Book Review: “The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution” by Jill Hillhouse

I have a friend with diabetes who swears by the Paleo diet in managing her blood sugar and losing weight. And, given its emphasis on avoiding processed food and focusing on whole foods, it stands to reason that it would be good for managing blood sugar. Jill Hillhouse’s The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution provides a good primer on the Paleo diet and how it can help you manage your diabetes.

Summary of The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution

The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution is a multi-purpose guide. It provides basic information on the Paleo diet, as well as diabetes. It gives you guidance on making the transition to Paleo, including a 30-day meal plan, and some starter recipes (take up a little more than half the book).

What Worked for Me

I love that it provides an overview of both diabetes and the Paleo diet. This makes it a good resource for newbies to these topics. The chapter on “Getting Ready to Start the Paleo Diet” provides an excellent guide transitioning to this new lifestyle. And, of course, having a 30-day meal plan is also good.

Each recipe comes with a “Nutrition Tip” which educates you on the benefits of that recipe’s key ingredient. The recipes are formatted well, so they should be easy to follow.

Like all good cookbooks, it has an index!

What Didn’t Work for Me

If you’ve read my previous cookbook reviews, you know how I feel about trade paperback cookbooks. Keeping the book open so that you can follow a recipe is a challenge with this book because of this binding method.

The pages of the informative portion of the book are riddled with pull quotes, “Did you know?” tips and other formatting bells and whistles. This makes the pages distracting and can reduce comprehension of what you’re reading unless you are disciplined enough to ignore them (something I often struggle with, having ADD.)

What I’d Love to See in the Second Edition

I would love to see more white space so that the pages feel less claustrophobic. This could easily be accomplished by switching to a binder format and increasing the size of the book. The book is currently 7″ x 10″ and could benefit from moving to either 8 1/2″ x 11″ using the current font size, or by decreasing the font size and keeping with its current size. It could also switch to an 8″ x 9.5″ binder format.

I’d also like to see the formatting for the chapters in Part One simplified. This would make it easier to read and, more than likely, increase comprehension.

Recommendation

This is a great book for someone who has just been diagnosed with diabetes and wants to transition to the Paleo diet. It is also good for anyone who wants to learn the basics of Paleo, with or without a diabetes diagnosis. There is a variety of recipes that will appeal to a diverse pallet.

Rating for The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution: 4 out of 5 Chefs

NOTE: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you’ve read past book reviews, you’ll know that I don’t pull my punches when I believe they are warranted. I also try to provide balanced information so you can make your own decision to read or not read the book, even if you disagree with my opinion.