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3.23 AVERAGE
3.23 AVERAGE
I give 5-stars to most of the recipes, and 1-star to the "8-week plan" which was way too general and quite feeble.
I don't mind the use of a little brown rice or maple syrup like others seem to have a problem with, so if you're totally against that you may not like this one.
I don't mind the use of a little brown rice or maple syrup like others seem to have a problem with, so if you're totally against that you may not like this one.
Things I Liked:
—A lot of the recipes look like they'll work for me and look yummy.
—The recipes use the same major ingredients, so you don't have to spend a fortune on random health-food ingredients you'll never use again.
—The book has lists of things to stock up on, etc., so you can more easily make shopping lists.
—The pictures are beautiful.
—The graphic design is nice.
—Wilson does a good job of stressing that a positive attitude, not a deprivation-focused one, is important.
—Wilson does a good job of talking about how each person is different and has to experiment to find out what works best for them.
—Despite the book description, the book doesn't focus on losing weight, etc. The focus is very much on sustainable, healthy eating.
—The author is up-front about the fact that she isn't perfect and sometimes does eat sugar.
—I loved the perspective about how cheating is an opportunity to observe how the sugar makes you feel, why you ate it, how you react, etc., not a reason to beat yourself up.
Things I Didn't Like:
—There wasn't a ton of source citation for the claims about the damaging effects of sugar.
—While the author criticizes past dietary crazes that demonized fat, statements like "sugar makes you fat," generalize so much that the book comes across as another fad and the author's legitimate points lose authority.
—The 8-week plan is kind of vague and won't work for everyone. For example, I know my food habits well enough to know that I need some time to prep new foods and stock up on ingredients, but after that I just need to cut out all the sugar I plan to cut out. Having a couple weeks to cut down on sugar won't work for me because I'll break down and go all Mardi Gras on that sugar.
—Additionally, while I agree that I may struggle more around Week X, I don't know that everyone will just coast along before that and not need the Week X information earlier. A lot of the steps kind of seemed thrown in so that the middle weeks between quitting and having quit for weeks would have labels.
—I haven't read the original IQS book, so maybe she goes into more detail about the whole fructose/glucose thing here, but I wasn't clear on why she says "quitting sugar means quitting fructose," rather than "quitting fructose and glucose that breaks down easily." The recipes are generally gluten-free and don't contain a lot of simple carbs, but there's not a clear focus on why that is or what makes fructose more concerning than easily digested glucose. I mean, I get that the world already has five million books about the glycemic index, so I'm not saying that focusing on fructose was a bad publishing decision, but I'm not clear on the dietary reasoning.
—A lot of the recipes look like they'll work for me and look yummy.
—The recipes use the same major ingredients, so you don't have to spend a fortune on random health-food ingredients you'll never use again.
—The book has lists of things to stock up on, etc., so you can more easily make shopping lists.
—The pictures are beautiful.
—The graphic design is nice.
—Wilson does a good job of stressing that a positive attitude, not a deprivation-focused one, is important.
—Wilson does a good job of talking about how each person is different and has to experiment to find out what works best for them.
—Despite the book description, the book doesn't focus on losing weight, etc. The focus is very much on sustainable, healthy eating.
—The author is up-front about the fact that she isn't perfect and sometimes does eat sugar.
—I loved the perspective about how cheating is an opportunity to observe how the sugar makes you feel, why you ate it, how you react, etc., not a reason to beat yourself up.
Things I Didn't Like:
—There wasn't a ton of source citation for the claims about the damaging effects of sugar.
—While the author criticizes past dietary crazes that demonized fat, statements like "sugar makes you fat," generalize so much that the book comes across as another fad and the author's legitimate points lose authority.
—The 8-week plan is kind of vague and won't work for everyone. For example, I know my food habits well enough to know that I need some time to prep new foods and stock up on ingredients, but after that I just need to cut out all the sugar I plan to cut out. Having a couple weeks to cut down on sugar won't work for me because I'll break down and go all Mardi Gras on that sugar.
—Additionally, while I agree that I may struggle more around Week X, I don't know that everyone will just coast along before that and not need the Week X information earlier. A lot of the steps kind of seemed thrown in so that the middle weeks between quitting and having quit for weeks would have labels.
—I haven't read the original IQS book, so maybe she goes into more detail about the whole fructose/glucose thing here, but I wasn't clear on why she says "quitting sugar means quitting fructose," rather than "quitting fructose and glucose that breaks down easily." The recipes are generally gluten-free and don't contain a lot of simple carbs, but there's not a clear focus on why that is or what makes fructose more concerning than easily digested glucose. I mean, I get that the world already has five million books about the glycemic index, so I'm not saying that focusing on fructose was a bad publishing decision, but I'm not clear on the dietary reasoning.
I really like this book. Even though her meal plan doesn't mirror my fructose malabsorption issue, it's pretty close. Beautiful pictures. Love the instruction/information and the recipes.
This is the sort of book you'll dip in and out of as you go through the process of quitting sugar. I got a little scared of going the whole hog so opted to cut down on sugar in my tea and drink more herbal teas without sugar, which I'm enjoying. Some of the ingredients are a little out of my comfort zone and some aren't available all year round (like pumpkin). I'm sure to go back to it as it sits on my shelf and I have a moment of feeling the need to try the recipes out.
I’m always on the look out for a great book that has common sense and health at it’s core and with Sarah Wilson’s (who has several other books to help you kick sugar from your diet) 8-week detox plan there is no reason to put it off anymore. I will admit that I have a huge sweet tooth – sugar, white bread, Coca-Cola, are my downfalls and that has played a part (but not the sole reason) for me having to deal with diabetes which I know with diet change can reverse itself – but I’m also lazy when it comes to my food. The first part of the book is the plan – it’s 8 weeks and it’s not going cold turkey, although if you’re like me, it will probably feel like cold turkey. Sugar is something none of us need and it’s created an unhealthy society and one that is obese and fighting the diseases that come with obesity. Week 1 is focusing on cutting back, that’s it, cutting back – I get headaches if I go cold turkey off sugar so I’m glad this more of a step down program. Each week has a new topic, even one that most doctors would set their hair on fire from reading, eat fat – not this “low fat” craze that has made more of even more fat (Sarah includes a lot of scientific research to back it up) and helpful tips as well as which recipes to use in the book – such as how to read a food label and crunchy-nut cheesecake.
There will be a time that you can add back in sweets, note that I did not say sugar, but sweets – like Stevia can be used to sweeten your sweets. There are some fruits that are off limits and Sarah will explain all about that and why to avoid and if you can’t avoid them eat only in small amounts. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet because I don’t have some of the ingredients on hand, like brown rice syrup or cardamon seeds and I can’t eat eggs so I have to work on tweaking certain aspects or finding another recipe all together. My one and only pet peeve about this book is when it’s mentioned as to whether or not it’s Paleo (it’s Paleo friendly and also has some vegan/vegetarian substitutions) she mentions something about this being how “our hunter-gatherer ancestors did 10,000 years ago”. However, even with those two things (all the eggs) and the whole cave-man issue this is a great book to have on hand and get your body off sugar in a way that doesn’t force you off at day 1 and to not recognize the temptations (thankfully Sarah recognizes that we’ll be tempted and gives a lot of encouragement to go on).
**I was given a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.
There will be a time that you can add back in sweets, note that I did not say sugar, but sweets – like Stevia can be used to sweeten your sweets. There are some fruits that are off limits and Sarah will explain all about that and why to avoid and if you can’t avoid them eat only in small amounts. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet because I don’t have some of the ingredients on hand, like brown rice syrup or cardamon seeds and I can’t eat eggs so I have to work on tweaking certain aspects or finding another recipe all together. My one and only pet peeve about this book is when it’s mentioned as to whether or not it’s Paleo (it’s Paleo friendly and also has some vegan/vegetarian substitutions) she mentions something about this being how “our hunter-gatherer ancestors did 10,000 years ago”. However, even with those two things (all the eggs) and the whole cave-man issue this is a great book to have on hand and get your body off sugar in a way that doesn’t force you off at day 1 and to not recognize the temptations (thankfully Sarah recognizes that we’ll be tempted and gives a lot of encouragement to go on).
**I was given a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.
I wasn't really expecting much, but this was below even that. Very repetitive and seemed to be split up into the "8-Week Program" completely unecessarily. I could at least say it was a nice cookbook but the recipes were obvious and uncreative. Like a lot of self-help books, this was a blog-post's worth of content stretched out into an entire book for the sake of sales. Really disappointing.
What she says makes sense and the recipes are full of sugar-free ideas, I'm going to do my best to reduce my sugar intake, but this book is in demand and I have to give it back.
Interesting, worth a read, thought provoking.
Interesting, worth a read, thought provoking.