I love cook books with a health twist, and having previously enjoyed The Glucose Goddess by Jessie Inchauspé, I was really interested to see what sort of recipes Meredith Mann would come up with. I really liked a number of them, and would recommend her Instagram account as well.

This book is an invaluable resource for anyone navigating health challenges, offering deep insights into how food impacts blood sugar, cravings, and overall wellness, including factors like age and meal order. The author’s focus on perimenopause and insulin resonated deeply with me, giving me hope for overcoming long-standing hurdles. The recipes are appealing and practical, covering a range of meals and snacks with creative, healthier alternatives to classic favorites. It’s a must-read for those seeking education and actionable steps toward self-healing.

This is a cookbook with a serious agenda, which I highly appreciated. There is so much needed information, along with great looking recipes. It was also more like a change in lifestyle needed rather than a regular cookbook. You would have to spend some money, though, shifting from regular pantry staples to a lot of these needed ingredients. But we all strive to be better in our eating habits, right? This was a great one to get into.

The pictures just scream clean eating. The recipes were simple enough, it's just gathering the different ingredients that you have to be cautious of your wallet. But a great option for someone who wants to improve their eating habits.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this cookbook. All opinions are my own.

Useful for anyone who wants to reduce the amount of added sugar in their diet. Not just for those who have diabetes, also useful for pre- diabetics and helps you avoid the hidden sugar in food.

Another excellent resource for better health through dietary changes and physical awareness. We are not in this ongoing battle for better health through healthier living alone.

As someone dealing with high blood sugar myself, *The Blood Sugar Balance Cookbook* by Meredith Mann has been a game-changer. It’s filled with easy recipes that let you enjoy tasty meals without the blood sugar rollercoaster. I love that each recipe is balanced with the right mix of carbs, protein, and fats, helping to keep cravings and energy levels steady. Meredith's approach doesn’t feel restrictive at all—instead, it feels like I’m eating my favorite foods with a healthier spin. Plus, the tips for keeping blood sugar in check make it practical for everyday life.

I liked the information included in the book, and the recipes seem easy to make but I really prefer a cookbook with much more photos of the recipes. I really liked that it included meal plan options at the end of the book.

I liked the scientific part at the beginning of the book which detailed why you should eat more protein and fibre to balance your blood sugar. It's good advice. Some of the recipes were quite appealing but a lot of the recipes didn't have an accompanying picture which I don't like in a recipe book - I like to see what I'm making before I start.

What I didn't like was how many of the recipes relied on protein powder - it's a highly processed "food" that I don't want to include in my diet when I don't really need to.

I would also have liked to see some distinction between the recipes that are quick to prep and cook and those that take longer, particularly in the breakfast section - most recipe books list the estimated prep and cooking time at the start of the recipe, and it really felt like a huge oversight that it wasn't included. I don't have time in the morning to cook, eat and clear away breakfast pans before I leave the house for work at ten to 7, and I'm hardly unique in that. It immediately made me feel that it wasn't a book for me, that eating well is unachievable alongside a full time job, which obviously isn't true. It just didn't feel very practical for anyone who works outside the home and doesn't have a helpful home-based partner to do all this meal prep for them.

What a great cookbook! The Blood Sugar Balance Cookbook features tons of scrumptious recipes that help you enjoy your favorite foods while still keeping your sugar levels in a better range. And this book cover makes my mouth water!

Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary e-book I received to review through Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and the thoughts above are my own.

This was really informative. I greatly enjoyed learning why we should eat certain types of food in such and such order to better regulate blood sugar levels. It’s not exactly something I would have really understood if say my mother yelled it at me. But reading it and digesting the information, I think is what makes that type of stuff stick with you.

Also the recipes… I shall be trying some out (not the meat ones as I don’t eat meat).

Wow, this book was SO educational and exactly what I needed for where I am on my health journey 💖 This is worth it’s weight for sure!

The author shares very insightful information on how food affects your blood sugar levels, cravings, and your muscles, but also how age and even the order that you eat protein, carbs, etc affects you. This info needs to be in front of more eyeballs!

I’ve had blood sugar issues for years, but my doctors say I’m fine because I’m “not diabetic.” I just couldn’t accept that as a response, so I’ve been on a journey for self-healing (this any many other issues) through education. The things this author talks about, with perimenopause and insulin, resonates on such an extreme level. I am hopeful that this new knowledge will get me over one of my final hurdles and clear a path for complete healing. I’m excited to try out these recipes.

Oh, and I have had a curiosity for quite some time on the right order to eat my food - as I’ve been given polar opposite advice by different specialists. This author not only answers that question, but gives the reasons👏🏼

The recipes look yummy, and definitely the type of stuff I enjoy eating. It covers: breakfast, smoothies, lunch, family dinners, power bowls, salads, desserts and meal planning. I love the “flavor swaps” which offer healthier ways to achieve some of the sweet tooth fav’s (like Reese’s, carrot cake, etc).

If you would like to hear more about my chronic healing journey (diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses at a young age of 25 - to how I’ve been healing myself in my 40’s) please subscribe to my blog community. I’d love for you to share your story as well 💖 www.hippie-blossom.com

Thanks to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing, and Meredith Mann for providing me with a complimentary ARC to review!

This is a beautifully laid out book and enjoyable recipes. I look forward to making a bunch of them.
I like how it begins explaining why Blood Sugar Balance is a good thing and how to do it. Then we go into the recipes and most of them have an accompanying photo. At the end of all the recipes are four weeks of meal plans using those recipes which makes life so much easier to help you incorporate them into your life.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

This is a beautifully done cookbook. The pictures are stunning. Directions are concise and easy to understand. A nice variety of recipes.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I received a copy of this book for review from Netgalley. The opinions expressed are my own.

The information at the front of the book in regards to macronutrients and the balanced plate was helpful to read. It certainly made me feel more relaxed about trying to stick to a low carb diet. Knowing that the order we eat food can impact how much it spikes our sugar and how hungry we feel after eating is helpful.

There are so many great recipes in this book and I have marked quite a few to try for myself. There are some that I can’t try because the ingredients are not readily available where I am but that is something I come across often.

The included meal plans are helpful for those who are just starting out and the tips about storage of the recipes are a great addition.

Thank you for an awesome book!

This book wasn’t exactly my jam. It reminded me a bit of a dirty keto diet book. Basically, its recipes with lots of veggies (for fiber mostly), lots of protein (many in yogurt, cottage cheese or protein powder form), and a small amount of carbs (rice, from veggies). Oh and sweeteners in place of sugar (makes sense, blood sugar balance cookbook and all), very keto sounding. Even the noodles are recommended to be ‘palm’ noodles, which I have never heard of until this book.

This book relies heavily on yogurt, cottage cheese and varies flavors of protein powder. As someone who eats yogurt and cheese sparingly, because I don’t enjoy the taste or texture, it nixed a lot of recipes for me, particularly for the breakfast spread. There are no alternatives given most of the time, so this excludes a boat load of people who may be looking to balance their blood sugar (lactose intolerant, people with Crohn's, etc). If I was lactose intolerant, like certain friends and family members, I think I would explode, even with lactose pills. So much dairy. I just think offering up some alternative solutions more consistently, like more milk (of your choosing) and ice cubes in the blender, or something would be helpful to those who have to be lactose free for whatever reason. I understand it won’t work for everything, but at least for the smoothies it should.

Things I Did Not Like

• No talk of type 1 diabetes for a book about blood sugar conscious cooking. Just super general, sweeping comments.
• Unrealistic portion sizes. Eg: there is a casserole-like dish that has all your protein, carbs, etc but the portion, as an entrée, is 1 cup. I can’t even live off of one cup of coffee/tea a day and you want my meal to be one cup of casserole and not break into the cupboard looking for a bedtime snack because I feel like I am starving?
• Lack of citation for statements that read like facts about blood sugar, MARCO nutrients, nutrients in one food versus another, etc.
• No works cited page for you to go find the studies and such this author is pulling from to make statements about one food being better then the other, blood sugar levels, etc. Not even an informal one saying what the author read.
• If you are like me and dislike most cottage cheese and yogurt, pretty much all the morning meals will not appeal to you.
• If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on different flavors of protein powder, the majority of all breakfast items will not be accurate calorie and protein-wise because almost of them have protein powder in them.
• Unobtainable ingredients. Not all recipes had alternatives for things like coconut aminos, which I don’t like I can get at my local little grocery store in the middle of nowhere. Some recipes it does, others it doesn't. Also, where does a country bumkin find affordable palm noodles (did have a whole wheat alternative though)?

Things I Did Like

• The layout was lovely. Everything was easy to read, easy to find, keep track of where you are, and not at all cluttered. There was nothing pulling my eyes away from what I was trying to read.
• Beautiful pictures of dishes in full colour (could have used a picture for every dish ideally).
• Nutritional information was all neatly listed for each recipe, based on the proportion size. This list included the alternative ingredients info as well. Very nice!
• Easy to follow Planned Meals Weeks (4 I believe) in the back of the book.
• Ingredients were presented with both metric and imperial measurements.
• The sandwich fillings (chicken salad and such) were pretty delicious looking/sounding
• Some of the desserts looked absolutely yummy!

Conclusion?

If you aren't fussy, aren't lactose intolerant or have any unfortunate conditions like Crohn's, are not reading this for any usable info on blood sugar levels, love cottage cheese and yogurt, think protein powder is a food, and have access to more than one small rural grocery store so you can get some more 'out there' ingredients, this might be a cookbook for you. Reminds me an awful lot of dirty keto cookbooks for those doing a keto diet.

All in all, a lot of it was a miss for me due to personal preferences and geological limitations when it comes to access to certain ingredients. Thinking of people in my life with certain conditions, this book would be all but useless for them. That said I still pulled out 4 recipes to try from several different areas of this book (Lunch, Power bowls, Desserts), so it wasn't completely wasted on me. Would definitely be a handy cookbook for someone living in a more urban setting, loves all things dairy, who is looking to even out their blood sugar levels more.

I have to say that sadly, this book disappointed me.

Let's talk about the introductive chapters first, while most of that information is true, I feel like at times it was making white bread and cookies look like something really really bad, and while I don't even eat them usually, I feel like telling people that it's okay to enjoy them from time to time it's okay (maybe she does, at some point I had to skip that part because it was mostly things I heard/read before).

After that we get the recipes. They are organized quite nicely. What really bothered me, was the fact that most recipes don't have a picture. I really like to see how the food looks like before I prepare it. Another issue I have with this book is the usage of protein powder for most recipes. Personally I don't like adding it to my food and I understand that it's an easy way to get more proteins, but really, I prefer other sources. Also, cottage cheese is everywhere. I enjoy it, but I don't want it every day. The instructions are very basic and can be problematic if you don't have some experience already. I really liked that she provided nutritional values for all the recipes.

At the end, you get a meal plan example for 4 weeks. I think it's a great example, but that's it. Portions should vary from person to person, as well as dietary restrictions. Personally I can't eat fish or seafood so some recipes don't work for me. Another issue I found is that usually one recipes repeats (for the first week you get to eat pesto protein egg muffins for 5/6 times) which again, won't work for me.

I think this book can be good for some people, but unfortunately it won't be good for me.

The recipes included are not only delicious but also practical for regular meal preparation. I found myself excited about the variety of new dishes I can incorporate into my diet. Additionally, the book has enhanced my understanding of blood sugar and how to make healthier lifestyle and dietary choices.

There's a lot of explanation about blood sugar in the beginning. Then there are so many delicious looking recipes, with gorgeous photos. Sugar is definitely something I have trouble keeping balanced in my diet, and I love these ideas.
This cookbook is so great because it has all the things I have a weakness for, like smoothies and desserts and cottage cheese, but in a balanced way. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

The gist of this cookbook is to try to get tons of protein, lots of vegetables and fiber, and very little processed carbs. There are photos for 1/4 or 1/3 or so of the recipes. Nutritional information is provided. I avoid processed foods like protein powder, collagen powder, ranch dressing mix and cartons of liquid egg whites, so most of the recipes are not a good fit for me. There are some vegan recipes and they’re pretty easy to make gluten free. Copious amounts of cottage cheese and flavored protein powders are in many of the recipes.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

Very useful. Good explanations and very good recipes. I believe it will help me on my journey to beatting insulin resistance. It's a keeper!