Rating: 
Summary: The Dr. mirkin Way to loose weight
Review: My husband and I have been on the Mirkin diet for about 5 years. After we started about 3 or 4 weeks, my husband's blood pressure fell from 170 over 90 to 130 over 62. He lost 15 lbs and no meat only the merkin diet. Also no medication of any kind. he is 75 years old.
My blood pressure has always been great, but I lost 20 lbs and kept it off without feeling hungry.
Janet Hahn
Rating:
Summary: A healthy life, a healthy heart
Review: Thank you soooo much for your wonderful book. It is the best yet! Your info is so understandable for a lay person such as myself (not a medical professional). and all the recipes we've tried have been wonderful. I've been passing them out to everyone and telling everyone about the wonderful book. No excuses any more for anyone to be overweight or unhealthy. I have been on your diet for about 8 years now and have even fine tuned it to the Dash plus. I eat a lot of food (the food you recommend) and I am 108 lbs., 56 yrs old, have great blood pressure and cholesterol readings. Plus a great exercise program for the week. I feel I am doing the best I can do
for my health. How satisfying! Yet some people just don't want to hear it. So instead of talking about it, they just see me living it. Thank you again. Keep up the good work - miss you on the radio but I listen to your archives.
Rating:
Summary: The best of his books yet!
Review: Thank you soooo much for your wonderful book. It is the best yet! Your info is so understandable for a lay person such as myself (not a medical professional). and all the recipes we've tried have been wonderful. I've been passing them out to everyone and telling everyone about the wonderful book. No excuses any more for anyone to be overweight or unhealthy. I have been on your diet for about 8 years now and have even fine tuned it to the Dash plus. I eat a lot of food (the food you recommend) and I am 108 lbs., 56 yrs old, have great blood pressure and cholesterol readings. Plus a great exercise program for the week. I feel I am doing the best I can do
for my health. How satisfying! Yet some people just don't want to hear it. So instead of talking about it, they just see me living it. Thank you again. Keep up the good work - miss you on the radio but I listen to your archives.
Rating: 
Summary: GOOD POINTS, SERIOUS OMISSIONS
Review: THE GOOD NEWS: this new Merkins book has valuable info and a road map for heart health; it gives a precise program to follow based on minimally refined grains, beans, vegetables and NO fat or cholesterol.You throw away your bread, flour, meats, cheeses, butter and eggs -which probably leads to weight loss and changed lab results. The book is excellent in the processed carbs department. UNFORTUNATELY, much has changed that this book does not well deal with. The homocysteine chemistry in screwed up and you should get tested and ask your doctor -rather than use a simple high-dose multi-vitamin that lowers this blood toxin in everyone. Higher than minimal amounts of homocysteine may well underlie MOST heart and Alzheimer's disease yet a multi-vitamin [the only therapy] is not recommended, and the cut-off point "40" is 5 - 7x the desirable level. Avoiding meat will not control homocysteine as was once thought. Then, there is the failure to suggest omega-3 oils [flax(lin)seed- or canola] -since by far THE most successful heart trials ever supplied those fatty acids [even mustard oil]. While the American Heart Association recommends them and the similar Ornish Diet has made these changes [omega-3 oils plus multivitamins], this book promotes the ancient fat 'n cholesterol phobia. The 1 tablespoon allowed olive oil is healthy but a rotten source of fatal-arrhythmia preventing omega-3. It is clear by now that cholesterol in fresh food is NOT harmful -as the listed cholesterol lowering drugs have not reduced mortality. Note the current Lipitor ad on TV: "Lipitor has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks." This is the #1 cholesterol drug that in the massive 3 year ASCOT trial saved exactly nobody. Updates should correct these failings and abandon the blind avoidance of the heart-vital omega-3 oils. Beans, grains and "seeds" are only so-so sources of these oils, and the suggestion to eat "cottonseeds" [think zero omega-3 and pesticide residue] boggles the mind. Nuts are healthy but effectively only walnuts have omega-3. The avoidance of animal products and natural fats has not shown to reduce mortality, and there were unprocessed meat-based societies [Inuit, Lapps] and 50% saturated coconut fat based diets [Polynesia] where heart disease was effectively absent. It is time these well known facts are incorporated in any heart-health book. The references are up-to-date and the book has many good points -but it is wise to consider the above failings and the wisdom of, for example, Dr. K. McCully's book by the same publisher: The Heart Revolution, the Extraordinary Discovery that "Laid the Cholesterol Myth to Rest. [ISBN 0060929731].
Eddie Vos vos@health-heart.org
Rating:
Summary: A dramatic turnaround for a dying diabetic
Review: The story I have to tell concerns my then 69-year-old husband, a long-time diabetic who refused to toe the line until he ended up with a congestive heart failure and hypertension. He was waiting for a quad bypass (1998--the urgency being one point below an emergency op.) when I happened to tune in to Dr Mirkin's radio program. During the scary four months he had to wait for the op (sudden death being the option), he agreed to try the Mirkin's whole grain, veg, fruit, nuts legume diet. Since then, he's cut his weight by twenty pounds and has never been healthier. After the first year, his cardiologist was amazed at his progress, his heart's size shrinking to normal, and its ejection fraction improving from a 22% to normal. It was a dramatic recovery and things have stayed this way for five years. Another important point is that his insulin requirements have more than halved since he's been on this "diet" or lifestyle.
Rating:
Summary: The Healthy Heart Miracle by Mirkin
Review: This book will assist you in maintaining a healthy heart utilizing natural protocols. The authors caution to utilize
refined carbs sparingly. Protein builds up the body in elderly people. As such, lean meat, fish and non-fat dairy are preferred.
The DASH protocol is described at length. It involves generous helpings of fruits, veggies, fat-free dairy, nuts, legumes and olive oil. Exercises are depicted to assist arthritis sufferers.
One exercise involves sitting in a chair, folding the arms and
bending forward. The C-reactive protein and homocysteine blood levels are cited as meaningful predictors of heart disease.
This book is an excellent value for the money. It will help you craft a meaningful exercise program and diet regimen. The contents will benefit people of all ages. The book is directed to middle-aged and elderly people. As such, it will benefit this constituency maximally.
Rating:
Summary: Left diabetes behind!
Review: Using a food plan very much like Dr. Mirkin's I have shed over 90 pounds in the last two years. When I began the program I was a Type II diabetic and within three months on the program I had left diabetes behind. I eat NO sugar, NO flour and NO excess fats. My husband is also following the plan and has improved his blood sugars from 14-16 to a consistent 6-8. He also has shed pounds and we both continue to lose weight. I will eat this way for the rest of my life and it is not difficult at all.
Rating:
Summary: A healthy life, a healthy heart
Review: What a terrific book. The information is so easy to read and
understand.
> All the lab tests your doctor orders are listed and explained in detail so
> the average person can understand their meaning and importance. I already
> have a healthy heart but was concerned about my blood pressure starting to
> creep up a tad as I aged.I decided to give the diet a try so I could
perhaps
> make a lifestyle change now that would carry me through later years. Love
> ya Gabe but I would rather not have to be in the doctor's office. The
Show
> Me diet is fabulous. Tremendously healthy and so easy to prepare. I made
> the container of starter vegetables and added to my premade salad as
needed.
> Very little time involved. I work two jobs and have little time for food
> preparation. I had no problem sticking to the two weeks of salads. I put
> everything under the sun in my mixture. For a treat, I added shrimp. I
> believe that the addition of a slice of avacodo, the nuts, and the
sprinkle
> of cheese gave me the small amount of fat I needed to keep me from craving
> other foods, even sugar? That in itself is a miracle. 4 weeks without
sugar
> is a huge change for me. I started on the other recipes last weekend.
> Wow. So delicious and so easy to prepare. I made the Waldorf Salad and
> will have it for the week. The beans, chick pea soup ( my personal
> favorite) and pea soup I prepared and froze in small serving sizes in my
> freezer for the week. I have had no problem following this plan and
> absolutely no hunger or cravings for other foods. This is too good to be
> true. I have tons of energy, no more sleepy me at work.
>
> Ordered my Black and Decker Steamer yesterday. Now I can start the
grains,
> go to the gym and when I return they will be done! How easy can that be?
>
> I already exercise regularly but for some reason the idea of interval
> training finally kicked in. I have seen alot of improvment. I can also
see
> how one may exercise daily yet still not be fit. I love to run but with
the
> years are starting to creep up, I fear I may wear out my joints. I may
have
> to find a new sport.
>
> Gosh, I just can't say enough about this book. So informative and
helpful.
> I am trying to read only a week at a time but the darn book is so good
that
> I keep sneaking ahead.
> Everyone at work has been looking at it and I plan to give it to an good
> friend who suffered a stroke last year because of high blood pressure. I'll feed him a couple meals here
and
> there so he can see how good it tastes and how filling it is.
>
Thanks again for another great book. You and Diana contribute a great
> service to the community.
>
>
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