Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less: A Flexible and Delicious Way to Shrink Your Waist Without Going Hungry

Walter Willet is the head of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard and author of 'Eat, Drink , and Be Healthy'. He opens the book with a personal preface explaining his family connection with good food, and farming. He then tells about his professional career and his participation in Dr. Frank Speizer's 'Nurses Health Study' enabled him to better understand the principles of proper nutrition. His collaborator Molly Katzen author of the 'Moosewood Cook Book' is a specialist in preparing and providing healthy vegetable rich meals. Her job in the book is to provide the recipes which will be in tune with the principles Dr. Willett elaborates. These principles they label nine turning points. 1) Eat Lots of Vegetables and Fruits 2) Say Yes to Good Fats 3) Upgrade your carbohydrates 4) Choose healthy proteins 5)Stay hydrated 6) Drink Alcohol in moderation (optional) 7)Take a multavitamin every day 8)Move more 9) Eat mindfully all day long. They also provide a method for assessing your 'body-score' of keeping tabs on how you are doing, and improving it. They also provide three different food regimens, each for a different purpose. A warm-up plan to get people going into proper eating, a twenty- one day more rapid weight- loss diet, and a long- term maintenance plan. Part three of the book contains the recipes, and Part Four is what they call a Tool Kit, a shopping guide, and a guide on how to eat well through life's ups and downs. It is hard for me to believe that most readers would know all the information and insight provided in this book. i.e. I think there must be something valuable for all ' conscious eaters' even if the very knowledgeable. I am not a big maven on this subject but I have taken an interest in it for years. Nonetheless I learned many things from this book. Why of all vegetables one of my great favorites 'potatoes' is not recommended for a diet. Why the whole wheat grains and rices are truly preferable to the white- stuff as they slow down digestion and absorption. Why cooked tomatoes are a valuable ingredient in the diet. Why the best diet is not a fat- free but rather one which makes use of the 'healthy kind of fat'. Why tuna, salmon, mackerel, herring providing Omega -3 are so important for our health. Why and how conscious eating can make for a truly improved feeling about oneself and one's life. This is a very good book and I highly recommend it.

Willett's first book was excellent, so I was so excited when he came out with a book geared to those of us who have weight to lose. The advice is sound and healthy, and does not cut anything out. This truly is a lifestyle plan even more than a diet. The idea of adding in healthy choices to eventually overtake the unhealthy ones is psychologically much better than feeling totally restricted. This book is truly based on science and health studies, and by no means is it a fad diet. The body score quiz keeps you mindful of what you are eating, as well as your habits. This is the first time I have looked forward to starting a "diet", and have truly believed it is one that I could stay on and adapt as needed. The Portable Plan is a great companian, as there is a fair amount of cooking on the 21 day plan. The message of the book is so positive - every little bit of good eating and exercise helps. I cannot say yet whether it works or not. I started the 21 day diet yesterday, and so far it is great. Willett could not have chosen a better person to work with on the book. Katzen's recipes are delicious and simple. I have looked forward to and utterly enjoyed all of the recipes. I know I am eating healthfully and nutritiously. This is the book I have been waiting for my whole life! ** Update: While it takes a lot of work to follow the 21 day diet to the letter because there is a lot of cooking involved, if you are able to do it, you will not be disappointed. The meals are DELICIOUS and very well planned. There is so much food, you will be shocked to see what happens to your body.I quickly became leaner and I have had an amazing amount of energy. Granted, each person is different, but for me, my body started to change immediately even when the scale hadn't shown much change. The actual pounds may not drop off like on more of a fad diet, but I have been so happy on this plan and I and others see and feel the results. Learn to adapt it to suit your needs and it will work for you as a long-term approach to eating. Best of luck to all!**

Just finished reading this book and am looking forward to putting it into my life. The "Nine Turning Points" provide straightforward guidelines to follow generally, the "Body Score" gives a good way to track progress and stay accountable (something I liked about WeightWatchers points), and the multiple plans allow you to adapt the guidelines to an ever-changing life. I appreciated the positive character of the book- focusing on adding into your diet and being positive about food rather than stressing the negatives and things you need to deprive yourself of. Some of the smaller tips about HOW to eat your meals (slowing down, savoring them) sounded trite in the beginning but actually have made a difference. Finally, I love the recipes. I think following the 21 Day Plan for me to a tee will not be possible, but the book gives you ways to substitute on days when you don't have time for the recipes and give good ideas on how to use the same cooking session to benefit a few meals. A few of the meals are a little too out there for me, but I was pleasantly suprised at how many of them I actually looked forward to trying (many more than when I look through an average health food cookbook, even one of Katzen's). There's also a great little guide about how to shop for certain items (yogurt, bread, cereal, etc.) that helps you make the best choices in these areas. Overall, a really great book-- would definitely recommend it for those looking to improve their health in a longterm way.

I was spurred to write this upon reading the review by Suzi from Honolulu, right after hearing an interview with Mollie Katzen about this new book on the radio. I thought it would be clarifying to point out that Ms. Katzen specifically geared the recipes in the excellent "Eat, Drink & Weigh Less" to beginning cooks, and/or not-particularly-foodies. She actually explained this in some detail in the interview - that many people are not used to whole grains, and vegetable dishes, and that not knowing about these types of food and worry that they are too complicated and time-consuming is a main deterrent for many people to eating healthily. I also do some free-lance food writing, and I know how tricky it can be to figure out what level of experience to address in writing recipes. Ms. Katzen talked about wanting to make these recipes more welcoming to people who've never cooked from her books before, or have rarely cooked at all. There's always someone feeling disappointed if a recipe is either too complicated, or too simple (although I've never heard anyone complain about the latter). Just thought I would point that out. I myself was relieved to see the recipes be so straightforward, and it gives me hope that more people will turn to the bulgur or roasted cauliflower (or butternut squash) or very easy single-serving soups that Ms. Katzen shows here. So I see the simplicity of these recipes as as a very cordial and user-friendly element. Maybe at some point, she will follow this up with an entire cookbook of weight loss recipes! I would look forward to that. In the meantime, I am impressed with the very usable tools this book provides, and I hope and believe that many people will find realistic life-changingkeys to getting slim in the encouraging flexibility of the plans, accessibility (to beginners and experienced cooks equally - all of whom are time-pressed) and real-world science information presented here. It's truly digestible, pun intended.

Great basic information about healthy eating with truly readable "Science Bites" that should cut through the hype and assumptions and misinformation once and for all. I especially appreciate the friendly voice (Katzen, always accessible) and the flexibility in the eating plans. There isn't just one plan here. There aren't just two plans, either. There are, like, 4 or 5 of them, ranging from cooking a lot of your food from scratch (don't freak out. It's pretty straightforward) to buying your food out of convenience stores when on the run or traveling. And much in between, including how to eat out and enjoy it without going off the rails. And these plans are interchangeable, so it fits into real life. You don't have to cook, but you can. You can stick with just a few of the meals if you prefer, to keep it simple. You can eat nuts and chocolate and fruit. You can drink wine. You can have your favorite treat (M & M's, even!! but you have to count them). And exercising doesn't have to be a big commitment. All in all, this is for real people with complicated lives who love food and don't want to get into weird eating trips to lose weight. I predict this solid book will still be on shelves 10+ years from now.