If you’re interested in what your fellow readers are reading, below is the best seller list for the last quarter based on what readers of this site ordered through Amazon.com.
I don’t know if you realize or not, but whenever you click onto Amazon.com through this site anything you purchase throws off a few cents, which I use to help maintain this site, pay for the hosting and pay for my web guy to keep things running. The amount I harvest from this each month falls far short of what is required for the above, but it along with the Google ads just about covers the expense. And I appreciate it very much.
When I get the reports from Amazon they simply tally the books ordered and what the commission for this site is. There is no way to identify who ordered what, so if you want to order something naughty, go for it. I’ll never know who it was. (In case anyone is curious, there wasn’t a single X-rated book or video ordered during the entire quarter. I guess readers of this blog have clean minds to go along with their healthy diets.)
The books that sold the most during the quarter were The Protein Power LifePlan and others that MD and I had written or co-written, but I’m not including those on the best seller list because they have an unfair advantage in that it is my site and the icons for those books are the entry portal into Amazon. The best seller list includes only books that MD and I didn’t author or co-author.
Here is the list.
#1 Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
#2 The Brain Trust Program by Larry McCleary, M.D.
#3 The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick, M.D.
#4 Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, Ph.D.
#5 500 Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender
#6 The Great Cholesterol Con by Anthony Colpo
#7 200 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes by Dana Carpender
#8 Carb Wars: Sugar is the New Fat by Judy Barnes Baker
#9 Extreme Lo-Carb Meals on the Go by Sharron Long
#10 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender
There you have it. The books your fellow readers were reading (or at least buying) during the last quarter.
The official website of Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, low carb pioneers and authors of Protein Power.
Hehe, you didn’t publish that list with a few pennies in mind did you? ;^)
Hey Steve–
It may have crossed my mind. But the real reason is that another blogger told me that readers love to see bestseller lists and I’ve been incredibly busy the last few days, so it was an easy post to put up.
Cheers–
MRE
I’ve finished the Taubes book, and, as a result, have been having many conversations with my family members – as I try to distill and impart the wisdom in it. I’m finding that most of them don’t really want to hear the scientific jargon, so I’m having to come up with other ways. Thought I’d share one bit of it, that seems to be working. I tell them to imagine this:
Your body says to you, ‘I’m hungry. Go get me some more food”.
You say back, “What? I just gave you food 2 hours ago! Remember? We totally pigged out at the Chinese Buffet!”
Body says, “Yeah, I know that. But give me something I can actually USE!”
You say, “Oh, you want something you can actually USE? Have you looked in the mirror lately? There’s PLENTY there to ‘use’. Get busy using it.”
Body says, “Sorry. Can’t. It’s all locked up.”
“Locked up, what do you mean?”
“Well, you know all those carbs you ate at the Buffet? They did it. Blame them. Made me produce insulin, and insulin just hapens to be what makes me store and hang on to what you so charmingly call the ‘love handles’. And that’s why I’m telling you I’m hungry already. I need something I can USE NOW.”
‘OK. But I’m just going to go back to the Buffet.”
“Suit yourself. I’ll use what I can, but then I’ll store the rest and then just tell you I’m hungry again.”
“Let me get this straight. Every time you tell me I’m hungry, that means you are NOT burning stored calories??? I thought that was what hunger was. The longer I toughed it out against the hunger feeling, the longer I knew you were burning the stored fat!”
“Nope. Just the opposite has been happeneing- as long as you keep giving me lots of carbs, with the meals, that is. In fact, if you will just STOP with the carbs, then I’ll stop saying I’m hungry all the time. And then, when you DON’T feel hungry, you can know that that is the time that I AM burning the fat stores! How’s that for counter-intuitiveness!?”
*******
And that’s kind of how the conversations are going in my house. But it’s working!
Best,
John
Hey John–
Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. I’m glad to hear it’s working. Maybe it will work for others as well.
Cheers–
MRE
Interestingly enough, Amazon is offering GCBC in a combo “Best Value pack with Dr. Andrew Weil’s book.
Strange bedfellows indeed.
I purchased the top 3, I should look into 4. I’m not sure I clicked on all of them through here, but I hope I did.
On a side note I also have been reading Pure White and Deadly, by John Yudkin (inter library loan). Interesting how he mentions rats fed sugar get enlarged adrenal glands–later observed that this means high cortisol levels (ties in with HPA-axis dysfunction, a la Malcolm Kendrick).
What I need to re-read is something the lines of insulin being outside or opposed to the axis (I want to say the put it opposing adrenaline). Sounds to me that if insulin is on one end and epinephrine on the other–I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I do recall reading in a biochemistry page on cholesterol synthesis how both glucagon and epinephrine (adrenaline) negatively affect cholesterol biosynthesis by inhibiting phosphoprotein phosphate-1 (PPI-1)–but it’s not tying in flawlessly… any thoughts appreciated.
By the way, how was your experience watching the Cowboys? I’m in Dallas. Had I known I would’ve brought my books to get autographed 🙂
Warm Regards,
Alex
Hey Alex–
The whole hyperinsulinemia-cortisol issue is an interesting one that I should do as a post instead of a comment answer because not everyone reads the comments (in fact, most don’t). But, if you run around with elevated insulin levels most of the time, it’s a pretty sure bet you’ll have elevated cortisol as well for a number of reasons. And vice versa.
The experience of watching the Cowboys get hammered sucked. Especially since I had money on them. I would much rather have been autographing books than watching that debacle. Maybe next time.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Mike,
I bought both your Protein Power books as well as the Taubes book. I don’t remember if I used links through your sight to Amazon. I was unaware of the expense of maintaining a blog like this, so I certainly hope that I contributed to the site.
I must say that “Good Calories, Bad Calories” is an eye opener, and has much valuble information. And he certainly is THOROUGH in his explications. Very good though. Many thanks for the recommendation.
thomas
Hi Thomas–
Thank you for buying through the site if you did.
Cheers–
MRE
In the entire article, not even a mention of the cure – low carb.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=488004&in_page_id=1774&ct=5
Does this surprise you?
Cheers–
MRE
My copy of Good Calories, Bad Calories just arrived yesterday and I have been glued to it. What a great book and reading it is making me very angry. The public was/is just one big low-fat experiment that backfired.
Exactly. And now with the obesity and diabetic epidemics staring us in the face it’s pretty apparent that the chickens have come home to roost.
Cheers–
MRE
I also just received Good Calories, Bad Calories, and it is fascinating to me. I’ve always been interested in the low- carb lifestyle, and I just discovered your blog and have been busy reading all the archives. There is something that I am curious about, and I’m not sure if this is a question that you’ve answered before. I’ve been seriously into weight lifting for about the past 3 years, and read many books and websites on the subject. I’ve come across quite a few weight lifting “experts” who claim that humans need only 10% protein on the basis that human breast milk only contains this amount, and this is the fastest growing time of our lives. Is there any basis to their reasoning?
Nope. During the first six months of life babies typically gain less than a half pound per week, and that’s not all muscle. Adults working out hard can gain more than that plus adults have an entire body’s mass worth of protein structures to maintain just to stay even.
Cheers–
MRE
Hi Doc-
Forget everything Taubes has written – here’s why everyone is fat http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21340725/from/ET/wid/11915773?gt1=10514
Have fun!!
🙂
Dave
Hi Dave–
It’s the ol’ Thrifty Gene Hypothesis writ large despite the fact that the scientist who came up with the Thrifty Gene Hypothesis disowned it himself as not fitting the newly discovered facts. But government committees never let something like that stand in the way of their stupidity.
Cheers–
MRE
looking forward to Gary Taubes on Larry King Live this Friday… Low fat bozos Weil, Oz, and other are supposed to appear as well.
It will be interesting. I’ve heard from Gary that the interview was kind of a farce. As I understood it, there was a guest host. Gary will also be responding to the Gina Kolata trash job in the NY Times Book Review on Oct. 28.
Cheers–
MRE
Please let Gary know that all his time and care on this book was not wasted. I have read it three times now and am doing my best to memorize it. I find that I am surrounded by such “experts” like doctors and dietitians that the best I can do is fire off a few bombshells before they tune me out entirely.
Thanks for the ammo and I will keep trying to send out the sound bites (sniping?) that may undermine their fat headed faith at last.
Hi Marilyn–
I’ll pass the message along to him. I’m sure he will be pleased to hear it given the hassle he’s been given by the mainstream media.
Cheers–
MRE
Let’s imagine what would have happened had this whacky consensus on the low-fat’s-the-way-to-go had been all different. If the experiment had gone the other route.. Imagine we had kept and spread the “knowledge” that housewives had, that bread and potatoes make you fat. Would there have been no obesity epidemic, then? And would people have eaten less refined carbs (but not necessarily extreme low-carb) and that would have done it. Is the extreme low-carb some of us do now, just a remedial way of eating because we have first ruined our bodies with refined carbs?
Another thought. There are literally thousands of recipe books out there, with low-carb food. I feel I really need to buy one, because my 3 rotating dishes are getting boring. But when I look in the Atkins book I have from the library, almost every recipe has parts of what I consider frankenfoods. Sweeteners, sugar alcohols, soy stuff, TM bake mixes (containing God knows what) carb controlled tortilla wraps (if it’s not carbs, then what is it?) and so on and so forth. Is there any chance of finding a cook book with recipes void of those? I don’t need to eat fake pie crust, I can eat the filling only. But show me yummy recipes for it! When it comes to low-carb, Sweden is a big white area…
Hi Theresa–
I don’t know if it’s available in Sweden or not, but I don’t think Protein Power has recipes with all the junk it them. I’m not really into the recipes in other books, so I’m probably not the best person to ask.
Cheers–
MRE
Talking about the mainstream media – they did a lot to hammer the low-fat message as the way to go!
Very true.
If I had only known! I buy stuff from Amazon all the time. I bought the first four books on your list (and have enjoyed or am enjoying reading all of them, thank you) but not through your site. To make up for it, I have just placed an order for a bunch of classical music CDs. I can probably generate more than a few pennies for you.
I’d love to hear what you have to say on “the whole hyperinsulinemia-cortisol issue.”
Hi Grandma Ann–
I appreciate it, and my web guy appreciates it. If I get enough Amazon action maybe he’ll get paid a little more quickly.
Cheers–
MRE
Hi Dr. Mike. This is my second try at a comment because I forgot about the new anti-spam procedure on the first try. In case you haven’t seen it, Malcolm Kendrick published a recent editorial on statin drug overuse. Here’s the link that I got from the Thincs website.
http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/pdfplus/10.2217/17460875.2.5.481
As usual, he manages to explain this in just two pages (the third page is bibliography) in a manner that is highly readable and that almost anyone can understand.
BTW, I plan to do all my future Amazon ordering through your website now that I know about this capability. As others have expressed, the public service you provide is important to us regular denizens of your website. I just hope more people will discover you sooner rather than later.
Best regards,
Wil
Hi Wil–
Thanks for the Kendrick piece. I hadn’t seen it. And thanks for the future Amazon.com orders.
Cheers–
MRE
I didn’t know about the Amazon link either but will be going through it from now on when I order. Loved the comment about us having clean minds to go along with our healthy diets.
Thanks in advance.
MRE
Huh. I’ll have to remember to click through your site next time then. Especially since 60% of the books on your list are on my wish list, and your blog is where I got a bunch of them. 🙂
Thanks, Brad–
I appreciate it.
Cheers–
MRE
Hmmm. I often read about books on your web site, click through to read about them on amazon.com – then go off and find them on amazon.co.uk to get them locally. I think you ought to tie amazon down to a pay-by-click, not just a confirmed buy! I did get Good Calories/Bad Calories from amazon.com, though – 2 UKP cheaper and several months early, thanks to the weak dollar!
Hi Nicky–
I do the same thing with books from my beloved Spectator magazine published in the UK. I find books reviewed there, then go to Amazon.co.uk and order them before they’re in print over here. Sometimes they never make it into print here, so Amazon.co.uk is the only way I can get them. But I have the opposite situation. Because of the weak dollar it costs me a fortune to get books from the UK, especially the shipping.
I don’t think I can get Amazon to buy into a pay-per-click. It would be nice, though.
Cheers–
MRE