Like One of My Books? Try Another

by Melissa Diane Smith

In this age of instant access to information, it’s ironic that I sometimes run into people who say they love one of my books, but aren’t aware of, or haven’t read, any of the others. It’s time to connect the dots between my four main books—Syndrome X, Going Against the Grain, Gluten Free Throughout the Year, and Going Against GMOs—and let you know how reading all of them can give you a thorough understanding of the spectrum of nutrition-related health issues that affect Americans today. I’m so confident that reading even one of my books you haven’t read before will give you knowledge that improves your health, that I’m giving you extra incentive to do just that: Click here to learn how you can get a discount on counseling or coaching with me if you buy any one of these books through February 18, 2015.

Click here to go to my Amazon Author page.

If you aren’t familiar with my main books, here’s a rundown:

Syndrome X

This book, which I coauthored, explains how eating refined carbohydrates (both sugars and refined grains) leads to high blood insulin and high blood sugar (or high blood glucose) levels, which over time leads to insulin resistance and a cluster of common heart-disease risk factors known as metabolic syndrome, Syndrome X, or prediabetes.

When you think of all the people who are overweight or obese, who have high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol ratios, high blood triglycerides, and elevated blood glucose levels, or who have an insulin-resistance-related disease (i.e., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease), you realize that the disordered blood sugar metabolism affects, to one degree or another, the majority of people in our society.

Syndrome X was the first book to explain metabolic syndrome (also know as the insulin-resistance syndrome) in easy-to-understand terms to the public. It was published in 2000 and became a national bestseller. I’m happy to say that even now, 15 years after it was first published, it’s still helping people lose weight and reverse diabetes and heart-disease risk factors. It has a rating of 4.5 stars (out of 5) on Amazon.com, and several nutritionists and healthcare practitioners tell me this book remains one of the favorites in their library.

Going Against the Grain

This book step-by-step explains the health trouble that can develop from not only eating refined grains and sugars, but also eating a lot of whole grains and gluten grains.

The book covers information that wasn’t covered anywhere else at the time it was published, including:

• the concept of non-celiac gluten sensitivity (in other words, reacting to gluten and experiencing unpleasant symptoms without having celiac disease)
• the surprisingly common phenomenon of grain allergies and addictions
• the presence of antinutrients in grains that can lead to countless nutrition and health problems
• how eating a lot of grains can lead to virtually every one of the health problems that plague the public—including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, fatigue, minor and serious digestive disorders, dementia, and mental health problems.

The information I explained in Going Against the Grain in 2002 is not dated: It still holds true today and continues to dramatically transform people’s health. (I love it when people note that long before William Davis, M.D. wrote Wheat Belly, I wrote Going Against the Grain!) However, unlike Wheat Belly, my book doesn’t prescribe one diet for everyone: It allows readers to learn this underreported information, take a series of quizzes, and decide for themselves how far against the grain to go for their best health. When they do, the results they experience are dramatic: They gain control of their eating, lose unwanted weight, get rid of digestive bloating and upset, improve their mood, help reverse conditions such as diabetes, heart disease risk factors, or autoimmune disease, or regain their health in some other delightfully impressive or surprising way.

Going Against the Grain also has an average Amazon.com customer rating of 4.5 stars.

Gluten Free Throughout the Year

This book, which was published in 2010, is a remedy to the common problem of gluten-free eaters the wrong gluten-free foods that cause them to gain unwanted weight and develop elevated blood sugar levels and new health concerns. “It is just what the gluten-free community has been waiting for… and urgently needs,” says gluten sensitivity expert Rodney Ford. M.D.

Drawing on my knowledge from Syndrome X and Going Against the Grain, in Gluten Free Throughout the Year I present a collection of month-to-month articles with recipes and countless tips to steer busy people to eat healthier, less processed, more vegetable-rich, gluten-free diets to improve their health all throughout the year. As reviewer Jimmy Moore, Livin’ La Vida Low Carb talk show host, wrote in a 5-star review on Amazon.com: “Most books only offer 30 or 60 days and then leave you on your own. This one goes two full years to develop strong habits that reinforce one another. But it goes even further than simply removing grains. You also learn what’s wrong with consuming dairy, vegetable oils, corn, and other neolithic aspects of the modern diet.”

Going Against GMOs

In this, my latest book, I explain how genetically modified foods (also called genetically modified organisms or GMOs) have become the food issue of our time. I run down the many risks that GMOs pose to our health, the environment, wildlife, farmers, our food security, and the control of our food—and what we can do about them to take back our food and health.

Going Against GMOs is in my view the definitive consumer’s guide on this topic that has been hidden from the public for the past 20 years. It is the first full-length book written on GMOs by a nutritionist with an extensive nutrition background and it’s one of the few written by a woman.

I guarantee that this book has information you won’t find in any other book. Unique information that is presented includes:

• the Eat GMO-Free Challenge, a series of 31 tips to follow to learn how to take GMOs out of your diet
• guidelines for eating non-GMO for optimal health (which is different than just eating non-GMO!)
• how to personalize going against GMOs for specialty diets ranging from Paleolithic to vegan
• detailed instructions on how to shop and eat out non-GMO
• more than 45 non-GMO (and gluten-free) recipes
• a discussion of how to speak to children about GMOs.

Let’s face it: We’ve strayed a long way from the food we were meant to eat for our bodies to thrive. Refined sugars and refined grains aren’t foods we were designed for. Neither is gluten. But the most radical change in our diet yet is eating “foods” that look like real foods but are engineered to either produce their own insecticide or tolerate repeated applications of chemical herbicide. It was a travesty that these industry-driven food impostors were allowed on the market. So, just as I felt guided to reveal information that had been kept from us about grains a dozen years ago, I felt compelled to give people the straight scoop on unnatural genetically modified foods so they know what they need to know to protect real food and once again make it their best medicine.

Both versions of this book (both Going Against GMOs and the Special Edition which came out earlier because of delays in distribution of the original one) currently have an Amazon.com customer rating of 5 stars.

How My Books Complement Each Other

Let me assure you that if you really like one of my books, you’ll like the others. Each one is written in a similar style and provides in-depth, cutting-edge information on an overlooked or underreported nutrition topic that’s critical to understand to protect your health. (I tend to write about nutrition topics early, before many others do.)

My books also complement each other. If you read my books in chronological order—first Syndrome X, then Going Against the Grain, Gluten Free Throughout the Year, and Going Against GMOs—you’ll see how the information in one book builds on the information in the previous one and you’ll gain detailed knowledge of the most pressing food-related subjects you need to understand to protect your health.

There’s no time like the beginning of a new year to learn information that helps improve your life. And if you purchase one of these books from now through February 18, 2015, you can get a discount on counseling or coaching with me.

Copyright 2014 Melissa Diane Smith