Health & Fitness Books

Dr. Robert C. Atkins has virtually rewritten his breakthrough book, DR. ATKINS' DIET REVOLUTION, which spent years on the best seller list. Atkins has incorporated responses to his earlier book, and includes case histories of those who had success with it. It comes at a time when the medical community has begun reexamining the Atkins approach, and some have acknowledged that there may be value to it. Atkins is not against fat, but he is against obesity, and some of the book argues against some strongly held beliefs about food. He points out that America's obesity problem is partly the result of high-carb eating and diets loaded with refined sugar. He advocates what he calls his "carbohydrate controlled nutritional approach." The goals should be to eat well, eat delicious food, feel energized, and never count calories. Includes over 100 recipes, a carb gram counter, and a shopping guide.

Kevin Trudeau is a writer of books on memory enhancement, and is famous for having been the star of many infomercials for health products. In NATURAL CURES "THEY" DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, the "they" he refers to are the pharmaceutical firms and the government agencies which Trudeau believes work against access to good information about health care. The food products we buy in stores are toxic, he says, causing disease and generating huge profits for drug companies. Trudeau suggests a range of alternative therapies and approaches that he says can help promote health and restore vitality.

Author Peter J. D'Adamo revolutionized the nutrition and health industry with his theories outlining the link between blood type, nutrition, and health. In this book, D'Adamo analyzes each blood type and explains the corresponding character and body traits. Devoting a section to each of the four blood types, he suggests foods, exercise, and lifestyle habits for each. Eating properly according to blood type will not only create a state of overall health, D'Adamo says, but lengthen the life span and allow the body to gravitate to a naturally healthy weight.

The South Beach Diet, by Miami cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston, is intended for quick weight loss, but it is really based on permanently changing the way we eat. The diet's initial phase, which lasts two weeks, is a detox mode, emphasizing the total avoidance of certain foods, including potatoes and sugar. Dr. Agatston guides the dieter through this period with encouraging and useful information, providing help with cravings and stressing healthy alternatives. The second phase returns some foods to the diet, while still controlling portions. The third phase is a maintenance plan designed to keep off the weight that's been lost, and to keep the dieter on a sensible practice that will lead to lifelong health and fitness. The South Beach Diet promotes the awareness of "good" fats and "good" carbs based on the glycemic index, and includes recipes, exercise tips, and a wealth of useful information on healthy living in general.

This reference features an A-Z guide to over 350 health concerns, and the vitamins, minerals, herbs, and food supplements that are important in their treatment.

Kevin Trudeau follows up on his wildly successful NATURAL CURES "THEY" DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, a book whose million-dollar sales were attributed to his canny use of infomercials to get the word out. Evidently, Trudeau's marketing strategy worked, and his new batch of "censored" alternative cures, diet advice, and nutrition strategies will appeal to his many fans.

In BODY FOR LIFE, bodybuilding magazine publisher and health guru Bill Phillips helps readers to break through the bad mental and physical habits that keep them soft and out of shape. With this guidebook, readers will learn how to eat right, train right, and think right to achieve a better body and healthier life. Though a rigorous fitness program that includes weight training, aerobics, and a strict yet ample diet plan, Phillips promises results in just 12 short weeks. With his extensive experience in weight-training, Phillips is able to credibly recommend unusual training techniques such as including high-intensity sets at the end of each exercise in order to stimulate muscle growth. Similarly, he recommends 20 minutes of aerobic activity with varying intensity, to achieve more caloric loss in less time. Phillips writes in the introduction that he created this system after realizing so many of his devoted fans and readers were--amazingly--actually out of shape. Through BODY FOR LIFE, Phillips motivates readers to create their own success stories and achieve the mental and physical fitness they had previously only read about.

Journalist Michael Pollan's polemic on the inherent and extensive problems with Western food culture argues that people should "eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.," by documenting how the rise of nutritional science in the American food industry is actually the cause of high rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart conditions. Pollan eloquently discusses how the Western diet's focus on low-fat, processed foods filled with nutrients pulled from whole foods is the problem, not the solution. Detailing numerous scientific studies, the history of food production, and the food industries carefully played machinations, Pollan unrolls a plan for how Americans can save themselves from a future filled with vitamin-infused soda and processed diet foods.

In this guide to triumphing over menopause, an obstetrician and gynecologist who went through menopause herself offers an optimistic perspective, showing how this stage of a woman's life offers opportunities for emotional, sexual, and creative development. This book also encourages all pre-menopausal women to start healthy exercise and eating habits to minimize their likelihood of experiencing negative side effects, like hot flashes and bone loss, in the future.