Zero sugar diet The 14-day plan to flatten your belly, crush cravings, and help keep you lean for life

Review by New York Times Review

I'VE never understood why January is diet season. Don't people realize they still have many months during which they can layer their layers? Every diet book should come out on May 1. That's when you realize you have less than two months before someone, somewhere, is going to force you to go to the beach. But O.K., fine, "new year, new you" and all that. Let's get a jump-start on the panic, shall we? I'm a sucker for customizing, so the idea of a bespoke diet program geared to one's personality is appealing. Jen Widerstrom is a trainer on "The Biggest Loser," and her DIET RIGHT FOR YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE: The Revolutionary 4-Week Weight Loss Plan That Works for You (Harmony, $26) describes five basic human prototypes - the Organized Doer, the Swinger, the Rebel, the Everyday Hero and the strong-minded Never-Ever - and creates a plan not of different foods but of different dieting and exercise habits to adopt. Establishing your personality means taking a lengthy quiz . This is an exercise (probably the only exercise) I enjoy. I thought my own Rebel designation - a person who skips meals, then devours, Pac-Man like, everything in her path - was spot on. The suggestions for Rebels seem sensible: Prep food the day before, consciously think about portions and keep gym clothes in the car at all times (because Rebels aren't fans of routine, and we never know when the mood to work out may strike). Each personality description gets a little convoluted, but suffice it to say that this is at least an interesting way to approach losing weight. Of course, maybe I just liked it because, as the world's most conventional person, I enjoy being considered a rebel at anything. I kept picturing myself as Brando in "The Wild One" : "What are you rebelling against?" "Celery." David Zinczenko's THE ZERO SUGAR DIET: The 14-Day Plan to Flatten Your Belly, Crush Cravings, and Help Keep You Lean for Life (Ballantine, $28) targets an easily identifiable enemy, comparing excess sugar in our diet to a deadly virus. As Zinczenko, the editorial director of Men's Fitness, explains (along with his co-author, Stephen Perrine): "Thanks in part to the lobbying of the food industry, sugar consumption rose by 25 percent between 1970 and 2000, in almost exact parallel with the increase in high fructose corn syrup production and obesity." Sugar causes us to gain weight in two ways. Since it can't hang out in the bloodstream, it heads with drone-like precision to our hips and thighs (that is, it gets stored as fat). It also has a rebound effect that causes us to be hungry. Drinking just one can of Coke a day means you're consuming an additional 31 pounds of sugar a year. Well, that got my attention. "The Zero Sugar Diet" is really about cutting out all added sugar, and even then, you need to add fiber and protein to create satiety and slow the absorption of carbohydrates. This will lessen those hills and valleys of energy throughout the day and create more of a steady thrum. Sometimes I enjoy a good scare. Reading THE CHEESE TRAP: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy and Get Healthy (Grand Central Life & Style, $27) is like going to a horror movie, only instead of the killer being Chucky, it's cheese. (O how I slay myself.) Neal D. Barnard even tosses out a line in the intro that would be perfect for the trailer of the movie: "You love cheese. But I'm sorry to tell you, it does not love you back." Cue ominous cello music. While cheese may be, as the legendary editor Clifton Fadiman called it, "milk's leap toward immortality," here it is death on a plate. Barnard, the founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, is an animal-rights activist and proponent of a vegan diet who has courted controversy before. and I'm in no position to judge the veracity of all his claims. But he cites studies that associate cheese with everything from America's expanding waistline to migraines and joint pain. The problem is not just the high fat content. Cheese proteins contain casomorphins, chemical compounds that attach to the same opiate receptors in the brain as heroin or morphine. Additionally, the milk we buy was meant to nourish baby cows or goats or sheep; it is filled with growth hormones and estrogens we don't want or need. Barnard does his best to make cheese not only terrifying (comparing its dangers to eating poisonous puffer fish) but gross: At one point he cites a performance artist who sat in a gallery and offered patrons three types of cheese made out of donated breast milk. Maybe you don't find that disgusting, in which case you probably like performance art. By the end of the book I was sufficiently freaked out to go and buy something calling itself paleo mozzarella-style cheese. It is vegan, and it tastes like tapioca flavored with coconut. Not bad! But you know what it doesn't taste like? Cheese. The idea behind Rebecca Scritchfield's body kindness: Transform Your Health From the Inside Out - and Never Say Diet Again (Workman, paper, $14.95) is simple and true: For a vast majority of us, big dietary changes don't work, particularly if approached with kamikaze enthusiasm. Incremental change is the way to go. Scritchfield, a nutritionist, proposes ignoring the numbers on the scale and focusing instead on health. If you do this, and stop approaching food as a form of reward and punishment, you'll eat less emotionally and more rationally; you'll be able to "order dessert when you really want it" and not apologize. There is a lot of journaling here, a lot of fighting the "thought bully." There is some controversy too. Scritchfield believes "you can be fit and fat" - that it's inactivity, not obesity, that is linked to mortality and heart disease. Of course, when was the last time you saw a 90-yearold sumo wrestler? THE HUNGRY BRAIN: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat (Flatiron, $27.99, to be published this spring) is really no more a diet book than "Anna Karenina" is a romance novel, but for those interested in the complex science of overeating, it is essential. The neurobiologist Stephan J. Guyenet argues that we need to understand our brain circuitry in order to stop ourselves from overeating, and he chronicles years of research on the role of the hormonal regulators of appetite and the way they work on certain neural pathways in our brains. For example, the hormone leptin codes for satiety, and if you have no leptin in your body you can't stop eating. So why did a drug to provide people with leptin never make it to market? It turns out (probably) that while low leptin levels create a starvation response that promotes weight gain, high levels of leptin don't promote weight loss. So much for that magic pill. We still have a great deal to learn about the role inflammation plays in obesity, and this is currently a hot topic of research, but we're not there yet. In the meantime Guyenet offers suggestions for "tricking" the brain into eating less, which include things we already know but tend not to practice: making sure "high reward" foods (translation: everything I like) are not readily available; and eating simple, high-satiety foods like our preindustrial brethren. Because guess what? If you live in "primitive" societies that have been studied like Kitava, an island off the coast of New Guinea, and eat like the natives, you can live to old age without high blood pressure or obesity or diabetes. Of course, New Guinea has tarantulas, burrowing snakes and the world's only poisonous birds, so maybe it all evens out. I will be haunted by Guyenet's description of parabiosis, a surgical technique. Basically you sew together an obese mouse that is missing leptin with a slim mouse, surgically attaching their circulatory systems. In doing so, the fat mouse will get skinny. Dieting be damned. Perhaps someone could attach me to Gigi Hadid for a couple of weeks. Gigi, sweetheart, you have my number. Text me. ? Judith newman is working on a book called "To Siri With Love," about children, autism and the kindness of machines.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 1, 2017]

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Nutrition and fitness expert Zinczenko (Zero Belly Smoothies) and Perrine compare the prevalence of sugar in the American diet to a "virulent virus" in this passionate, anti-added-sugar manifesto. According to Zinczenko, the natural sugar found in healthy diets isn't problematic, but the hidden, added sugar lurking in such foods as salad dressings, sauces, and peanut butter contributes to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Though Zinczenko notes that new food labels mandated by the FDA and set for 2018 will require a separate listing for added sugars, as of now buyers must do their own sleuthing. This book suggests a variety of ways to identify and avoid hidden sugars, and includes ideas and recipes for "zero sugar" breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners, as well as info on foods to eat on the go and in restaurants. Zinczenko's plan emphasizes a two-pronged approach: decreasing added sugar and increasing fiber. This plan is informative and entertaining (e.g., a chart converts common meals to their equivalent in donuts; "an open letter from your pancreas") and will help readers rein in cravings and become savvy monitors of added sugar consumption. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, William Morris Endeavor. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

ABC News health and wellness correspondent Zinczenko (Zero Belly Diet; "Eat This, Not That" series) now turns his focus to eliminating the added sugar in America's diet and replacing it with fiber and other healthier choices to achieve stable blood sugar levels. The author creates a user-friendly guide with food lists, recipes for all meals of the day, a seven-day meal plan, a three-day detox plan, and sample workout plans, providing a wealth of helpful information and tools for those wishing to limit added sugars in their diet. An aisle-by-aisle shopping planner that names brands makes finding no-sugar-added foods in all categories easy and fast. The focus on reducing sugar has gained significant notice as more reports emerge spotlighting its negative effects. VERDICT This practical, easy-to-digest book will be popular with health-conscious readers.-Crystal Renfro, Kennesaw State Univ., Marietta, GA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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

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chapter  1 Strip Away Sugar, Strip Away Trouble Fourteen days. That's all it will take to change your body. So, it's no wonder that when I announced a test program for The Sugar Swap Diet, more than eleven hundred signed up in twenty-­four hours. As soon as the word went out among the five million people who visit EatThis.com every month, we began hearing from fans who were trying to control their sugar addictions but struggling each and every day. Our test panelists not only lived The Sugar Swap Diet, but they documented--on a day-by-day basis--the remarkable changes that happened within their own bodies. Energy levels soared. Waistlines shrank. Blood pressure and cholesterol numbers plummeted. Muscles became toned and lean. This unique day-by-day approach will help to keep you motivated as you compare yourself with, and even exceed, the success of the test panelists, many of whom struggled with real sugar addictions. When you reduce your sugar intake using this program, while slowing its impact on your body, a number of amazing things will happen, with shocking rapidity: 1. You'll Start Burning Fat Immediately. Reducing your intake of calorie-dense sugar carbs automatically reduces the amount of calories you're consuming on a daily basis, which forces your body to burn fat stored around your midsection for energy, rather than the sugars it takes from carbohydrates. 2. You'll Feel Less Hungry As your body detects that you've started to lose weight, your hunger hormones get furious. They start firing off signals to your brain telling you that winter's approaching, the barbarian hordes are at the gate, and you'd better consume every calorie in sight in order to prepare for the famine ahead. This plan uses the power of fiber to counteract that basic instinct. By slowing the progress of carbohydrates through your body, fiber helps give you a continuous, steady dose of energy, so you never get the "I'm empty" signal. Oh, you'll eat plenty of food, but not because you're ravenous. Because it tastes so good! 3. Your Belly Will Get Flatter One of the first things you notice when you replace simple carbs with high-fiber foods is that your belly begins to flatten out--literally within days. The reason: Most Americans only take in 15 of the recommended 25 to 38 grams per day, according to the Institute of Medicine. As a result, the healthy gut microbes that keep us lean have less to munch on, and the unhealthy microbes--which feast on sugar--take over. Those are the little buggers that cause bloating and make your belly look bigger than it actually is. In fact, an increase in the "bad" belly biome bacteria--a family called Firmicutes--is one of the most noticeable differences between Americans in the lean 1980s and those in the fat 2000s. I'll show you how this plan changes the way your gut acts and feels, and why fourteen days is all it takes to shrink your waist size by as much as seven inches. 4. You'll Slash Your Risk of Diabetes Eating too many simple sugars can wreak havoc in your body in both the short and long term. The more of these quickly digested carbs you consume, the more insulin your pancreas produces, eventually leading to insulin resistance and possibly type 2 diabetes. 5. Your Muscles Will Get Stronger In one of the most stunning studies of recent years, scientists have linked refined sugar to a condition called sarcopenia--basically, age-related loss of muscle mass. It happens because added sugar actually blocks the body's ability to synthesize protein into muscle. (Spending big bucks on protein supplements? If they have added ­sugar, they're probably hurting, not enhancing, your ability to build lean muscle.) By reducing the impact of sugar, this plan will keep your muscles younger and stronger--protecting you from injury and helping you to burn fat faster and more efficiently. 6. You'll Feel More Energized By slowing your body's absorption of carbohydrates, you'll keep your body and your brain more fully fueled all the time, beating both general physical fatigue and the brain fog that can often accompany it. You'll no longer need to make poor food choices as a way of getting quick energy, and you won't be dragging through those afternoon hours. Raising (Sugar) Cain You can see why I had to write this book. In fact, for the past two decades, I have been investigating the secrets of the food industry. And I've gotten tired of marketers trying to blame us, the American people, for the obesity crisis. In 2002, I published a controversial New York Times op-ed in defense of a group of kids who were suing McDonald's for making them fat. A lot of people thought I was nuts: Suing McDonald's for making you fat is like suing Porsche for making you get a speeding ticket. But at least that Porsche comes with a speedometer. Fifteen years ago the idea of there being calorie counts and nutrition information for restaurant food was unheard of. There was absolutely no way of knowing how many calories were in that Big Mac. And, as I pointed out, if you drive down any highway in America, it's a lot easier to find a set of golden arches than it is a place to buy a grapefruit. That op-ed was the opening salvo in what has become a career-long crusade. When I wrote The Abs Diet in 2004, I dedicated it to "every American who has taken up arms in the battle against obesity." I explained why counting calories while you diet and exercise wasn't the way to lose weight: Simply put, it takes far too long to burn off 300 calories, and no time at all to eat them back up. Instead, I focused on quality nutrition and the importance of boosting metabolism--long before "boost your metabolism" became a catchphrase. But it wasn't until I launched Eat This, Not That! in 2007 that real change began to happen. The first of nearly twenty books in the Eat This, Not That! franchise said it all in the dedication, when my co-­author Matt Goulding and I called out Applebee's, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, and T.G.I. Friday's for concealing their nutritional information. (Today, each and every one provides full nutritional data for all their offerings.) At first, food manufacturers hated me. But soon, they began to change their tune. When we ran a blog in 2008 exposing Baskin-­Robbins for producing a 2,310-calorie Heath Bar milkshake, the company followed up by scrapping the drink, as well as its entire line of "premium" shakes. Jamba Juice unveiled a line of high-fructose corn syrup-free drinks in 2009, and CEO James White cited Eat This, Not That! as the inspiration for the move. A few months later, Gatorade and Hunt's took steps to reduce HFCS and, by the end of that year, HFCS consumption in the United States began to drop for the first time in thirty years. Few movements have changed the way we eat more than Eat This, Not That! From the world of nutritional mystery I first wrote about in 2002, we emerged in 2015 to a new day, when the FDA at last required calorie counts to be displayed in all chain restaurants and ­movie ­theaters--long after most restaurants, under pressure from ticked-off consumers, had already made the move voluntarily. But knowing what you're eating is only part of the battle. How and when to eat is also important. I wrote The 8-Hour Diet in 2012 in response to shocking new research about longevity and how the timing of our meals could dramatically extend our lives, flatten our bellies, and reduce our risk of diabetes. And in 2013, I began tracking breakthrough research emerging out of Europe about nutrigenics--the study of how our genes interact with our food in ways that determine whether or not our fat genes get triggered. The book that resulted from that research, Zero Belly Diet, became one of the biggest books of 2015, and it solved for me one of the great personal mysteries of my life--why my brother Eric was a star athlete in high school, while I was a flailing firkin of flab. It turns out that, like Eric and me, most of us carry the fat genes, but it's only when we eat too much of the wrong food, and too little of the right food, that those genes wake up and cause us to begin storing more fat than we want to. His healthy eating habits didn't trigger his obesity storage genes; my diet of Cheetos and Cheez Whiz did. But Zero Belly Diet opened my eyes to new science that demanded further exploration. One of those breaking areas of research was the role that fiber had in feeding our gut biomes--the complex systems of bacteria that live in our digestive organs and do much more than just break down food. They play an essential role in managing our hormones, our energy levels, and even our immune systems. A balanced gut means physical and emotional health, as well as a properly calibrated sequence of genes that are firing the way nature intended. Feed the good bacteria, and you lose weight. Feed the bad, and you gain. And guess what the bad bacteria love to eat? Sugar. Excerpted from Zero Sugar Diet by David Zinczenko, Stephen Perrine All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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