The Way to Eat: A Six-Step Path to Lifelong Weight Control

by David L. Katz, Maura Gonzalez, Maura Harrigan Gonzalez

Dr. David L. Katz, head of the Yale School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, provides expert guidance to lifelong weight control, health and contentment with food:
--Master your metabolism: Use healthy snacking to keep a steady level of insulin and leptin in your bloodstream to avoid surges of hunger.
--Create a "decision balance" Discover your real feelings about losing weight and maximize your motivation.
--Control your hunger: By limiting flavor variety at one sitting the satiety centers in your brain make you feel full faster.
--Uncover hidden temptations: Sweet snacks are really salty and salty ones are sweet-hidden additives trigger your appetite.
--Change your taste buds: You can keep your favorite foods on the menu, but by making substitutions gradually, you'll come to prefer healthier foods.

With more than 50 skills and strategies provided nowhere else, The Way to Eat, created in cooperation with the American Dietetic Association, will make you the master of your own daily diet, weight and health.

--back cover

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Cookbooks, Diets

352 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

David L. Katz is an American physician, nutritionist and writer. He was the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center that was founded at Griffin Hospital in 1998. Katz is the founder of True Health Initiative and is an advocate of plant-predominant diets.

Reviews

[Norma Dushack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought it would give better ways to eat. Eating soy is not my idea of healthy eating considering it has been modified and processed.

[Joy Weese Moll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes at the beginning of this book. There were many things I loved, especially the times the book points out how our biology is better suited to scarce calories and abundant movement than it is to our modern lifestyle. This book goes into specifics about why biology favored things like weight plateaus and metabolic efficiency even though they frustrate our attempts to attain and maintain a healthy weight now. There are also specific suggestions of how to turn those obstacles into opportunities.

I also like the generally upbeat and positive tone of this book. I had hoped, in fact, that it would be my new book of choice to recommend to people because my current top choice, the books by Judith Beck, are much less fun and affirming.

However, I found the book as a whole overwhelming even though I’m doing ninety percent of what is suggested. I’m just not sure it would have been helpful to me a couple of years ago when I was floundering at about the twenty percent mark. I also disagreed with some of the suggestions in the book, particularly some of the processed foods that it mentioned and the advice on handling cravings. But, as in all things, your mileage may vary and this could indeed be a helpful book for many who are confused by conflicting nutritional advice and looking for one authoritative source.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up 4-5 years ago, after having decided that it was time to go back and re-visit all that useful nutritional information that they told us in 7th grade Health Class, but that I had ignored at the time because it was too "boring" and I didn't plan on getting sick (or old) anyway.

To my surprise (though in retrospect, it should have not been a surprise), the Diet shelves at the 54th St. Co-Op were full of fad-diet books, but contained few books that actually elucidated the basic healthy diet that most doctors seem to agree on -- you know, the whole "eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grains" spiel. Did I the store had few such books? I meant "one," this one.

Was I happy with it? The book does what I hoped it would: it uses sound, basic science to explain how to eat more healthily. It also gives dozens of great self-discipline-type tips, based on the physical, evolutionary, and cultural reasons behind why we eat as poorly as we do. On the other hand, the book is way-too repetitive and the writing is poor. Blame the editor, I suppose.

[Chelsea Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. It gives a lot of very helpful and sustainable advice on controlling how you eat and how it affects your health. I liked how positive the book was and how it didn't feel like they were selling anything except good advice. I would recommend this to anyone serious about wanting to be healthy and make a permanently change in their eating habits.

[Kayleigh Mihalko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning was interesting and made sense, especially the parts about how human biology is more suited to an active lifestyle and more natural foods. The end was useful but very dry and repetitious. Worth a read.

[Hector Chicas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would drop the whole evolutionary approach and just acknowledge that God made man to live in different conditions that they are nowadays. This book did help me lose weight two times in the past.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book on nutrition and overeating. Very well-written and interesting. I highly recommend it.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

common sense and not applicable to all.