Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss {#Book Review}

Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss gives definitive answers to the question, “Why is it so hard to lose weight?” It is because we have missed or ignored the most important pieces in the puzzle of how our bodies determine whether to store or burn fat. Those puzzle pieces are hormones such as insulin, cortisol, leptin, and others. Individuals with food allergies or gluten intolerance face additional weight-loss challenges such as inflammation due to allergies or a diet too high in rice. This book explains how to put your body chemistry and hormones to work for you rather than against you, reduce inflammation which inhibits the action of your master weight control hormone, leptin, and flip your fat switch from “store” to “burn.” It includes a flexible healthy eating plan that eliminates hunger, promotes the burning of fat, and reduces inflammation and tells how to customize the plan so it fits you, your allergies or intolerances, and your need for pleasure in what you eat. Information about cooking for special diets, 175 recipes, a list of sources for special foods, and extensive appendix and reference sections are also included.

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Allergy Adapt, Inc. (March 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887624198
• ISBN-13: 978-1887624190

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Nickie Dumke enjoys helping people with food allergies and gluten intolerance find solutions to their health and weight problems. She began writing books to help others with multiple food allergies over 20 years ago and the process culminated in The Ultimate Food Allergy Cookbook and Survival Guide. She says, “This book contains everything I know to help with food allergies,” and it has helped many people come back from near-starvation. Her other books address issues such as how to deal with time and money pressures on special diets, keeping allergic children happy on their diets, and more. A few years ago, while listening to the struggles of an allergic friend on the Weight Watchers™ diet, she remembered her own weight struggles* many years ago and thought, “There has to be a better way.” This was the beginning of a new quest, and she is now helping those who are overweight due to inflammation (often due to unsuspected food allergies) or high-in-rice gluten-free diets, as well as those who are not food sensitive but want to lose weight permanently, healthily, and without feeling hungry and deprived. Her unique approach to weight and health presented in Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Weight Loss is based on body physiology and reveals why conventional weight-loss diets work against rather than with our bodies and therefore rarely result in permanent weight loss. *

(Nickie’s weight loss story, briefly, is that in her early 20s she could not lose on a calorie-counting diet in spite of repeatedly further reducing the number of calories she ate and swimming vigorously and often. Then she found a diet based on blood sugar control, lost weight without being hungry, and still weighs what she did in her mid-20s). Nickie has had multiple food allergies for 30 years and has been cooking for special diets for family members and friends for even longer. Regardless of how complex your dietary needs are or how much or little cooking you have done, she has the books and recipes you need. Her books present the science behind multiple food allergies and weight control in an easily-understood manner. She has BS degrees in medical technology and microbiology. She and her husband live in Louisville, Colorado and have two grown sons.

You can visit Nickie’s websites at http://www.foodallergyandglutenfreeweightloss.com and http://www.food-allergy.org.

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…I will admit, this book took me some time to get into, HOWEVER, I’m glad I finally took the time to read it.  As a food allergy suffferer and one who’s become more and more sensitive to foods over the years, I needed this book to better understand my pain as well as make me feel not alone. Whenever I’d mention a food allergy to someone and they ask what happens to me, I’d say, “Well, I will instantly swell like I’m 5 months pregnant, gain weight on the scale, and be in pain for hours, sometimes days before I get back to normal again.” They’d just stare at me and say, “well don’t eat so much”. My response? “But I’m NOT overeating.” Again, the stare from them. You know the one that says “OK…whatever you say…” Interestingly enough I went to my doctor Monday to discuss my stomach issues and FINALLY someone else along with Nicolette understands and I’m now working on re-balancing my own body chemistry.

So now back to the book itself…Nicolette Dumke does an excellent job in explaining the science behind it all and provides additional references for more. She touches up on your bodies hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, insulin, leptin, etc) and how they affect your hunger and weight. There’s a chapter on carbohydrates and the glycemic index. She also discusses fats and how the right fats are essential to our diets. Overall she stresses to LISTEN to how our body feels and “do it your body’s way”. In addition to helping us understand why our body reacts a certain way to different types of food, she provides 9 principles to a healthy eating plan, food recipes, cooking tips, more information on the glycemic index, a list of super foods to moderate inflammation, and lists multiple resources for further understanding and where to get special types of foods.   Even though the book does not appear “exciting” in terms of presentation (there are no pictures at all throughout the entire book), I do believe, this will be my new food “Bible” as I learn my own body’s chemistry. To those who have food allergies or sensitivities, I’d say grab a copy.

BTW…if you missed Nicolette’s post here last month, be sure to read her guest post: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Weight Loss.

MY BOOK RATING

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.