21-day weight loss kickstart Boost metabolism, lower cholesterol, and dramatically improve your health

Following the success of his 21-Day Vegan Kickstart online program, spearheaded by notable vegans (including Alicia Silverstone, Marilu Henner, NBA star John Salley, and author Rory Freedman), physician Barnard (Breaking the Food Seduction) reworks his material for this comprehensive guided lifestyle change to be featured beginning in March 2011 on PBS stations. Barnard discusses vegan choices, benefits, and challenges, and guides readers on how to substitute vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and plant-based protein for fatty animal products; eat vegan in social situations and while traveling; 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 troubleshoots with concise kitchen tips and basic cooking techniques. In the end Barnard's guide is accessible and motivational, and he promises weight loss without deprivation, calorie counts, and exercise routines. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.