The first time I saw the Ultimate Tea Diet, I thought it was another crazy crash diet, sort of like the “juice-only” or “cabbage-soup” diets.

But after reading the reviews by our parent bloggers, I’ve learned that “crash” is not something you could use to describe what Mark Ukra offers readers in his new book. As this blogger noted, “Boy was I surprised. The Ultimate Tea Diet (let’s call it TUTD for short) is not a fad diet. It’s part of a lifestyle change, much to my relief. And here’s the thing, it actually works.”

Instead, the Ultimate Tea Diet is a veritable handbook on how to include tea into your diet to help make the right steps towards healthy living.

Considering our first set of bloggers were impressed with book, including the extensive history of tea, the recipes, eating and exercise plan, and the results, I wasn’t surprised that our second group of bloggers concurred.

If you’re not familiar with the amazing health and weight loss benefits of tea, then this book is a must read. “Apparently tea has three super awesome things that, when placed together, make you lose weight. I’m sure you know one. Caffeine. You’ve gotta read the book for the other two. (I’m awful, no?)”

The book doesn’t just talk about tea, but offers overall healthy living pointers. “Actually, they go into two pages of detail about what consuming too much sugar and carbs do to your body and not much of it is good. It’s enough to make me want to eat bark for a year. And that’s saying something.”

Many bloggers noted the extensive section on the history of tea. “I enjoyed reading the final section of the book, which is a history of tea throughout the world.  It’s interesting to me that so many different cultures enjoy tea in different ways, and in some, it’s an almost religious experience.”

Several noted the high quality of the tasteful recipes. “Each and every recipe incorporates tea in some way, none of which overwhelmed the flavor in our opinion. If anything the chicken and fish dishes we tried from the book were very delicious with multiple layers of wonderful tastes infused throughout. Eating well has certainly never tasted quite as delicious as it has with tea.”  Another added, “The best part of this book were all the recipes. I love to cook and bake and these recipes sound delicious! I already tried Dr. Tea’s Candy Bar Black Tea Hot Todtea, and it was fantastic.”

The bloggers appreciated the author’s tone throughout the book. “I love that the tone of the book is informative without being pedantic.  While it’s probably not a book that you’d want to read cover-to-cover (no pictures of delicious, steaming tea dishes) there’s a lot of great information for tea dilettantes to steep in (ha ha).” ”The book has a supportive, positive tone and offers some good self-examination exercises/questions that help the reader reflect on how ready they are for this diet.”

Bloggers appreciated Dr. Tea’s realistic approach. The advice is sensible and totally doable (start, Ukra says, by swapping just one cup of coffee for tea and you are on your way) and the author clearly knows and loves his tea.” ”From everything that I read in Ukra’s book, this seems to be a realistic book and plan. It’s not HUGE life changes and tons of self-deprivation. Instead, Ukra simply asks the reader to find a tea that you like and drink more of it.”

Of course, I was curious to know if the bloggers saw any positive weight loss results. And to my pleasant surprise, they most certainly did. ” I increased my tea intake(unsweetened white and green tea at room temperature) without any extra working out and immediately noticed a weight loss of 5 pounds within the first couple of weeks. I’m at the end of month 2 of just incorporating some of the eating plan and increasing my workouts while drinking tea daily and am down 10 pounds as of my last weigh in.” Another blogger added “In the 2 weeks I’ve been incorporating tea into my diet, I’ve lost 4 pounds. Of course, that could be related to the violent stomach flu I had last week, but I’m going to keep at it..”

And bloggers who didn’t necessarily follow the diet found results in different areas of their eating and drinking habits. “So since reading this book I have gone through four or five boxes of Tazo Zen green tea. And it has helped me largely kick my coffee habit. AMAZING. That alone is worth the price of the book.” Another agreed. “I have reacquainted myself with the tea in my home and weaned myself off the coffee IV drip I was toting around the house. I can only see that as a good thing.”

Try it out for yourself! Available here.

—-

Congrats to our Kroger Blog Blast Winners picked by Random.org. Please email us to claim your prizes! Miss out on the Blog Blast? Stay tuned for more this month. And don’t miss any announcements — join our mailing list!

Here’s to a Healthy 2008 , Biodynamic: The New Organic, Making Healthier Easier
Eating Healthy in 2008, & Fido’s Got Nothing on Us