Natural Health and Weight Loss

This book deserves 10 stars! I am not overweight but bought this book in the interest of good health after reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Prior to that, I was one of the many people out there who had totally bought into the popular notions of what constitutes a "healthy diet". I thought low-carb was a gimmicky fad. No more! This book is not a diet but a way of eating for life. Not only is Dr. Groves extremely knowledgeable and qualified, but he has a true gift for explaining the science in easy-to-understand English. It was tough to abandon my fears and pre-conceived notions about fats, but I must say that after following his recommendations I feel much better. I used to have lots of problems with hypoglycemia, snacking between meals (I just never felt full), and even a little extra flab around my middle. Now, the ups and downs are gone, I eat three solid (high fat) meals a day and have lost that belly fat. This is truly a fantastic book. His web site is also fabulous and contains more in-depth information on many of the concepts covered in the book.

In a world where every "nutritionist" seems out to make a quick buck ("Lose 20 lbs in 20 days!!"), Barry Groves REALLY knows his stuff, biologically and practically speaking. It's clear that this man has spent most of his life studying nutrition and biology. He can produce study after study after study and explain its what they mean. The guy even goes back to studying prehistoric man and archaeological finds re: nutrition. This book is nothing if not THOROUGH. I've made nutrition a hobby (studying it, as well as practical application of course!!) and read many books and textbooks on biology and nutrition, and this book is one few that I would actually recommend to anyone. You won't just learn about how to lose weight, but about how your body really works, and how to be healthy for life. I'm not interested in Atkins or Southbeach or some other commercialized "diet".... and this really isn't like that at all. You'll learn a lot, and the truth shall set you free.

I was highly impressed with this book, and no doubt it is compelling reading. Above all, it is very accessible to the average reader who wants to dig deep into the "whys" and "wherefores" of low carb eating, all while absorbing an amazing array of detail. Mr. Groves appears to be under ratings attack on the net, and like Atkins and other revolutionary thinkers in the arena of low carb/high fat eating, the medical community still shuns these concepts. But medical credentials don't mean everything, and I'd say Barry Groves with his 40 years of study and personal experimentation and observation knows more on this subject than a hundred doctors collectively know. (Read: most doctors know virtually nothing about nutrition). While reading this book you can't help but be convinced by his very sound arguments for this way of eating. It all makes sense when you look at the data and examples he presents. I myself haven't yet implemented his precise recommendations, but I can say that my previous experience doing Atkins for about 6 weeks was amazing: I felt better than I'd ever felt (no grains, no dairy, no sugar) and I dropped weight effortlessly. There is something to this, no doubt about it. The only thing that still frightens me is the idea of possibly raising cholesterol etc. to higher levels. I guess I have a bit of trouble banishing my final degree of skepticism which I hold for all books on weight loss....Mr. Groves' ideas really do fly against the current thinking of most of the medical community, most of whom are sadly "in the dark" about nutritional issues beyond a very rudimentary level. Why should I believe anything they say? Look at the food pyramid! In any case, this really is one of the most fascinating books I have yet read in this subject area and I will be reading it more than once to absorb everything. Particularly if you are already committed to the idea of low carb eating as a way of life, this book greatly adds to your knowledge on the subject and will definitely strengthen your resolve to continue with this sort of diet for a lifetime of maintaining a healthy weight.

First of all, this is a must-read for anyone who is interested in healthy living the lowcarb way. I have many friends who are following this plan and just love it. Not only is it easy to follow, it provides a good healthy weight loss that is easy to sustain. This book is very clear in explaining the benefits of lowcarb eating and explains the healthy aspects of this plan for people who have chronic diseases, i,e., diabetes. He is very insightful in providing a way to get our children eating in a healthy way from the start and not waiting until they are in jr. high and obese. Eating patterns are learned early. I can't recommend this book enough..It's great!!

There are three macronutrients in our diet: fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Only two are essential and carbohydrate isn't one of them. It was mostly the sincerity of Dr. Groves' previous two books that prompted me to order his latest one, sight unseen and not a review in sight. I was not disappointed. For those unacquainted with the truth in matters of human nutrition, the contents of Natural Health And Weight Loss will raise some eyebrows. Yes, Groves is right, if there are any culprits to be found in our nutrients, macro- or micro-, it is the carbohydrates. Notably the refined ones but also an excess of complex starches. The roots of this book can be found in his 1999 publication Eat Fat And Get Thin but even starchy origins can bring about a veritable treasure, in this case a very practical book. The chapters are arranged in logical fashion and the pages contain a wealth of information and only few bits of clutter. The subject matter of this is low carbohydrate dieting. Many books have been written on this, starting with Banting's original classic Letter Of Corpulence, to Atkins and other imitations. Like the author, I was inspired by British physician Richard Mackarness whose book Eat Fat And Grow Slim was published some 50 years ago. Written for the average blokes and sheilas (whom Mackarness called Mr. and Mrs. Fatten-Easily), it remains a classic. Dr. Groves attempted to go a step further, I believe. He educates the reader on the complex subject matter and demands a measure of concentration from those who are not well schooled in life science subjects. Yet, lazy couch potatoes and recliner pumpkins may skip the science and use the book as a manual. Practicing meticulous attention to detail, Dr. Groves leaves no stone unturned in presenting evidence for what he espouses as the diet that will keep humans healthy. Rightly he emphasizes the crucial importance of the little known fact that it is FATS that are our most valuable foods and that the correct diet is not high protein but high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate . To the uninitiated, this book undoubtedly flies in the face of current wisdom. The self-appointed guardians of our health (who themselves have had precious little training in nutrition)keep presenting us with the same old faulty diet pyramids in the mistaken belief that adherence will contribute to the good health of society. Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding (which is not on Dr. Groves' list of preferred foods) and the verdict is in: The low carb way of eating works! Once the reader gets into the 15th chapter (s)he will be aware that there is nothing strange about eating high fat, low carb fare. After all, humans evolved on it. A list of diseases is given that appear to have their origin in the consumption of excess carbohydrates and the subject of insulin and glucose excess and the resultant malfunctions are well covered. Groves goes into the limited usefulness of the Glycaemic Index and he p