Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book on Insulin Resistance
Review: This is an excellent book, suitable even for vegetarians (which I am) which many "lower carb" books are not.It makes sense, gives simple, general guidelines even a moron could follow. Best of all, it helps you lower your carbs without really giving up much. It's just a new way of balancing carbs with proteins...AND IT WORKS!!! In regard to the reviewer below who criticizes the book for it's old fashioned "low fat paradigm"...well in a sense I do agree. Yet past experience and gut instinct tells me that when you lower your fat content of food, you also lower your calories and lose weight faster. However, the neat thing is you don't have to count calories to lower them. What I do is, when I eat at home I try to make wise, lower fat choices without going into a "deprived" mode. In other words, if I want to eat a high fat cheese or use a recipe that needs whole milk not skim milk, I still use it, while still applying the "link and balance" principles of this book. Link and balance is a way of balancing your carbohydrates with proteins to avoid an insulin spike, as explained in the book. This book has something for everything. Please don't let one negative review sway you from purchasing this book. I have lots of low carb and reduced carb books, and this is the best I ever purchased. It's changed my health and weight for the better, and I'm so glad I purchased it. It's a definite winner!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for cravings and tiredness
Review: This is an excellent guide for those of us who feel tired and have carb cravings. It does a good job of explaining things without being too technical. It really helped me as a first step in controlling my cravings and weight. After reading other books on insulin resistance, the only negatives I have to say about this book are: There is little information on the importance of exercise in beating insulin resistance. It is a must for getting rid of insulin resistance and increasing energy. There is little distinction made between "good" complex carbs and "bad" ones other than the amount you can eat at one time. From my experience there is a big difference in how they make you feel and their effects on cravings. For some people like me, wheat really cranks up my cravings and mood swings while rice, potatoes etc don't have as much of an effect.
Rating:
Summary: A feasible, flexible, sane approach to diet and nutrition
Review: This is by far the best book I've read on the benefits of eating a higher (as opposed to high) protein diet. The authors give an easy-to-follow but detailed explanation of what insulin resistance is, why you want to control it, and how to do that through diet. Best of all, their recommendations are do-able -- they're simple principles (eating carbs with protein, limiting the amount of carbs eaten in a two hour period) that can be applied to a variety of diet preferences and lifestyles. It involves some tweaking of what you eat, when, but not the drastic (and, to me, completely impractical) overhaul that many high-protein diet plans do. My one criticism is that the author's presentation of their eating plan is a bit confusing in spots (and that may account for why another review here discounts the book as just another low-fat eating plan -- it's not that, at all). I had to go over it a couple of times to understand what exactly I was supposed to do to put their principles into practice. But overall it's a wonderfully sensible book, non-threatening, with eating guidelines I think anyone should be able to live with and benefit from.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Good Diet
Review: This is one of the worst diet books I've ever tried. Terrible recipes full of fake, tasteless, plastic fat-free foods. The food on this plan gave me horrible cravings because I wasn't eating enough fat. Also, the authors don't address sugar cravings and hypoglycemia. So I made the chocolate cake and ate half of it at once and then made myself throw the rest out so I would stop eating it. I stopped using this plan after a day or two, it was obvious it wouldn't satisfy me and my energy wasn't great either.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and Helpful but Still a Diet
Review: This is really a wonderful book. It is written simply, especially if you have ever been to a nutritionist or done exchanges before, and has a wealth of good information.
I tried it for a week and I felt great. I had less headaches and less cravings. I lost three pounds. I, however, still have a lot of emotional eating issues so I found that I was mentally still treating this like a diet so I returned to binging for othe reasons.
If you do not have emotional eating issues and meet the quiz that is in the book (or take one online, you can search for it easily) then I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how simple and effective it is.
I highly recommend this!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book on Insulin Resistance
Review: This is the best book I've come across on Insulin Resistance. I'm sorry some of the reviewers below found fault with it, but as a person who has been on every diet created, I have finally found one that lets me lose weight without deprivation. No, you don't have to eat frozen dinners, rubber fat free cheese and food with chemicals, contrary to what the reviewer below stated. You eat what you CHOOSE. That's the difference between this and other plans - nothing is off-limits, you just make choices within certain guidelines and parameters. You learn to link and balance carbs with proteins. I have never felt healthier in my life and love this eating plan. Remember the book is just a guideline - it's just the principles learned that work. For example, I don't believe you have to go as low fat as the authors state, but I don't believe Atkins is healthy either. So I use my common sense and go midrange. For example, I'd prefer to use a good nonhydrogenated reduced calorie margarine rather than butter, and 1% milk instead of whole milk. It's all about choices. You're in charge. That's what's so great about this eating plan. I highly recommend this book, just remember to tailor it to your own preferences. You make it your own diet. What other diet can make such claims?
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: This was an excellent book. It was very easy to follow. I have been trying to lose weight ever since my last child ( 21/2 years ago) and had not been successful. I had tried many different diets along with lots of exercise programs but most were very complicated and I ended up making two sets of meals, one for my family and one for me. Then I came across this book it was very easy to follow and made a lot of sense. I had gestational diabetes with my last child and this book is really close to the same diet plan I was put on to control the diabetes, just not quite as restrictive. I can make the same meals for the whole family and just link and balance. After two months I have reached my goal weight and I also feel better and have more energy. This is more than a diet, it is a life style change and is so easy. I highly recomend this book it is wonderful!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Linking and Balancing Really Works
Review: With middle age approaching, and after several unsuccessful dieting attempts, I didn't think I would ever lose all the extra weight I had been carrying around. I went to Dr. Hart's Wellness Workshop last year truly in despair. Dr. Hart and Mary Kay were genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of my problem. Using their simple-to-follow eating plan, I have lost 50 pounds in the past year, lowered my cholesterol, and I feel great. I haven't been "on a diet", but have learned to change the way I organize my meals and think about foods. I even went on vacation, ate and drank what I wanted, and still came home a pound lighter! Use this book to lose weight, but teach its principles to your family too, so they can avoid developing insulin-resistance and the diseases related to it.
Rating:
Summary: If you have PCOS....
Review: you really should check this book out. There isn't a lot of direct reference to PCOS in this book, but if you do your research you'll find that Insulin Resistance is named as a probably culprit of PCOS. There are many Low Carb programs out there and I've tried them all only to revert back to my old eating habits and regain weight that was so hard to lose. The Link and Balance approach outlined in this book is one that really could be done forever--it's easy to do and satisfies the needs to eat some carbs. Makes a lot of sense to limit the amount of carbs eaten within a 2-hour window and always balance them with adequate protein. I've even been able to find fast food meal solutions and eat socially without feeling left out or deprived. More interesting info contained in this book is Dr. Hart's info on Neurotransmitter precursers and the role they play in food cravings and appetite control. I recommend this book to anyone who struggles with ongoing weight issues Insulin Resistance or not. And, if you've got PCOS this program along with glucose lowering meds could be the solution you've been looking for.
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