I didn't look up this book because I need to lose weight. I have only a few left to lose to reach the "ideal weight" according to my medical chart and I'm in no hurry. But I am reading on what a healthy diet is--because that's what's important to me, and because soon I have to think about not losing, but maintaining--which as I think everyone knows is the hard part. A 2011 New York Times article stated "more than 90 percent of people who lose a lot of weight gain it back."

The reason this isn't rated five stars is because I didn't take away from it much I didn't know before. This isn't for me a keeper, a must-purchase I'll refer to again and again. But it's eminently sensible--and that's rare enough in diet books--and structured in such a way, with enough choices, a person following the book may actually learn a healthy way to eat--not just simply follow a rigid meal plan. If you want to lose weight in a healthy way--you could do far, far worse than this book.

Having read on diet recently the different takes truly are crazy making. There are the Vegans and their ilk telling you meat and dairy and eggs are poison. Then there are the Paleo people telling you grains and legumes and soy--even fruit--are poison; oh, and the "Nighshade" veggies such as tomatoes and peppers eggplants are bad, and wrong. And both sides argue for their regimens with religious fervor.

What I like about Stork is that he promises to tell you when the science is conflicted or uncertain--such as the changing picture on soy and saturated fat--and I find that beyond refreshing. It makes him as far as I'm concerned far more trustworthy than all those diet gurus insisting you must follow their rules and eliminate a wide swathe of foods humans have eaten for millenia or it's your fault if you get cancer, heart disease or diabetes. ( )