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Life Without Bread
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - this is a GREAT book!
This is great book, that will explode many of the myths in your head about what is "good" and "bad" for your health. Contrary to many of the reviews written here, I did not find it "overly technical" at all, in fact it was very easy reading and I read it in a couple of days. The dietary recommendations are very simple to follow, and all recommendations are backed with rock-solid evidence, and most importantly, the evidence is based ON REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE OF ACTUAL PATIENTS unlike so many other books out there. This must have been an amazingly brave book when it first came out... in 1968! It is still a pioneering work, and if you are interested in learning about low-carb diets with an open mind this is really a must-have for your collection. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
btw, the "72 carb/day" recommendation is based on their studies of how many carbs/day diabetics can consume without affecting their blood sugar, and is also how much carbs per day the brain needs to run on (the brain cannot run on fat). that explains the figure. they explain this and everything else very thoroughly in the book.
Rating: - A life changing book
This book will help the reader to understand why we need to increase good fat (including saturated fat) and reduce carbohydrates in our diet. The authors carefully outline the science and follow it up with many case studies.
After 15 years as a vegetarian, my hypoglycemia had gotten steadily worse until I found myself having to eat every two hours or so - not out of hunger, but to control the shakes. I read this book while traveling to England on a business trip. I got off the plane and had bacon and eggs for breakfast, no toast. Amazingly, I was able to go nearly five hours before hunger struck. The change was immediate! I have continued to eat protein and fat, limiting carbs for the most part to under 100 g. per day, and the difference in how I feel is all positive.
This "one-star" review - I don't think he read the book carefully. Saturated fats are good for us. The push for polyunsaturated fats and low fat diets and the revision of the old "food wheel" to the pyramid heavy on carbohydrates correlates with an INCREASE in obesity and diabetes. So why is that carb-loaded low-fat diet good for you?
Rating: - Excellent
The person who gave this book one star has proven himself a fraud--had he actually read this book, he could not have written a review like that. This book answers many important questions about research that has been ignored or forgotten, including absolutely fascinating information about the way a cell's utilization of energy and overall function changes depending upon whether carbohydrates or protein and saturated fat are consumed. Combining that with information that is now known about our hunter-gatherer ancestors, simple common sense would dictate that limiting carbs is the logical way to eat to insure health. I noted the "in vivo/in vitro" mistake, but Allan, who probably wrote that part, is not a laboratory scientist and I'm willing to overlook it--could have even been a proofreader mistake. Also, I'm assuming that the meat eaten by Dr. Lutz's patients in Austria was likely to be cleaner, i.e. more grass-fed, or grain fed organically, than that of the US today, so I'd be interested in having that issue addressed. Nevertheless, eating excess carbs is clearly a prescription for illness.
Rating:  - I didn't like Life without Bread
As the previous reviewer mentioned, the main structure of this book is to limit your carbohydrate intake to 72 grams a day. That's about 280 calories or a little more. So if you are eating at 2000 calorie per day diet, they are recommending you limit your carbohydrate intake to about 13 or 14 percent of your daily intake. You will make up the remaining 86 to 87 percent in fat or protein, the other macronutrients.
The premise of the book, like all low carb books, is that limiting carbs limits insulin production. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas to, among other things, regulate blood sugar. Overproduction of insulin, as the authors capably demonstrate, is linked with a number of health disorders such as diabetes,obesity, heart disease and other chronic conditions. So what's wrong with limiting carbs to keep too much insulin in your system?
The first problem is that the authors haven't provided any empirical evidence for their 72 gram number. They simply assert that it's the level limited for diabetics. No reference or site to check or any indication of what type of carbohydrate they limit. Why not 50 or 100, or 200, etc. They should present the foundation of their basis, not leaving the reader to wonder if it is picked out of the sky.
Second, all carbohydrates are lumped together irrespective of their glycemic index. Refined carbs like sugar in cakes or bread which release their blood sugar quickly are counted the same as unrefined carbohydrates such as beans, whole grains and fruits which contain fiber, release blood sugar slowly, and add essential phytochemicals that help present disease. All of which leads me to my third point.
Third, Life without bread presents unlimited meat, cheese, dairy products, etc without presenting the total risks that these foods present (e.g. increased risk of cancer) while limiting foods that can reduce these risks based solely on the carbohydrate content without regard for the food's potential to stimulate insulin production.
If you want to limit refined carbs to prevent Syndrome X, it's a step in the right direction. Just don't throw out the baby with bathwater. Unrefined carbs shouldn't count the same as refined carbs. They are generally higher in fiber and needed phytochemicals (antioxidants) and don't stimulate your insulin to the extent that refined carbs do.
Rating:  - Good technical read...
Although most of the book was dedicated to spelling out exactly why a high carbohydrate/low fat is bad, there is still room for tons of explanation for why a low carbohydrate eating plan will help prevent and treat several major diseases. It includes the evolution of the low carb diet and the author's plan for success which is just not to eat above 72 grams of carbohydrate a day. Overall, an interesting, highly technical read for those interested in the why rather than the how of low carbing. Not really a weight loss book at all - more the biology of low carb. I for one am kind of tired about reading the evils of low-fat and would have prefered to see just the pros of low carb. That's why I gave the book 4 stars.
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