Description:
Different diets work for different people. Otherwise, how could people advocating a Pritikin-type diet of high carbohydrates and low fat claim success when Atkins-diet followers also claim success with high fat and low carbohydrates? Gittleman is in the more recently minted 40-30-30 camp. That is, she recommends a diet of 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat for most men. Practically speaking, given the average diet of American men, this means eating a little less fat, a lot fewer carbohydrates, and a lot more protein. Still, she acknowledges that some guys will feel better and control their weight more easily with a different nutrient balance. Much of the nutritional advice here falls into the haven't-we-heard-this-somewhere-before? category, including advice on eating foods in their least processed state and substituting some saturated fats for unsaturated ones, while altogether avoiding some fats, such as the hydrogenated, heart-clogging trans fats in margarine. Once past these basics, though, Gittleman looks at the major health problems facing men--prostate enlargement, heart disease, weight gain--and offers nutritional advice to combat them. For example, the section on heart health contains an illuminating discussion of cholesterol. She lists lots of factors that cause it to rise, but notes that eating eggs and other cholesterol-rich foods isn't among them--something many men don't realize. Gittleman uses an eclectic array of sources to make her various points--including literature from the Balance Bar company, which makes nutrition bars with the 40-30-30 formula. Once that bias is accounted for, though (she cites studies that show world-class athletes performed better on the 40-30-30 diet), the information in Super Nutrition for Men will be useful to regular guys. --Lou Schuler
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