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solitarysoul's review against another edition
4.0
Just skimming through but THIS is what I was looking for!
dahall1023's review against another edition
2.0
Hello, hipster cookbook.
I picked this cookbook up because I agree that "our modern food system is set up around sugar, and seductively so" (from introduction). I hoped to get some good ideas, recipes and further motivation to cut out the sugar from my day to day eating.
Here were some of the problems I had with this book:
First off, I really couldn't relate to this girl. Prior to cutting out sugar, she only consumed maybe 25 teaspoons of sugar. Good for her but way to make me already feel isolated. This is how she describes her sugar-y diet: "I was eating three pieces of fruit a day, a handful of dried fruit, a teaspoon or two of honey in my tea, a small (1.2 oz.) bar of dark chocolate after lunch and, after dinner, honey drizzled on yogurt, or dessert (if I was out)." Maybe it's just me, but I found this pretentious.
Secondly, her recipes and ideas are not for the 'everyman'. Chia and Quinoa parfait breakfast? Warm Sprouted Pea Hash (ingredients include: sprouted legumes, liquid aminos, chopped anchovies, crumbled feta, avocado chunks, chia seeds...)? I can't feed my family on Endive Sardine Boats.
To me, this cookbook is too unrealistic. I recommend The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook by Diane Sanfilippo or look for 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake, coming out in August.
I picked this cookbook up because I agree that "our modern food system is set up around sugar, and seductively so" (from introduction). I hoped to get some good ideas, recipes and further motivation to cut out the sugar from my day to day eating.
Here were some of the problems I had with this book:
First off, I really couldn't relate to this girl. Prior to cutting out sugar, she only consumed maybe 25 teaspoons of sugar. Good for her but way to make me already feel isolated. This is how she describes her sugar-y diet: "I was eating three pieces of fruit a day, a handful of dried fruit, a teaspoon or two of honey in my tea, a small (1.2 oz.) bar of dark chocolate after lunch and, after dinner, honey drizzled on yogurt, or dessert (if I was out)." Maybe it's just me, but I found this pretentious.
Secondly, her recipes and ideas are not for the 'everyman'. Chia and Quinoa parfait breakfast? Warm Sprouted Pea Hash (ingredients include: sprouted legumes, liquid aminos, chopped anchovies, crumbled feta, avocado chunks, chia seeds...)? I can't feed my family on Endive Sardine Boats.
To me, this cookbook is too unrealistic. I recommend The 21-Day Sugar Detox Cookbook by Diane Sanfilippo or look for 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake, coming out in August.
rarling's review against another edition
4.0
I came into this book having already given up all things sweet. This book is one of the few I've found that has truly sugar free recipes, and not just the latest sweetener that supposed to be so much better for us as an almost one to one substitute.
I liked her recommendations for quitting over an eight week period, and had already used many of her techniques in my various efforts to cut out sweets. She had some good new suggestions, and I liked that her approach was forgiving.
I found this book lacking in the information explaining why we need to give up sweets. I had already decided to, because they are a huge cause of my migraines. Had I not come in to this book a believer I would have found it disappointing, and probably not bothered with it. The recipes, and kind guidance are worthwhile. There are, and are sure to be more over the next couple of years, better resources for the reasons behind giving up sugar.
I liked her recommendations for quitting over an eight week period, and had already used many of her techniques in my various efforts to cut out sweets. She had some good new suggestions, and I liked that her approach was forgiving.
I found this book lacking in the information explaining why we need to give up sweets. I had already decided to, because they are a huge cause of my migraines. Had I not come in to this book a believer I would have found it disappointing, and probably not bothered with it. The recipes, and kind guidance are worthwhile. There are, and are sure to be more over the next couple of years, better resources for the reasons behind giving up sugar.
letter2self's review against another edition
5.0
I am definitely reading this book over and over! Great insight! I feel so much better after going through this program. I'll probably need to do it again after the holidays!
cora273's review against another edition
1.0
This was definitely not what I thought it was and also not very helpful. It is a plan to quit sugar, sort of... Because you just kind of replace it with stevia (which I would recommend looking into before just going for it; personally I stay away from it). There was also lots of coconut everything - flakes, oil, water, etc. A few other things the book recommends which I either don't eat or try to limit are butter, ham, beef, bacon, cheese, etc. I didn't like any of the recipes or didn't want to buy special flours or other ingredients that I know I wouldn't use often. I would not recommend this book. However, I would recommend her other book - First We Make The Beast Beautiful - but it's an entirely different topic.
meghan_is_reading's review against another edition
The tone is not one I normally find appealing, extra health food style with a side of autoimmune issues, and skip the glutin. So if you're into low glutin + sugar recipes Wilson has you covered.
I found myself increasing annoyed by Wilson's tendancy to convert the sugar measurements into teaspoons - what is wrong with grams? But we thought maybe this is an US measurement thing. Anyway - I like the look of some of the breakfast recipes, but let's be honest, I'm too lazy to make a 10 ingredient thing never mind strain my own cream cheese from full fat organic yogurt over a couple days, or sprout legumes. I can already eat the yogurt or soak and boil the beans, takes way less time. Overall, the whole process just feels inaccessible if you aren't all that into cooking, although I appreciate she went for "these ingredients keep repeating because it's the most efficient use of time/groceries"
I found myself increasing annoyed by Wilson's tendancy to convert the sugar measurements into teaspoons - what is wrong with grams? But we thought maybe this is an US measurement thing. Anyway - I like the look of some of the breakfast recipes, but let's be honest, I'm too lazy to make a 10 ingredient thing never mind strain my own cream cheese from full fat organic yogurt over a couple days, or sprout legumes. I can already eat the yogurt or soak and boil the beans, takes way less time. Overall, the whole process just feels inaccessible if you aren't all that into cooking, although I appreciate she went for "these ingredients keep repeating because it's the most efficient use of time/groceries"
melnich's review against another edition
Very pretty book. Not terribly helpful though.
agrinczel's review against another edition
4.0
I give 5-stars to most of the recipes, and 1-star to the "8-week plan" which was way too general and quite feeble.
I don't mind the use of a little brown rice or maple syrup like others seem to have a problem with, so if you're totally against that you may not like this one.
I don't mind the use of a little brown rice or maple syrup like others seem to have a problem with, so if you're totally against that you may not like this one.
kenna_ainjo's review against another edition
3.0
Things I Liked:
—A lot of the recipes look like they'll work for me and look yummy.
—The recipes use the same major ingredients, so you don't have to spend a fortune on random health-food ingredients you'll never use again.
—The book has lists of things to stock up on, etc., so you can more easily make shopping lists.
—The pictures are beautiful.
—The graphic design is nice.
—Wilson does a good job of stressing that a positive attitude, not a deprivation-focused one, is important.
—Wilson does a good job of talking about how each person is different and has to experiment to find out what works best for them.
—Despite the book description, the book doesn't focus on losing weight, etc. The focus is very much on sustainable, healthy eating.
—The author is up-front about the fact that she isn't perfect and sometimes does eat sugar.
—I loved the perspective about how cheating is an opportunity to observe how the sugar makes you feel, why you ate it, how you react, etc., not a reason to beat yourself up.
Things I Didn't Like:
—There wasn't a ton of source citation for the claims about the damaging effects of sugar.
—While the author criticizes past dietary crazes that demonized fat, statements like "sugar makes you fat," generalize so much that the book comes across as another fad and the author's legitimate points lose authority.
—The 8-week plan is kind of vague and won't work for everyone. For example, I know my food habits well enough to know that I need some time to prep new foods and stock up on ingredients, but after that I just need to cut out all the sugar I plan to cut out. Having a couple weeks to cut down on sugar won't work for me because I'll break down and go all Mardi Gras on that sugar.
—Additionally, while I agree that I may struggle more around Week X, I don't know that everyone will just coast along before that and not need the Week X information earlier. A lot of the steps kind of seemed thrown in so that the middle weeks between quitting and having quit for weeks would have labels.
—I haven't read the original IQS book, so maybe she goes into more detail about the whole fructose/glucose thing here, but I wasn't clear on why she says "quitting sugar means quitting fructose," rather than "quitting fructose and glucose that breaks down easily." The recipes are generally gluten-free and don't contain a lot of simple carbs, but there's not a clear focus on why that is or what makes fructose more concerning than easily digested glucose. I mean, I get that the world already has five million books about the glycemic index, so I'm not saying that focusing on fructose was a bad publishing decision, but I'm not clear on the dietary reasoning.
—A lot of the recipes look like they'll work for me and look yummy.
—The recipes use the same major ingredients, so you don't have to spend a fortune on random health-food ingredients you'll never use again.
—The book has lists of things to stock up on, etc., so you can more easily make shopping lists.
—The pictures are beautiful.
—The graphic design is nice.
—Wilson does a good job of stressing that a positive attitude, not a deprivation-focused one, is important.
—Wilson does a good job of talking about how each person is different and has to experiment to find out what works best for them.
—Despite the book description, the book doesn't focus on losing weight, etc. The focus is very much on sustainable, healthy eating.
—The author is up-front about the fact that she isn't perfect and sometimes does eat sugar.
—I loved the perspective about how cheating is an opportunity to observe how the sugar makes you feel, why you ate it, how you react, etc., not a reason to beat yourself up.
Things I Didn't Like:
—There wasn't a ton of source citation for the claims about the damaging effects of sugar.
—While the author criticizes past dietary crazes that demonized fat, statements like "sugar makes you fat," generalize so much that the book comes across as another fad and the author's legitimate points lose authority.
—The 8-week plan is kind of vague and won't work for everyone. For example, I know my food habits well enough to know that I need some time to prep new foods and stock up on ingredients, but after that I just need to cut out all the sugar I plan to cut out. Having a couple weeks to cut down on sugar won't work for me because I'll break down and go all Mardi Gras on that sugar.
—Additionally, while I agree that I may struggle more around Week X, I don't know that everyone will just coast along before that and not need the Week X information earlier. A lot of the steps kind of seemed thrown in so that the middle weeks between quitting and having quit for weeks would have labels.
—I haven't read the original IQS book, so maybe she goes into more detail about the whole fructose/glucose thing here, but I wasn't clear on why she says "quitting sugar means quitting fructose," rather than "quitting fructose and glucose that breaks down easily." The recipes are generally gluten-free and don't contain a lot of simple carbs, but there's not a clear focus on why that is or what makes fructose more concerning than easily digested glucose. I mean, I get that the world already has five million books about the glycemic index, so I'm not saying that focusing on fructose was a bad publishing decision, but I'm not clear on the dietary reasoning.