Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
Lose inches, beat diabetes and stop that heart attack!
Excess fat round your belly is not just dead weight; it’s a living liability.
It’s a fact. We are getting fatter and risking our health in the process. We are also spending huge sums on pills, potions and faddy diets, with little long-term success. But it doesn’t need to be this way. Whether you are aiming to improve your health or you simply want to get slim, this is the only book you need to reverse the metabolic syndrome – the root cause of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Why follow a low-carb, low-GI or low-fat diet that overlooks all the other factors that cause flab and fatigue? At last, here is a book that puts all the science into one powerful and practical plan. It sorts the facts from the fiction to explain exactly why you need to lose the excess weight and how to do it properly!
Follow the ground-breaking 28-day MUNCH plan to reset your metabolism and dump your toxic waist!
Key features
The metabolic syndrome: what it is and how it could be affecting you
Information on boosting your energy levels and reducing your cholesterol
How to lose weight and keep it off with the revolutionary MUNCH method of balancing your diet
28-day diet plan including 76 delicious recipes
An action plan and checklist to help you see how well you're doing
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | vii | ||
| Preface | ix | ||
| Acknowledgements | x | ||
| Copyright | xi | ||
| Notes | xii | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| How to use this book | 5 | ||
| Chapter 1The toxic bulge | 7 | ||
| Chapter 2 Fat, diabetesand heart disease | 9 | ||
| Can you really prevent diabetes? | 9 | ||
| What if you already have diabetes? | 10 | ||
| We’re all heading that way | 10 | ||
| What is heart disease? | 11 | ||
| Don’s story | 11 | ||
| What is a heart attack and why does it happen? | 12 | ||
| What’s angina? | 15 | ||
| What is acute coronary syndrome? | 16 | ||
| Are there different kinds of heart disease? | 16 | ||
| How can I escape the epidemic? | 17 | ||
| Chapter 3 The diabolic slide | 18 | ||
| The epidemic | 18 | ||
| Does that mean I needn’t bother if my cholesterol’s OK? | 21 | ||
| You cannot judge risk by cholesterol alone | 22 | ||
| Chapter 4 Cholesteroland lipids explained | 23 | ||
| What is cholesterol? | 23 | ||
| What do you mean by ‘lipids’? | 23 | ||
| Cholesterol on the move | 24 | ||
| The good, the bad and the ugly | 24 | ||
| What should the total cholesterol level be? | 25 | ||
| Dangerously low? | 26 | ||
| An important test of the drugs | 26 | ||
| Should we all be taking a drug, then? | 27 | ||
| FOOD | 29 | ||
| Chlamydia: beastly bug or red herring? | 30 | ||
| Back to fact | 31 | ||
| Protein | 31 | ||
| Chapter 5 Fat | 33 | ||
| A fatuous phrase | 33 | ||
| Get your fats straight | 33 | ||
| Animal, vegetable or mineral? | 34 | ||
| More fat please. We’re British | 36 | ||
| A fat lot of good | 37 | ||
| A lot of good fat | 38 | ||
| What about ‘trans fatty acids’? | 39 | ||
| What are ‘essential fatty acids’? | 40 | ||
| If it’s ‘good fat’, can I have as much as I want? | 41 | ||
| Fat chance of enjoying a healthy meal then? | 42 | ||
| Dairy products | 43 | ||
| Meat and meat products | 46 | ||
| Fats and oils | 51 | ||
| The new fat spreads – a spreading revolution? | 54 | ||
| Nuts | 56 | ||
| Snack foods | 59 | ||
| Fat substitutes | 62 | ||
| Chapter 6 Carbohydrate | 64 | ||
| Sugar | 64 | ||
| Starch | 64 | ||
| Fibre | 65 | ||
| Too much of a good thing? | 66 | ||
| So what should I eat? | 66 | ||
| What’s the glycaemic index? | 66 | ||
| How is GI measured? | 67 | ||
| How do I follow a low-GI diet? | 69 | ||
| Less simple | 80 | ||
| Chapter 7 Salt | 86 | ||
| The salt of the earth | 86 | ||
| The great salt scandal | 87 | ||
| Won’t salt restriction cramp my style? | 90 | ||
| Assault on the taste buds | 92 | ||
| What about salt substitutes? | 94 | ||
| There’s always pepper, I suppose | 94 | ||
| Chapter 8 Fish | 96 | ||
| A fishy theory | 96 | ||
| What do you mean by oily fish? | 96 | ||
| What’s so special about these omega-3 fatty acids? | 97 | ||
| More fish in the sea | 98 | ||
| All fins bright and beautiful . . . | 102 | ||
| How often? | 102 | ||
| What about fish oil supplements? | 104 | ||
| Benefits of fish oil in doubt | 105 | ||
| Shellfish indulgence? | 106 | ||
| Chapter 9 Antioxidants | 107 | ||
| What are free radicals? | 107 | ||
| Oxidation | 107 | ||
| Where do antioxidants come in? | 108 | ||
| Measuring antioxidant power | 110 | ||
| The irony in store | 112 | ||
| Homocysteine | 112 | ||
| What now? | 115 | ||
| Do antioxidants really prevent heart disease? | 115 | ||
| Should I take vitamin supplements? | 116 | ||
| Chapter 10 Garlic | 118 | ||
| There must be something in it | 118 | ||
| Garlic and cholesterol | 120 | ||
| Garlic and thrombosis | 120 | ||
| Garlic and blood pressure | 121 | ||
| Survival in stink? | 121 | ||
| Chapter 11 Alcohol | 123 | ||
| To your health! | 123 | ||
| The J-shaped curve | 123 | ||
| What’s the limit? | 125 | ||
| How can alcohol protect against coronary heart disease? | 127 | ||
| What’s your poison? | 128 | ||
| Should I start drinking? | 130 | ||
| Drinking to your heart’s content | 131 | ||
| Chapter 12 Coffee or tea? | 132 | ||
| The mystery ingredient | 132 | ||
| But we don’t boil our coffee like the Scandinavians | 133 | ||
| What about other types of coffee? | 134 | ||
| What about tea? | 134 | ||
| Isn’t herbal tea more healthy? | 135 | ||
| Hard to beat | 135 | ||
| HAVING YOUR FILL | 137 | ||
| Chapter 13 Getting your balance | 137 | ||
| On balance | 142 | ||
| The balanced shopper | 144 | ||
| What about the bank balance? | 147 | ||
| Chapter 14 Eating in – eating out | 149 | ||
| Eating in | 149 | ||
| Eating in – South Asian style | 154 | ||
| Eating out | 156 | ||
| Chapter 15 Foreign food | 159 | ||
| The Japanese diet | 159 | ||
| The Mediterranean diet | 161 | ||
| ‘The French paradox’ | 162 | ||
| Chapter 16 Feeding children | 163 | ||
| An early start | 163 | ||
| Feeding an infant – the first two years | 164 | ||
| From two to five years | 166 | ||
| She hardly eats a thing! | 166 | ||
| From five years | 169 | ||
| Why start so young? | 170 | ||
| Chapter 17 Moderationin all things? | 171 | ||
| But we all need some fat, don’t we? | 178 | ||
| Surely there are dangers in making radical dietary changes? | 178 | ||
| LIVING LIFE TO THE FULL | 181 | ||
| Chapter 18 Weight –dump your toxic waist! | 181 | ||
| Mass hysteria? | 181 | ||
| What is body mass index? | 181 | ||
| A weighty problem | 182 | ||
| Why are we getting fatter? | 183 | ||
| The metabolic myth | 184 | ||
| Fats and figures | 185 | ||
| What a waist | 185 | ||
| How big should my belly be? | 187 | ||
| Dieting can damage your health | 189 | ||
| What about drugs? | 190 | ||
| How to take control of your weight | 192 | ||
| Chapter 19 Control your cholesterol | 206 | ||
| Checking your cholesterol | 206 | ||
| On the level | 208 | ||
| Getting the low down | 211 | ||
| Maintaining the high | 213 | ||
| Where do triglycerides fit in? | 215 | ||
| What about all the cholesterol in my food? | 216 | ||
| I can’t get my cholesterol down | 217 | ||
| Chapter 20 Exercise | 219 | ||
| Why bother? | 219 | ||
| Are you a sitting duck? | 220 | ||
| The object of the exercise | 221 | ||
| Running the risk | 222 | ||
| What precautions should I take? | 223 | ||
| Take heart | 226 | ||
| How much exercise do I need? | 227 | ||
| Does a half-hearted effort do any good? | 228 | ||
| What sort of exercise should I do? | 228 | ||
| Exercise your choice | 229 | ||
| Fit in 30 minutes a day? | 230 | ||
| Exercise is easy: you can walk it | 232 | ||
| Chapter 21 Smoking | 235 | ||
| Smoke alarmism? | 235 | ||
| Are you putting up a smoke screen? | 237 | ||
| The age of innocence | 238 | ||
| Just a pipe dream? | 239 | ||
| The big smoke | 240 | ||
| Do unto others . . . | 241 | ||
| Is it too late to stop? | 243 | ||
| Kicking the habit | 244 | ||
| You’ve given up now. Don’t give up now | 249 | ||
| Chapter 22 Blood pressure | 251 | ||
| How can I tell if my blood pressure’s high? | 251 | ||
| Measurement of blood pressure | 253 | ||
| Safety in numbers? | 255 | ||
| What if my number’s up? | 256 | ||
| The mean machine | 258 | ||
| Are you due for an age rise? | 259 | ||
| What does high pressure do to you? | 259 | ||
| Can treatment really help? | 260 | ||
| To treat, or not to treat? | 260 | ||
| What difference does diabetes make? | 261 | ||
| Managing high blood pressure | 261 | ||
| Drugs used to treat high blood pressure | 262 | ||
| How does a doctor choose a drug? | 265 | ||
| Should I take aspirin? | 266 | ||
| A lifestyle to lower the pressure | 267 | ||
| Chapter 23 Stress‘ | 271 | ||
| Is stress a cause of heart disease? | 271 | ||
| Psychosocial stress | 273 | ||
| How does the body respond to stress? | 273 | ||
| Can stress reduction lower the risk of heart disease? | 274 | ||
| Stress busting | 275 | ||
| Relaxation | 276 | ||
| Exercise | 281 | ||
| Strategies for stress reduction | 281 | ||
| Talk | 286 | ||
| Chapter 24 The truth about women | 288 | ||
| Why do women lag behind? | 289 | ||
| The lipid link | 290 | ||
| Don’t forget your change | 291 | ||
| The Iron Lady? | 292 | ||
| Heart disease in women | 293 | ||
| Hormone Replacement Therapy | 294 | ||
| Should I take HRT? | 299 | ||
| Chapter 25 Assessing your risk | 300 | ||
| Relative risk | 300 | ||
| Gene genie? | 303 | ||
| The risk factors | 304 | ||
| Young at heart | 305 | ||
| Should I have my cholesterol checked? | 306 | ||
| APT to underestimate? | 307 | ||
| A ready reckoner of risk | 309 | ||
| Measuring your risk in centimetres | 312 | ||
| A change of heart | 312 | ||
| It just doesn’t add up | 314 | ||
| Chapter 26 If you already have heart disease | 318 | ||
| It’s too late now, isn’t it? | 318 | ||
| Dealing with angina | 319 | ||
| Heart attack! | 321 | ||
| After a heart attack | 321 | ||
| What drugs are used for coronary heart disease? | 324 | ||
| Drug treatment of raised cholesterol | 326 | ||
| What are we aiming for? | 333 | ||
| FINDING YOUR FREEDOM | 336 | ||
| Chapter 27 Looking forward | 336 | ||
| The Polypill – poppycock or panacea? | 337 | ||
| Making it happen | 338 | ||
| ACTION PLAN | 341 | ||
| Chapter 28 The 28-day plan | 341 | ||
| The MUNCH method | 341 | ||
| Balance your fats | 344 | ||
| Vary your vegetables | 346 | ||
| Cooking vegetables | 346 | ||
| Using GL as a portion guide | 347 | ||
| Thick and fast | 349 | ||
| Sweet nothings | 349 | ||
| Bitter regret | 350 | ||
| A salt course for beginners | 350 | ||
| Spice power | 351 | ||
| Game for a laugh | 351 | ||
| The grain, the whole grain and nothing but . . . | 352 | ||
| Wet or dry? | 353 | ||
| Oat cuisine | 354 | ||
| A practical plan | 355 | ||
| MUNCH yourself slim | 356 | ||
| What if I’m losing too much weight on the plan? | 357 | ||
| What if I’m not losing enough weight? | 358 | ||
| Keeping hunger at bay | 359 | ||
| Could I have a food allergy? | 360 | ||
| What if my cholesterol level isn’t going down? | 360 | ||
| Time to get a move on | 362 | ||
| Chapter 29 Recipes | 372 | ||
| Ten top tips for following the recipes | 372 | ||
| POULTRY | 374 | ||
| Quick chicken and tomato casserole | 374 | ||
| Chicken kebabs satay-style | 374 | ||
| Mustard lime chicken | 375 | ||
| Quick chicken korma | 377 | ||
| Chicken tikka masala | 378 | ||
| Tandoori turkey | 379 | ||
| Quick coronation chicken | 380 | ||
| Turkey escalopes with lemon and rosemary | 380 | ||
| Chicken in white wine with garlic and rosemary | 381 | ||
| FISH | 382 | ||
| Cajun tuna | 382 | ||
| Lemon soy salmon | 382 | ||
| Haddock and prawns in white wine sauce | 383 | ||
| Grilled salmon | 384 | ||
| Monkfish with tomato and caper sauce | 384 | ||
| Cod in spicy tomato sauce | 385 | ||
| Grilled tuna with orange | 386 | ||
| Baked haddock on baby leaf spinach | 386 | ||
| VEGETARIAN | 388 | ||
| Quinoa tabbouleh | 388 | ||
| Chilli tomato quinoa pilaf | 388 | ||
| Chilli con Quorn (6 servings) | 389 | ||
| Tarka dhal | 390 | ||
| Chinese chickpeas | 391 | ||
| Quorn Bolognese | 392 | ||
| Couscous with toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seeds | 392 | ||
| Sweet and sour Quorn | 393 | ||
| Fried teriyaki tofu | 394 | ||
| Quornucopia (6 servings) | 395 | ||
| Tofu and vegetable stir-fry | 396 | ||
| Quorn Portuguese | 397 | ||
| Tofu and vegetable curry | 397 | ||
| Soya goulash (6 servings) | 398 | ||
| Spicy-chickpea salad | 399 | ||
| Green lentil curry | 400 | ||
| Jollof quinoa | 401 | ||
| Mediterranean bean-stuffed peppers | 402 | ||
| Lentils Italienne | 403 | ||
| Chickpea jalfrezi | 404 | ||
| SALADS | 405 | ||
| Mixed green salad | 405 | ||
| Puy lentil and pepper salad | 406 | ||
| Cannellini bean and coriander salad | 406 | ||
| Mixed bean and basil salad | 406 | ||
| Quinoa and mango salad | 407 | ||
| SOUPS | 409 | ||
| Chinese chicken soup (8 servings) | 409 | ||
| Watercress and butter bean soup (8 servings) | 410 | ||
| Creamy tomato soup (8 servings) | 410 | ||
| Roasted vegetable soup (8 servings) | 411 | ||
| DIPS and DOLLOPS | 412 | ||
| Dips, Sauces, Spreads and Dressings | 412 | ||
| Hummus | 412 | ||
| Tzatziki | 412 | ||
| Guacamole | 413 | ||
| Quick salsa | 413 | ||
| Salmon pâté | 414 | ||
| Tuna spread | 414 | ||
| Smoked mackerel pâté | 415 | ||
| Mustard sauce | 415 | ||
| Parsley sauce | 415 | ||
| Mint sauce | 416 | ||
| Curry sauce | 417 | ||
| Mint raita | 417 | ||
| Lower-fat vinaigrette | 417 | ||
| Lemon and garlic dressing | 418 | ||
| Mustard and honey dressing | 418 | ||
| Mint and yoghurt dressing | 419 | ||
| Five-spice powder | 419 | ||
| BREAKFASTS | 420 | ||
| Quinoa with apple and cinnamon | 420 | ||
| Low-GL muesli | 420 | ||
| French toast | 421 | ||
| Low-fat mushroom and onion omelette | 421 | ||
| DESSERTS | 423 | ||
| Fruit salad | 423 | ||
| Fruit smoothie | 423 | ||
| Baked apples with custard | 424 | ||
| Chocolate-dipped strawberries | 425 | ||
| Raspberry fool | 426 | ||
| Grilled pineapple with honey and cinnamon | 426 | ||
| Chapter 30 Action checklist | 427 | ||
| It’s only once a week, Doc | 427 | ||
| Priorities, practicalities and precautions | 428 | ||
| Glossary | 433 | ||
| Appendix 1 Useful organisations | 443 | ||
| Appendix 2 Useful publications | 450 | ||
| Index | 452 |