Mayo Clinic on Healthy Weight

Don't think you'll get the Mayo Clinic Instant Weight-Loss Diet in this book--there's no such thing. Instead, you get the information that the esteemed Mayo Clinic physicians and dietitians give their patients about weight control. There's no doctor-speak here: every point is explained simply and clearly, organized with frequent bold headings for easy skimming, and illustrated with helpful charts.

Mayo Clinic on Healthy Weight is divided into three parts: "Getting Motivated," "How to Lose Weight," and "When You Need More Help," including medications and surgery. The information is highly individualized, encouraging you to identify your unique challenges, eliminate your overeating triggers, and try new foods. The authors set the record straight about low-carb diets ("people do not gain weight on high-carbohydrate diets unless they are eating excess calories") and low-fat diets ("low-fat does not necessarily mean low-calorie"). They prompt you instead to use the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid to eat moderate portions of a varied, nutritious diet, emphasizing lower-calorie foods that make you feel full because they contain fiber and/or water.

Mayo Clinic on Healthy Weight has plenty of extras that make the book interesting and instructive: how to read a food label; recipe ingredient substitutions; eight luscious-looking, illustrated recipes; the number of calories burned during various exercises; and tricks for changing bad habits.

The Mayo Clinic is one of the country's most prestigious medical institutions, with more than 2,000 physicians and scientists in Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Scottsdale, Arizona. This book doesn't offer shortcuts or fad diets--just the truth about weight loss, as the experts understand it. --Joan Price

Mayo Clinic in the title may draw eyes like flies, but note that the full title isn't The Mayo Clinic Diet. There is no such thing. The book is instead the clinic's well-thought-out, realistic perspective on how to control one's weight. It is for the seriously motivated, however, who want to improve their health and lives, and not for those who just want to look better. Its information and message are based on the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid, which proceeds from the standpoint that unhealthy eating is usually the result of bad habits, and habits can be changed. The text tells how to ascertain whether one is overweight, how obesity can damage health, and how to eat properly. Its detailed advice includes practical methods for changing attitudes and actions, guidance on healthy eating, and realistic counsel about physical exercise. Sections on medications for weight loss and possible surgical procedures conclude this useful, unsensational book. William Beatty
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