Diabetic Mediterranean Diet

I heard about this book before it was available in the U.S. and I thought it had the potential to be huge here.  So I read Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends by Venice Fulton, published in 2012.  Per Amazon.com’s rating system, I give it two stars (“I don’t like it”).

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Judging from the wording and writing style, this book was written for not-too-bright girls and women from 12 to 22 years old.  Others need not bother with it.

Will it work for weight loss?  Yes, even without the author’s three cornerstone gimmicks: 1) Skip breakfast, but eat three meals daily, 2) Black coffee one or two cups every morning, and 3) Cold-water baths at 59 to 68°F for up to 15 minutes.  There’s no good scientific data to support those prescriptions.

The diet will work because it restricts your consumption of items that make us fat: concentrated sugars and refined starches.  It’s a low-carbohydrate diet—up to 60, 90, or 120 grams a day, depending on how fast you want to lose.

The diet consists mostly of high-protein animal-derived foods, low-carb vegetables, and up to three pieces of fruit daily.  Do not exceed 40 grams of carbohydrate per meal, even less is better, the author says.  Grains and dairy products aren’t mentioned much; it’s easy to blow your carb limit with them.  High-carb vegetables are listed, so you can avoid them.

Mr. Fulton emphasizes some important, valid points.  High protein consumption helps control appetite.  Trans fats are bad.  Eat cold-water fatty fish twice weekly.  Eat off a small plate (maximum of 9-inch diameter).  No snacking.  He says good things about weight training, while failing to mention it’s more much important long-term maintenance than for active weight loss.

He says some things that are just plain wrong, such as 1) everyone can be skinny, 2) there are only eight essential amino acids, 3) exercise is fairly helpful with weight loss, and 4) weight training just once every 10 days is adequate.

I’ll confess I didn’t read every word of the book.  The writing style is just too irritating unless you’re a not-too-bright 12 to 22-year-old.  For instance, every page had at least four exclamation marks!

Here are some of the dumbed-down sentences that unintentionally made me laugh out loud:

• “The key to success is understanding stuff.”
• “If you have problems controlling your appetite, the main reason is that you eat too often.”
• “The person in the mirror, that’s you.”
• “Human beings are part of the universe.  And that’s full of laws.  The laws of physics, chemistry and biology are three well-known laws.”

If you want a low-carb weight loss diet, you’re better off with Protein Power, The New Atkins For a New You, or the Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet.  A low-carb diet specifically for diabetics is my Conquer Diabetes and Prediabetes.

Steve Parker, M.D.