The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds

Before I found this book, I had been a vegetarian for 6 years, but not a very healthy one. I lived off of microwaved veggie burgers, cereal, and "lettuce sandwiches" because I was never really sure how to cook. Once I got out of the dorms, it was time to learn. I was often told that vegetarians are weak, and after keeping a rather intense workout schedule that never seemed to get me anywhere, I started questioning that myself. Out of curiosity I searched for vegetarian firefighters on google. After all, who are some of the strongest people out there? Firefighters. I came across several articles about Rip and then regarding this book. I'm so glad I found it. Rip does an amazing job getting you hyped up about a plant strong diet and backs up all of his claims with his father's medical research as well as many legitimate sources. He gives strong rebuttals to many of the claims that people have told me about vegetarians (real men eat meat, you can't get enough calcium, etc.) and everything is supported thoroughly. Moreover, the book is very well written with exciting passages seamlessly integrating his careers as a professional athlete and firefighter, and left me wanting to read more, which I found surprising. I normally hate reading, and I think I finished the book in less than a week. He doesn't at all go into the touchy-feely ethical issues of eating meat at all, but rather supports everything entirely on factual evidence, which was a bit refreshing, even though it was the former that inspired me to go vegetarian in the first place. I didn't get this book to go on a diet for losing weight, but rather to learn how to cook healthy, and not just vegetarian, but vegan. I'm a pretty big guy at 6'1, not really overweight. At the beginning, I was about 205-210 lbs which is just a tiny bit overweight. After several months going about 90% plant strong, I was, for the first time in years, below 200 lbs at around 185-190 or so. I feel a lot better, and I've had a lot more stamina in the gym and while riding my bike and am able to build muscle better now. I know how to cook excellent meals that are tasty, healthy, and inexpensive. I got just the results I wanted, plus a lot more. The recipes that are included are, for the most part, fantastic. Some of the ingredients are a bit hard to find if you live in a small town, but even when I had to go without a few of them, I was very pleased with the meals that I had made. The meals sometimes do take some time to prepare as well. However, I plan on continuing with this diet indefinitely, I'm very happy with what has become of it.

Rip Esselstyn's The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan That Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds is a practical book that is easy to read and understand and could prove invaluable to those wishing to improve their health through diet. The book begins with a foreword from Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD (Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York and co-author [with Thomas M. Campbell II] of The China Study) that advocates for the exact type of plant-based diet that Esselstyn recommends in the book and touches on many of the benefits that patients have experienced from the diet. This type of diet has been shown to cure most Type 2 diabetics, greatly reduce insulin needs for Type 1 diabetes patients, reverse and cure advanced heart disease, cure or at least cause cancers to go into remission, control obesity, reduce migraine headaches, alleviate arthritic conditions, and more. The main body of the book offers a detailed explanation of the diet itself, the backstory of Esselstyn's life and career as a firefighter, debunks crazy myths about food, provides medical proof that supports this type of diet, outlines an effective exercise program, gives advice for making the diet work in everyday life, and serves up an entire section chock full of recipes and meal plans. I enjoyed the book immensely and found it to be a quick read. The scientific evidence provided throughout its pages should provide any naysayers or doubters of the plant-based diet with enough information to listen to the truth. I have made several of the scrumptious recipes in the book so far and will continue to stay on the diet for the foreseeable future, although I will most likely make rare exceptions for eating oils and consuming caffeine and alcohol outside of the home or for celebrations or special events. I plan to start the exercise program soon as well. For now, I consider myself to be an Engine 2 Diet devotee, and have noticed a lot of health benefits ranging from weight loss, skin clearing, increased energy and vitality, a more positive mood, and better sleep. Now I just need to convince everyone I know to read this book so they can benefit as well! Seriously, you should check out a copy as soon as you can and learn about the incredible power of a plant-based diet for yourself. It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing approach, either—you could start by simply increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables (and other whole plant-based foods) that you consume each day, and work on gradually decreasing your consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, oils, alcohol, and caffeine. I really appreciate the effort that Esselstyn put into this book and would love to see the rest of the world become healthier by following his advice.

This is not a book for someone who wants a quick fix or something temporary to lose weight. This book is for someone who wants to change their lifestyle, eat natural and whole grain foods, and watch their health and life change before their eyes. I ordered this book when I was eating meat. I had been a vegetarian in the past and was considering the plant based lifestyle after watching Forks over Knives and Food Inc. These are great movies to watch if you are considering switching to this diet or just haven't yet seen. This book presents the "Engine 2" diet (basically a vegan diet that also eliminates oils and processed foods) in an easy 28 day trial. Commit for 28 days, see the changes that take place in your body, and the author hopes you will hold on to the diet for life. There are a few studies that are described through the book. They are pretty convincing (especially when mixed with outside research). The book is an easy read with lots of little stories thrown in. A basic exercise program is included. The guts of the book (at least for me) is in the variety of recipes offered. There are lots of choices for each meal and even a "cadets" program for those not ready to give up meat yet. Most of the ingredients listed are commonplace, though I did have to do one big shopping to stock up my pantry with some supplies. The recipes are good, but many are ordinary and simple. There are good replacement recipes for french toast, muffins, and pancakes. Lots of recipes include nutritional yeast which I'm not a fan of. Overall there are some good staple recipes and they are conveniently located in the book (which includes an index), but I've definitely supplemented the recipes elsewhere. A convincing read.

I've been reading a bunch of books on plant based diets lately and I thought this was a good one. Having been a professional athlete, a firefighter and coming from a medical family, Rip has a unique perspective on health. More people (especially men) need to hear this message that eating a vegan or mostly vegan diet does not make you an anemic wuss - in fact just the opposite may be true. You will most likely gain years of good health and vitality. Rip has a warm, friendly and motivating writing style. If you want something more technical you could try the China Study first. This is not a book about being choosing a plant based diet for environmental or moral reasons, it's all about your health. He includes some basic exercise routines which do not seem terribly difficult. You do need to get some cardio and strength training to follow this plan (seems like a good idea for everyone). Some of the advice in the medical section could have used better references (as footnotes, etc.) - that is my only real complaint about the book. You will be ditching not only meat, dairy, eggs and fish, but oils, white flour, sugar and processed foods as well as limiting or eliminating booze. It could be challenging for some people but the benefits are pretty impressive. Eating out could pose a problem - you may have to change some of the places you go or just head straight for the salad bar. The recipes are good for average, normal people with busy lives. If you're a long term vegan looking for gourmet ingredients to zip up your repertoire, you won't find a lot of them here. But if you're someone looking for things to feed your family and yourself without breaking the bank, these are great. Many of them look familiar to most of us - sandwiches, lasagna, potatoes, tacos, hummus, muffins, as well as giant mixed bowls of cereal, fruit and salads. Some meat substitutes are suggested if you're looking for alternatives to your usual burgers and hot dogs but these foods are not overly emphasized. This is a budget friendly plan as you will save a ton of money by not buying the things he tells you to avoid. Fruits, vegetables, beans and grains are among the cheapest foods you can buy, especially if you get the ones you can in bulk. I wish everyone would give it a try at least for the 28 days! Thanks for a very inspiring book!

Rip Esselstyn, his father Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and scientist T. Colin Campbell have changed my life. I've lost 30 pounds, my cholesterol has come down to normal, and I'm off blood pressure medication for the first time in nearly a decade, my doctors said I don't need a multi vitamin/mineral since my diet was so healthy, and said "this is the best thing you can be doing for your health." I feel light, energetic and happy...all without weighing myself, counting calories or points, or obsessing about what food I can eat or not eat. It's simple, practical, powerful. The principals of the book upon which The Engine 2 Diet is built ( The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted And the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, And Long-term Health , Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure Forks Over Knives ) promote a whole food, plant based, no oil diet to reverse and prevent....in other words eliminate....most of the Western ailments that are entirely nutrition based: obesity, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, some forms of cancer. This is an easily accessible, fun book that is written for everyone: those who are already battling one of the aforementioned diseases, the average joe or jill who just wants to be healthier and lose a little weight, the athlete who is looking for the diet for ultimate performance. There is nothing magic in its formula....eat as nature intended food to be eaten: whole foods, plant based, and skip the oil altogether. IF you wish, sprinkle on a very few nuts and seeds if you don't already have heart disease. The new four food groups: vegetables, fruits, legumes, WHOLE grains. That's it. No meat, no fish, no dairy, no oil (its just processed fat without any fiber, minerals, nutrients, and has been proven to damage the endothelial lining of your arteries), no eggs, no cheese, no processed foods or vegan fake cheeses or meats... This book tells you the science behind the diet---this is no fad---gives you some great exercise encouragement (I'm not quite up to some of these yet) and gives easy tips and great recipes to start your new whole food, plant based diet. My favorite recipe: Raise the Roof Sweet Potato Lasagna. All my omnivore and carnivore friends love this and don't miss their cheese, meat, and oil.

I've read a lot of diet books and been on a lot of diets but what's so intriguing about Engine2 is that it's written by an unlikely character--a triathlete Texan firefighter who is not just a vegetarian, but a vegan, and not just a vegan but an oil-free vegan. If you're not from Texas, you can't really appreciate what it means to be a vegetarian in a state that prizes its beef industry and barbecue. Why just last month at the Houston Rodeo one of the most popular foods sold was something called "chicken-fried bacon." It was deep-fried bacon! Engine2 presents a pretty radical diet--no meat, no artificial foods, no white flour, no white pasta, no dairy, no oil. Yet there is something altogether compelling about the case Rip Esselstyn makes. It sound so logical, so simple ... Anyway, I tried it. I have to admit I tried it imperfectly in that there were parts I didn't understand at first (but have since corrected--like eating white pasta). It's been about 3 weeks. I haven't been exercising up to his standards, either. But I lost 5 pounds and never spent a minute hungry or feeling deprived. But I'm getting hardcore right now not because of the weight loss, but because I feel fabulous. I had no idea how bad I felt until now. I'm not kidding--my frequent headaches are all but gone, no more GI troubles, no more aches and pains. My energy level is increasing. The recipes in the book are different but really great. Love the "Big Bowl," "Sloppy Joes," and "Fajitas" but be prepared--you have to be willing to start buying different foods (lots of produce) and cooking for yourself. But the recipes are quick and easy and very tasty. I am totally sold on this. This is the first and only book review I have ever done here at Amazon and I did it because I'm just an ordinary woman living in Texas who tried this diet and discovered improved health instead of mere weight loss.

I ordered this book a few years ago, and read it from cover to cover, in a short period of time. I found it to be quite well written, able to capture and hold my attention, as well as informative and resourceful. I just recently stumbled upon it again, while going through my books and skimmed through it all over again. This is a really great book. It could possibly even be life changing for some looking for better health. I was already eating a plant based diet when I read it, but it is filled with useful recipes, even for those already familiar with the lifestyle. He shares some very interesting stories and information throughout the book. He advocates for eating a whole foods, plant based lifestyle; in addition, without any added oils. It has many of his favorite recipes, and they really are quite tasty. I think it is a wonderful book and would recommend it to everyone. I would like to share a little about what eating this way has done for my family. My husbands total cholesterol went from 289 to 168, with no medication! He went from 215 pounds to 165 pounds! A size 34 waist to 32 waist. His diverticulitis seems to be in remission, having no episodes, in years. His once high blood pressure is now normal. He is now training for his first Full Ironman, this August! Talk about amazing! I have taken off 15 pounds and not gained it back, in the past 6 years! My blood pressure and cholesterol have never been high, so I can't say eating this way changed that. I have done a marathon, as a vegan, and taken 17 minutes off my previous time, when I ate the Standard American Diet, even though I was 3 years older! I feel great eating this way. I would love to tell you changing your diet is easy, but it will take determination and perseverance. If you slip, don't give up, just do better the next day, or next meal. You will see results, with time. You're worth it and reading this book may be just the start, or inspiration, to continue, that you need.

I volunteer at my local fire department, and ironically, we had some required training regarding firefighter health and eating habits that I went through at the same time that I read this. The training emphasized how firefighters over the age of 40 had large waists and an average BMI of 29, and the doctors suggested that firefighters needed to do a better job of controlling portion sizes. The reason I mention the training is because it gave me a new appreciation for this book. The suggestion to cut down on portion sizes irks me, because people eat to feel nourished. To me, suggesting to cut down on portion sizes is essentially suggesting that you cannot feel satiated if you want to be healthy. This book, rather than lecturing you, shows how you can adjust your diet in such a way that you can feel nourished without consuming huge portions of foods. I really think this is the key to any diet. We all know that losing weight means burning more calories than we consume, but a good diet will actually show you how to manage your caloric intake without feeling uncomfortable. It will also provide encouragement beyond your standard scare tactics (e.g., if you don't follow this diet you'll die an early death). While this book does explain how eating an animal-based diet increases your risk of cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc., it also emphasizes that switching to a plant-based diet will actually make you feel better. Your digestive system will be more efficient, your energy levels will be more stable, and once your body has adjusted to reduced levels of fat, sodium, etc., you will actually develop a whole new appreciation for the natural flavors of foods. It took me a while to decide what I thought of the firefighting angle of this book. Esselstyn mixes in anecdotes about his firefighting and professional athlete career with the dietary advice in this book. It was a nice touch, because it kept the book from getting too monotonous and repetitive, but I do think some of the connections he drew were rather tenuous. (For instance, he'll tell a story about firefighters being out of shape when they try to climb a bunch of stairs, or how a fire chief came close to dying from 3rd degree burns, and then say that this illuminates the brevity of life and the importance of being healthy. Which isn't exactly a lie, but I suspect he more wanted to tell the story because it was a fun story to tell than to prove a point.) The exercise plan he drew up was good; I was impressed with how successfully he put together a plan that could be tailored to anyone from a novice to an elite athlete. I do wish he had spent a little more time emphasizing the importance of exercise. I don't know how Austin works, but here in Virginia firefighters are required to do physical training every day that they're working. If Esselstyn could have cited some studies showing the connection between exercise and improved heart health, or the correlation between blood pressure and the amount of exercise a person gets in a week, or how exercise can improve everything from insomnia to depression, I think it would have been a great asset to his overall message of dieting not just to lose weight, but to improve your health and fitness. There was an unfortunate dearth of information concerning HDL cholesterol. This might not be a big deal to most people, but to me it was because my overall cholesterol and LDL cholesterol are both in the healthy range, but my HDL cholesterol is low. For all the times he emphasized that this diet would lower overall and LDL cholesterol levels, he never said what this diet would do to HDL cholesterol levels, and that's pretty important to me. I actually e-mailed the author asking about this. I haven't received a response yet, but I e-mailed him less than a week ago. I also was not satisfied with the author's explanation of protein. He said that most Americans suffer from an excess of protein, and that countries which consume lower levels of protein are often healthier. But protein is the macronutrient best known to provide satiation and a steady supply of energy, and while I can understand the dangers of consuming proteins that also contain high levels of saturated fat, I don't understand why Esselstyn thinks it would be beneficial to cut out lean meats. I would have liked to see more of a discussion on added hormones and how this contributes to cancer in the American population. Overall, this was an interesting presentation of material, but I will not be inclined to try it unless I can be convinced that the lack of protein will not be harmful to my energy levels, and that it will not drop my HDL cholesterol levels even further below where they're supposed to be. This book did not convince me.

j'en ai acheté un paquet de livres de ce style sur le végétalisme et le plant based nutrition, et le message ici est le même mais le format est original, déjà il est très lisible et certains chapitres lisent comme un romain! autre chose que j'ai bien est le programme sportif, avec photos des exercices et le tout sans avoir besoin de matériel, equipement ou machines! les recettes sont faciles, j'en ai essayé quelques unes et elles sont gouteuses. Pareil, il ne s'appui pas trop sur les produits impossibles à trouver en France. Je suis satisfaite de mon achat.

Such a fab introduction to a plant based, wholefoods lifestyle, easy to follow and delicious to eat from. Easy to follow recipes, great support

Rip Esselstyn hace que ser vegano también es para los deportistas y hombres y mujeres que se dedican a trabajos físicos duros. Las recetas están muy buenas. Sin embargo comenta marcas de productos que no se venden en España. Buscando en internet, sin embargo, he encontrado algunas de las cosas que recomienda.

It’s your life and your health. A good diet is the best way to regain a healthy body. When you are vegan many people say you are week ,have no power but this book shows the opposite . Here are firefighters, strong tough guys going on a plant based diet and even perform better,getting healthier. So trust the firefighter and look for yourself.

When I need to reapply my principles, this is the book I head for! Now if my partner will only read it to help support me!