21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart

January 17, 2011
Following the success of his 2010 21-Day Vegan Kickstart online program, physician Barnard (Breaking the Food Seduction; Foods That Fight Pain, etc.) reworks his material for this guided comprehensive lifestyle change to be featured as a program on PBS stations. Day by day, Barnard discusses vegan choices, benefits and challenges. Readers will learn to substitute vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and plant-based protein for fatty animal products (meat, dairy, fish) and sugary fare; eat vegan in social situations and while traveling; promote weight loss, energy and sleep; relieve pain; prevent or reverse diabetes, heart disease and some cancers; and create meals that, Barnard contends, fulfill all nutritional requirements. Home food preparation is key, but Barnard offers options for dining at restaurants and fast-food chains and using convenience foods. While readers must commit to food shopping and cooking, Barnard motivates with promises of quick results and insights from medical professionals and celebrities, and tempts with generous breakfasts (pancakes with maple syrup; burritos with potatoes and spinach), easy desserts (a delicious chocolate cake), and assurances of weight loss without deprivation, calorie counts, and exercise routines.

January 1, 2011

Barnard's (medicine, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine) weight-loss plan does not require calorie or carbohydrate counting or even an exercise regime. Instead, it calls for eliminating all animal products and keeping oils to a bare minimum. Readers are encouraged to fill up on all the whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit they want. He includes 21 days of menus and over 100 recipes to help dieters get a good start, and there are two very nice appendixes listing unfamiliar ingredients and basic cooking techniques. Barnard assures readers that all the dietary protein needed is available through the stated food choices; however, as longtime vegetarians will stress, the process of combining a vegetarian diet in such a way as to assure that "complete proteins" are ingested is tricky. There is an apparent lack of sufficient explanations here regarding this process for new vegetarian readers. To promote this book, the author will be outlining his program in a one-hour special in March 2011 televised on PBS stations across the country. VERDICT Readers looking for a different diet approach will find this appealing.--Crystal Renfro, Georgia Inst. of Technology Lib. & Information Ctr., Atlanta

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