These book and product reviews (and e-books) have absolutely nothing to do with law. Some have been published in newspapers, others have not. If you are interested in the topics, I hope you enjoy the reviews. If not, return to the main page.
As a "bonus", I have added, in pdf format, a revised version of my telescope review, which has been posted on the Cloudy Nights web page (click Bushnell Review, if you are interested).
Here are the books and topics reviewed:
Bowflex reviews
The Discarded Image, C.S. Lewis
Islam, Alfred Guillaume
e-books, the Bible on e-books, and
Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
Diabetes Book Reviews (14 books, one product, reviewed)
The
Bowflex Body Plan
By
Ellington Darden, PhD
(Rodale
Inc., © 2004)
And
Bowflex Conquest
reviews
After purchasing both the Bowflex Conquest unit and The Bowflex Body
Plan, it became obvious that one could not be reviewed without the other.
Although cross-references will be made in each review, I will do my best to keep
the reviews separate.
Preface. If you are considering purchasing exercise programs or
equipment (such as p90X, the Total Gym, Vigro Fit, treadmills, bar bells,
elliptical machines, etc.), as did I, please consider your goals. My wife, who
suffers arthritis in her hands and decreasing bone density, wanted something
that would help her in both categories. I believe everyone understands that
stronger muscles increase bone density which helps persons with arthritis. For
myself, I wanted an alternative exercise to a nightly cardio, stretch and
limited resistance workout on my Nautilus NordicTrack CX 1055 (which is a very
good and useful elliptical machine); as one who is trying to be liberated from
impaired glucose tolerance (pre diabetic), it is necessary for me to exercise a
minimum of 30-60 minutes a day. The information I was reading about resistance
or strength training suggested that my cardio workout could be reduced if I
increased my muscle mass (which continues to “work” the physiology of my
system, even when I am resting). In addition, I wanted stronger lower back
muscles (my family has an unwanted tradition of pain in that part of our
bodies).
With these factors in mind, I ordered the literature and free DVD from
Bowflex. The testimonials and information were very encouraging, but I was
unwilling to spend a bunch of money on a Bowflex. Besides, the size of the units
created space problems, because we had no room for a piece of equipment as large
as a Bowflex.
Book Review: The Bowflex Body Plan.. One weekend while I was
visiting a used bookstore in Texas, I stumbled onto Ellington Darden’s book, The
Bowflex Body program. After flipping through the pages, I decided it was
worth a try, so I bought it. This
turned out to be a pivotal event.
Darden
has been a body builder and body trainer for over 40 years. He holds a PhD,
likes to investigate things and learn about new disciplines. He has also written
lots of books on body building. He is a pretty good writer, which helps us
readers.
One
of the surprises in the book relates to his knowledge of nutrition: he has taken
post-graduate courses in the topic, and studied the principles of Understanding
Nutrition (a thick, heavy, lengthy book, used in colleges and universities).
As I read more in his book, it was obvious that Darden knew more about nutrition
than most, and although he is not at the level of Marion Nestle or Eleanor Noss
Whitney, nor does his program touch on “hot” topics such as carbohydrate
reduction diets or mineral additives, his weight loss and body building programs
take into account some fundamentals of nutrition.
In
short, Darden appeared to be a learned man, who was willing to admit he was
wrong. In the book, he points out erroneous perspectives he had formulated
(including taking the wrong or unnecessary dietary supplements, over exercising,
etc.), and explains why his beliefs were out of kilter.
The book has lots of materials, ranging from the science of dieting (for
example, diets won’t work without exercise – although this fact ought to be
obvious, Darden explains why one doesn’t work without the other), to specific
dieting programs, to the science of strength training programs (frequency of
exercises, meaning, no less than 20 minutes nor more than 30 per session, no
more than 3 sessions a week so your muscles can recover and rebuild, no less
than 8 repetitions nor more than 12 per session, using short pauses between
exercises – i.e., circuit training, etc.).
He concludes with the observation that all exercise regimens (stretching,
cardio and resistance) can be accomplished by using a Bowflex machine.
Although the principles of strength training are Bowflex oriented in this
book, they could be adapted to any resistance training program and produce the
same results. Even if you do not own or purchase a Bowflex, you can use the
principles.
Much of the book is devoted to helping people lose weight, which was not
one of my objectives. Apparently people want to lose weight when they buy
exercise equipment. If one factors in Michael Pollen’s observation in The
Omnivore’s Dilemma, that a third of our population is overweight, and
according to Darden, between ages 30 and 50, we lose 15 pounds of muscle mass,
the handwriting on the wall is obvious: we cannot expect to have healthy bodies
if we do not eat properly and exercise.
The book contains so many Bowflex exercise routines, that over the course
of time, I will have no problem adapting what I now do with my Bowflex unit, and
adding other exercises for specific needs. As an aid to a novice, there are
dozens of photographs of how exercises are to be done (including some which do
not require a Bowflex unit).
Comparing this work to others I have read on the topics of exercise,
strength training, cardio and stretching, I learned more about all of those
subjects in less time than all of the other materials and resources. His dietary
program, however, is not what as healthy as it might be (but his purpose is to
formulate a diet that can lead to weight loss of up to 60 pounds in 6 weeks –
not to detoxify a system).
If
I had not purchased this book, we would not have purchased a Bowflex. I don’t
think any novice Bowflex user should purchase a Bowflex without first reading
this book.
Bowflex Conquest Review. By the time I finished the book, I was
pretty excited about the Bowflex equipment. The units I had seen at Sears and
some sporting goods stores were so large that I was discouraged, because we only
had one room where we could keep the equipment, and the unit had to be moved to
the middle of the room to be used. The one positive thing we learned as we
visited these stores was that the units had wheels, and it appeared the units
could be moved into a corner in a folded position (there are a couple of Bowflex
units that don’t have wheels and can’t be moved, but I wasn’t interested
in those; one of them did not have a rowing bench and the other was out of our
budget constraints).
I called the Bowflex toll free number on several occasions, and learned
quite a bit of information about the difference in the units (they could not
tell me anything about the Conquest, however, since it is not available through
the direct telephone purchase program). The folded footprint size of the direct
purchase units deterred me from considering but one or two, both of which were
more expensive than the Conquest unit (which is sold through Amazon.com).
After
moving some furniture around, we determined we could squeeze the Conquest into a
corner space, and hopefully, the unit would be easy to move to the middle of the
room (it was). Since it weighs close to 200 pounds and is close to 7’ high, I
had some reservations, which were misplaced, by ordering it sight unseen.
So we bought the Conquest, because of its relatively small footprint and
its price. It arrived in 4 boxes (most of the boxes weighed about 70 pounds),
and fortunately, the instructions were pretty easy to follow. It took about 3
hours to assemble (one hour was spent trying to find an adapter for my electric
drill; the Allen wrenches furnished with unit took too much time to use, in my
opinion). Once we got it together, we rolled it into the corner, and spent the
rest of the evening reading the manual and watching the DVD that came with the
product. The DVD instructed us on proper body positioning during the exercises,
how to adjust the power rods, and was a very useful training aid.
The manual contains lots of information on the exercises which are
designed for this unit, has many photographs, some anatomy diagrams relating to
the muscle system, and has a diet and exercise program (all of which are written
by Ellington Darden). Using the manual, plus information gleaned from The
Bowflex Body Plan, we embarked on the 6 week program.
Since
weight loss was not one of my primary objectives, I did not drink a gallon of
cold water every day, or follow the prescribed diet. My wife followed some of
these recommendations, however, and lost a couple of pounds.
At the end of 6 weeks, we had each lost about 4 pounds of body fat (which
is fairly close to normal, according to Darden); my overall weight was about the
same. In that time period I gained an inch in size in each arm, and my abs were
visibly improved (they were in pretty good shape when I began the program, but
the difference is very apparent).
The drawbacks to the Conquest relate to features which are not available
on this unit: the lower pulley bar has only one setting (the more expensive
units have more), which means, some of the exercises from The Bowflex Body
Plan are not entirely adaptable to the Conquest. In addition, there are
other pieces of available equipment (as separate purchases, in most instances)
that cannot be used on the Conquest (e.g., ones that are to be used for certain
leg exercises). For our purposes, however, I have no regrets.
The basic six week program is designed to increase the number of
exercises performed over the six week time period. By week 7 we had increased
the number of exercises to 12. We always warm up by rowing, and are able to
finish all 12 exercises within the allotted 30 minute time period. About every 2
weeks we increase the weight resistance, and the sessions have proven to be more
difficult and more strenuous. However, the results are rewarding.
I was surprised to learn that my wife’s carpal tunnel pains had abated
over the course of time, and that we both decreased our body fat. Since muscles
weigh more than fat, I regret that I did not follow the diet. I wanted my weight
to stay about the same, but after week 6, it has inched its way upward, because
of the weight of my “new” muscles. Presently, I am using some of the dietary
techniques with moderate success, so as to return to what I regard as normal
weight.
One of the Bowflex salesmen I visited on the phone with mentioned that
his grandmother had been using a unit similar to ours for many years. This was a
comforting thought, because I know we need look no further for a unit with more
features. The Conquest meets our needs and is accomplishing our objectives.
We are very pleased with our Bowflex.
Conclusion. Both the American College of Sports Medicine and the
American Heart Association now recommend resistance training as part of our
daily regimen, in addition to cardio exercises. I will give you the hotlink to
their site shortly, but the bottom line is this: we are an obese nation, and are
somewhat indolent. Exercise puts us in better physical shape, and with a proper
diet, exercise can help us to stay healthy. The Bowflex program helps accomplish
these goals, and should certainly be considered.
(http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home_Page&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7764)
The Discarded Image
(an Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature) by
C. S. Lewis (paperback, Canto Series, November 1994)
To those who like to travel back in
time, read on. For those who don’t,
then stop reading this review.
We all enjoy good entertainment, and
movie producers usually hit the “mother lode” with time travel productions: Back
to the Future, Jurassic Park, The Time Machine, the Terminator, and so
forth. As good as these productions
are, however, visual arts can never accurately depict what life was like in
times past. To travel backwards in time, we must use other resources.
C. S. Lewis is a wonderful guide to
time travel, and in The Discarded Image, he shines his light on what
life was like in medieval and Renaissance times, using the same tools employed
in his other scholarly works, by pointing to delightful period literature.
The book is lightly laced (a) with
wit: “I cannot boast that (this
book) contains much which a reader could not have found out for himself . .
.” “One gets the impression that
medieval people, like Professor Tolkien’s Hobbits, enjoyed books which told
them what they already knew.” (b) with unexpected information: “Arabic
numerals are really of Indian origin and date from the fifth century; they
reached the West through the work of . . . Ben Musa, known as Al-Khowarazmi”
“The . . . soul has ten senses or wits, five of which are what we call the five
senses: sight, hearing, smell taste and
touch . . . the inward five Wits are memory, estimating, imagination, fantasy,
and common sense. (c) with literary recommendations which lead to
good reading.
Through all of his writings, Lewis
wants all of us to read good books. In The
Discarded Image, he gives the titles and authors he likes and dislikes, and
gives us a synopsis of the better
works. As an example, he commends the
wisdom and writing of Boethius, 430-524 a.d., in the Consolation of
Philosophy, as he characterizes it as being “one of the most influential
books ever written in Latin . . . until about two hundred years ago it would .
. . have been hard to find an educated man in any European country who did not
love it.” To support his observation about this book, he cites dozens of other
works which borrow from the Consolation, and by so doing, encourages us
to read Boethius for ourselves.
We live in an era with satellites,
space shuttles, and spy planes; this technology has given us remarkable
pictures of our world, and might lead us to believe those living in other eras,
i.e., 13th century Italians (and other Europeans), were ignorant of
the earth’s topography. Lewis challenges this uninformed view, by reminding us
that the medievals’ geographical world extended not only to Europe, but much
further East: “Marco Polo’s great Travels
is easily accessible and should be on everyone’s shelves.” Lewis reminds us that citizens of the 13th
Century knew quite a bit about geography.
As Lewis describes life in medieval
times, we are somewhat calmed about the events of today. We come to understand that our ancestors
were faced with difficult and hard issues of life, but they survived the trials
extant in every generation, and they passed the torch of life’s experiences to
their progeny. By learning from the
past, we gain hope for the future.
Lewis died on the same day President
Kennedy was assassinated. Because he is
no longer here, we cannot listen to him lecture students in the halls of
Magdalen College at Oxford. This book
might give us a close substitute, however, since it covers some of his lecture
materials. The added treat is, of course, time travel, for we learn about the
habits, thinking, and attitudes of our European ancestors. And Lewis reveals
his secret to exploring time, by encouraging us to do the same: read old books.
By Alfred Guillaume,
Penguin Books U.S.A., 1954 and 1977
After September 11, 2001, the question was asked and answered
differently: Is the civilized Western World at war with the Islamic
Nations? If not, then which Islamic
sects advocate terrorism? Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
recently commented that “Islamic militants have irrational goals: the conquest
of the world and the taming of mankind to rules that are against human nature.
Communists had similar irrational goals, but unlike Islamists, they pursued
their goals very rationally. Every time they had to choose between their own
survival and their ideology, Communists chose survival and backed off. But
Islamic militants may very well chose destruction. And this pathological streak is what makes militant Islam so
dangerous.”
Since most of us know very little
about Islam, it is difficult to understand what Islamic traditions breed the
“militant Muslims” described by Mr. Netanyahu. Can we better understand their
mindset if we conduct independent studies of Islam? Perhaps. That was
certainly my intention when I began to read this 202 page book. Because it was written some 50 years ago, it
is not influenced by recent events.
Additionally, it was penned by a British professor (who also taught in
the United States), a man educated in Arabic studies and in theology. Another
plus for me was the author was ordained as a Christian Minister. Although this work is somewhat old, it has
had time to “cure”, and like beef bourguignon, satisfies the intellectual
palate because it is aged.
The book ends with a comparison of
Christian beliefs and Islamic beliefs.
Since my review of this book has a Christian bias and I also approve of
Western capitalism, I will not attempt to dilute my beliefs. It is not my
objective to be impartial. By the same token, if Professor Guillaume were alive
today, I believe he would echo my sentiments.
So from this prospective, we begin
with the last chapter, which compares Islam with Christianity. Muslims believe
in God, and also believe that Jesus Christ is an Apostle sent by God. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost (note:
Islamics don’t regard the Holy Ghost as a “person”, but an emanation of God),
and was born of the Virgin Mary. They
believe that Jesus was not crucified, but that he died. Interestingly, however,
they also believe that he ascended into heaven.
Although Professor Guillaume ends
the book with a comparison of beliefs, Islam is not a monolithic religion. One
of his chapters deals with various Islamic “sects”; you see, Muslims differ on
several issues. For example, the Qādiānīs believe that Jesus is dead, but that Hell is not
ever lasting, that Apostasy is not punishable by death, and that Muhammad is
not the last of the prophets. In addition that these sects, Hallāj (who was an Islamic Mystic) taught that Jesus rather
than Muhammad was the supreme example of glorified humanity. As Hallāj was being crucified for his beliefs, he paraphrased
Jesus by asking God to forgive those who were putting him to death, by saying
they “know not what they do”.
But let’s not stray into the
divergent Islamic sects. We should focus on the basic beliefs of Islam, which,
of course, stem from Muhammad himself.
Guillaume states that “Muhammad was one of the great figures of history
whose overwhelming conviction was that there was one God alone and that there
should be one community of believers.
Muhammad’s message from the first to last was the almighty power of God
and man’s duty to obey him, of sin and judgment.”
Muhammad’s message began to be
spread in 622 A.D., which was the beginning of Muhammad’s Hijra (or flight)
from Mecca to Medina. At that point in time, he became convinced that converts
to his message came through force. As Guillaume said, “This message was for all
Arabs, and perhaps for all mankind. There could be no compromise with
idolatry. Therefore it followed that
all those who refused to believe in Islam must be quelled. Idolaters whose very existence was an insult
to the one true God would have to accept Islam or the sword; other monotheists
would have to acknowledge their inferiority by paying a special tax. This became the established principle of
Islam during the few years of the Prophet’s life at Medina. It was put into
effect in the whole of the Arab Empire in the century that followed”.
By definition, a prophet receives
messages from God, and Muhammad was known to have ecstatic seizures; during these
time periods, the Qurān was written. The Qurān itself “was a
transcript of a tablet preserved in Heaven, in which is written all that
happened and all that will happen.” Guillaume’s reports that “the Qurān
recorded what Muhammad said while in the state of ecstasy. Verses were written
on palm leaves, stones, and the shoulder blades of animals; in short, on any
material which was available. Tradition
associates the collection of all this material, together with what man had
committed to memory, to AbūBakr, the first Caliph,
and alternatively to his successor, ‘Umar, who died before the work was
completed.”
Muhammad believed that “God had
revealed his will to Jews and Christians, but they could not agree either to
follow God’s commands or to live in unity among themselves. If Jews held
Christians to be blasphemous innovators, and Christians called Jews unbelievers
and persecuted their own co-religionists for holding divergent views about the
nature of Jesus, they must either have corrupted the original scriptures or
followed their own mischievous imaginations.
They must be brought back to the first principles, to the original truth
taught by Abram. This return was through
Islam, a word which appears to mean submission or resignation to God.”
I must insert a personal comment on
the Trinity. Muhammad could not understand the Christian concept of a Triune
God. Perhaps Francis Schaeffer’s explanation would have satisfied him: The Trinity teaches us that God is unified,
yet diverse. Christians are unified in
essential beliefs, but yet are diverse in appearance, practice of worship,
baptizing by immersion or by sprinkling.
Back to Guillaume’s book. After
Muhammad’s death, Islam continued to flourish, due in part to the religious and
political “empires” of the time. “The Byzantines were hated by their Semitic
and Coptic subjects because of their oppressive taxation and their persecution
of the “heretic” churches. The situation in the Persian Empires was somewhat
similar. Many rivals to the Zoroastrianism of the state raised their heads and
were kept down only by an army of mercenaries whose loyalty was seldom above
suspicion. Thus neither of the great
powers of the time was in a position to offer an effective resistance to the
new enemy.” So Islam grew, in part,
because the Arabic people were unhappy with the existing political and
religious rulers.
As the boundaries of the Islamic world grew,
“non-Muslims had to pay a tax, and this not unnaturally led to a vast access of
converts to Islam.” The Muslims continued expansion using its military, and
entered “Europe with sporadic raids on outlying islands such as Cypress and
Rhodes. These became more and more serious until the11th century,
when the Arabic empire began to break up. The Turks in the East, the Christians
in the West, and the Berbers in Africa were causing dissolution and decay of
the Arabic world. The Crusades, which established a transient rule in the Holy
Land, forever embittered, it would seem, the relations between Christians and
Muslims, and brought misery on successive generations of Eastern Christians who
were left to bear the brunt of Muslim resentment.
Though the empire was weakened four hundred years
after Muhammad’s death, the tenets of Islam were still practiced, based upon law,
custom, and the beliefs of the prophet and his companions and followers.
Guillaume mentions many such practices, such as prohibition of using wine and
pork (even this practice was not always followed, as reported in the Travels
of Marco Polo). To the Western world, Islamic family life is an anathema.
The Qurān regards women as a man’s tillage, and the word for marriage is
that used for the sexual act. The
primary purpose of marriage is the propagation of children, and men are allowed
four wives at a time and an unlimited number of concubines. Although the
husband pays the woman a dowry, and the wife is to keep this as her own
property, the husband is licensed to beat his wife. Though the husband is instructed to treat her with kindness and
impartiality, he may divorce her at any time (historically, her only ground for
divorce was the husband’s impotence).
.
Guillaume observes that Muslims are “intensely
conscious of their decline from the great days of the Islamic empire, and tend
to repudiate the past teachings on fatalism, the inferiority of women, blind
obedience to authority, lack of a healthy spirit of skepticism, and low public
morality”. He concludes with his hope
the Islamic world will change for the better.
The review of this book may become your only
information on Islamic beliefs (and incidentally, the book, though currently
out of print, is fairly easy to find in used bookstores and on the
internet). Perhaps you can perceive
that there are vast cultural and philosophical differences between Islamics and
the civilized Western world. And if you
read this book (or any other book on Islam), I suspect you will conclude that
we are not at war with Islam, but that we are at war with certain sects of
Islam. The core beliefs of these sects
are deep rooted. They believe, as did
Muhammad, that force is a means of persuasion.
Sadly, these sects will only be quelled by force.
e-books, the Bible and
Orthodoxy (by G. K. Chesterton)
SEGMENT 1: e-books
Last week when my sister-in-law
visited us, I tried to explain the virtue of reading e-books. Using my PDA, she read a page from Orthodoxy
by G. K. Chesterton. She handed it back and said, “you always like
gadgets.” My retort was sincere: these gadgets have blended two sources of
pleasure into one: I can now carry scores of books on my PDA, which slips into
my pocket, and I can read a book whenever I have a break in schedule.
Although this column is a book
review, it must be done in installments: this segment will cover some of the
technology. The next segment deals with a great e-book application, the Bible,
and the last one will review Chesterton’s Orthodoxy (a good Christian
apologetic work), which is an available (and free) e-book.
e-books. e-books (electronic books) are to literature
what e-mail is to a letter – simply put, these are books which can be read on
computers, electronic book readers, handheld computers, and PDAs. Historically, e-books have been around since
the first days of personal computers. Because reading books on a computer
screen isn’t much fun, until recently, the thought of pouring over a novel
using a handheld computer or PDA sounded even worse.
Let me digress. I bought my first
Palm Pilot about three years ago. At that time, there were no memory expansion
cards available, and the unit was of limited value as far as I could determine:
I kept track of my business expenses, had a rolodex of names and phone numbers,
and a calendar (which served as an electronic Daytimer). On this unit, I also installed a document
reader furnished by Teal, and a couple of New Testament books . However, the unit’s memory was so limited, I
never considered using this device as a means of storing e-books.
Time passed, and these handheld
devices became more popular. Palm Pilot permitted other companies (such as IBM,
Visor Handspring, and Sony) to use its operating system. With added competition the manufacturers
added hardware features: memory cards and memory storage devices. With increased memory, the programs became
more user friendly. I no longer needed
a separate business calculator to do a mortgage amortization, because a PDA
program was written to do that. I could use the PDA to house dictionaries,
language translators, and computer games (such as solitaire and chess). The
unit could also contain a map program, serve as a remote control for my TV,
DVD, VCR and stereo receiver, and with more hardware, I could receive and send
e-mails or play music using mp3s. Color screens were being offered. And the screen was much brighter than my
1999 model.
As I saw friends buy these advanced units, I
perceived that my old unit might need replacing. So last month, after reading more articles than I ought, and listening to the pitches of sales personnel
at several electronics stores, I finally bought a new handheld unit, which
offered more internal memory (instead of 1 mg, which was the size of my
original Palm Pilot), and an expansion slot which might be used for adding
memory.
Not long after I purchased this unit
(which was a Tungsten TX), I bought more memory in the form of a “flash card”. With the added memory, I
decided to download some free e-books off the internet. Before I could read an
e-book, I had to install a portal called a “reader”. Some of these readers are
free, and others must be purchased (usually for a fee of under $20). All of them gave me a free test drive (for
30 days), so I downloaded several to my computer, and added them to the PDA via
the hot sync cradle.
My initial resource for e-book readers was www.palmgear.com. There are 7 internet pages offering different readers and other
components. Because I had previously
used Teal.doc, I downloaded that one, but discovered it was no longer “free” (I
had to buy it after a 30 day trial period).
In addition, I downloaded other programs, such as iSilo, the Palm
Digital reader (www.peanutpress.com),
and MobiPocket (www.mobipocket.com).
Each reader is different in several respects, and not
all readers can decipher all e-books (books encoded for Peanut Press, such as
its Bible, can only be read using the Palm Digital reader; Adobe books cannot
be read unless the Adobe e-book reader has been installed, and that can only be
done on a desktop computer, or a hand held unit that has the same capabilities
as a desktop). Since this review is limited to PDAs using the Palm Pilot
operating system, my observations will not be universally applicable to all
e-books, but the principles should be the same, regardless of the operating
system used.
Let me identify some differences in the readers. The Teal reader uses an “automatic scroller”
which moves the screen up one line, about every 3 seconds, which meant, I had
to read the bottom line of the screen, then wait for the next line to scroll
into position, to continue my reading. The iSilo reader did not have a page
turning system as such, and I was forced to use a tool bar on the right side of
the screen, to move the text down or up.
This required delicate use of my stylus, and I was unable to move the
screen in a manner that permitted easy reading.
Because page turning for the MobiPocket and Palm
Digital readers only required me to tap the stylus on the screen, I kept both
of these systems on my PDA. I deleted
all of the others. Being able to turn a
page with ease was an important issue.
The second key related to visibility. The MobiPocket
reader became my default program, for the font was legible (I had to try
different fonts on different readers, and with the MobiPocket reader, I used a
dpi of 160 x 160, to achieve a font which is similar to the one used in this
newspaper; the viewing area is about the same width as a newspaper column, so
there were no big reading adjustments on my part, other the length of the
“column” is about 2 inches; what this means is, I have to tap the screen to
turn the page after reading 2” of text).
The Palm Digital reader is probably the easiest to use of all of the readers,
but its screen resolution at 320 x 320 dpi was too faint on the screen (the
contrast adjustment didn’t help, either), and I could not easily read the text.
I increased the font size to 160 x 160 dpi, which made the screen very legible,
but the type was then so large that I had the sensation I was reading a first
grade primer.
The other e-book feature which I
thought was important (but I haven’t used) is the text conversion feature. If I
ever want to publish my own book and make it available to the public on my web
page as an e-book, I will use a word processor on my computer, then launch the
companion program that comes with the reader itself. Both MobiPocket and Palm Digital permit me to convert documents
to e-book format.
Once I had settled on a reader, the
next question was, where can I locate e-books?
That one was pretty easy to answer: e-books are available on the
internet, or on computer CDs sold at CompUSA and other vendors. The e-books on the web are either for sale
or are free. Two web addresses that have lots of books to offer are www.cosmi.com and www.peanutpress.com. In addition,
amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com have sections on their web pages devoted to
e-books. Most e-books can be purchased
for $2-9 (but some e-books are sold for the same price as a hardback or
paperback).
Reading a book on a screen that is 2” x 2” was a new
experience, but now that I’ve gotten use to doing this, I’m not displeased. I
have downloaded War and Peace, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Art of War by
Sun Tsu, and other works of interest.
Since e-books were either free or were part of the $15 CD package which
contained 200+ books, I felt as if I had hit the mother-lode of bargains in
life. Stated differently, I do not have to invest $250 to get a separate e-book
reader, such as the one made by RCA (my PDA works fine as a reader), and I
don’t have to use my desk top computer to read e-books.
Segment 2: The Bible
One
of my mentors in PDA technology has been using his unit in church for some
time, as an electronic Bible. Since I was slow to buy one of the newer units, I
didn’t realize what dramatic changes had been made.
In the early days of PDAs (which was
only 3 years ago), I used the Teal reader to display selected books of the
Bible, such as Galatians or Romans.
Because the 1 mg memory was precious, I never considered storing more
than a couple of Bible chapters at a time. Things have changed. With the advent of more memory being
available at somewhat reasonable prices, I can now store the entire Bible on my
PDA.
Bibles are available both as e-books
(which are free) or can be purchased from the vendors – a beginning resource is
at www.palmgear.com. Though I’m not adverse to the King James
version, which is available at that site, I wanted a more current translation,
and finally settled on the Modern King James Version. This rendering is free, at www.olivetree.com
(this site also has several versions of the Bible, some which are free, others
which are not). Unlike separate
e-books, Olive Tree’s Bibles can only be displayed using the Olive Tree reader. And unlike other “universal” readers, the OT
reader is designed for the Bible. The
OT reader features a verse locator, word finder, and of course, the ability to
add a bookmark (e-book parlance for dog-earing a page).
I have been using this reader for my
daily Bible reading, which is about 4 chapters a day. I have opted for the paragraph format of the Bible (rather than
selecting the verse format, which separates each verse into a separate
line). The MKJV translation is all
right – it is not as rich in vocabulary as the New English Bible
(Oxford/Cambridge), but is not as simple as the Good News version.
There are some technical issues which make OT Bibles
awkward. For instance, it took me some
time to discover how to delete a bookmark (the delete command normally has to
be given twice to remove the bookmark).
In addition, storing the reader and text on the memory stick (expanded
memory) saves internal RAM of the PDA, but using that technique limits the
user’s access to all of the books of the Bible (OT divides its Bibles into 12
sections; if the reader and text are placed in expanded memory, only 4 of the
sections can be used at one time). To
compensate for this limitation, I elected to store the Bible and reader in
internal memory (I can access all 12 sections, which means, I can access and
use all 66 books of the Bible).
There are several translations of the Bible available
for download from Olive Tree, and its reader can retrieve any number of
translations stored in memory. Once the Olive Tree programmers resolve the extended
memory problem, I might add other Bible translations to the PDA. Until that time, I am content with the MKJV.
I gave the OT reader a workout at church last
week. The pastor (who is a teacher)
asked us to turn to dozens of texts throughout the Bible. Using the verse finder feature, I was able
to outpace the lady sitting next to me (who used a conventional Bible). I could have book marked all of the texts
the pastor referenced, had I wanted to.
Of course, I could not make margin notes of the sermon. In addition, underlining portions of
scripture is not an option using a PDA.
The second
Bible I downloaded was the King James Version, offered by Peanut Press (www.peanutpress.com). I am required to
use the Palm Reader (www.palmgear.com),
to the exclusion of other readers – but thanks to the Peanut Press programmers,
I can store both reader and text in extended memory (the memory stick), which
frees up my internal RAM for other purposes.
The Palm Reader produces either a font too faint to
see, or one so large that I sense I am reading from a large print Readers
Digest. However, the layout of
scripture is much better than that offered by Olive Tree: the verses are nicely spaced (an extra space
is added between verses), and the high resolution text (using a larger font)
gives an impressive appearance on the PDA.
The Palm Reader permits me to make
notes (via the graffiti feature of Palm Pilots), add bookmarks with ease, and
even shift to the table of contents.
However, the Bible is divided into parts (4 of them for the Old
Testament, 1 for the New), which means, I cannot zoom to a particular verse (as
I can with the Olive Tree reader): the
Palm Reader limits me to the section of the Bible loaded into memory. If the preacher begins with a text in
Galatians, then asks us to turn to a verse in Exodus, I must open another book,
which is a slow operation. In addition,
there is no “verse locator”, per se. To
find a particular verse, one must “search for it”, and the search available on
the Palm Reader is a “global search”, which means, the particular word or
identifying text or chapter and verse will be displayed for all of the books of
the Bible. If you are trying to find
Leviticus 4:2, and do a search on “4:2”, the Palm Reader will first locate
Genesis 4:2, then Exodus 4:2, and finally Leviticus 4:2. The Olive Tree system permits jumping to a
specific scripture.
For private devotion and study, the
Palm Reader and KJV offered by Peanut Press will meet most needs. But for better font resolution, and sheer
speed in locating a verse or chapter in the Bible, the Olive Tree reader is the
preferred product. Additionally, if I
had never read the Bible before, I don’t think a PDA should be used first. However, I do see a benefit in having
scripture with me all the time, and I think this particular use of e-books is a
very good one.
Segment 3 – ORTHODOXY: By G. K. Chesterton
Ignatius Press, 1996
I first became aware of G. K.
Chesterton in the Wheaton College bookstore in 1991. The salesman pointed to the location of the C. S. Lewis books,
which were of prime interest to me. He
then proudly took me to a row of books that had to be at least 20’ long; “these
are the published works of G. K. Chesterton”.
Since I was too embarrassed to ask him, “Who is G. K. Chesterton?”, I
smiled and said, “that’s great”.
As I later read more and more books
by Lewis, I noticed his commendations on the writings of Chesterton. Then in a Newsweek magazine article
published in the early 1990’s, the editors remarked how popular Chesterton was
becoming. So I decided to seek out some
of his writings.
My first excursion into his
Christian apologetics was The Everlasting Man, written in 1925. This was a very good read. I next read his autobiography, which was
so-so, then began a biography on his life.
In the biography, the author made constant reference to one of his
earlier works, Orthodoxy. I tried to find a copy at several used book
stores (since it was published in 1909, I thought it was out of print; I have
since learned that it is not). I was
slovenly in my search, since Chesterton was a Catholic, and I am not; the title
suggested it would be Catholic literature.
It was not.
We now fast forward to the year
2002. As you know by now (if you have
read my earlier columns), I have been engaged in a quest to accumulate free
e-books. Early on, I happened upon Orthodoxy,
and downloaded it from the internet to my computer. I got it installed on my PDA, and decided
this would be the first e-book I would read using my new Tungsten TX. The choice was a great one.
Reading Chesterton in this age of
being politically correct is akin to swimming in a clean river: there is cleansing and refreshment that
comes from his writings. He feared no
opinion contrary to his, and if I could paraphrase his style, it would be along
these lines: those who are politically
correct forget that it is more important to be correct.
But let me give you a sample of his
tongue-in-cheek, “politically incorrect” style – dealt with in the
parenthetical comment: “Unitarians (a sect never to be mentioned without a
special respect for their distinguished intellectual dignity and high
intellectual honor) are often reformers . . . . But there is nothing akin to reform in the substitution of pure
monotheism for the Trinity. The complex God of the Athanasian Creed may be an
enigma for the intellect . . . however, humanity is much more satisfied by the
symbols that gather round the Trinitarian idea, the image of a council at which
mercy pleads as well as justice, the conception of a sort of liberty and
variety existing even in the inmost chamber of the world. For religion has always felt keenly the idea
“it is not well for man to be alone.”
Thus, the Triune God sets the stage:
God is not alone, nor are His children.
If this is a sample of his style,
what then, is the theme of Orthodoxy?
Doing an adequate review of Orthodoxy is difficult, because
Chesterton’s writings sparkle so much that the light and color from this work
cannot be captured. So I can only touch
on a few of his thoughts.
One might begin with the questions Chesterton poses
about Christianity: “Why cannot you take the truths and leave the doctrines? Why cannot you simply allow for human
weakness without believing in the Fall?
Why cannot you simply take the idea of danger and leave the idea of
damnation? Why cannot you take what is
good in Christianity, what you define as valuable, what you can comprehend, and
leave all the rest, all the absolute dogmas that are in their nature
incomprehensible? If I am asked why I
believe in Christianity, I can only answer, “For the same reason that an
intelligent agnostic disbelieves in Christianity. “I believe in Christianity quite rationally upon the
evidence. But the evidence is an
enormous accumulation of small but unanimous facts.”
Although he cites evidence,
Chesterton does not dwell on the facts.
He reminds us time and again that Christianity is based on believing
something supernatural. He contrasts
Christians with non-believers: “The
materialist’s world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure
he is sane. The materialist is sure
that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.”
From his perspective, Christians are
the only balanced people alive, because they are confident in the unseen:
“Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as
you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create
morbidity. The ordinary man has always
been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. . . He has always
cared more for truth than for consistency.
The whole secret of mysticism is this:
that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not
understand. The morbid logician seeks
to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious
and everything else becomes lucid.”
To bring this proposition to a
conclusion, he properly defines happiness as being part of a Divine
adventure: “The perfect happiness of
men on earth (if it ever comes) will not be a flat and solid thing, like the
satisfaction of animals. It will be an exact and perilous balance, like that of
a desperate romance. Man must have just
enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to
enjoy them.”
So with that pleasant thought, I
will bring this review to a close. This
book is still in print (and also in e-book format) – although it was written 83
years ago, it is fresh and relevant.
Those who seek political office would do well to read this book. Those who want a summary of the world’s
philosophies would benefit by it. And
those who want some good laughs will find this a great encounter. I hope you will enjoy it.
DIABETES BOOK
REVIEWS
In
February 2004, my doctor told me I was a type 2 diabetic. Although my Dad was also a type 2 diabetic,
and he also learned of his condition at age 61 (that’s when I learned about
it), he believed his diabetes came about because he had mumps at age 45, which
was a catalyst to adult onset diabetes.
I am now told that diabetes is in part, hereditary. There is no such thing as a diabetic gene,
but at this point, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Perhaps because I
served in Vietnam, which had been sprayed with Agent Orange, caused the problem.
Who knows.
Since Fran and I were very much
aware of the diabetic diet, since Dad lived with diabetes for 29 years, we were
surprised to learn that some of the old taboos about sugar and alcoholic
beverages were no longer of major concern.
One physician even told me to enjoy holidays and family gatherings, and
to eat whatever was served; as he stated, “so what if your BG readings jump to
300 (I remember Dad’s readings were in the 200 range during holidays)? The BG
level will go down after the holidays”.
I wanted to accept what this doctor
was telling me, and initially, I was a non-compliant diabetic. I continued to eat as I always had, and to
take my Avandia twice a day. I exercised
once or twice a day, but my blood sugar readings were somewhat high
(140’s). Fran knew changes had to be
made, and she began checking out nutrition books from the library. In addition, our personal trainer at the
health club (which we joined; blood glucose levels can be controlled by diet and
exercise) mentioned another book dealing with something known as the “glycemic
index”. We bought a copy of that book
and I read it. I liked what it was
saying, and began to buy more and more books on diabetes. Now, over the course
of six months, I have read about a dozen books on diabetes, and thought it
might be beneficial for others to have my reviews of some of these books. As a result of what I have learned and
implemented in my diet, my BG readings have decreased to ranges from 98 to 112,
which is good for almost any diabetic.
Thus, this article will consist of
11 book and product reviews, and will add some of my own observations. Before I go into the book reviews, I want to
mention a device which helps in the matter of record keeping. Thus, we begin with a product review.
Everything we eat is classified into four types of
foods: Carbohydrates, proteins, fats
and minerals (ash). From a diabetic
perspective, each food group has some impact on the amount of sugar that
circulates in our blood system. As you
probably already know, all carbohydrates turn into glucose (sugar), and if the
blood glucose (BG) ratio in your system is too high, you could develop diabetic
complications. These complications include neuropathy, blindness, kidney
failure, heart failure, and probably other things that I have forgotten. I have
represented diabetic clients who have had toes amputated, have become blind,
have died of kidney failure, and have experienced other undesirable physical
ailments. The bottom line is this: if you are diabetic, you need to monitor
your blood glucose ratio, and keep within the normal range for a diabetic
(i.e., which is probably from 95 to 126).
There are two types of diabetes,
type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is usually a youth onset situation: the pancreas does
not produce beta cells. Beta cells
cause the pancreas to secrete insulin, which transports the sugar in your blood
into energy, fat, or muscle. If a
pancreas does not have active beta cells, the person will be unable to produce
insulin, and if this happens when the diabetic is young, they will be
classified as a type 1 diabetic.
Type 2 diabetics usually produce
insulin, but for whatever reason, the person’s internal computer system rejects
the insulin’s ability to transport the glucose into muscle or fat, and the
sugar simply stays in the blood. The
solution for the type 2 diabetic is to keep the blood glucose ratio
normal. So what does a type 2 diabetic
do to monitor the BG level? Check the
BG ratings every day (usually in the morning; as one of my friends told me, he
checks his BG in the morning – if it is too high, then he watches what he eats
the rest of the day). Some diabetics take several BG readings each day. I have seen some with a “diabetic monitor”,
which resembles a wrist watch, and this device is constantly gives information
on the person’s BG level.
I have found it helpful to keep a
record of my BG readings, as well as the types of food I eat. There are various techniques used to
accomplish these tasks, such recording data on pre-printed forms. Because I own
a palm pilot type of device, I ordered and installed a program known as
Diabetes Pilot. There is a computer
version of the program, which I also ordered, and everyday when I hot-sync my
Tungsten TX with my desk top, the data is transferred from my palm pilot to the
computer. From my computer I can
produce pretty graphs and charts, which give me a historical picture of how I
well I am keeping my BG levels (there are graphs and reports available on my
palm pilot, which are also helpful). The desk top version of the program
permits me to export reports into pdf format, which is easy to read using
Acrobat Reader (the pdf reports are easier to read than the ones produced by
the program itself).
The desktop program is an extremely resource
intensive program, which requires quite a bit of computer power to run (and I
have a very fast computer). The palm
pilot version permits me to record my blood glucose readings, as many times as
I take readings (which is currently once a day). In addition, I record every food item I eat; the program then
produces a report which tells me how much carbohydrate, fiber, protein and fat
I have eaten that day. Because the program was developed possibly in Great
Britain, or some other part of the United States that doesn’t enjoy foods such
as grits and black eyed peas and roast beef, I have not been able to enter data
concerning “regional foods”. However,
certain foods have similar characteristics (black beans probably have the same
food characteristics as black eyed peas), so I enter “black beans” whenever I
am eating black eyed peas.
An important addition to maintaining records of
carbohydrates, the palm pilot program tells me how many units of fiber are
contained in each carbohydrate. As you will soon learn, the concept of “net
carbs” is very important to a diabetic (net carbs consists of total
carbohydrates, less the fiber content).
The palm pilot also keeps track of
the amount of exercise I do each day.
It is very important for me to exercise at least 30 minutes a day, so as
to keep my BG levels from 100 - 109. My
clients who have developed diabetes complications have consistently neglected
their diet, and do not exercise regularly.
Their BG levels have, over time, caused blindness, neuropathy, and other
problems, such as kidney failure (which requires dialysis).
The program does not distinguish
between the types of exercise I might be doing, anaerobic or aerobic, but the program permits me to make
independent notes on each entry (e.g., when I enter “30 minutes of medium
exercise”, I can also note that it is aerobic, which for me, is using the
treadmill – when I go to the gym and use weights, which is anaerobic exercise,
I sometimes will enter a notation, “weights”).
The program also keeps track of the
medications taken, which is a handy feature for those who need to record what
they take and when they take it. Because I am not required to take insulin, I
do not use this feature of the program (the program permits me to keep track of
oral medications, but I don’t do that, either).
Both of these programs are available on a 15 day
trial period, and can also be purchased at www.diabetespilot.com. If you can only afford one of the products,
buy the palm pilot version, rather than the desk top version.
Necessary record keeping can be
dealt with using electronics, and I would recommend these programs. Now let me begin the book reviews.
Robert C. Atkins, M.D, copyright 1992,
publisher Avon Books.
I read this book before the
publication of the Atkins Diabetic Revolution, and was going to review
it as a diabetic book several months before the Diabetic Revolution was
published, because at least 30% of its content deals with type 2 diabetics.
This 540 page paper back is tedious reading, probably because it is a rewrite
of earlier books. Instead of making an
effort to shorten the length of the book, Dr. Atkins states, and restates, and
restates, the same diet principles he advocated during his entire medical
practice. Since the book is primarily
directed to the topic of weight loss, much of the content is a series of pep
talks, which emphases that staying fit and trim is not a short term crash diet
process. The “Atkins Nutritional
Approach” is change in life style. Since diabetics must change their life
styles, the pep talks are certainly appropriate for persons like me.
Atkins explains the importance of
insulin, not only for dieting purposes, but for diabetics. The word pictures he
uses are very good: “think of insulin as the barge that transports glucose from
your blood to your cells. Once it reaches the cells, three things can happen to
that glucose: It can be mobilized for
immediate energy; it can be converted into glycogen for later use as a source
of energy; or it can be stored as fat” (page 49).
He explains that insulin is
manufactured by the pancreas, and as the sugar level in your blood goes up, the
pancreas releases insulin to move the sugar out of the blood system. Once your energy needs have been met, the
liver converts the excess glucose into glycogen, which is stored in the liver
and muscles, where it is available for future energy use. However, once the glycogen storage areas are
filled, the excess glucose will be converted by the liver into fat, which is
kept in “storage tanks” in your body.
That is why insulin is called the fat producing hormone.
The main chemical constituent of fat
is triglyceride, which can be a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Excessive carbohydrate intake creates high
amounts of glucose, and may over stimulate insulin production. This can create
a destabilized blood sugar level, causing fatigue, brain fog, shakiness and
headaches. Atkins’ diet solution, which
works not only in weight loss programs but also for type 2 diabetics, is to
control the blood sugar by reducing the amount of carbohydrates a person eats. The scientific basis for his conclusions is
spelled out in an understandable manner.
Atkins explains that we can control the release of
insulin by controlling the types of carbohydrates we eat. All carbohydrates are not created
equal: white bread and baked potatoes
are converted into glucose faster than raw broccoli or peanuts. The difference in the conversion of
carbohydrates into glucose is depicted by the glycemic index of the
carbohydrate. This index is simply a
numerical scale that indicates how fast glucose enters your blood stream, after
a specific carbohydrate is eaten.
Because fats and proteins do not produce glucose, carbohydrates are
tested to determine where they land on the glycemic scale. I will be reviewing a book dealing with the
glycemic index, but Atkins does a pretty good job in rating foods on the
glycemic index. The longer a food
takes to digest, the lower is its number on the glycemic scale. For example,
peanuts are 14 on the glycemic index, whereas jellybeans are 80. All Bran cereal is 42, and cornflakes are
84. What this means is, peanuts (which
have a lower number) are better for you, if your goal is to keep your BG ratio
in a lower range. White bread (which
has a rating of 100) is more quickly converted into sugar.
To bring stability to your blood sugar, it is important when eating foods with high glycemic index numbers to mix those foods with other foods which have low glycemic index numbers (this will slow the digestive process, thereby slowing the release of sugar into your system).
Atkins wants those who use his diet
to begin with an induction phase, which virtually eliminates carbohydrates for
a period of two weeks (Atkins does not want you to eat more than 20 grams of
carbohydrate per day during the induction phase). What this means is, people who go on his diet will eat lots of
eggs, cheeses, meats and certain vegetables, but will eliminate breads, donuts,
and the like. Once your body has gone
through the “induction phase”, according to Atkins, it will switch from a carbohydrate
burning mechanism to a fat burning mechanism.
After the close of the induction
phase (which some people stay on for a year), you are permitted to enter into
phase 2. During phase 2, you may
reintroduce certain carbohydrates to your diet. Once a person reaches the desired weight, they will then move
into a life maintenance program in which they are permitted to eat anywhere
from 25 to 90 grams of carbohydrates a day (according to Atkins, those who eat
90 grams of carbs per day should engage in vigorous exercise 5 days a week for at
least 45 minutes a day).
As with most of the books being
reviewed, there are recipes for low carb foods. I appreciate having the recipes on the one hand, but would prefer
that the publishers use a pocket part for the recipes, so they can be removed and
kept in the kitchen (rather than the library, where the diabetic portion of the
book is stored).
Mary C. Vernon and Jacqueline A. Eberstein
copyright 2004
published by Harper Collins Publisher.
This book is actually copyrighted by the Estate of
Robert C. Atkins, M.D., but is written by a physician and a nurse, both of whom
knew Dr. Atkins, and both of whom worked with his patients, particularly in the
diabetic arena. Unlike Dr. Atkins diet
book, this book is well organized and in my opinion, better written.
The book contains some interesting
testimonials from patients of Dr. Atkins. When they adopted the Atkins Diet
Program, their diabetic conditions improved through the lowering of the amount
of their carbohydrate intake.
In this book, the term “net carbs”
is a central learning point. Carbohydrates are to be measured, but the
carbohydrates may contain a component of fiber. Fiber cannot be digested in the system and although fiber is
classified as a carbohydrate, it does not count in terms of total carbohydrate
intake (because they cannot be digested).
For example, broccoli may have 4.6 grams of carbohydrate in a raw stalk,
but it consists of 2.6 grams of fiber.
Thus, if you eat one cup of chopped raw broccoli, you will only absorb 2
grams of carbohydrate. The rest is
fiber, which is a “freebie”, towards counting your total net carbs for the
day.
There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber foods
are foods such as oatmeal. The fiber is not digested, but instead, absorbs
cholesterol from the blood stream and the fiber (and the cholesterol it has
absorbed) is eliminated from your system through the normal digestive track.
For this reason, eating oatmeal lowers the cholesterol in your blood stream. Once the cholesterol leaves your blood
stream, the liver will produce new cholesterol. Insoluble fiber is not digested, either, but it has no effect on
cholesterol.
The palm pilot program I mentioned
earlier contains its own table of foods, and each food’s characteristics are
shown, such as, so many grams of fat, fiber, and carbohydrate. Through these handy tables, I can easily
determine the number of net carbs I eat each day: I simply subtract the total carbs I have eaten from the units of
fiber.
The authors of this book encourage
diabetics to cap their net carbs at either 40, 50 or 60 per day. When I first began a diabetic diet, I was
not complying with this restriction, but through exercise, I kept my blood
glucose in an appropriate range, namely, under 126. Since I have started restricting my net carbs (I try to keep them
under 100, and on some days, I am fortunate to get them down to 50 or 60), my
BG readings have been much better, ranging from a low of 98 to a high of
109.
I should hasten to add that I do
take Metformin (glucophage), and a pill that contains hydroxycitric acid and
chromium (I buy over the counter pills from GNC; Citrimax contains HCA, which
is an extract from the brindle berry plant from Southern India, and it is
formally known as garcinia cambogia; the nature of this extract will be
discussed in the Diabetic Cure Book, which will be reviewed later).
The authors of this book depart from
comments made in other books, dealing with alcohol intake. Other books indicate that alcohol (taken in
very restricted moderation) will interrupt the digestive process, and keep the
liver from releasing glycogen (when the Alpha cells in your pancreas are
released, the pancreas secrets glucagon, which causes the liver to convert the
glycogen into glucose). These authors
do not want diabetics to drink alcohol.
The authors re-emphasize the
positive effects of the glycemic index, found in the Atkins Diet Book, but give
a more precise analysis of foods recommended for type 2 diabetics. The authors also recommend taking Vitamin
supplements, Omega III fatty acids (essential fatty acids), eating lots of fish
and vegetables, and recommend exercise, much more than the Atkins Diet Book. Diet and exercise are required for type 2
diabetics (as well as type 1 diabetics), and the authors even suggest different
types of anaerobic exercises, as well as aerobic exercises, that can be done at
home.
It is unfortunate that most persons will not read a book
of this type until they have been diagnosed as being diabetic. Much of this book should be read by everyone
who is even slightly overweight, or persons who are extra thin (who may be
experiencing hypoglycemia, which is low blood sugar). There are things that all persons can do to improve their physical
health, but because diabetes is becoming an increasing problem, not only world
wide, but especially in the United States, people ought to be educated and
alerted about symptoms they might experience as a pre-diabetic, or experience
what is known as Syndrome X (for purposes of this book review, you can accept
Syndrome X as being pre-diabetic).
I
would recommend this book as one to read before reading the Atkins Diet
Book. Using the net carb approach, my
BG has been much easier to control, and I have not had to exercise as much (I
usually only exercise once a day, rather than twice a day).
Second Addition Copyright 1999 by American
Diabetes Association
Published by Bantam Books
I
read Dr. Bernstein’s book on diabetes before I read the ADA Complete
Guide. Dr. Bernstein is a Type I
diabetic, and states on at least two occasions in his book, that if he followed
the recommendations of the American Diabetes Association, he would be dead today. With that sort of recommendation, I was not
looking forward to reading this book.
From a stylistic perspective, this is possibly one of the
worst books that has ever been written.
The chapters are probably well organized, but the organization is lost
from beginning to end with magazine style “sidebar articles” placed on almost
every page (some of these sidebars span several pages), under topics such as
“Diabetes: Fact or Myth”, and “Exercise Will Do You Good”, and “Skinny Meat”,
and so forth. It is impossible to
follow the flow of this book due to these information sidebars.
In terms of simply being an encyclopedic resource, I
suppose this book isn’t as bad as I may have made it out to be. Much of the book’s material is covered in
other books which are much better written.
The one exception deals with the health care system, which is the topic
of Chapter 15. Whoever wrote this
section assembled some very informative information about insurance, hospital
stays, Medicare benefits and so forth. Whether that information is worth $7.50
(the cost of the book), I don’t know.
The
book covers most of the topics of interest to a diabetic, but in a sense the
information is more of a survey of topics, rather than a plan for controlling
blood glucose ratios. There is a nice
resource section at the end of the book, giving the addresses, telephones,
e-mails for various organizations.
There is also a listing of the American Diabetes Association Regional
Offices, which can probably give better information than one can find from this
522 page book.
If I had my choice on diab