Reviews

O, The Oprah Magazine

May 05, The Portion Teller Plan #1-Best new health book “A respected nutritionist and adjunct professor at New York University, Young is now sharing her knowledge with the rest of the dieting world. She has the chops to present her case and does it with such aplomb that the solutions she proffers seem easy. She provides ways to figure out portion size, “smartsize” techniques for enjoying foods you just can’t live without, and formulas for different eating personalities—volume eaters, mindless munchers, and everything in between.” (review)

Marion Nestle, PhD MPH
Paulette Goddard Professor, New York University
“Dr. Lisa Young gives you a fresh approach to managing weight—one that makes perfect sense. The Portion Teller Plan is an invaluable resource.” (review)

Self
May 05 “Read up, slim down. Becoming size wise about ballooning portions can keep your body from expanding too. The Portion Teller Plan by Lisa R. Young, PhD (Morgan Road Books), helps you target your portion personality and scale down favorite meals without feeling deprived—or counting calories.”

Barnes and Noble
The Portion Teller Plan is a diet book that you can live with. Certified nutritionist Dr. Lisa R. Young knows that calorie-counting regimens are utopian plans that don’t work for long in the real world. She also knows that diets eliminating entire food groups aren’t realistic, because it’s nearly impossible to avoid carbs or fats indefinitely. We Americans are too fat because we eat too much. In lieu of prohibition lists, she provides a convenient set of memorable guidelines that clearly show us how much to eat of any given food group. She also sets doable standards for different mealtime personalities: the mindless muncher, the breakfast hater, the volume eater, the special-occasion victim. Here’s a compact diet plan that makes sense.”

Fitness
June 05 (review)

Publishers Weekly
“Nutrition consultant Young says it’s not so much what we eat but how much we eat that has caused the collective ballooning of Americans. While conducting research on portion sizes, the NYU faculty member (who appeared in the film Super Size Me) discovered that many of the packaged foods we buy today may be as much as five times larger than they were when originally introduced into the marketplace. She presents a simple plan to help readers “smartsize”; it involves portion size awareness and knowledge of the difference between portions and serving sizes. (A bagel, for instance, may be one portion, but delivers five grain servings and the caloric equivalent of five slices of bread.) With an innovative chart that links foods and portions visually (e.g., three ounces of meat—a sensible portion—is represented by a deck of cards or the palm of a hand), Young helps readers estimate reasonable portion sizes; she also provides tips for scaling down the jumbo sizes often offered in restaurants. Young offers a practical, long-term solution for losing weight while eating healthfully, likely to appeal to readers fed up with diet crazes.” (June)

Baltimore Sun
July 2005 (review)

New York Times
August 2005
“The Portion Teller Plan, by Dr. Lisa R. Young, a registered dietitian (Morgan Road Books, 2005), is an eye-opener. Every page is filled with another surprise, explaining why Americans are fat. Portion sizes in American restaurants are 25 percent larger than they are in Parisian ones. Some deli sandwiches contain one pound of meat, about three days’ worth of the recommended amount in a healthy diet. Emphasis is placed on all the temptations Americans face when shopping for groceries, going to restaurants and watching television. Since controlling portion size is the key to successful weight loss and maintenance, the book offers interesting and practical advice on how to determine portion sizes just by looking: a baked potato that weighs seven ounces is the size of a computer mouse; the portion size for pita is the diameter of a CD. Patron to waitress: I’ll have two baseballs of salad with half a shot glass of creamy dressing and a deck of cards of sirloin steak, please. It sounds pretty silly, but following Dr. Young’s suggestions is a sensible way to keep from becoming an obesity statistic.” (Review)

Shape Up America!
July – August 2005
“Are you ready to get serious about portion control? As you know, eating less is the key to weight loss (moving more is the key to weight maintenance). To eat less, you have to learn about portion control. If you are ready to “dig in” and learn what you need to know about portion control, purchase a copy of Lisa Young’s new book, The Portion Teller Plan published by Morgan Road Books – Her book is filled with interesting information on how portion sizes have doubled or tripled over the past 30 years, and provides lots of tips on how to get your portions under control, even when you are eating out. “

Eating Well
October/November 2005
“Practical advice and fascinating–if sobering –reading.” (review)

Low Fat Cooking
October 2005
“The Portion Teller Plan is a weight-loss book (not a diet book!) that offers a wealth of practical information and advice to help us take control of our eating habits, without requiring us to give up the foods we love.” (review)

Wall Street Journal
November 2005
” By now most people are aware that we live in a world of super-sized portions. But Dr. Young, a registered dietitian and faculty member at New York University , still manages to make portion control interesting, and makes a convincing case that it’s not what we eat (carbs, protein or fat) but how much we eat that really counts. She notes that most of us wouldn’t eat five slices of bread for breakfast, but have no problem scarfing down the equivalent — a large bagel. Homemade cookies have gotten so big that a bag of chocolate chips now makes 40 fewer cookies than it used to. And queen-sized mattresses have grown by six inches to accommodate our ever-expanding bodies. While these and other “portion shockers” are listed throughout the book, Dr. Young also shares practical advice such as visual comparisons to help you better gauge portion sizes — a deck of cards, dice, a compact disc or a baseball. She also includes easy-to-follow meal plans. To make homemade pita pizza, for instance, use two CDs of pita, a 1/2 baseball of sauce, a golf ball of cheese and a tennis ball of veggies. ” (Review)

Dalla Morning News
November 2005
“…It’s frankly a brilliant way to recast Americans’ eating dysfunction, and the information is a super-size eye opener.” (review)

Topics in Clinical Nutrition
January-March 2006
“The Portion Teller Plan is full of facts and useful information designed to help readers reduce their portion sizes, improve their diet, and lose weight. This is a book that is not only practical but also fun.” (review)

Toronto Star
August 2006
” This 256-page book, stuffed full of strategies and tips to figure out portion sizes, is an invaluable tool for people who are suffering from “portion distortion.” (review)

Entree
May 2007 (review)