Here is the book that changed my life, and the lives of many, many others as well. Many people have found themselves in Dr. DesMaisons' first book, and then found healing by following her addiction recovery program as outlined in Potatoes Not Prozac or her weight loss program as outlined in Your Last Diet.


Potatoes Not Prozac : A Natural Seven-Step Dietary Plan
by Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. Addictive Nutrition

Amazon.com review:
The same brain chemicals that are altered by antidepressant drugs are also affected by the foods we eat. According to addiction expert DesMaisons, many people, including those who are depressed, are "sugar sensitive." Eating sweets gives them a temporary emotional boost, which leads to a craving for still more sweets. The best way to keep these brain chemicals in the right balance and keep blood-sugar levels steady, she says, is through the dietary plan she describes in Potatoes Not Prozac. Her rules are fairly simple--eat three meals a day, eat proteins with every meal (especially those high in the amino acid tryptophan, which creates the calming neurotransmitter serotonin), and eat more complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains and, yes, potatoes. Not only will this make you less depressed, DesMaisons says, but it will also keep you from craving too much of the foods you shouldn't eat, making it a self-regulating system. © Amazon.

Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons' brand new book is now available. The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program gives practical help, recipes, and advice from people around the world who have tried Dr. DesMaisons' whole-foods program to heal their sugar addiction and improve their health.

The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program
by Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons

Sugar lurks in foods in more than 85 different forms. Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D., the first person to receive a doctorate in addictive nutrition, says that besides being detrimental to the immune system, the more than 100 pounds of processed sugar consumed annually by each American is responsible for "mood swings, depression, fatigue, fuzzy thinking, PMS, impulsivity ... [and] unpredictable temper." And while overdosing on the sweet stuff is a national pastime, she says her research shows indulging in sugar highs should be treated much more seriously, akin to heroin or alcohol dependency, because sugar causes spikes in the neurotransmitters serotonin and beta-dopamine just like those drugs--and can eventually wreak similar mayhem on one's health, work, and relationships.

Sugar Blues

This is an excellent cookbook in that it is one of the few on the market that uses no sugars or artifical sweeteners and only whole grains; however, I just want to warn you that it is not a very fancy book. If you are interested in recipes, it is great. If you want pretty pictures, it is not.

The Low Blood Sugar Cookbook : Sugarless Cooking for Everyone
by Patricia and Edward Krimmel
Over 200 mouth-watering recipes from the personal collection and kitchen of Patricia & Edward Krimmel. Not only are these recipes nutritious but appetizing and tantalizing as well. Just what a body chemistry needs to be stable and healthy.

This is a sugarless cookbook using only fruits and fruit juices for sweeteners, and whole grain flours rather than white flour.
 

Rodale's Basic Natural Foods Cookbook
This new encyclopedic cooking reference gives readers up-to-the-minute information on nutrition and exciting, delicious, healthful recipes. With special advice on children, labels, and mail-order sources, it's a unique and indispensable guide to good, wholesome food and lifelong health.

 

Your Body's Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj
This book explains a new discovery about the cause and cure of many painful conditions and degenerative diseases. As a result of extensive research into the role of water in the body, the author, a medical doctor, has found that chronic dehydration is the cause of many conditions including asthma, allergies, arthritis, angina, migraine headaches, hypertension, raised cholesterol, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, depression, and diabetes in the elderly.

The body possesses many different thirst signals. A dry mouth is not a reliable indicator of your body's water needs. This book shows how to recognize the various thirst signals, and helps you learn to understand when your body is calling for water. In this way, you can prevent, treat and cure a variety of conditions of ill health, at no cost, with nature's miracle medicine: water. The book explains how much water one needs to drink a day to stay healthy, and why tea, coffee, and sodas are not good substitutes for water.
 

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing
by Christiane Northrup, M.D.
Amazon.com review:
Quite possibly every female over the age of 12 will find this huge book enlightening, pain saving, and perhaps even lifesaving. Think of it as a much more empowering and holistic Our Bodies, Ourselves. Northrup is a gynecologist who acknowledges the power of natural therapies and herbs, but also maintains that allopathic treatments, including surgery, are sometimes best. In Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, she covers the treatment of many physical concerns--among them PMS, menstrual cramps, breast cancer, fibroids, endometriosis, infertility, depression, childbirth, abortion, cystitis, and menopause--explaining how many of these physical problems have roots in emotional upsets. For example, a woman who is unhappy with her marriage may be infertile because deep down, she knows that her husband is not the right man to have children with; a teenager who has cramps may be having problems accepting society's expectations of her as a woman.

Some readers may be put off at first by Northrup's obviously unconventional ways of thinking. Her medical approach is decidedly feminist, blaming our "addictive" and patriarchal society for many of the health problems plaguing women. She clearly illustrates her ideas, however, by drawing upon two decades of experience from her medical practice and citing dozens of her patients' remarkable personal stories. Northrup also delineates the best way to go about tuning in to one's body and mind in order to start the healing process, a self-induced therapy of sorts. She also includes in the book a copy of the eye-opening health inventory she gives her clients. It includes unusual questions such as "Are you bored with your life?" and "Do you have enough friends or neighbors?" © Amazon
 

Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements by Michael T. Murray, N.D.
The publisher, www.primapublishing.com , March 28, 1997
ONE OF THE WORLD'S LEADING AUTHORITIES ON NATURAL MEDICINE
Naturopathic physician Michael T. Murray guides readers through the often complex, conflicting information regarding nutritional supplements. Each chapter profiles major vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, nutrients, and glandular extracts. Based on extensive scientific research, it empowers readers to make educated decisions about which supplements to take for health conditions including cancer, arthritis, depression, high cholesterol, allergies, heart disease and more.