Page 57 - Winter2008

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Thrive With Diabetes: from Weston A. Price principles. There is a com-
Leading an Optimistic, Fun, Challenging, Fit, ment about saturated fat being associated with
Tenacious, Enlightened, Innovative cardiovascular disease and in several places
& Heroic Life. unsaturated fat is recommended over saturated
By Lawrence D. Chalem MBA, M.Mus., CPM fat. He also says that all vegetables should be
BookSurge Publishing eaten raw. I was hoping to see some discussion
of the role of trans fats in insulin resistance per
Thrive with Diabetes starts off with a lot of Mary Enig. He does point out that they should
technical detail— the three main types of diabe- be avoided, but that is one area where he doesn’t
tes, symptoms, treatments, and what is happening go into a lot of detail.
down to the molecular level. While it was slightly After this somewhat distorted view on what
intriguing to learn of a Type 2 diabetes treatment is supposed to be good nutrition, Chalem goes
based on lizard drool (more specifically Gila into lifestyle advice. The psychology section
monster saliva), the first 180 pages are pretty is based on the work of Erik Erikson, who was
dry and tedious. Some of the technical details inspired by Sigmund Freud. I’ve never been a fan
are a little beyond my expertise or ability to pass of Freud and this section contains occasionally
judgment on. obvious statements separated by long stretches
On page 180, the book suddenly and unchar- of psychoanalytic mumbo-jumbo.
acteristically starts to get more interesting. Then One of the main points of the book is that a
I noticed that the author is quoting extensively carefully balanced low-carbohydrate diet makes
from the introduction of Nourishing Traditions diabetes much easier to control and easier to
by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD. Chalem maintain stable blood sugar levels. I have no
also has several quotes from Know Your Fats by argument with that, but this is a thumbs downer
Mary Enig. He recognizes the importance of fat book that the average reader, diabetic or not, will
in the diet, but beyond that he starts to diverge probably not have the mental endurance to make
it through. Review by Tim Boyd

(Hunter, continued from page 54)
Unfortunately, a chapter on fats and oils is future sweeteners. If you are puzzled by sugar polyols (such as xylitol
missing in Hunter’s primer. But other than this and mannitol), her chapter explains them well. She extensively covers the
unfortunate oversight, the book is thorough and development of high fructose corn syrup, its appeal to industry and health
scientific, yet short and easy to read. concerns related to copper, chromium and magnesium deficiencies. Fruit
The Sweetener Trap & How to Avoid It offers juices are explained and caution given. The mistaken idea that fruit-juice
the same thorough investigation, this time into sweetened jellies and jams are superior is clarified.
sweeteners. Hunter provides a helpful glossary of Hunter presents many interesting points, such as the historic use of
sweetener terms and shares practical strategies for stevia in Paraguay, the favorable and extensive research of stevia in Japan,
avoiding sweeteners. Her suggestion is to avoid and yet the disfavor given stevia by our FDA. Also, interesting was her
sweeteners except on special occasions. In doing short but thorough explanation of the shortcomings of the concept of the
so, the natural sweetness of whole foods can be Glycemic Index. Many factors affect a food’s GI such as cooking time.
better appreciated. White flour spaghetti, for example, cooked for five minutes had a GI of
The book is an excellent resource catalog- 341 but cooked for ten to fifteen minutes had a GI of only 40.
ing sweeteners— some common and some rare. In this book honey seems to receive the best “thumbs up” but her final
It covers traditional sweeteners, plant-derived word is to avoid sweeteners as much as possible.
sweeteners, synthetic sweeteners, and potential Review by Kathy O’Brien Kramer

WINTER 2008 Wise Traditions 57