Book Review: Just Tell Me What To Eat!

Have you ever gone on a diet that forced you to eat foods that were less than appetizing and ultimately ended in frustration with no long-term weight loss? Dr. Timothy S. Harlan’s fifth book, Just Tell Me What to Eat!, provides a realistic, flexible six week weight loss plan complete with 80 recipes. Week by week, Dr. Harlan provides a shopping list of ingredients that you will need to prepare each of the recipes. He also provides lists of comparable convenience meals(Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, etc.) and restaurant alternatives to use when you are unable or unwilling to cook. In addition to these recipe options, Harlan also provides interesting background information about why these meals are nutritious and why they will help you lose weight.

Dr. Harlan started his career as a chef and restaurant owner at the age of 21 in Athens, Georgia. He later decided to pursue a career in medicine and is a board certified internist and a medical director at the Tulane University School of Medicine. As a physician, he has counseled thousands of people about weight loss. These experiences ultimately led Dr. Harlan to write, Just Tell Me What to Eat!. His approach to weight loss in this book is medically based and he cites the findings of many interesting studies to support his recommendations. His approach is holistic in that he not only prescribes a healthy, controlled diet but also recommends a baseline level of regular exercise in order to achieve results. His approach is unlike many of the fad diets in vogue today. It's realistic and maintains that by following the plan laid out in this book you will likely lose between 2 and 4 pounds per month.

Just Tell Me What to Eat! is packed with many interesting facts and findings such as:

• Eating fish just once a week decreases your chance of having a fatal heart attack by 33% for both men and women.
• Eating lentils 4 or more times a week decreases the risk of heart disease by 22%.
• Women who drink red wine at least once a week are 16% less likely to get diabetes that women who don’t drink wine regularly.
  

We tried several recipes from this book, three of which we have posted earlier: Lentil Chili, Fettuccini with Broccoli and Shrimp, and Blackened Red Fish. In addition to dishes that conform to a Mediterranean style diet, some of the recipes that are included in the book are not the type of foods that you might associate with diets and weight loss programs such as Philly Cheese Steak, Sloppy Joes, and Pizza. We liked the fact that the book provided such a wide array of recipes that would likely appeal to almost any palate.

We give the book Just Tell Me What to Eat! four out of five stars. The book provides a 6 week dietary plan for sustainable weight loss that does not sacrifice flavor. Following the 6 week plan required us to do more planning of meals and encouraged us to be more cognizant of portion sizes. After a couple of weeks, however, these practices became almost second nature and following the plan became rather easy. With a little commitment on your part, this book can help you to develop healthier cooking and eating habits as well as a heightened awareness of nutrition in general. The only thing about this book that could have been improved was the lack of photographs of finished recipes. The book does reference the Dr. Gourmet companion website, however, where photos of many of the recipes are provided as well as a wealth of additional information about healthy eating.