The first part of this book is packed with pretty basic nutrition advice—you know, eat four to six meals a day, have protein at every meal, don’t use artificial sweeteners because they can encourage weight gain, and avoid eating starchy vegetables too often. Author Brett Blumenthal even provides a lesson on how to read food labels.
The positive is that it’s easy to read, and you won’t get buried in scientific mumbo jumbo. It’s also a good review. The negative is that you may be nodding often and saying, “Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”
Nevertheless, the book is well worth the $14 you’ll pay for it because its last part is filled with great recipes, about 40 of them. And get this: Each one includes a complete per-serving breakdown of calories, fat, carbs and protein right down to the percentages of each macronutrient.
For example, the mixed-berry protein shake has 288 calories, 6.2 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbs and 31 grams of protein. Here’s the kicker: 20 percent of the calories come from fat, 40 percent from carbs and 40 percent from protein—a darn good balance for hard-training bodybuilders.
A lot of the recipes are bodybuilder friendly, like grilled breakfast sandwich, mushroom and asparagus egg-white omelet and peasant salad with chicken. Most are high-protein fare with moderate carbs. The dessert section, of course, is where the higher carbs reside, but every so often you can splurge with angel food layer cake from heaven.
As I said, this book is well worth the price just for the recipes—and a review of good eating habits never hurts.
Editor’s note: The cover pictured may be different from the actual cover, as the book was being re-released for 2011.
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