Beef Busters

Rating:
Summary: A life saver here! I feel better than ever!
Review: I was skeptical when I first picked up this book, but I thought I'd give it a try. I had been toying with becoming vegitarian for a while (on my doctor's orders), but every time I tried, I went right back to an unhealthy diet. What I like about this book is that it doesn't expect the reader to eliminate beef from the diet, but it helps the reader to understand how to eat better meat, and to subsitute beef for other things. It's easy to follow, and I feel better than I have in years. My skin is clearer and I have more energy too. I recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their basic diet and health.

Rating:
Summary: Finally get your diet straight!!
Review: I'm so glad I bought this book! I knew I needed to eat better, but found it tough to break the fast food cycle. This book gave me the incentive and the motivation to take control of what I eat. It gives you lots of options, including how to still eat beef in a healthy way, which is exactly what I do, in moderation and in small portions. It also shows you how to shore up your diet with more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. A previous review seems way off base--this book does NOT "push" soy recipes at every turn. There are very few soy recipes. It also doesn't say that beef is evil. On the contrary, the authors explain how beef can be a healthy part of a healthy diet...if you eat it in a healthy way!! I really recommend this book. Knowledge about the food you eat is ALWAYS better than ignorance, and this book is full of knowledge and sound, sensible nutritional advice. Read it and feel better the very first day.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Terrible Book
Review: The subtitle of this book says it all: "Less Beef, Better Health! Lose weight, Clobber cholesterol, Avoid cancer, E. Coli., and Mad Cow."

At the outset, it should be pointed out that this book has no references, not even a bibliography, to back up its many sensationalistic claims. This book is a very poor example of scholarship.

Dietician Marissa Cloutier continues the unfounded hysteria over Mad Cow Disease in this book which she blames on cattle-parts feeding in Europe. "The world is at risk!" she implies, so, "Stop eating beef and buy my book!" She hints that Mad Cow Disease threatens the USA, but there have been no reports of it in the USA. Additionally, the research of British organic dairy farmer, MArk Purdey, has clearly shown that Mad Cow Disease is a non-infectious condition caused by certain neurotoxic pesticides applied to cattle's backs.

All of the usual false claims about beef's impact on health are here: Beef causes heart disease. Beef causes cancer. Beef causes obesity. Beef causes osteoporosis. All of these claims are false as other reviewers have shown--see, for example, Uffe Ravnskov's book THE CHOLESTEROL MYTHS, New Trends Publishing, 2000.

She claims that the meat of yesteryear was much lower in "bad" saturated fat than today's meat--no references are given for this statement.

In her discussion of nutrients in beef, she makes no mention of such nutritional factors like carnitine, taurine, and CoQ10 which act to protect and enhance the circulatory and immune systems she claims beef damage.

In chapter four, she blames the saturated fats in beef for causing heart disease (wrong, wrong, wrong). She also mistakenly claims that beef elevates homocysteine levels because beef has a lot of methionine in it. She then rightly says that homocysteine levels can be reduced by adequate folate, B6, and B12 in the diet, but then she fails to tell readers that B6 and B12 are plentiful in beef! Folate is also found in organ meats like beef liver.

Of course, the carb-heavy "Food Pyramid" is put forward as the way everyone should eat. She also pushes soy foods of every sort in her recipe section.

This book is terrible...