 The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition 2002The Schwarzbein Principle: The Program—Losing Weight the Healthy Way 2005
Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. http://www.schwarzbeinprinciple.com She has just added a 33-minute video interview in which she explains the basic program and talks a little about what she has added in the latest book. Buy new or used at Amazon
She’s an endocrinologist, and focuses on healing metabolism by balancing diet by eating whole natural and organic foods, tapering off sugar, drugs, and stimulants, balancing hormones, getting the right amount and kind of exercise. She addresses stress and its influence on health, but this is primarily a physical rather than mind/body approach. Especially useful for women who are diabetic or insulin-resistant, have dieted consistently with either low-fat or low-carb diets and are either overweight or underweight, eat a lot of processed food, are taking pharmaceutical drugs for early symptoms of degenerative disease, have a tendency to overexercise. Other books may be more useful if you are already eating well and are basically healthy.
The first book, The Schwarzbein Principle, is based on the clinical success she had treating diabetic patients after she realized that the American Diabetic Association diet plus insulin was making them worse. When she replaced carbohydrates with real fat—oils, eggs, butter, red meat—her patients improved. They referred others who were not diabetic but had other complaints, and these patients also responded well. She wrote this to counter the popular enthusiasm for low fat diets. Low fat diets cause insulin levels to rise, which results in plaqueing of the arteries. Insulin is a growth factor and a major player in cancer-cell replication. Cutting fat from your diet increases the risk if high blood pressure because, without fat, insulin levels rise higher in response to food.
Low fat diets eventually lead to insulin resistance and Type II diabetes. She explains these interactions clearly with lots of patient cases and included detailed diet recommendations and recipes. This is not a weight-loss book per se, although she says that when you have healed your metabolism, your body will find its correct weight. She emphasizes that this is not a “diet” but a method of healing the metabolism, and as such it will take time—perhaps years to completely reverse if the metabolism is severely damaged. However, the body is a self-healing system which eventually will return to health if it is given what it needs.
The Schwarzbein Principle II
The second book builds on the first, although she includes a summary of the information in the first book. Here she incorporates her own healing story. (It is interesting how many doctors finally arrive at alternative practices because of struggles with their own health.) This book is in some part a reaction against the ultra low-carbohydrate diets which became so popular and which she feels are dangerous.
Part I focuses on an examination of the hormonal systems of the body and how they interact with each other, with food, and with stress. She distinguishes between glandular-based and lifestyle-based problems and covers the major hormones: adrenaline, insulin, and cortisol, and the minor hormones Human Growth Hormone, DHEA, and thyroid. She gives clear explanations of complicated functions, though you have to expect to read this more than once to understand it all.
Part II covers the “transition”—how you figure out where you are on the continuum from insulin-sensitive to insulin-resistant, and what you do to heal your metabolism. She divides metabolism function into 4 groups: Insulin-sensitive with healthy adrenal glands (basically healthy); insulin-resistant with healthy adrenal glands, Insulin-sensitive with burned-out adrenals, and insulin-resistent with burned out adrenals (very damaged metabolism.)
Part III covers instructions for figuring out or what tests to take to find your group and specific diet and supplement advice for each group. Relaxation and sleep is also crucial for rebuilding the metabolism. You need to get enough sleep to make up for previous deprivation as you heal, so this may be 10-12 hours per night at first. Tapering off sugar, drugs and stimulants comes after working on basic nutrition and getting enough sleep. Sufficient but not too much exercise is important. She doesn’t support cardiovascular exercise for those who have damaged metabolism. She addresses hormone replacement when needed. Having worked this system with numerous patients, she is aware of the pitfalls and difficulties, and incorporates advice about how to temporarily “self-medicate” in order to get through the tough spots.
If you are pre-menopausal or going through menopause, this could be a useful approach for you. To understand specifically what happens during menopause, see books in the Menopause section—but this is good grounding in hormonal systems because an imbalance in one hormone system will affect all the others.
The Schwarzbein Principle: The Program—Losing Weight the Healthy Way 2005
This I haven’t read, but it sounds like she updated some of the information and simplified the concept somewhat into building up the resources versus using up the resources of the body.
Mind/Body Level: 1
Rule-oriented: 8 out of 10 (Requires quite a bit of attention to detail to understand and put this into practice correctly)
Evident Influences: Endocrinology, personal experience, practice especially with diabetics and obesity, Dr. Weston Price’s research
Strengths:
- This is a comprehensive program addressing the major problem of metabolic imbalances, written in a way that’s easy to absorb
- She is firm about what you need to do to help your body heal
- She is realistic but optimistic about success
- She gives a good overview in The Transition of what exercise is appropriate for damaged and undamaged metabolisms, not found elsewhere.
Weaknesses:
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- Fairly one-dimensional, physical approach (read this with The New Feminine Brain)
- Doesn’t address food allergies (she may include this in the third book), possible need to detoxify from environmental toxins
- Makes statements about hormone usage without explaining the pros and cons (like “don’t take Armour Thyroid” and “don’t take progesterone continuously.)
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Rewriting Cultural Rules 
