The Thyroid Diet

This is an excellent book for anyone with a thyroid condition--or anyone who wants to understand more about it. Mary connects with readers, offering understanding for what it's like to live with thyroid problems. Most of all, she offers hope that you can manage your weight with her simple diet plans, recipes and tips.

Pros

Cons

Mary Shomon has plenty of experience with thyroid problems, having spent years struggling with her weight and trying to get doctors to listen to her. Now she becomes your advocate in her book, 'The Thyroid Diet,' helping you determine if you have a thyroid condition and what to do about it. The first half of the book covers the basics of thyroid conditions--what they are, their symptoms and their treatment. Her conversational tone keeps the information at a level anyone can understand and she covers everything from how the body loses weight to the major issues associated with thyroid conditions. In the second half, Mary offers 3 different diet plans: The Free-Form Plan, Carb-Sensitive Plan and Calorie-Sensitive Plan. Each plan has instructions on how many meals to eat, how many servings of each food group and water and fiber intake. Each plan has a Daily Checklist to record your food servings, and the Calorie-Sensitive Plan includes formulas to calculate your caloric needs. Once you choose a plan, you'll find examples of foods (e.g., lean proteins, carbs, veggies, etc.) and info on portion sizes. Following that are a variety of recipes anyone can make. My favorite is how she gives you a complete meal suggestion after each recipe--perfect for cooking idiots like myself. She ends the book with more tips for staying on track and moving forward, as well as a huge list of web resources. Overall, an excellent book offering hope to those with thyroid conditions.