Product Description

Despite negative speculation in the media regarding the future of the low-carb diet, this revolutionary dietary phenomenon continues to attract an enormous following. The lure of the rapid weight loss causes converts to radically adjust their dietary habits in order to meet the demands of the lifestyle. Yet for many, this is simply not an option. Particularly ardent critics of the diet include vegetarians who are offered no alternatives to the high meat content; and what of those of us with a sweet tooth or those who need natural fibre in their diet? In this groundbreaking new work, Dr Charles Clark has devised a low-carb, low GI plan that caters for all types of dietary requirement. It's vegetarian-friendly and nutritionally-balanced, allowing for previously sinful foods including pasta, pulses, fruit and puddings. What's more, he has set out to counter the criticisms of those who argue that low-carb lifestyles can be detrimental to health. A series of medical case studies proves how adopting a low-carbohydrate diet can in fact be of benefit in certain key areas of health. So, if you feared you could never be part of the low-carb crowd, look no further-this is the diet for becoming slim and healthy the low-carb, low GI way, without cutting out the foods you love! "We've all heard of Jen and Madonna using high protein diets to lose weight. It's a tricky one to follow safely, but with Prof Charles Clark's sensible approach-us mere mortals can do it too." - New Woman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113084 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
"'We've all heard of Jen and Madonna using high protein diets to lose weight. It's a tricky one to follow safely, but with Prof Charles Clark's sensible approach...us mere mortals can do it too.' New Woman"

About the Author
Professor Charles Clark is an international authority on glaucoma and diabetes. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and was previously a Professor at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

Customer Reviews

Stimulating advice, but a bit heavy on jargon in places.
This latest edition follows on from the success of Charles Clark's "The New High Protein Diet". He begins by reiterating the principles of a low carbohydrate or low GI (low Glycaemic Index) diet, but cautions against diets which instruct you to cut out carbohydrates altogether or to reduce them to, say, 20gm per day. Clark emphasises that fruit and vegetables include carbohydrates and essential vitamins and minerals: it's not a good move to cut them out altogether.

Clark argues for a 40-50gm daily intake of carbohydrate, increasing this once your body weight has stabilised. He talks through the process (and the science) convincingly, but diverges from his earlier book by aiming this one at vegetarians and people who do enjoy pasta and rice. He suggests limiting your intake of red meat, dairy products and eggs - foodstuffs which had been advocated in the earlier work.

This book contains recipes for incorporating a wider range of fruit, grains, pasta, rice and pulses into your diet. Clark, however, recognises that you will have to start counting carbohydrates if you do so.

He explains the Glycaemic Index - it's a measure of the effect of any particular food on your blood glucose levels. People tend to gain weight not because of the quantities of food they eat, but the types of food they eat. A diet rich in carbohydrates stimulates the body to lay down reserves of fat rather than burn it off as fuel - hence the weight gain, and hence the value of low GI foods.

It's good stuff, it's well explained, but I can't help feeling you're better reading this book after you've read "The New High Protein Diet". The two do complement one another. The earlier book, in fact, is better in its explanation of the science. In this latest work, Clark includes case studies of patients of his who have experienced weight loss as a result of his diet. The case studies are too clinical. They contain phrases like, "a reduction in LDL by 23 per cent from 4.06 to 3.11 mmol/l". It's hardly inspirational stuff unless you like playing around with calculators and statistics. You sense he's trying to leverage his argument, to convince you, "trust me, I'm a doctor".

In places in this latest title Clark seems too concerned to display his medical credentials and scientific status. It's a touch too clinical ... and hence my sense that you really need the earlier title as a corrective - it gives you more confidence, it's a bit more accessible, it's simply more informative because it doesn't slide into jargon at the wrong time.

But that criticism apart, Clark is clearly aware that diet is not a subject to be analysed in isolation - it relates directly and intimately to broader questions of health and lifestyle. Clark is a doctor. If his clinical advice is at times obtuse, it is nevertheless realistic.

The book offers 190 pages of recipes and meal plans. Again, I'd caution about trying to rigidly follow his suggestions. Use the recipes as a means of identifying the foods and meals you really enjoy. Use them as a set of guidelines against which to measure your weekly shopping. Use them as a means to set yourself targets and develop good habits.

It's a useful, informative book, but I have to conclude with the same information I presented in my review of "The New High Protein Diet". You want to know does Clark's advice work? Well, yes. I'm not going to repeat myself ... just take a look at the earlier review!

easy, sensible and no wierd ingredients!
I love the previous books by Charles Clark as they are very down to earth and the recipes call for ingredients the vast majority of us recognise and can get. Unlike the American low carb books, these recipes are geared to our tastes. I always feel perplexed at some of the recipes the American books contain as they are full of wierd ingredients and strange combinations.This is great on its own but even better as an addition to the previous books.

An incomplete product - buyer beware
I agree entirely with Mark's review of the 12 May 2007. The book starts well and then runs out of useful content very quickly. It's not a bad introduction to the basics of the low-carb/low-gi concepts and, fair enough, there are plenty of recipes.

However, I'm writing this review to declare my main gripe with the book which, after my trawl through the constant and repetitive sales pitch in the early chapters (why do people do this? I've already bought the book) has left me feeling pretty cheated. The reason is this: the 'diet' part of the book is made up of about 1/3 recipes from this book and 2/3 recipes from their other three books on the same/similar subjects. These are the same books touted repeatedly in the preceding chapters.

So this book only appears to be a complete product if you're prepared to pay for the quadrilogy (which I'm not), and then prepared to flick back and forth between the whole library in order to get a meal plan out of it.

Not for me thanks.