This is an interesting book. The information seemed helpful, but one wonders if the diet really works. I tried it and had mixed results. This book may be of benefit for some readers, but not everyone fits the model that the advice is tailored to.

i found this book to be very benificial in learning about the menopause and how it really affects us in a biological way. I wasnt looking for a 'diet' book and this fitted the bill very well. It was hard reading sometimes and i had to re read certain parts before it stuck. I use it often and would recomend it to someone who wants to understand the menopause ina deeper way yo to beat it.

Don't waste your time on this one. What a HUGE downer to read. It seems that the author has bigger issues than menopause, like chronic negativity. From cover to cover this book is filled with do not eat this, do not buy that, if you eat this you may die of that! Then to add insult to injury, she continues with her personal opinions of different exercise types that can cause injury. Give me a break, I, for one, am not motivated by the SCARED SKINNY tactics of this book. And finally, she actually promotes the use of hormone therapy which in my own physician's opinion may be risky. ENOUGH ALREADY... Back to portion control, good choices, exercise and not living in fear. This book went into the trash, it is not even good enough to recycle...

Provides great info on what foods causes the tire around your waist. Pretty basic....easy to read.

Provides great info on what foods causes the tire around your waist. Pretty basic....easy to read.

I agree with the person that the percentages in this book need to go away and be replaced with real measurements or at least a chart of how much fat is in 25% fat. What does this mean? I had to go elsewhere to print a fat equivalency chart. The email at the website gets bounced back so there is no way to even bring this up with the author. I am very frustrated. The information is solid but the food portion advice is not. I guess I will use other books to supplement this diet. How disappointing. I figured, I am smart, I can figure this out. Get out your calculators ladies. For someone writing to smart, older women, it seems like she shortchanged us. I do not like the clock idea of a plate when calculating fat. Are we supposed to smear butter on a pie shape and lick it off with our tongues??? How about telling us what that pie shape equals. Is it a teaspoon of olive oil? How dumb is this?

Other than that, the info is solid although I think she must be getting kickback for pushing HRT. No thank you. Perhaps the pause in meno means to stop trying to pretend we are still 20 years old. If the Goddess wanted us to have estrogen in our later years, ya think she would have figured out another way for us to get it from our bodies.

I will begrudgingly follow the advice but I am very disappointed in the lazy quality of the directions. She tells us what not to buy as women need their brains to remember other things and don't want a list of what they can eat. Duh. Lazy writing. My brain is perfectly fine, thank you very much. How about a food list like other normal diet books provide? How about using words like 6 oz chicken breast, 1 cup veggies with 1 tsp olive oil dressing????? I guess I will use this book in conjunction with SOnoma and South Beach. Too bad. The theory is good but we older women deserve much more. For now, I will pretend I am a cat and lick my fat off my plate.

This book is very informative. There is a lot of medical infomation but that's what I was looking for.

Dr. Gillespie is very straight forward so if you don't want to hear the truth about how you body is changing then this isn't the book for you.

Her diet has stopped my blood sugar drops and I've lost a couple of pounds in a week.

The book is a slow read because it's not written to be entertaining but give you the information you need to prevent or get rid or that "menopot."

I found this book very disappointing. I already own Dr. Atkins book and there isn't really any difference in the actual diet. The information on hormone therapy was interesting, but most of the information regarding recommended brands and doses of estrogen was available on the authors web site. If, like me, you have allergies to dairy products, eggs, or nuts, the companion book, "Mini-Meal Cookbook", is a waste of money.

Although there is a lot of information in this book, I found the actual DIET hard to put together. The doctor covers too much technical information which most of us do not need. There are a smattering of recipes, and some source lists, but nowhere is there a definitive few pages outlining the DIET! Read with a note pad handy to get the information you will need to use the diet.

This book is still on target for being written in 1999. I lost 27 pounds and have not regained it since I followed Dr. Gillespie's very sound, documented advice. It's all about our hormones, and how they affect our health. The chapter on "Are Hormones Making You Fat?" is worth gold, as it explains why a little ERT ( not HRT..doesn't anyone at MassEDU read???)goes a long way towards protecting us from the diseases brought on by aging and lack of exercise. This plan gets women away from "counting" calories and instead relies upon using protein to start a meal in order to stimulate the release of glucagon, a hormone that helps to lower your insulin response. I learned that progesterone makes me feel bloated and slows down my stomach's emptying, which leads to MORE weight gain. Now I baste in low dose estradiol, exercise and eat fresh fruits, protein and good fats at will and never looked better! Anyone who says this book is pro HRT NEEDS some estrogen because they are going blind! This book was ahead of its time, presenting the dangers of progestins and premarin, yet explaining that nothing is risk free. Don't pass up this book if you want a healthy time during menopause.

This had a lot of the same old advice that has been out there these past couple of years for free. Not a lot of new information. I also have to take issue with the fact that the author promotes, even hypes, the use of HRT for menopausal women, when there is so much evidence out there about how bad it is for you, just for the sake of losing weight and having fewer wrinkles. I think I'd rather have a little extra weight and wrinkles, rather than subject myself to the possibility of getting cancer or heart disease, compliments of HRT. I don't really recommend the book, and wish I had not bought it.

most information was old information , and it was general pepole and basic

According to a study published last week in JAMA (July 2002), Progestins, not estrogen, causes breast cancer. Now where have I read that before? Oh yes.... chapter 6 in The Menopause Diet (on HRT)... a book that was published about three years before the new study on HRT. From the chapter on HRT: "Not only do progestins counteract the positive effects of estrogen on your heart, but they increase the tension in the carotid artery, which can lead to strokes." This is a small sample of the sound, and obviously ahead-of-its-time advice, that can be found in this entire book. I highly recommend that all women read this book and then talk to their doctors about their HRT options. If The Menopause Diet (and The Goddess Diet) is indicitive of the type of information Dr. Gillespie's providing to women when their own doctors are not, I look forward with great anticipation to her next book, "You're Not Crazy... It's Your Hormones!
Cathi

First off, if you're looking for a "quick fix" diet, the kind that "promises" you'll lose 10 pounds in 2 days, this is NOT the book for you. But if you want to understand why it can be so difficult to lose weight as you reach those menopause years and what sort of changes you need to make to keep the weight off for life, this may be the only book you need. Well-researched and written, it contained all the information I wanted- details about how the hormonal and physical changes of menopause affect weight gain, the reason why mini-meals are better than larger ones and the type of lifestyle changes I needed to make to take the weight off. And it WORKS- the proof being that I am already 6 pounds lighter in 2 weeks of eating this new way.
My only quibble (and it is a minor one) with this book is that the recipes are not necessarily family friendly (but I have to add that my family is very picky about what they'll eat) and they can take some time to make. However, I liked what I did make and the food was satisfying. Bu
Even with this minor criticism, the book is more than worth the money for the rest of the information and you can always adapt the food suggestions to your own tastes and that of your family. And for the first time in years, the weight is coming off and I feel great!

The Menopause Diet isn't a week-long Slim-Fast approach to losing that extra 5 lbs. to get into your bathing suit this spring. As those of us who have struggled with mid-life weight gain know, the quick-fix approach just doesn't work. As our bodies change, our eating has to change as well. The Menopause Diet book doesn't contain day-by-day or week-by-week eating plans, but rather it tells you what things to eat and what things to eliminate from your diet to get rid of your "Buddha Belly." Dr. Gillespie gives each of us the tools to make this new way of eating part of our lives; she doesn't dictate each and every mouthful of food. The recipes in The Menopause Diet are wonderful: fresh, healthy, without additives or conveniece products. For a more detailed "diet plan," I recommend The Menopause Diet Mini-Meal Cookbook, which actually gives some daily menu recommendations. The recipes in this book are really good as well. The same goes for The Gladiator Diet book, which is aimed at men. While Dr. Gillespie does use recipes that call for ingredients that might not be familiar to everyone, it is well worth the effort to find those ingredients and make the recipes. An added benefit is that the flavors and ingredients that might be new and different for some people, help to keep your mind off the fact that you aren't eating the high-carb, pot-belly-producing meals that got you to the point of buying a diet book in the first place. The Mini-Meal plan keeps you from being hungry, and the diet really, REALLY works to remove that menopausal pot belly. I can't recommend it enough. In addition to The Menopause Diet (which gives the whys and hows of the plan), and The Menopause Diet Mini-Meal Cookbook, which gives menu suggestions and many, many recipes, I recommend adding The Gladiator Diet book as well--if not for your spouse, or other male relative or friend--get it for the recipes! Try the Thai Waterfall Salad--it's really fantastic!