Protein Power

The Eades, who share a weight-loss and family-medicine practice in Arkansas, have each written a popular medical book--his is Thin So Fast; hers, The Doctor's Complete Guide to Vitamins and Minerals. In their first shared volume, they turn popular weight-management beliefs--and the latest FDA food-guide pyramid--upside down. For years, overweight Americans have been counseled to turn away from meat and fat and embrace a high-carbohydrate diet. Joining a growing band of researchers that includes Barry Sears (The Zone), the Eades discuss the biochemical roles of hormones in the metabolic process to demonstrate why low-fat, high-carb programs don't always result in weight loss and present a convincing case for their high-protein, low-carb alternative. The key is preventing, through diet, overproduction of insulin, which itself ``controls the storage of fat'' and is triggered by the ingestion of carbohydrates. Their eating plan--which is bolstered by lists of protein and carbohydrate counts for common foods, a collection of about 75 appealing recipes and discussion of the necessity of exercise--will lead, they aver, to the body's more efficent burning of fat, leading in turn to reduction in one's percentage of body fat. Cholesterol, vitamins, minerals and various risk factors are also discussed. Chapters end with fairly complete summaries that will be appreciated by readers who are not willing or able to work through the fairly extensive scientific data cited by the Eades in this iconoclastic program. (Jan.)