Suzanne Somers' Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away

The major benefit here is two-fold: Want to reduce refined starches and sugars in your diet? Look no further. The recipes here are mostly low carb and low sugar. You can use saccharine or "Somersweet" --a mix of fruit fiber and fructose that is still sugar but lower in simple sugars than sucrose or corn syrup. Unfortunately, it's only sold on Suzanne's website, but she does provide the alternative of artificial sweetners. The second benefit is that if you don't care about sweets, you can ignore the desserts and head for the main dishes, which are all thoughtfully created with delicious vegetables, meats and seasonings to please the most discriminating palate.

The Somercize diet is a combination of the fad for food-combining; here fat and protein are ok, carbs like vegetables or whole grains are not eaten with fat or protein, and fruits go alone. Some foods are "funky foods" --that is, a mix of carbs and fat or carbs and proteins, and they are verboten until you lose sufficient weight.

Will it work? Possibly. Some people do report great results. But the value here is probably more in the cookbook, which really does have very nice recipes for low sugar, well-prepared meals. And if you do get Somersweet or use saccharine, there are ice cream recipes...so how bad can this be? An attractive book, possibly useful even to Atkins dieters who can navigate those recipes with carbohydrates. And certainly if you are editing sugar out, you won't suffer with this plan.


Just plain delicious!   July 27, 2003
Whether or not you follow the somersize program, you will love the recipes from Suzanne Somers! They are very tasty! And for anyone looking to find delicious ways to include more vegetables in your diet you'll find lots of ways to incorporate them.


I Enjoyed The Family Pictures   May 5, 2003
I have had several years of success on low-carb diets, and I have always thought Suzanne Somers brought a valuable perspective to the issue because she's NOT a scientist or a doctor, and explains things in the plain language used by the rest of us. As the latest medical research is showing us, the science behind this diet is very solid, and she provides plenty of reference for people who want to explore that further. But her goal in this book is to speak as one dieter to another.

However, I must say I can't understand all the readers who have said they could do without the photos and references to Suzanne Somers' large and happy family. There are so many people who succeed at work but not at home. It's rewarding to meet in print somebody who balances both. Aside from learning more about what Suzanne Somers really believes about the priorities of family and friends, there is the obvious point that high-protein/high-fat/low-carb diets are the ones that give people both the energy and emotional well-being to write books, spend time with their families, and entertain their friends.