New Books about Diabetes

            Celebrate American Diabetes Month in November with these newly published books.

            21 Things You Need to Know about Diabetes and Nutrition, written by Stephanie A. Dunbar and Cassandra L. Verdi, two nutritionists who work for the American Diabetes Association. They present the 21 most common questions people have about diabetes, nutrition, and meal planning, and provide the answers in easy-to-understand text. Topics include best carbohydrate choices, carbohydrate counting, reading nutrition labels and glycemic index. The reader learns how to enjoy special occasions and eating out as well as daily meal planning.

            Ask the Experts: Expert Answers about your Diabetes, is compiled by the editors of the Diabetes Forecast from its bi-monthly issues. Actual questions and answers are presented on such topic areas as nutrition, exercise and weight loss, monitoring blood glucose, oral medications and supplements, using insulin, diabetic complications, and more.

            The Diabetes Solution: How to Control Type 2 Diabetes and Reverse Prediabetes Using Simple Diet and Lifestyle Changes is written by Jorge E. Rodriguez, MD and Susan Wyler, RDN.  Rodriguez, a gastroenterologist and Wyler, a nutritionist and cookbook author, provide an overview of the disease and describe how to control it through meal planning, exercise, and medication. Also provided are one hundred recipes that control intake of carbs and calories and promote weight loss that is so important in managing diabetes.

            The Johns Hopkins Guide to Diabetes: for Patients and Families is written by Christopher D. Saudek and others. This is the second edition of the book, providing up-to-date research on diabetes diagnosis and genetic effects, improvements in blood glucose monitoring, oral and insulin medications, benefits of good nutrition and exercise, use of insulin pumps, and more.

 

 

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

            Erik Larson is the author of several bestselling non-fiction books that read like suspense novels. Here he presents the story of William E. Dodd who in 1933 was appointed as the American diplomat to Germany. Dodd was a middle-class history professor and author who was a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He brought along his wife and two adult children to his post. Dodd was out of his element among the other diplomats who qualified by virtue of their political connections and upper-class status.

This was a transitional time for Germany; Adolf Hitler was amassing power over the German government but had not yet gained full control. Dodd found that the Germany that he remembered from his college years had changed. His daughter Martha and son Bill embraced an active social life; Martha had several affairs with German officials, communists, and others. While at first she was impressed by the “new” Germans in time she became disillusioned.

Dodd, who at the outset did not believe the rumors of violent incidents against the Jews, homosexuals, communists, and other minorities, eventually saw these events at close range. He spent his last few years as diplomat trying to publicize the growing crisis in Germany but was ignored. Would acknowledgement of this crisis changed world events? We will never know.

Martha’s diaries and correspondences, sharpened by her previous publishing career experience in the United States, and Dodd’s professional and personal correspondences provided most of the detail for this book. Larson’s meticulous attention to detail and character development make reading it an instructive experience.