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Q4 2007 #1 best seller
Once again it’s time to see what books readers of this blog are reading. Or at least what they are purchasing from Amazon.com by going through this site. The rules are that I don’t include any books that have my or MD’s name as writer or co-writer.
Here’s the list.
#1 The Brain Trust Program by Larry McCleary M.D.
#2 Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
#3 200 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes by Dana Carpender
#4 The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick, M.D.
#5 Extreme Lo-Carb Meals on the Go by Sharron Long
#6 15-Minute Low Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender
#7 Carb Wars: Sugar is the New Fat by Judy Barnes Baker
#8 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender
#9 How’s Your Drink by Eric Felten
#10 A Nation of Sheep by Andrew P. Napolitano
If you compare this list to the last one, you can see that many of the books are the same, but in a little different order. The Brain Trust Program, which I reviewed a couple of months ago, leap frogged over Good Calories, Bad Calories to the #1 spot on the list. But not by much. A couple of newcomers replaced two that fell off the list. The terrific book Stumbling on Happiness dropped off as did The Great Cholesterol Con, the version written by my very close friend Anthony Colpo. And I’m not kidding, Anthony’s book really did fall from the list. In fact, not a single copy sold through this website during the past three months. (If you’re contemplating Anthony’s latest, The Fat Loss Bible, I can save you $40. Here’s the synopsis: eat less, exercise more. And never, ever, ever believe there could possibly be a metabolic advantage.)
Those of you who through this site bought table saws, printers, household goods, toner cartridges, tee shirts, DVDs, CDs, and video games along with all the books have my great appreciation. With the combined Amazon and Google income I was able to cover all the hosting charges and about a third of my web guy expenses for the last quarter. Thank you very much. And keep buying.
Remember, I can’t tell from the reports I get who bought what, so if you want to go naughty, don’t worry about my finding out and posting on the blog. I can say, however, that this group is a totally un-naughty group because there wasn’t a single off color book or movie purchased.
I am proud to see that enough of you bought Eric Felten’s book on the history of various alcoholic cocktails to catapult it onto the list at #9. Eric is the booze columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He tracks down the history of various drinks and experiments to find the best way to make them. And his version – at least in my experience – is the best tasting of all. His book is one of my and MD’s favorites. We take his basic versions and make them low-carb.
His recipe for a gimlet makes the best one I’ve ever had. Even the low-carb version (which is the only version of his I’ve ever had.)
2 ounces of gin (We use Bombay Sapphire)
1/2 ounce Rose’s Lime Juice (It’s got to be Rose’s, which is available everywhere)
1/4-1/2 ounce simple syrup (which we make with about 1/2 ounce water mixed with a packet of Splenda)
Mix it all in a glass filled with ice, add a piece of lime, and you’ve got a drink fit for Raymond Chandler. (I’ll explain in a coming post – MD and I just had a Raymond Chandler adventure)
Enjoy.

30 Comments

  1. Two questions, purely by way of curiousity:
    – What was the best-purchased fiction book purchased through this site?
    – Any thoughts on the effects of alcohol (cocktail or not) when conducting intermittent fasting? (I’m under the impression a glass of dry wine doesn’t spike insulin much, and the body only pauses ketosis whilst it works the booze off/out. Correct? What would the effects be off a wee dram before / during/ at the end of a fasting session?
    Cheers! and thanks for any response in advance…
    Hi MordWa–
    I went back through and looked to see about the fiction. There were a number of fiction books purchased through the site but all were single copies save one. There were three copies of the new Pevear & Volokhonsky translation of War and Peace, indicating that the readers of this blog – at least three of them – are a literary lot. This translation is excellent, and is by far and away the best I’ve seen. I’m now working my way through the novel again, and I don’t know if it’s simply because I’m older now by a lot than I was when I first read it and more appreciative or if it’s just a better translation. But whatever the case, I’m really enjoying the book in a way I didn’t the last time through.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  2. So speaking of Anthony Colpo, how’s the critique of The Fat Loss Bible coming? Is there an ETA? BTW, The Brain Trust Program is turning out to be a wonderful book. Thank you for it’s recommendation and thank you for a great blog!
    Hey Matthew–
    The critique of The Fat Loss Bible proceeds apace. Problem is that it’s so easy to critique, but it takes a lot of space to do it. There is so much misinformation contained in the FLB it will take a blog post the size of Texas to refute it all. The book is so dreary, pompous and self-serving that any critique that takes it apart limb from limb will be kind of dreary as well. And every time I get ready to start putting all the stuff on paper (so to speak) something pops up that’s more immediate and requiring a shorter blog, so I opt for that and put Anthony off for another day. All my professional friends – who have stayed out of the fray – are encouraging me to forget it because it will look like piling on since at the core Anthony is really only an amateur. Why give some young, clueless prat the attention he craves? they all say. But I’m committed and I will eventually put up the critique.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  3. I bought Malcolm Kendrick’s ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’ and I must say that very soon into the book I was feeling very irritated by his jokey style and I wanted more science. I felt he dumbed down the book and I am now looking for a more scientific one. I was actually thinking of purchasing Anthony Colpo’s ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’ but it’s expensive and I know he’s out of favour at the moment, but regardless, do you think that his cholesterol book would satisfy my scientific curiosity better than Malcolm Kendrick’s book ? I have ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’ and that explains a lot I know.
    bw’s
    Anne
    Hi Anne–
    Anthony’s book isn’t all that bad. But I don’t know if you’ll find a lot there that you wouldn’t find in the Taubes book. If you want the real granddaddy of them all, get Uffe Ravnskov’s The Cholesterol Myths. There is a new edition coming out later this year, but there are used versions of the older edition available all over the place. It’s an excellent book, well-written and easy to read. It contains just about anything you would want to know about cholesterol and the lipid hypothesis. And it’s less expensive than the Colpo book.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  4. “this group is a totally un-naughty group because there wasn’t a single off color book or movie purchased.” Huh….I guess I linked from another….ummm, never mind. LOL
    Glad this is working for you! I’ve earned a whole 4 cents…..in 2 years! LOL I have 5 of the books on the list, and looking to buy another soon. Dana Carpender is my favorite for recipes….next to MD of course! (Actually DC’s and MD’s are the only cookbooks I have…all the rest I ditched when I moved……I just have to find them now!)
    Hi Cindy–
    I do a little better than you did, but still not enough to meet my expenses for maintaining the blog. The amount I spent getting help putting up MD’s choral cuts for Christmas pretty much wiped out any earnings for December.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  5. The book about drinks reminded me that I have been wanting to ask you something about wine.
    My wife and I want to start adding it to our LC lifestyle, but are finding it hard to determine carb content. Unlike beer, it appears that the wine manufacturers do not to have to list the carb content on their labels. So, what’s a body to do? Any suggestions? Thanks.
    Hey John–
    You can figure wine at about a gram to a gram and a half per ounce depending on the dryness with the dryer wines containing the least.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  6. Dear Dr Eades,
    On the subject of alcohol – what becomes of alcohol when it is processed in the liver? I thought you talked about this in a earlier post but I can’t find it. Most references I found on alcohol metabolism talk about its conversion to acetaldehyde and after that there seems to several alternative paths.
    If it ends up as triglycerides does that means that alcohol consumption is associated with an increase in small dense LDL as measured by increased apoB levels?
    Also, in this about.com article: http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa35.htm the writer mentions that, contrary to what you would think, drinking alcohol seems to have little effect on weight gain. (Even though it is about.com it seems well referenced)
    Have we found the alcohol “metabolic advantage”.
    Thanks for all you do!
    Philip Thackray
    Hi Philip–
    Alcohol gets metabolized to water and CO2 just like fats do – in fact, alcohol is kind of a fat. There are several intermediate metabolites, which are the ones that cause us to have hangovers when our metabolism can’t get rid of them quickly enough.
    Alcohol has about 7 kcal per gram, and most alcoholic beverages (other than pure spirits) contain some carbs. Over consumption of alcohol, in my opinion, can indeed bring about weight gain. If for no other reason than enough drinking impairs the liver’s ability to metabolize insulin thus keeping it around longer and increasing fat storage.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  7. For Christmas we bought 11 copies of Brain Trust and gave them to all our aging-boomer-ish relatives — since we’re that age ourselves and have noticed immediate and sustained benefits. My wife has far fewer hot-flash incidents, perhaps now that her brain doesn’t need to up her body temperature to obtain what it needs (as Dr. McC explains). Congrats to Larry, and thanks to you for turning us on to him as well…
    Hey Rick–
    I’m glad you enjoyed the book. I’ve had many people report similar benefits.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  8. Thank you, Dr. Eades, for your blog. I read every new post and I appreciate your wisdom–and your humor, too! I just ordered The Brain Trust Program and The Great Cholesterol Con (by Kendrick, of course!). But don’t tell my husband–he might have a cow since we have almost as many books as you do! ha ha ha ha!
    Have a nice day. 🙂
    Hey Kristi–
    Doesn’t your husband realize that one can’t have too many books?
    Cheers–
    MRE

  9. Thanks Doc for your reply to my previous comment about finding a low-carb doctor for my wife. We live in Oklahoma… Tulsa to be exact. Maybe someone in out part of the country can point me in the right direction.
    I already know she’s going to be skeptical about the whole prospect of carbs contributing to or causing her many and varied health issues, so I really want to find an ally to help convince her she can greatly improve her health by going low-carb. Once she’s on board, we can start working on our two daughters who are just as bad as she is.
    Thank you.
    Jeff
    Tulsa, eh? I actually know an excellent doc not far from Tulsa. He’s in Rogers, AR, which is just across the border. His name is Jeffrey Tate, M.D.
    If anyone else has a good low-carb doc in the Tulsa area, send his/her name in in a comment.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  10. I came across your list while searching for best seller lists online.
    Love the format, and glad I found the blog. A listing in your niche is so much more meaningful than the computer generated lists.
    Plus, the other posts are useful. I’m putting you on my reading list.
    Thanks for all you do
    Warren Whitlock
    http://BestSellerAuthors.com
    Glad you enjoyed it.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  11. Thank you for the mention! I am thrilled to be on a list of such illustrious authors.
    One question for your readers: I have tried FOUR times to put a review on Dr. McCleary’s detail page on Amazon and they never publish it. His excellent book has only three reviews, which makes me wonder if others are having the same problem.\\
    Hi Judy–
    You deserve to be there on the list. And two lists running, to boot.
    This is the first I’ve heard of anyone having a problem posting an Amazon review. I sent an email to Larry to give him a heads up.
    Readers…any suggestions?
    Best–
    MRE

  12. Please, please, please bring back the archives calendar for looking up entries (MD’s blog still has it). I’ve been trying to find a blog entry for which I asked a question in my comment, but can’t find it. You said you would ask your techie person. Have you had a chance to look into this? I’m really not trying to pester you … but it would make my life much easier. Thank you so much!!!
    Hey Kathy–
    I copied your plaintive plea, pasted it in an email to my tech guy, and sent it off. I asked him to restore the archives. We’ll see what happens.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  13. you know, AC ain’t all that young, I believe he must be 40 by now.
    I wrote: Young, clueless prat. Two out of three ain’t bad.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  14. Thanks for letting me know that Uffe Ravnskov’s book is going to be in print again later this year. Now that is as book I would like very much.
    I think I was a bit hard on Dr Kendrick. He does give lots of internet references that enable the reader to follow up more science, so I must give him credit for that. I guess it was a case of just too many jokes in a serious subject for me. My husband has just picked up his book and is enjoying reading it and for him to read a medical book is verging on miraculous so I must give Dr Kendrick credit where credit is due ! Oh my husband did read ‘Protein Power Lifeplan’ 🙂
    bw’s
    Anne
    Hi Anne–
    I really enjoyed Dr. Kendrick’s book. I guess I like a little humor (even in a serious subject) more than most.
    You will like Dr. Ravnskov’s book a lot. It’s well written, not humorous like Kendrick’s, but easy to read and understand. Anthony Colpo’s book is fine, too. I don’t know that you get any more info from it than you would from the Ravnskov book, and it’s definitely, like Anthony himself, humorless, but a good book nevertheless. And Anthony has written a paper that is a good primer on the lipid hypothesis. You can download the article free from this site. It starts on page 83.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  15. Haha, my first reaction when I read your blog was that some new people on here might think Colpo really is your friend if they don’t read these comments. You said in tongue in cheek but I didn’t catch it as obvious for the uninformed.
    Do you know of a good low-carb doc anywhere near Shreveport, LA? My main focus is beating heart disease but a GP would do, I suppose. Thanks, if you can.
    Anthony is a friend of mine as evidenced by the fact that he does what all friends are supposed to do: he makes me look good. 🙂
    I don’t know a low-carb doc near Shreveport, but I’ll put it out here, and maybe someone else will.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  16. as a UK reader, is it possible to buy through your site from Amazon.co.uk rather than dot com???
    Hey Neil–
    Not right now. I’ll check with Amazon.co.uk to see if I can get an affiliate account with them and let everyone know.
    Thanks–
    MRE

  17. Anthony Colpo’s abdominals are on a par with how Bruce Lee’s looked
    Can you say the same Dr. Eades?
    Or any other of the metabolic advantage crowd?
    I didn’t think so.
    Anthony gives out GREAT ADVICE. Sprints ARE superior and ARE required along with weights.
    Anthony has great knowlege and his buid refelects it too. i knwo alot of Dr.’s might nort have the time to excerise and i give SOME of them a break.
    Ask yourself could YOU achieve his look if you had more time?
    Somethign tells me with your training and metabolic advantage hyperbole you wouldn’t be able to because your INFO IS FLAWED.
    Anthony Colpo has helped probably millions of persons.
    The One And Only,
    -Razwell
    Hello Razwell–
    Hmm. I suppose that if my life revolved around having abs like Bruce Lee I would worship Anthony Colpo with the same intensity that you obviously do. But since it doesn’t, I don’t. I’m certain that if I wanted to spend the time and effort, I, too, could have abs like Bruce Lee. But then what would I do with them? Put up photos of myself on the internet with my shirt pulled up? My ego is just fine as it is without having to pose and show off my only good feature. And given my age and my exercise regimen, I don’t look all that bad. Ask yourself this, do body builders live longer than non-body builders? Do people with abs like Bruce Lee live longer than those who simply have trim waistlines? What’s the point of working to achieve Bruce Lee abs unless you just want to show people how cut you are? Having Bruce Lee abs wouldn’t change my life one iota other than I would have to deal with people like you falling at my feet.
    And, my friend, if your grammar and spelling are any reflection of your overall ability to think, I would be willing to bet large amounts of money that you couldn’t recognize FLAWED INFO if it jumped up and bit you in the rear. If you do have even a vestigial intellect, why not use it instead of letting that prat Colpo do your thinking for you?
    Finally, if Anthony is your savior and the fount of all knowledge worth knowing, why are you snooping around on my site? Does coming here, dissing me and ‘the metabolic advantage crowd’ while giving testimonials for Colpo get you some kind of brownie points with him?
    Don’t worry. I’m not going to ban you. Just keep checking in and writing comments like this one, and people will learn as much about the friends and supporters of Anthony Colpo as they need to know.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  18. Thanks for forwarding my “plea” to your blog guy. He’s in Maine, isn’t he? Maybe I could go over and grovel in person!
    Here’s a thought. I don’t know if you could do this, but here goes. Several people in this comment section (and others) have asked for recommendations of LC-friendly docs in their areas. I’m sure others could benefit from that, as well. What about starting a list on your site (maybe within the discussion forum) of LC-friendly docs? It shouldn’t be a place to bash your current/former doc (or, for that matter, to sing his/her praises ad nauseam), just a place to list the names of good docs.
    Hi Kathy–
    The archives are back up and running. Thanks for pushing me on it.
    It’s a good idea about the docs. Let me think on how I could set it up. Keep on me about it so I don’t forget.
    Best–
    MRE

  19. “Dr.” Eades
    If you keep on convincing yourself that calories don’t matter , “carbs do” , and that there is a magical metabolic advantage you’ll be sporting a pair of man bOObs to go with your double chin, faster than you can call Anthony Colpo a prat.
    Lions who eat a diet that would make you and Atkins jealous, gain weight if they exceed their energy/calorie intake
    Bears gain massive amounts of weight for the winter eating a diet that would make you and Atkins jealous.
    I can ASSure YOU, Anthony Colo has a far greater intellect than you and your metabolic advantage crowd could ever imagine having .
    I’ll say it for Anthony Colpo :
    Guys like YOU are CHARLATANS preying on lazy persons.
    The Metabolic Advantage…….. LOL !!!!!!!!
    😉
    -Razwell
    Good for you, Raz–
    Just keep on thinking. That’s what you’re good at.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  20. I’d also be interested in any advice on finding a LC-friendly Doctor in the St. Louis/St. Charles, MO area. I FINALLY found a studio that has a workout similar to what Fred Hahn recommends. It’s based more on Adam Zickerman’s “Power of 10” than on your, MD’s and Fred’s “Slow Burn,” but the basics seem the same. I’d like to find a Dr. who’s ‘on-board’ with the low-carb lifestyle and slow cadence lifting, also.

  21. Dr. Eades,
    I too ask that you plea with your tech guy re: the archives. I was convinced that it was just me who could not find them anymore.
    BTW, have just finished reading PPLP. Outstanding. I did purchase it through your Amazon link , so if you ever think about generous offer again, so that it can be ordered by non-US residents, I will certainly take you up on it and give the copy to a deserving individual here north of the 49th!
    OK, probably pushing my luck there on that one…..:)
    Hi RC–
    The archives are back up.
    We are working on a new shipping deal with the USPS, but, as with all governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, nothing works quickly. When we get it all resolved, I’ll see what I can do about books to those people who requested them from other countries.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  22. Yeah, the reason a bear gains so much weight preparing for hibernation is that it eats everything–including CARBOHYDRATES!
    A bear is an omnivore and when it piles up carbs on top of all the protein and fat, of course it’s going to gain weight.
    Yes, indeed.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  23. Wow! I actually have both the AC books. The FLB was suspect in my opinion. So I will be waiting for the post whenever you get to it. Also that photo of him with his shirt pulled up did certainly seem to me that he has an ego problem.
    You’re right about this Razwell character though. I like how he put the Dr. in quotes and capitalized the “ass” in assure. Thinking is definitely not part of this guy’s actions anymore. Sounds like AC has the starting of a cult here, whether he wants it or not. Could he be Scientologist also because he sounds like Cruise spouting off.
    All the best,
    Joe
    Hmm. The Cult of Colpo. Has a nice ring, doesn’t it. People could say, I’m a Colpoist, which means that I don’t believe in the metabolic advantage. And those who do are ruining the world.
    The only problem I see with such a cult is in the numbers. Don’t you have to have more than five people to make a cult?
    Cheers–
    MRE

  24. Okay, no dice for Shreveport but let’s expand… southern Arkansas, east Texas, southeastern Oklahoma.
    If any low-carb docs come to mind, advise. Thanks much.
    Will do. Readers, any help here?
    Cheers–
    MRE

  25. Car Talk (the PBS radio show) uses a search engine called ‘Find a great mechanic’
    enter ZIP____ and enter within:____ Miles and hit Search. They also have a survey and comments section. It worked for me. The website is http://www.cartalk.com/index.html.
    It is probably a lot of time and effort to get it up and running, but I think it would be useful to look at (their website) instead of reinventing the wheel, if you decide to pursue it.
    On another subject, I’m reminded of something Gary Taubes said about medical authorities not trusting the public to be able to ascertain the results of a low carb diet, i.e. if it isn’t working, they’ll stop it. If we decide you don’t know what you’re talking about and that Mr. Colpo does, we’ll listen to him instead.
    P.S. Razwell, Michael Eades is a Medical Doctor. Last I knew Anthony Colpo wasn’t, so why the quotes around Dr.?
    Hey Mark–
    I took a look at the Car Talk search engine. It’s pretty impressive…and probably more than I would want to take on right now. But I may run it by my web guy just to see what it would take. If I were to have it in place, however, I would be a little concerned about who selected the doctors on the list. I had a bad experience with this once. About 12 years ago, MD and I met a doc from Southern California at a medical meeting. We really hit it off with this guy and went out to dinner with him and his wife a few times. This was right after Protein Power had come out, so we spent a lot of time talking about the book and our low-carb philosophy. This guy was totally on board – he told us how he put all his patients on low-carb diets and had had great results. Not long after the last time we all got together a PP reader from Southern California called our clinic asking if we knew any docs in his area who were low-carb diet proponents whom we could recommend. I recommended our doctor friend. About a week later we got a hot call from this patient telling us that he had gone to see this doc, and that the doc had given him a copy of the Zone diet and wrote him an Rx for phen-fen. I later learned that this was the SOP for this doc. So, after that experience I almost hate to recommend docs I haven’t actually worked with or that I don’t know really well. I would feel more comfortable with a site on which others who have had direct patient experience with physicians commented. Which is how the Car Talk site works, so it would be patients recommending.
    Don’t get worked up over these Colpo acolytes and their unschooled attempts at sarcasm. I actually enjoy it. It’s too easy to engage in a battle of wits with them when most of them show up on the site only half prepared. And it gives insight to other readers of just what kind of followers our friend Anthony has.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  26. Speaking of Tolstoy . . . I’m reading Anna Karenina again and it seems Tolstoy was a low-carb believer. In one spot he says of Count Vronsky “…he had to be careful not to get fatter and therefore avoided sweets and starchy foods.” Cool huh?
    Very cool. That’s a famous quote, BTW. Especially in low-carb literary circles.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  27. I think I saw a study somewhere that linked steroid use with the overuse of the CAPS Lock key.
    That explains everything.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  28. Dr. Mike Eades compared buttock tone with the Maasai , while Morgan Freeman and Bruce Lee read an article by the intelligible Anthony Colpo disputing the Metabolic Advantage Theory on the tropical beaches of Cancun.
    Morgan Freeman and Bruce Lee wrote a peer reviewed article in the Journal Of The American Medical Association about the lack of evidence supporting The Metabolic Advantage Theory and the stupidity of Michael Eades.
    Still no evidence to refute Anthony, “Dr.”? 😉
    The One And Only,
    Razwell
    Probably no evidence that you could understand, Razwell.
    Oh, BTW, another brilliant comment. Makes a lot of sense. Keep on writing and thinking, because, as I said before, that’s what you’re good at.
    Cheers–
    MRE

  29. Dr. Eades, you are such a true blessing to us. Your blog has given me more useful information, etc. than any other doctor I shelled out a lot of my hard-earned money to, has.
    Because I am suffering in menopause I am now going to get the Brain Trust program for help. Thank you for publishing a review of it.
    Here’s hoping you and your lovely wife work on another book sometime in the future to add to my library of your books.
    Please keep up this wonderful blog; it’s the best around.
    Thanks very much for the kind words. I’m glad you’ve gotten some benefit from our scribblings. And we do have another book in the works.
    Cheers–
    MRE

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