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Summary: A helpful guidebook for your journey of self-exploration
Review: After hearing about D'Adamo's "Eat Right 4 Your Type" blood typing diet from a colleague, I marched down to the brick 'n' mortar bookstore to find it...sold out, but I found this instead and am sure glad I did. And when I later surfed Amazon and saw there were 220+ reviews for ER4YT but only seven for this book - which in my opinion is much more comprehensive, and better written to boot - I was moved to take keyboard under fingers and scribe this, my first ever on-line review.Like most people who'd be found browsing in the "Diet" section, I've been dealing with various (over)weight management issues for as long as I can remember. Previous seminal influences on my thinking about eating have been "Diets Don't Work" and Dr. Atkins - a program I've been following with moderate success for over three years (maintaining about 1/3 of my original weight loss even while deviating fairly frequently from Atkins' strict low-carb model). So in that sense it was not too surprising to take Wolcott's self test and learn that my answers overwhelmingly classified me as a "Protein Type." Where this book adds tremendous value for me, aside from shedding light on why the Atkins diet worked well for me, is the customization aspect. Disdaining the "magic bullet" concept, Wolcott stresses that determining your ideal diet requires YOUR participation. Taking the self-assessment test in the book to determine your basic metabolic type is just the first step - you then need to fine-tune an ideal eating plan on your own. But you're given a step-by-step process as well as numerous useful tips for doing so. Inspired by this book, I've started keeping a detailed food 'n' mood log and in just a few days have learned an absolutely amazing amount about my mind, body, and their dance with food. Highly, highly recommended...no matter what shape your stomach's in.
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Summary: Health by questionnaire.
Review: The fallacy of this book is its completely unscientific stance on "metabolic" types, a psuedoscientific idea whose time has long come and gone, except by certain diet extremists, to whom this represents being "individualized." Most of the sources the authors cite have been long discredited by reputable nutrition authorities, and virtually all of their information is anecdotal. There is no reliance on published studies, or for that manner, any studies undertaken by the authors themselves. Their questionaire method of metabolic type determination looks convincing, but no rational person would believe that this could substitute for appropriate testing, expecially if you are the "high protein metabolic type" and have problems with cholesterol. Read and believe at your own risk.
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Summary: An important contribution
Review: THE AUTHORS HAVE CLEARLY EXPRESSED A UINFIED THEORY OF BIOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALITY AND HAVE SYNTHESIZED A PRACTICLE AND, TO MY KNOWLEDGE, UNIQUELY COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO APPLYING THIS MOST FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE TO WELLNESS. I KNOW THAT THEIR PROGRAM IS EFFECTIVE, ITS LOGICAL, ITS SIMPLE AND IT IS TOO IMPORTANT TO OVERLOOK. ANYONE INTERESTED IN FINE TUNING THEIR PERSONAL HEALTH PROGRAM, OR WHO IS A PROFESSIONAL IN THE FIELD, WILL FIND THIS BOOK INFORMATIVE, STRAIGHT FORWARD, AND IMMENSELY VALUABLE.
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Summary: Really Helps You Learn What YOU Need to Eat
Review: This book has been invaluable in helping me to understand my individual dietary needs. By taking the test provided, I discovered, for example, that I NEED to eat meat at breakfast-- not just any protein, but meat, specifically-- and that I should avoid citrus. I'd already been leaning toward a more protein/fewer carbohydrates plan, but this approach has really helped me to customize my diet. As a result, I feel MUCH better, and have been able to lose weight without a struggle.
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Summary: Health and Weight Loss Problems Solved - finally
Review: Has to be the most interesting Health/Weight Loss book I've ever read. Waiting for soft cover to come out so I can buy many and give as gifts. 65 questions to answer to determine your "type" and then follow the correct eating program to solve your own health/weight problems. Love it.
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Summary: The Metabolic Typing Diet, by William Linz Wolcott
Review: This book will be helpful for people who want to understand nutrition and metabolism in a way they can use. Instead of just saying "do this," Wolcott lays out a coherent system for understanding how people burn their food quite differently, and why "one man's meat" is literally "another man's poison." He offers a tool for finding your own spot on the playing field of metabolic functioning. Only then does he say, "If your body uses food in this way, do this; if your body uses food in that way, do that." I am prejudiced; Wolcott's work saved my life. His program takes some effort to master and apply to your daily eating habits. The payoff is that you end up eating just the right things for YOU, and you will feel better than you thought possible. I would expect that at first, this book will mainly be used by people working to recover from chronic illnesses or fatigue, on the one hand, and by athletes who need top energy production, on the other. In the big picture, it shifts our perspective from "one size fits all" nutrition to individual nutrition that really does fit. As this perspective spreads through the nutritional world, the average person is going to get much better advice, and everyone's health will benefit.
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Summary: Customize Your Diet for Optimum Health & Fitness
Review: Are you overweight? Do you suffer with low energy, digestive problems, allergies, recurrent infections, irritability, high blood pressure, or other chronic ailments? Have you tried lots of diets with limited success? Are you confused by all the contradictory advice of nutrition experts? If your answer is "yes" to any of these questions, here's what you need to know: the real secret of health and fitness is customized nutrition. Modern nutritional science has long been based on standardized or one-size-fits-all dietary solutions. But this approach has proven to be very limited. It's the reason diets don't work for most people. Nutrition's best kept secret is simply this: what works for one person may have no effect on another person, and may make a third person worse. The very same foods that can keep you energized, healthy and slim can cause someone else to be fat, fatigued and unhealthy. Why? Because just as your outward appearance is different than everyone else's, you are very different internally as well, on a biochemical or metabolic level. For genetic reasons, we're all unique in the way that our bodies process foods and utilize nutrients. In the same way that certain cars are designed to run on gasoline while others require diesel fuel, each of our bodies has its own "engines of metabolism" and requires a specific kind of "body fuel" to function at peak efficiency. This is the reason why so many people today don't feel well and can't shed excess weight. Though you may be pursuing a "healthy" lifestyle -- eating only the best quality organic food, exercising regularly, and taking the finest supplements money can buy - you'll find that you won't be able to enjoy high level health unless you choose foods that are compatible with your own unique body chemistry. In other words, until you eat according to your "metabolic type." Your dietary needs are highly individualized, and largely determined by your ancestral heritage. Over thousands of years of evolutionary history, people in different parts of the world developed very specific dietary requirements as an adaptation mechanism, based upon many unique aspects of their habitats and lifestyles - including climate, vegetation, and other naturally occurring food supplies. As an example, many people who currently inhabit tropical or equatorial regions have a strong hereditary need for diets high in carbohydrates such as vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. These foods provide the kind of body fuel that is most compatible with the unique body chemistry of people who are genetically programmed to lead active lifestyles in warm and humid regions of the world. Their systems are simply not designed to process or utilize large quantities of animal protein and fat. Conversely, people from cold, harsh northern climates are not genetically equipped to survive on light vegetarian food. They tend to burn body fuel quickly, so they need heavier foods to sustain themselves. For instance, in traditional Eskimo cultures, there is virtually no heart disease or cancer, even though these people consume very large amounts of meat and fat each day. Needless to say, this type of diet would overwhelm the digestive tracts of people from, say, the Mediterranean basin. Today, however, due to industrialization, mass transportation and extensive intermarriage and intermingling of people from different cultures, our society has become a "genetic melting pot." Many of us have genetic influences from many directions, and no clear cut or readily identifiable "ancestral diet." For this and other reasons, including nutritional deficiencies, environmental stress, and various kinds of intermittent biochemical imbalances or fluctuations, we all need a systematic way of assessing what makes us unique on a metabolic level. Metabolic Typing offers the ideal solution. It's an advanced but very easy and accessible methodology that you or anyone can use to rapidly cut through the information glut of confusing fact and opinion and accurately identify your own unique nutritional requirments.
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Summary: The Big Picture on Nutrition Comes into View!
Review: At last! We're finally getting to see the big picture on nutrition. Reading "The Metabolic Typing Diet" feels like parasailing over the morass of confusion that plagues one at every step while wading through health magazines, diet books, supplement ads--not to mention mounds of junk mail. Why parasailing? Because the book's approach is anchored to real, solid fundamentals (starting with one's own experience). The concept is totally refreshing. Wolcott seems to be the guy who finally summons the courage to point to the emperor and bellow "he's got no clothes!" It's been totally obvious to anyone who has ever tried a diet that what works for others, alas, does not necessarily work for them. Wolcott seems to be the first to look around, believe what he and everyone else sees, and to dig deep right there. Brilliant breakthrough! In Wolcott's estimation, the people rule! Our metabolic type dictates the foods that will serve us. No more trying to fit into the square holes of theoretical diets. To me personally tailored diets based upon metabolic type make perfect sense! I have to hand it to Wolcott and Fahey. They've done an excellent job presenting the material-not because the information is so complex, but because it's so comprehensive. Simple and clear sums it up. The book has a rhythm and tempo that kept me alert, sparked my curiosity-answered my questions, and made me hungry for more. The weight loss chapter is masterful. It brings together all the pieces of the puzzle in a coherent picture that is immediately applicable. The book is a relief and a must! Leni Felton
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Summary: AT LAST: THE MISSING LINK
Review: AT LAST: THE MISSING LINK The Metabolic Typing Diet, by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey, is truly the most important nutritional book one can read to begin finding true and lasting health. How do I know? I am fortunate enough to have been following Mr. Wolcott's program for many years. After trying everything I could find from water fasting to the Hippocrates diet, to the Atkins high protein diet, I finally realized there was a missing link--I needed to know how MY body metabolizes. Fortunately, I came across Mr. Wolcott and his work. The metabolic typing diet, as put forth in the book, not only, I believe, saved my life, but has led to ever increasing health and energy. At 57 years of age, I am stronger and healthier than I was at 20, and feel better and better as I watch my friends and family succumb to the ravages and aches and pains of aging. Observing myself and others following the diet, I have seen both big and small health problems fade away as we balanced our body chemistry by supporting individual metabolic needs. No diet works for everyone, but the RIGHT diet for a particular individual does exist through metabolic typing. The Metabolic Typing Diet is truly the missing link on the nutritional information scene. Mr. Wolcott's work has been available to a fortunate few for years. I am so grateful to finally see this wonderful knowledge made available to the public. Read it. It will change your life. Betsy Hannah email: bbhannah@earthlink.net
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Summary: Follow up on January 2002 review
Review: I've now been on the program since November 2001. Two-and-a-half years later, I'm absolutely convinced without a doubt that eating according to what your body needs is the way to go. There are some wacky negative reviews that are quite perplexing. It appears some people need 200 scientific double blind studies certified by the FDA to be believable. Give me a break . . . Use your common sense. Wake up and eat a typical breakfast. Cereal & milk (carbs/sugar), toast & jelly (carbs/sugar), orange juice (sugar). Then an hour later ask yourself, how's your hunger & cravings? How's your energy? How's your concentration? How your mood? The next day eat the same, but add two scrambled eggs and cut out the OJ. Ask the same questions. Many people would feel better an hour later. Why? Added protein. How much should you add? That depends on what your body needs. Should everyone just add protein? Nope, we're all different. That's the whole point, but some people feel apparently feel threatened by this simple concept. Who thought of it first? Who cares! William Wolcott has used about twenty-five years of data to help you zero in on a starting point; the rest is up to you. As an endurance athlete (cycling coach), I can tell you that fueling your body is a huge key to success in sports. On the program I started eating more food, but better quality (whole/natural/organic . . . if I can't pronounce it, I try to avoid it). The result was dramatic. I've had clients follow the basic plan in the book and loose weight, but weight loss isn't the only goal. It is really a nutrition book, not merely a weight loss book. The nutritionist who I consult with always says that it is about "rebuilding your health." Anyone who knows anything about physiology will tell you the body is an amazing and complex system that always strives for homeostatic balance. This program is about helping your body achieve that goal by fueling it with the macronutrient ratio (percent of carbs, protein, and fats), that is wants. If you think this is about eating mostly animal protein, you're wrong. That is the Atkins diet; that some people do well on, some people don't change and some people do worse on. What explains that? Biochemical Individuality. How then do you figure out what to eat to balance your body? Eat according to YOUR OWN body's needs. Eat according to your metabolic type. "Nothing is more important to your health than something you put in your body several times a day, every day of your life." Want some common sense articles? Go to the chekinstitute.com site and look through the articles relating to eating. You want a more comprehensive plan? Buy Paul Chek's "How to Eat Move and Be Healty!" If you want more detailed information about eating, check out Mercola.com. Buy Dr. Mercola's new book, "Dr. Mercola's Total Health Cookbook." Though I think his plan is sometimes more difficult, check out his credentials and tell me his opinion isn't worth considering. If you want a wake up call, start reading the news about degenerative diseases, obesity, etc. There is a claxon bell ringing. If you don't hear it yet, you will. What ever you do, don't let people with their own negative attitudes prevent you from spending $10 and having the chance to improve your life in dramatic ways. Rebuilding your health to be the best you can be is a journey and this is a great first step. The risk? $10.
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