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Summary: Physical and Mental Fitness
Review: My experience on the diet has been a good one and the challenge is always keeping up with interesting meals as time goes on, so this book was a welcome addition and has helped me to stay on track.I also read a recommended book the Emotional Intelligence Quickbook which was excellent for my motivation and mental fitness, so I guess I covered both in one order ;)
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Summary: Great addition to the South Beach Diet
Review: My husband bought this for me as a Mother's Day gift, and I absolutely love it. The South Beach Diet is wonderful, but I was ready for new recipes and options to keep things interesting. This book meets those needs and then some! I've tried several recipes already, and they've been fabulous. This diet is so smart and easy, I will never NOT follow the South Beach Diet principles. With the South Beach Diet Cookbook in my collection, I have more than enough options to do at our home interesting and yummy.
I read the book and I thought, this doesn't sound too bad, but I found myself miserable. I just was frustrated after a week....it was very regimented. I did benefit by eliminating my coffee habit with the help of a wonderful coffee substitute called soyffee (www.s o y c o f f e e .com) Its made from soybeans which is a godsend for those troubled with hot flashes like myself. This book I bought was the South Beach Diet book. I read that book and found the plan to be made up of things I would eat and the items were normal grocery store items so no hunting at the health food stores or buying online.
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Summary: Tasty food and I'm keeping my weight on target
Review: My wife invested in this book when we tried the South Beach diet. We are both back to our target weight and enjoying the recipes. I recommend this book and the original, The South Beach Diet.
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Summary: what your doctor won't or can't tell you
Review: now that is a real book by a real practicing heart doc. I liked this book for weight loss but loved that book for finding out about medicine
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Summary: Bland, Bland, Bland!!
Review: Ok, I have been following the South Beach Diet successfully for over a month now, and plan to stick with it. BUT, this book contains recipes that are mostly bland, not to mention they always advise too much time for cooking the meats,which leave them dried out as well as BLAND. I found myself dousing most entrees with hot sauce to make them edible. I will say that the sauce recipes (South Beach cocktail, teriyaki & ketchup) were very helpful, and there are occasional OK recipes in here. All in all, one could find better recipes on on-line forums than in this book.
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Summary: Pretty Pictures
Review: Okay, having read the basic bible to the South Beach Diet (ISBN: 1579546463), which I would recommend to you if you are interested in this cookbook, I wanted to try some of the meals Agatston referred to in his book. The author divides the cookbook into the following sections: breakfast, snacks, soups, salads, side dishes, fish and poultry, meats, vegetarian, and desserts. Each section has approximately 20 recipes, that appear easy enough to prepare and follow the 40% protein, 30% carb, and 30% fat you would expect on a diet plan like this. Also, most of the recipes included carb counts, protein grams, etc. I noticed in the dessert section (my personal favorite of any cookbook) that the recipes employ yogurt, almonds, and fresh fruit extensively. Some sugar substitutes were noted, but not a lot. The author also dedicates 8 pages of the book to summarizing the diet plan, a long chapter on shopping in accordance with the diet plan, and 5 pages of question and answer type stuff that addresses general questions relevant to the diet. Color photos were available for about 50% of the recipes, which is why I titled this review "Pretty Pictures." I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoyed and plans to use the SouthBeach Diet.
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Summary: Poor organization
Review: Recipes in this book are helpful in fighting boredom if you are following the South Beach Diet. However, it is poorly organized...recipes are grouped by types (appetizers, main dishes, etc.) but not by stages. I am currently in stage two...do I want to look at appetizers and desserts for stage three right now? NO! To solve the problem, I had to go through the recipes and flag the recipes I can use at this stage...very time consuming. As for the sodium issue, many products are available that are lower in sodium...as long as you are willing to accept lower in flavor as well...
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Summary: I agree, VERY poor organization...but GREAT recipes!
Review: The books sectioned into Breakfast, Appetizers & Snacks, Soups, Salads, Side Dushes, Fish & Poultry, Meats, Veggies, and Desserts. The majority of the recipes call for easily found ingredients while some call for ingredients I've never heard of let alone know where to find. I'm sure they there can be substitutions. My only complaint is the lack of organization. Instead of starting with phase one it jumps around making it a little frustrating when I'm looking for a phase one recipe or phase two or three. The best thing to do would be to bookmark all of them which is a waste of time in my opinion. There's a lot of variety from Fried Green Tomatoes and Mashed Potatoes to Mexican Lasagna. Plenty of meat and fish dishes too. There's also Lemon cookies, Cheesecake and Chocolate Pie for the sweet tooth!
The carb count looks to be under 25 grams (a lot under 10) for most of the dishes and fat is low too. It's worth it's weight in gold!
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Summary: good recipes but too high in sodium
Review: The recipes are excellent and help to stave off boredom from eating the same foods; providing good variety. However, they are very high in sodium. I do not have to watch my salt intake but I have been very thirsty using these recipes.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: The South Beach Diet Cookbook will entice your culinary skills, and bring you some of the best recipes provided by some of the world's greatest chefs. I'm not a big fan of cooking, but this is one cookbook I will definately use. Highly recommended for its wonderful recipes! Debbie Farmer author of 'Don't Put Lipstick on the Cat'
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