories.

I can't see how you could maintain eating that way but to each their own.
To me it seemed like another "diet" idea that works great while motivated but would be hard to maintain. He says the same about PP so we just let it go and time will tell. When I went over my improved Lipid Profile he answered that his is so improved that they couldn't get a reading.:confused:

I look forward to our holiday time with them mid August when our entire family gets together in several cottages but there I times I really like the "Extended part" of our family.

[deirdra]

At 6'4" he is working towards 170 lbs. and a doctor that was here at the house said he looked gaunt when he was by on thwe weekend....I can't see how you could maintain eating that way but to each their own. To me it seemed like another "diet" idea that works great while motivated but would be hard to maintain.
170 on a 6'4" man sure sounds low. Deprivation has always resulted in me going off diets & maintenance programs in the past, so I will never resort to it again, but then I've grown to love fat, meat & veggies!