5 Responses to “The Mcdougall Quick and Easy Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Low-Fat Recipes You Can Prepare in Fifteen Minutes or Less”

1. Laura Haggarty on February 8th, 2010 4:32 am

   I stand by my previous review, and wish to correct the previous reviewer who stated that “all the amino acids in proteins can be found in all plant sources”. This is *completely* wrong. And as Manager of the Natural Medicine Forum on CompuServe for the past six years, I can speak with some authority on this, and am far from being “rather uneducated”, as that reviewer stated.

   The amino acid L-Carnitine can ONLY be obtained from animal foods (see “The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book” by Lieberman & Bruning for more details on this). One cannot obtain L-Carnitine from vegetable sources. It can be synthesized from them, but only if the body has enough vitamin c, niacin, vitamin B6, iron, and the amino acid L-Lysine. And because cereal grains such as corn, wheat and rice – mainstays of many vegetarian diets, are low in L-Lysine, the vegetatian’s ability to synthesize carnitine may be compromised. The cooking of these grains destroys L-Lysine entirely.

   So, I stand by my original statement that the eating plan presented in this book, while excellent for some, does not necessarily work for all, and some vegans may experience a lack of certain essential amino acids, L-Carnitine being one, as I did.
   Rating: 4 / 5

2. Anonymous on February 8th, 2010 4:59 am

   I bought this book because of the many positive reviews it has.

   However, I had no chance to try it. I have no idea if it works, because the majority of sample foods he uses are hard to find outside the US.

   The recipes are supposed to take 15 minutes to prepare… added the day you spend looking for the ingredients… For me it was a copmplete waste of time and money. I only wish I had known this before buying it.
   Rating: 2 / 5

3. Laura Haggarty on February 8th, 2010 6:04 am

   I love the idea of a vegan lifestyle. I followed McDougall’s plan for almost a year. If it had been just me, I would have found it much easier to do. But as a busy mom with a dedicated carnivore for a husband, it became too hard to keep up with. I also question the concept of keeping one’s fat intake to 10 grams a day or less. I found my body needed more to keep my hair and skin healthy. As well, my system needs the amino acids found in animal proteins to keep functioning properly. But all in all, for what it is, this book (and plan) is the gold standard, and can be of real benefit to many people. The recipies are easy and delicious, and easy to follow. I still use some of them to this day.
   Rating: 4 / 5

4. Anonymous on February 8th, 2010 6:50 am

   Everything we tried from this book was disgusting. I like to cook lowfat, vegetarian meals, but the few recipes in this book that even sounded appealing turned out to be nasty. I would recommend “Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish” instead for those who want very lowfat recipes — most items in there are easy and tasty.
   Rating: 1 / 5

5. C. Smith on February 8th, 2010 7:51 am

   Nearly every recipe features some type of beans, whether white, black, red, brown, whatever – though some of the recipes do sound far more appetizing than the stuff that appears in The McDougall Diet, which I gave to my mom when she was diagnosed with diabetes. I’m an admitted sugar junkie, and I refuse to give up my coffee for Postum (which tastes terrible); also, what’s so bad about a little olive oil?

   Basically, the McDougalls may like a lot of this stuff (such as The World’s Fastest Dinner, pasta mixed with 2 kinds of salsa and sauce,
   
   not something I’d try serving my neighbor’s dog), but the only recipes
   
   I find of any interest are the soups…to which I am definitely not adding Tabasco sauce (what’s up with that, anyway?) or salsa, yick.
   Rating: 3 / 5

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