Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Life Without Bread is an important addition to the growing body of literature on the benefits and importance of low-carb diet. Written by Christian Allan, Ph.D., and Wolfgang Lutz, M.D., the book is based on Dr. Lutz's experience using carbohydrate restricted diets with thousands of patients for over 40 years. It is also based on extensive research in the medical and scientific literature, and provides ample references. The book presents a more or less unified theory of how high (and even "moderate") levels of dietary carbohydrate cause or exacerbate various health problems, and how carbohydrate restriction can help people to recover from those problems. Although obesity is one of the problems, this is not primarily a weight-loss book. There is only one short chapter on weight loss. Other chapters deal with heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders (e.g., Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), auto-immune disorders, and so on. There is also discussion of dietary carbohydrate from the perspective of humanity's adaptation to the conditions of the long Pleistocene era. Life Without Bread accomplishes a number of important things. First, it collects a body of evidence for the low-carb way of eating that is carefully thought out, and based on sound research and extensive clinical experience. Second, it debunks the pervasive cholesterol neurosis that has made much of the developed world phobic about fats. This is very important, since there are still relatively few scientists willing to put their reputations on the line in opposition to the cholesterol theory of heart disease. Allan and Lutz join their ranks. Third, it offers good arguments for the positive virtues of saturated animal fats, perhaps the most maligned dietary suspects of the past 100 years. The authors are careful to distinguish levels of support for their claims; when they are somewhat speculative, they say so. They also point out some of the limitations of the low-carb program, and do not claim it to be a panacea. Fourth, they refute the many lame and ill-informed criticisms of low-carb diets that one encounters again and again in the popular (and, unfortunately, sometimes also in the scientific) literature -- such as the claim that these diets harm the kidneys or cause muscle wasting. For anyone who wants to gain a clearer understanding of the benefits of low-carb diets, or to explain them to someone else (such as a family physician, perhaps), this book is a valuable resource.