|
Potatoes Not Prozac, A Natural Seven-Step Dietary Plan to Stabilize the Level of Sugar in Your Blood, Control Your Cravings and Lose Weight, and Recognize How Foods Affect the Way You Feel (平装)
by Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.
| Category:
Diet, Health and Life |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
This bestselling book about balance your blood sugar, seritonin, and beta-endorphins is what? Priceless and life changing! |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
|
| |
AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 12 items |
|
|
Christiane Northrup (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
I very much look forward to recommending the book to all those who I know without a doubt are suffering from sugar addiction and all its myriad consequences. |
|
|
Mary Dan Eades (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
An important message of hope for successfully battling addiction to food, alcohol and drugs. |
|
|
David Spero (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
Potatoes not Prozac is a cutesy name for a truly wonderful book that will help millions of people heal their bodies and their lives. Her concept of "sugar sensitivity" and her 7-step treatment plan will enable readers to understand and recover from addiction to foods, drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. People who have failed repeatedly at sobriety or weight loss can succeed with this plan, as thousands have already.
Kathleen des Maisons learned about the importance of sugar through her work as a drug and alcohol treatment counselor. She was having the usual low success rate in helping people stay off alcohol. Then she discovered how certain foods lead to addiction to alcohol and drugs, as well as being addictive themselves.
She found that nearly all alcoholics lived largely on pasta, white breads and sweet things. She knew what they were suffering. Her own father drank himself to death at age 51, and she herself weighed 240 pounds and had had problems with drinking. When she discovered the benefits of a diet high in protein and vegetables for herself, she started using it with her clients. Her success rates soared, even with the hardest cases.
She realized that addictive behavior has a lot to do with food, and that sugar was the primary culprit. She believes that some people are born "sugar-sensitive," which means they don't have enough serotonin or beta-endorphin in their brains. Serotonin and beta-endorphin make us feel secure, stable, confident, cheerful. If you have low levels of these chemicals, you are likely to feel badly.
Sugar and alcohol raise your serotonin and beta-endorphin levels. So they make you feel better and more energetic, especially if your levels were low to start with. Unfortunately, eating concentrated sugars or refined carbohydrates causes a rebound effect. Your sugars levels drop quickly, you feel worse than before, and you need more sugar, caffeine or alcohol to pick back up.
Pretty soon you're addicted. You feel alternately great and miserable. The sugar swings stress your adrenal glands. You blame yourself for being out of control and unfocused, for putting on weight or drinking, but actually it's the sugar. It's a physical problem, although emotions do play a part.
Getting off sugar is difficult. Our food supply is awash in sugars and simple carbs. They can't be avoided. Des Maisons gives us a practical strategy based on 12-step recovery programs. Her seven steps are
1. Keep a food journal every day
2. Eat three meals a day at regular intervals
3. Take Vitamin C, B complex, and zinc
4. Eat enough protein at each meal
5. Move from simple to complex carbohydrates, or from "white foods" to "brown" and "green" foods. "Brown" refers to things like whole grains and beans. "Green" means vegetables, of whatever color.
6. Reduce or eliminate sugars (including alcohol)
7. Create a plan for maintenance.
She doesn't spell out a diet or recommend a lot of supplements or medications. She says that, using her steps, each person can figure out for herself what is best for her body to eat. She wants you to go through the 7 steps slowly, not to get impatient and rush ahead. The idea is to build a better relationship with your body and with food, to learn how food relates to your physical and emotional feelings.
Des Maisons writes with a compassion that comes from living with sugar addiction herself. Chapter 3 is called, "It's Not Your Fault." (I also use that title in my book, The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness.) Her plan is based on "abundance, not deprivation." This means you focus more on adding good things (foods, exercise, prayer, pleasure etc), rather than giving things up. She keeps telling us to be gentle with ourselves, to focus on "progress, not perfection." She also has a great sense of humor and an apparent affection for potatoes.
Potatoes not Prozac also gives a very clear explanation of the biochemistry of addiction. She explains how serotonin and beta-endorphin are produced, get to the brain, and are regulated there, and how our food affects all those processes. She cites more than 50 studies in support of her ideas, although most of them are animal studies.
I disagree with Des Maisons on a couple of points. I don't think sugar-sensitivity is all in your genes. Your early environment, including the environment in your mother's uterus, makes a big difference. Also, I'm pretty sure that too much stress or too sugary a diet at any time in your life can create sugar-sensitivity or something very much like it.
But these are small complaints. The author's brilliant insights into sugar and addiction, her clear explanations of difficult concepts, her simple but effective treatment plan, and her generous and positive spirit make this book a treasure that can help with a wide variety of health and life issues. It's wonderful.
|
|
|
Tenhunfeld (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
The author seems to know her brain chemistry, and the plan she outlines does well. For anyone struggling with sugar sensitivity, I heartily recommend this book. However, I do have a few minor issues.
First, golden/white/baking potatoes are NOT a healthy bedtime snack. Their fiber to carb ratio is way too low, and there are many other slow release carbs that are better for the purpose of activating trytophan. I suspect that she uses them partly just to have a catchy title for her book. Thankfully, she does not spend too much time focusing on the potato. Besides the potato anomaly, her diet advice is on target and insightful.
Second, her charts on symptoms of sugar sensitivity are much too inclusive. By her account, almost everyone I know is a sugar sensitive person, and that is simply not true. It has a certain feel that I can only compare to a fortune teller, telling you things that are so broad and vague you will undoubtedly feel they apply to you. And she removes a little too much personal responsibility. She even has a section titled, "It's not your fault." That's exactly what I like my diet books telling me. It's my alcoholic father and sugar-addicted mother; it's not me stuffing my face with sweets. However, body image is a very sensitive issue for people, especially people who, like me, experienced childhood as an overweight kid. So, maybe she needs to use these gentle methods.
Of course, I think that I might be less sugar sensitive than some people reading this book. I have successfully used the Atkins for rapid weight loss, and I am currently living by a slightly personalized Sugar Busters model.
Part of my disappointment with this book was my own expectations. I was looking for a book that told me the details of how sugar/carbohydrates affect neurotransmitters. She does cover this topic fairly well, but she does so in a generalizing and summary manner.
This book is great for sugar sensitive people looking for an eating plan and change of lifestyle. However, if you already are familiar with the working of simple carbohydrates on blood sugar and are looking for a more detailed explanation on the interaction of simple carbohydrates and brain chemistry/neurotransmitters, I suggest that you look elsewhere. |
|
|
Victoria (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
This book has changed my life in only one month. I wake with balanced even mood. I have lost weight. The sugar cravings have disappeared. It is work to eat in balanced meals, but worth the effort. I am a vegetarian and it was hard to eat that much protein. I now can see how commercially processed food is overstimulating our taste buds, which then deadens them until they only want sugar and salt. Now I can enjoy the taste of quinoa, beets, and cabbage. These foods were unappealing and tasteless only a month ago. |
|
|
An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
I have always battled with eating sweets. I struggled with eating sweets between meals and right after eating a meal - even though I was full. I used to eat cake and cookies for breakfast and lunch. My favorite part of a meal was dessert! For the first time in my life, I actually am not craving sugary sweets after most of my meals. I am only on step 2 of this book, but I am already experiencing some wonderful and freeing changes! This book pointed out that I don't have to snack between meals - because it will encourage me to "graze" throughout the day and it's true. I have been able to actually not snack (most of the time) between meals and experience true hunger when it's time to eat (as long as it doesn't exceed 5 hours). Not grazing has helped me a lot.
Though I am only on step 2 (read the book and you'll see why), I am already cutting down the white stuff - bread, pasta, rice and replacing it with brown. I had some strawberries for a dessert the other day and actually enjoyed them without sugar. That's the first time I ever did that. I used to coat them in sugar. I usually do not like water, but am learning to sip on it between meals and it is helping me not snack as it gives me a little feeling of something in my belly. I am also tasting food better and fuller now.
The only time I struggle with binging on sweets is when I'm lonely or anxious! That's when it's tough and sometimes I give in. The good news is, it is easier for me to get back on track after I've "messed up." I still crave the sweets because I have "primed the pump" by having sugar. However, because I was in a daily habit of lowering my sugar intake, it was easier to get back on track.
This is a very gradual book. She doesn't push you into anything and encourages you to take your time even if you are at a step for several months (like me). But I can testify that even though I have been at step 2 for 2 months now, I am making progress.
Sugar was my friend and I couldn't go through this process until I was ready to refine my relationship with it. But when I was ready, this was the book to see me through. Give it a shot, you may experience a transformed way of life and eating that you've never known. This book has helped change 34 years of disorded eating!
|
|
|
Fink (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
Everyone should read this book. Doctors should give it to their patients. It describes in very easy to understand language how the body chemistry works in relation to food. Now I understand the basis of so many diets. It is easier to get my kids to try to eat more sensibly when I can explain what food does to their bodies and brains and how it affects their ability to behave calmly, concentrate and think clearly. It is simple chemistry! |
|
|
Kate (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
The insights from this book on beta-endorphins I found particularly helpful. I've never seen it presented in such a complete way. For many people this may help explain why SSRI's like Prozac, alone, have not eliminated their symptoms of depression. The information about blood sugar and raising serotonin levels I've seen elsewhere, but it is the combination of that information along with the beta-endorphin information which, to me, makes this book particularly helpful not only to people who suffer from addictions and depression, but those who experience painful anxiety as well. |
|
|
Jeanne (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
This book has given me what years of medication, therapy and 12 step works could not: peace of mind. |
|
|
Grey (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
The author explains how sugars and simple carbohydrates cause fatigue, depression, and a bunch of other undesirable effects in people she calls "sugar sensitive." She helps the reader determine whether he or she might be sugar sensitive, and then lays out a plan for adjusting eating habits away from sugars and simple carbohydrates to benefit from better energy and better moods.
I'm skeptical of books like this one, even when they explain the "science" behind their claims, as this one does. But the proof, as this author might say, is in the sugar-free pudding. I met the author's self-diagnostic criteria for sugar sensitivity, and decided to give the plan a try. The author is adamant that you follow her plan exactly, but I have not done that. I'm following all the steps, but in an order that makes more sense to me. As the author predicts, by eating protein at (almost) every meal, cutting out obvious sugars, and favoring brown stuff over white stuff, I feel remarkably better. It's not like I'm suddenly Mr. Cheerful or have a ton of energy, but I'm able to take on the day much better and my mood remains pretty even all the time. I welcome these changes! So does my family.
|
|
|
|
1 2 | Total 2 pages 12 items |
|
|
|
|
|
|
