The Schwarzbein Principle II: The "Transition" - A Regeneration Program to Prevent and Reverse Accelerated Aging

"this book was full of informatiojn to help me get healthy and lose weight. I would recommend it to anybody wanting to loss weight esp. belly fat."
~ Written on 2008-10-15

"This book taught me a lot about my metabolism. It made me aware of mistakes I was making by how I ate and what I ate. My body just naturally shed 20 pounds over the last year or so by applying what I learned from the book. Once my metabolism returned to a healthier state, the weight was shed naturally. I bought this book as a gift for a friend who is diabetic."
~ Written on 2007-09-19

"I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of Schwarzbein and have been following it with good results. So, since I enjoy reading, I was very interested in reading book 2. Even for someone who enjoys reading it took a lot of willpower to get through the whole 500 page book without quitting. The first half is a great deal of technical information that is boring and extremely repetitive. (The whole book could have been condensed into 150 pages easily.) The second half of the book is about the plan itself. It was very discouraging to be following one way from her original book and then she changes a lot in the second book. Like maybe she wasn't right after all. So, to sum it up it ends up leaving you wondering whether she knows what she is talking about or not. The good news is I think that the general way of eating is great, but I have a hard time with being fully convinced in view of her changes (regarding saturated fats, amounts of grams, now having to weight proteins, etc.). I hope this helps."
~ Written on 2007-08-10

"With this book, Dr Schwarzbein has shown just how severe her tunnel vision is on the hormones and the endocrine system. There are falsities throughout the entire book because she completely ignores peer-reviewed research in any area that is not directly involved in the endocrine system.

For instance, she lists ADD/ADHD as a lifestyle disorder that's a result of low serotonin. I'm a young adult/adult Learning Disabilities Specialist with a background in neuropsychology. According to the peer reviewed research that has been available for over a decade, ADD/ADHD is a genetic disorder for which researchers have found several alleles that, when switched on, create the disorder. Newer research has shown that the brains of people with ADD/ADHD have as much as 15% less gray matter in specific areas in the right hemisphere that have to do with focus and attention, and this discrepancy has been imaged via MRI. And research has shown for over 3 decades that all of this leads to a decreased level of dopamine, not serotonin. Some people with ADD/ADHD do have decreased levels of serotonin but not all.

Another instance where she completely ignores the research is when it comes to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which she all but dismisses out of hand. Research to date has shown that there is a genetic tendency towards CFS, that it is a central nervous system disorder that can have disasterous effects (a woman in England died from it summer of 2006 and the autopsy showed her spinal cord, brain stem and areas in the brain to be highly inflammed), that the majority of people who have this CNS disorder have smaller than average adrenal glands (imaged with CT and MRI), which may make it impossible for them to absorb all of the daily stressors that come our way, and that onset almost always occurs after a significant trauma (death of a loved one, accident, severe illness, etc). According to some leading researchers in the field, CFS is akin to an electrical overload hitting the circuit breaker box in your house and shutting down all the systems. It hits the hypothalamus in the brain, which controls all the systems in the body, and they all drop low. Lifestyle doesn't do that, folks. Something far more intense is required to create such a destructive onset.

Less well known but highly important research in the field of immunotoxicology has shown in the last 5-10 years that what a pregnant woman is exposed to in the last trimester of pregnancy can damage a fetus' immune system making it difficult at best for the child's immune system to mature once it is born. If an individual goes through life with an immature immune system, that person is unable to mount an adequate immune defense against disease, their immune system often doesn't know the difference between an external invader and their own tissue so they develop auto-immune disorders, and their immune system may be on such high rev that they're hypersensitive to much in their environment, hence multiple chemical sensitivities, allergies and asthma. In fact, the data is so overwhelming that the EPA and FDA are currently developing new guidelines for drug and chemical testing that would address prenatal exposure.

While I find that Dr. Schwarzbein's message to balance out the diet and eat whole foods as opposed to processed foods to be the standard message at this time (think Dr Hyman's book Ultrametabolism) and probably the most prudent form of diet to follow, much of the information she presents in her book is out and out false and needs to be seriously challenged."
~ Written on 2007-07-26

"Diana Schwarzbein has it down! Her books are informative and well written, easy to read and understand. She has done her homework and knows what she is talking about. I have read many "diet" books, this one holds truth."
~ Written on 2007-07-09