The Reality Diet

Steven A. Schnur, MD

Anybody in the well fed portions of the world have heard of all the diets to lose those few extra pounds (or many extra pounds) that bother us. There're the low carb, liquid, or low fat diets. There are the Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and South Beach diets. There're the cabbage soup or all bean diets (stay away from other people when on those). Dr. Steven A. Schnur, a cardiologist in Florida, instead gives us a dose of Reality.

Dr. Schnur's plan is sensible - cut calories, eat right, exercise, and include more fiber in the food we eat. As a medical librarian, I work with doctors. Most of the ones I know will tell you the same thing. But just because we know the best thing to do doesn't mean it's easy. Dr. Schnur's book, The Reality Diet, makes it sound easy.

The Reality Diet is written in simple layman's language, not medicalese. It's easy to understand what Dr. Schnur is telling us (the readers). He goes through a good progression of why a person should be at a proper weight for his/her health. He identifies with the reader, having gained weight himself as he got older. He has many patient's stories in the book that show his diet plan from different points of view. Some of these people didn't appear to need to lose any but had unhealthy bodies due to poor nutrition, some only had a small amount of weight to lose, and some some had a lot of weight to lose. The patient stories have people in their 30's as well as people in their 60's who have all ended up seeing him for his specialty - heart health.

The first half of this easy-to-read book exlains what we need to do and why we need to do it to stay healthy and protect our heart and blood vessels.Dr. Schnur also gives tips for the person who eats out a lot or likes easy meals or doesn't like to exercise (he doesn't give ways to cut exercise, but other ways to add it). He doesn't pull punches - he gives ways to work with the Reality Diet, but not unrealistic hopes. He keeps reminding the reader that he/she needs to cut calories and exercise more. He ends the section with tips for staying healthy and eating right after the wanted weight is lost as well.

The second half of the book is menus and recipes that fit in with the Reality Diet. He works with a nutritionist and a chef to bring these together. There is also a list of foods that fit into the different portions he recommends we eat.

My major complaint about the book is easily finding the list of the amounts we should eat in a day. He mentions we can change the meals around as long as we meet the daily amounts we should eat. But the list of amounts is tucked away on page 79. It should be given a stand alone page as well near the menus and food lists.

The best thing about the book is the encouragement or boost it gives the reader. If he/she sticks with this, he/she will be much healthier. And he/she CAN stick to this. It's not always easy, but it's worth it.

Check the Reality Diet website, http://www.realitydiet.com.

Dr. Dorie's "Don't Diet" Book by Dorie McCubbrey, M.S.Ed., Ph.D.