Given the title, or perhaps the subtitle, one might underestimate this book. Drink beer and not gain weight—how could that be, you might wonder?

Well first of all, it’s not a “diet book” in the typical, here’s-the-latest-fad-solution sense. It does contain a lot of good information from a writer who has spent much time and thought about beer and its effects on the body and mind.

Author Gary Greenberg, a man now in his mid-60s, has been playing Rugby football since his days at Penn State University. Those familiar with such an avocation are aware that the game is known for the robust (and beer-drinking) lifestyle of its practitioners. The reputation is not without justification.

Whatever its raucous physicality--sometimes intimidating to outsiders--Rugby tends to attract a bright and otherwise responsible participant. Greenberg is such a person. A lifelong journalist, he has no academic certification in many of the disciplines he discusses in The Beer Diet, but he does have at least two advantages. He has lived, not just theorized--he knows about beer making (brewing) and the effects of drinking it. He has also spent a goodly part of his professional years interviewing experts in the fields of health, nutrition, diet and the effects of alcohol.

While many might want to emulate his accomplishment of maintaining the 32-inch waistline he sported as a young athlete, there’s no “magic bullet” hidden in his book. There is, though, a wide-ranging treatment of a healthy lifestyle and the aspects of alcohol (taken in the form of beer) and the food we ingest. The author even includes some of his favorite soup recipes which look to us to be healthy, but not stinting on flavor.

      --Reviewed by Dan Clarke

Editor’s note: The Beer Diet: How to Drink Beer and NOT Gain Weight is available at Amazon Further info can be obtained at https://the-beer-diet.com