Life Without Bread: How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life

I developed PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) due to a largely vegetarian, grain based diet I was subjected to growing up. I basically had a hormonal imbalance that caused me to gain weight, and rapidly. To deal with PCOS effectively, one must correct the imbalance and also the diet that caused it. Reading books by Dr. John Lee on natural hormone therapy, I came to the realization that the imbalance was essentially "estrogen dominance" (very common in the US) and later verified this with a saliva test from ZRT labs (more accurate than blood testing, which wasn't showing the imbalance) Estrogen dominance needs to be balanced with USP grade progesterone - preferably a sublingual version. Creams containing progesterone tend to deposit in fat cells, which is not good in the long run. In addition, a diet low in carbohydrates is necessary. Most MD's only treat the symptoms of PCOS, not the underlying causes. In other words, get off the prescription meds (including birth control pills) and use progesterone and a low carb diet and see how you feel. If anyone reading this has PCOS please note that it is not safe for you to eat any animal products that are not hormone free - synthetic estrogens are still used to fatten cattle and other animals. Just being "estrogen dominant" puts one in a high risk category for cancers such as breast cancer, according to Lee. Atkins in his earlier work mentioned the phenomenon of certain thin people who could eat mostly carbohydrates and would remain underweight. Lutz goes over this in more detail and recommends a low carb, high fat diet which will correct this problem of underweight by bringing the body back to a normal, healthy weight. He also details why humans should eat primarily fat and protein (our stomach and intestinal tract is more like a dog's - and nothing like an herbivore's) and explains that the heart's preferred energy source is saturated fats. The best saturated fat I have found so far is coconut oil (organic and virgin from fresh coconuts) - it is composed of medium chain triglycerides which apparently do not go into fat storage but get burned as energy while raising the metabolism. I use about 3 tablespoons a day while low carbing and in 10 days lost a considerable amount of weight. I prefer coconut oil for that reason and also because it is somewhat safer than animal fat, which stores toxins. Mercola.com gives good info on the wonders of coconut oil. Overall, Lutz's program is simple and workable - you can have an unlimited amount of fat and protein, unlimited amounts of certain watery vegetables and avocados, and up to 72 grams of other carbs, which can include a few pieces of bread, several servings of fruit, etc. I would also recommend that to see maximum results that food separation (a la Suzanne Somers "Somersizing") is the key. It works. In addition, even though Lutz states that you can eat however much you wish, I have found that calories still count. A user of the Acti

I'm 41 years old and recently had a heart cath and 23mm stent implant in the LAD. My Cardiologist, who is from Poland and not tainted by American political dieting correctness, told me I needed a diet considerably lower in Carbohydraes than what I was typically eating. I wasn't sure exactly what he was referring to and luckily I found this book. I was astonished at what I was reading. Everthing I was ever tought about nutrition was wrong. I've been excersizing and keeping my Carbs below 50g a day and I feel phenominal. I've lost 16 pounds in 4 weeks and all of my lipids are way down except my HDL which has risen slightly. My Triglycerides have also went from 291 to 120 in just 3 weeks! This book has given me enough information to lead a healthy life and I thank the authors of this book for saving my life. My four year old son thanks you too!

I've read every low carb book under the sun, over 20 in all and this one takes the cake! Not only is it lacking in hype but is the most informative low carb information available. These authors say more than the Eades book, Protein Power Lifeplan. I'm convinced that a low carb diet works from personal experience, but the reasons to STAY on a lower carb diet are explained here. A lot of the information gets technical but for readers who want more explanation than what's usually in Atkins or other style low carb books, this is the book to choose. I'll reread this book many times.

For most of human history, humankind never ate a diet that contained more than 40% carbohydrates, according to the most recent scientific research (AJCN March 2000). Is it any wonder, then, that for the past 12 years in the US, low carb diet books have ruled the roost? If high carbohydrate, low fat diets were the way to go, then Ornish and Pritikin books would be topping the charts. They're not. Atkins, Eades, and Sears are the nutrition celebrities, because they in their different ways have given people a diet that suits their genetic heritage: one low in carbohydrates.As a practicing nutritionist, reducing carbohoydrate intake in my patients has consistenly been one of the most effective ways to help them reduce weight, blood levels of triglycerides, uric acid, and even blood pressure. I am glad that one of the most esteemed figures in the field of low carbohydrate nutrition, Wolfgang Lutz, MD, has finally put a book together along with the brilliant Dr. Allen. This, along Loren Cordain's The Paleodiet are the two to read if you want the most sensible approach for healthy, low carb eating backed up by mounds of scientific evidence.Note: recent research has shown that meat eaters and vegetarians lose kidney function at the same rate, according to an 8 year study. Also, the leading cause of kidney failure is diabetes, which we all know is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. In Health and the Rise of Civilization, Mark Nathan Cohen PhD shows cultures eating pounds of meat per day, with no adverse effects ever noted on their kidney function.

Life Without Bread is an important addition to the growing body of literature on the benefits and importance of low-carb diet. Written by Christian Allan, Ph.D., and Wolfgang Lutz, M.D., the book is based on Dr. Lutz's experience using carbohydrate restricted diets with thousands of patients for over 40 years. It is also based on extensive research in the medical and scientific literature, and provides ample references. The book presents a more or less unified theory of how high (and even "moderate") levels of dietary carbohydrate cause or exacerbate various health problems, and how carbohydrate restriction can help people to recover from those problems. Although obesity is one of the problems, this is not primarily a weight-loss book. There is only one short chapter on weight loss. Other chapters deal with heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders (e.g., Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), auto-immune disorders, and so on. There is also discussion of dietary carbohydrate from the perspective of humanity's adaptation to the conditions of the long Pleistocene era.Life Without Bread accomplishes a number of important things. First, it collects a body of evidence for the low-carb way of eating that is carefully thought out, and based on sound research and extensive clinical experience. Second, it debunks the pervasive cholesterol neurosis that has made much of the developed world phobic about fats. This is very important, since there are still relatively few scientists willing to put their reputations on the line in opposition to the cholesterol theory of heart disease. Allan and Lutz join their ranks. Third, it offers good arguments for the positive virtues of saturated animal fats, perhaps the most maligned dietary suspects of the past 100 years. The authors are careful to distinguish levels of support for their claims; when they are somewhat speculative, they say so. They also point out some of the limitations of the low-carb program, and do not claim it to be a panacea. Fourth, they refute the many lame and ill-informed criticisms of low-carb diets that one encounters again and again in the popular (and, unfortunately, sometimes also in the scientific) literature -- such as the claim that these diets harm the kidneys or cause muscle wasting.For anyone who wants to gain a clearer understanding of the benefits of low-carb diets, or to explain them to someone else (such as a family physician, perhaps), this book is a valuable resource.