I am so happy that Michael Pollan wrote Food Rules. If you have read my review of The Omnivore's Dilemma, you know that I found it to be quite thought-provoking and brilliantly written. Sadly, I have many clients who just can not dedicate time toward reading something so "dense." Food Rules is an awesome solution for those people. It is a wee 140 pages comprised of 64 rules and some pages have no more than 15 words on them! I swear!
Pollan's introduction is the only portion of the book that requires sit-down time. It's about 11 pages. Here, he sets the premise for the rules based on two truths.
FACT 1: Because of packaged foods, lots of meat, lots of sugar, and lots of refined flours (the main components of the Western diet) along with very little vegetables and fruit, populations who eat a Western Diet invariably suffer from Western disease including by not limited to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer.
FACT 2: Populations eating an extraordinarily wide range of traditional diets don't suffer from these diseases.
All of the rules throughout this book are fairly-easy-to-implement things to remember as far as what you should and shouldn't eat in order to get back to basics and achieve a healthier lifestyle.
Some rules I particularly like are:
Rule 19: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
Rule 27: Eat animals that have eaten well. Animals that have access to green plants (grass) are much healthier--as it turns out, so are their meat and eggs!
Rule 39: Eat all the junk food you want, as long as you cook it yourself! I've lived by this rule for years and as it turns out, I'm rarely in the mood to cook junk food b/c I've come to love healthy food so much!
Rule 51: Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it. Slow down my friends! Savor it!
All and all, this book is a quick, informative read for beginners on the journey to sustainable eating and it serves many great reminders for those who have been on the journey for many years!
Thank you Michael for getting this news out there!!!
I have to begin this review by saying, as I often do, that no one diet works for everyone. Some people may need the discipline that diets provide; however, as humans we’re constantly evolving and what worked for us one year may not work for us today.
With that said, I have had several athlete clients ask me what I think of the Paleo Diet for Athletes. I read through it with my reviewer’s eye. There are parts of this nutritional formula that I think are critical to follow and then there are parts that I think could potentially hinder an endurance athlete’s performance, and more importantly provoke cardiovascular disease later in life.
The Paleo Diet for Athletes is structured in five stages: what one should eat right before exercise (Stage 1), what one should eat during exercise (Stage 2), what one should eat immediately after exercise (Stage 3), what one should eat within a couple hours of exercise (Stage 4) and what one should continue eating the rest of the day (Stage 5).
For Stage 1, pre-race, Cordain and Friel argue that the athlete simply needs 200-300 calories of a simple sugar and fluids. They recommend 2 gel packs. They claim that this will satisfy hunger, replenish glycogen from an overnight fast, reestablish normal body fluid levels, optimize performance and prepare the body to quickly recover after the workout.For pre-exercise their formula is essentially the same with added protein. They say that lower glycemic index carbs are okay if you have time to spare between eating and racing/exercising. They recommend an apple because it’s fructose and digits slowly. This is not necessarily true. Basically they “ban” complex carbs like oats, or whole grain toast. I think it is WAY too much of a risk to neglect complex carbs before a race especially. The speed at which muscular glycogen is used depends on the person…consuming whole grains and other sources of complex carbs is the primary way for an athlete to assure he has fuel in his tank. I have known too many athletes to bonk in the middle of the race because they had only simple carbs for breakfast.
For Stage 2, eating during exercise, the authors emphasize hydration and electrolyte consumption. They also emphasize the need for some protein (4:1 carb to protein ratio) in ultra-distance events. I agree with the authors for the most part here as the protein will prevent muscle wasting. However, the authors only emphasize getting nutrition from liquids. I disagree here. I think having a healthy bar, some fig Newmans, bananas, etc. in ADDITION to electrolyte drinks are important especially for cyclists whereby eating will not hinder their performance by cramping. The authors’ advice may work well though for runners.
For Stage 3, the authors emphasize again a 4:1 or 5:1 carb to protein food choice to replace lost carb stores and to re-synthesize protein damaged during exercise. They suggest going for a high glycemic carb to get the glucose to the muscles quickly. They also emphasize hydrating. I totally agree with this stage and even like the “homemade brew” that they suggest.
For stage 4, the authors recommend fruits, veggies and lean protein (sample meal = 6 oz. turkey breast, apple, grape juice, coffee). Stage 5 are similar suggestions with added healthy fats (from fish, nuts, etc.) every couple of hours. These stages I agree partly with. The goals are to maintain glycogen stores, balance maintain a healthy PH, optimize weight, and prevent or reduce inflammation. These stages fluctuate a bit during different stages of periodization but the goals and food suggestions are similar. I agree that healthy fats in Stage 5 are important and WILL reduce inflammation. I also think eating every couple of hours is important for proper recovery. Other than that, I have some gripes that deserve their own paragraph.
The authors are suggesting the athletes have grape juice? I’m sorry but continuing to have simple sugars like that will prevent the athletes from being able to absorb nutrients as sugar robs the body of nutrients. Being unable to absorb nutrients = being unable to recover!!! And the acid-alkaline thing, yes I agree that it’s important to avoid having too acidic of an environment, otherwise, your kidneys rely on calcium from your bones to break down acids and athletes can not afford to have this happen to their bones. However, the authors again shun legumes and whole grains claiming they are acidic….but not all of them are!!! Buckwheat, bulgar, quinoa, lentils, spelt and lima beans are quite alkaline and oats aren’t that acidic either. Also, because the authors are pushing veggies and fruits, they fail to mention that some of these are very acidic (pomegranates, raspberries, and mandarin oranges to name a few). The authors make no mention of sprouted breads and seeds and how this is one great way to assure an alkaline environment.
I do like that Cordain and Friel advise consuming organic fruit and veggies as much as possible because you will get more nutrients form them than you will from conventional fruits and veggies. And veggies and fruits are ESSENTIAL for athletes as they need many antioxidants to stay healthy. Whole grains and legumes have antioxidants too though!!! Maybe the authors shun grains because many athletes go for the refined grains…breads, pastas, etc. I mean most race I go to still continue to have pasta dinners the night before (and I bring my rice cooker and make my own meal = ) ). So all in all, the main element that makes me not want to recommend this book is the shunning of legumes and whole grains. All the recent research on whole grains and legumes has found that the fiber and complex carbohydrate combination keeps your cholesterol and weight in check, and prevents cardiovascular disease. And I can tell you that ALL of my athlete clients will attest that whole grains have given them so much more energy in and outside of their sport.
I know, I know, this book was popular about a year ago! As you well know about me by now though, my list of "To Read" books is extensive - and because I spend so much time working (with passion), my time to read is not a lot.
This is a MUST read book though. If any of you have read Barbara Kingsolver's novels, you will find her autobiographical writing just as delightful. And perhaps one of the greatest aspects of this book is the inclusion of scientific sidebars from her husband Steven Hopp and the inclusion of recipes and meal plans from her daughter Camille Kingsolver.
The plot: Kingsolver realizes one major downfall to living in Arizona for several years...food does not grow there. The more she ponders this, the more she is sickened by the commercial food she is inducing herself with. Fortunately she and her family have a "summer home" in Virginia. They decide to move there permanently and in doing so they make a commitment to live off local foods for one year! The book chapters represent a month. They began their local-food diet in late March.
Kingsolver eloquently describes the difficulties in keeping this local food pledge, but also shows how such a commitment adds excitement to life. OMG it's April- I get to eat FRESH asparagus! For us in PA, we get to delight in asparagus in late May. And did you know that you only have to plant asparagus seeds once and then it takes THREE years to harvest? The wait is worth it because you will be blessed with asparagus for 20-30 years. I should also let you know that even though this is an incredibly informative book, there is humor sprinkled in as well. Here's an example: "In my adult life I have dug asparagus beds into the property of every house I have owned, and some I rented--even tiny urban lots and student ghettos--always leaving behind a vegetable legacy waving in the wake of my Johnny-Asparagus-seed life...it's a ludicrous commitment to dig one into the yard of a student rental. It's hard work to dig the trench, fill it with compost, and tuck in a row of asparagus crowns ordered from a seed company. Then you wait THREE years for a harvest." Here's another example that humorously illustrates the difficulty of being on a local-food diet. In mid-June, the cherries finally ripened, and Kingsolver exclaims "Our fructose celibacy was over."
This book has inspired me so much that I am making a commitment for 2009 to try to eat more locally. Here are some stats/facts that Kingsolver shares that alone may inspire you:
- Every food calorie we eat has used hundreds of fossil fuel calories in its making: grain milling for example, which turns corn into the ingredients in packaged foods, costs 10 calorie for every one calorie produced, and that's BEFORE it gets shipped anywhere.
- Over the last decade, our country has lost an average of 300 farms a week.
- Buying your goods from local businesses rather than national chains generates about 3X as much money for your local economy.
- Ironically (or maybe not so ironically), industrial crops have been using millions more pounds of pesticides year after year, and the crop losses have been accelerating simultaneously.
- Modern U.S. consumers get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago. (My reflection about this: Kingsolver gives examples such as 400 potatoe varieties were once grown in Peru, now there are less than 10. This makes me grieve. It's comparable to endangered animals...this is endangered vegetation. Just think how much lovelier our meals would be with more variety. The saying that variety is the spice of life is so true.
Have I inspired you to change your life? If not, read the book, and I am sure you too will become inspired!!! After all, your body is your temple, you REALLY hsould treat it as such. You only get ONE in this lifetime!!!
The wide array of diets that have sneaked themselves into books available to consumers everywhere amazes me at times. And one diet recommends the exact opposite of the next. It’s no wonder clients come to me confused all of the time.
Regardless of the merit of these diets, I try to keep myself abreast on the popular diets so that I know where my clients are coming from when they make the decision to work with me.
One diet book that I have had on my shelf for over a year is The Maker’s Diet. The author Jordan Rubin promotes this diet as one that is holistic and assures that this diet will help people to boost their immune system, attain and maintain an ideal weight, have abundant energy, improve their physical appearance, reduce stress and improve digestion. Upon reading these promises on the book jacket, I thought to myself “Interesting, these sound like results that my clients achieve through my approach to health and nutrition.”
As a Christian myself, the title of course captivated me. I was so curious as to how Rubin was able to delineate a way that God designed us to eat and to perhaps mimic the way Christ ate. I often times thought about the food that is mentioned in the bible; it is so wholesome: millet, fish, wine, apples, figs, olives, spelt, barley. I also marveled at the fasts that took place in the bible. It has always occurred to me that people prioritized health in biblical times.
I spent the past month reading The Maker’s Diet. I don’t feel as though I learned a whole lot from this book. However, I am impressed with the memoir-type element of this book. Years ago, Rubin had a SEVERE case of IBS and was able to heal himself by following what he now calls the Maker’s Diet. The guy was deathly ill, weighing in at 110 pounds at one point in time. Rubin’s transformative diet consisted of natural meats and grains (not manufactured in big factory farms), fermented dairy forms (not ultra-pasteurized and pumped with antibiotics and hormones), a lot of vegetables, and fruits and a soil supplement called HSOs. Rubin also mentions the way in which prayer, aromatherapy, and therapeutic music helped in the recovery process.
I do believe that Rubin’s approach to dieting s quite holistic and holds merit. He talks about the importance of “clean” food, which I agree with. I think we are certainly meant to eat foods as naturally as possible. How much healthier we would all be if we ate wholesome foods derived from the earth as opposed to foods that have been sitting on a shelf in the grocery store for longer than my book has been sitting on my bookshelf or foods that have come from animals but have been processed to the maximum degree.Rubin also talks about avoiding toxic health, beauty, and household products, which I also agree with.
I applause Rubin for dissecting several popular diets and declaring what factors are good about each diet and what factors make the diets ineffective. He shares helpful resources in the book and also has quite appealing recipes! I’ll let you know when I try some out.
Now, on to what I do not like about the book. The book did not delve deeply into the connection between God and the diet. I think the book could have just as well been called The Natural Diet. Also, Rubin’s suggestions on how to avoid getting sick are somewhat implausible suggestions: never flying on an airplane, don’t swim in chlorinated pools (Hello! I’m a triathlete…if I were to swim in lakes, etc., all of the time then I’d have bacteria to worry about!!! And without indoor pools I’d never be able to swim from October-May! And might I add, swimming is amazing for relaxation. ), don’t get tattoosor pierce the skin ( I haven’t seen much research that shows serious consequences of those – I say moderation!), don’t wear contacts, no aerobic exercise (instead something he calls functional fitness).
I’ll be fair and say that I already do follow some of his suggestions like not using fluoride in my toothpaste, and I do breathe with long, deep breaths. Basically, I take his advice with a grain of salt. My approach to nutrition and health is that it has to be NATURAL and also SCIENTIFALLY BASED. I have not seen any literature on contact lenses and the destruction of your immune system.
I do believe God wants us to eat naturally and healthfully…these foods give us the vitality to work for peace, and to follow our callings to make the world a better and more just place! He wants us to respect our bodies as our temples. I also believe though that God would never want us to become extremely compulsive and restrictive about how we live our lives.We have to enjoy life!
If your diet consists of many processed foods, then I think following Rubin’s 40 day diet may benefit you – it’s almost like a cleanse (I’ll be writing about cleansing in my next blog entry, so stay tuned). He also recommends supplemental exercises, cleansing drinks, and vitamins, and aromatherapy throughout the day. Though I think these are great ideas (especially the aromatherapy), I think it would be unrealistic for the average person to be able to follow his plan to a T.
If you have read this book, I’d love to see your comments in the comment section!
Paul Newman may no longer be here with us, but he has left his activist mark on earth and I am ever so grateful for that. His presence is very apparent in my home. Brent and I use Fig Newmans, yes Newmans not Newtons for our cycling fuel! Sadie induldges in her Paul Newman peanut butter dog treats daily. I can thank Paul Newman for Sadie's latest skill - learning how to shake, with BOTH paws!
The recent passing of Paul Newman inspired me to grab a book off my shelf that I have skimmed through yet hadn't read fully. It's a book written by Paul Newman's daughter, Nell Newman. I ended up staying up that night to read the book in its entirety. The book is The Newman's Own Organics: Guide to a Good Life: Simple Measures that benefit you and the Place you Live. In the book, Nell shares with us how she convinced Paul of the importance of eating organically by surreptitiously preparing him an organic Thanksgiving meal. She brought an organic turkey and the "works" on a plane packed in ice from her California home to New England! Paul marveled the meal and Nell revealed to him that it was ORGANIC! And so began the Newman's product chain, an amazing company that donates all of its royalties to charities. And those Fig Newmans that I love so much were the first fig bars to ever use organic figs!
Okay on to the book review: This book is an essential guide, especially for the newbie environmentalist or the newbie holistic health enthusiast. Newman shares with you easy ways that you can lead a healthy lifestyle and simultaneously reduce your carbon and water footprints (buzzwords not of hers, but of the media these days). The chapters are organized by such topics as: food, transportation, shopping, pet care, and cleaning.
While I have wholeheartedly practiced many of her suggestions for years, I still found the book useful in reminding me of the importance of some practices that I have neglected to some degree. For instance, no longer am I a vegetarian and I am fine with that (my body and mind function way more optimally with some animal protein), but I was reminded of WHY a a primarily vegetarian based diet is better for the environment. Here's what Nell has to say "Producing meat and other animal products taxes our planet unduly. Seven calories of vegetarian food must be consumed to create a single calorie of animal protein. It takes the equivalent of seventy-eight calories of fuel to create a single calorie of feedlot beef. When you consciously choose to eat less meat and more grains, vegetables, fruit, and legumes, you are helping to reduce the burden of food production on the earth." Plus, you FEEL better when you eat more vegetables!
I have committed to some more environmentally-friendly practices since reading this book. For instance, when I put leftovers in the fridge, I now REFUSE to use plastic wrap. Instead, I put them in a container with a lid. If I am out of containers, I put the leftovers in a bowl with a plate over it.
Oh, and I was ever so pleased to find out that zucchini is a great snack for dogs. I've been giving it to Sadie for a while - and she loves it. I also give her the carrot pulp leftover from carrot juice making. Nell says that carrot juice itself is an excellent supplement for our doggie pals.
So if you are new to the environmental movement or a total know-it-all, I guarantee you will enjoy this book! Pick it up today! Try to find it in a USED bookstore or check it out of your library!
As you are probably learning about me, I read A LOT. Isn't this a requirement for writers? And I don't particularly favor one genre over another, or one print form over another. I read magazines, the New York Times, academic journals, biographies, novels, and yes some chick lit. A woman needs to read some fluffy stuff every now and then!
You probably also realize that I'm not one to run out and get the latest NYT bestseller. I have far too many books on my "To Read" list to afford that luxury!
My latest read is Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. Gilbert documents her incredible journey from depression and despair to self love and communion with God. Now, some of you may automatically think "chick-lit" but I assure you that it is not. The fact that this is a true story alone gives the book so much merit.
Gilbert's prose is witty, intelligent, and honest. Her journey starts on a bathroom floor crying in despair over her crumbling marriage, and moves through a divorce, an intense love affair, and onto the discovery that she needs a year to herself. And this is where the book comes in. She travels to Italy to delve into the joy of food, to an ashram in India to learn how to pray, and to Indonesia to learn from a medicine man, only to find the love of her life.
It's Gilbert's honesty that makes the book such a worthwhile read. Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof, Gilbert's desire to connect to her God, and to live the life her God wants her to live is so powerfully revealed in her writing. My two favorite quotes in this book are:
"When you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times, you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let it go until it drags you face first out of the dirt--this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight."
"I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water."
This summer, I encourage you to read Eat, Pray, Love. I especially recommend this book for anyone who has recently experienced a painful divorce, or any form of despair. In addition to several nutrition articles from peer-reviewed journals, as well as Eating Well articles and my weekly New York magazine, I'm now reading Michael Cunningham's The Hours. Even though this book is fiction and has nothing to do with healthy living or nutrition, I may just have to write a review because the writing is brilliant.
While everyone is running out to grab Michael Pollan’s latest book In Defense of Food, I have just finished reading his copyrighted 2006 New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. What an incredibly thought-provoking account of the United States’ sad disconnect from the food that we eat.
As a holistic health counselor for the past six years, one of my goals has been to encourage people to ingest the most nourishing food as possible. I understand the reality of their situations and Pollan certainly confirms this reality in his book: we live in a culture of convenience. It’s hard to even find fresh food. Other concerns that people have is that organic or local food is expensive. Yes, it is, but you get what you pay for!
If you thought the truths exposed in Fast Food Nation or Supersize Me repulsed you wait until you read this book. Before reading the The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I already took ages to shop for groceries (I’m a manic label reader), but after reading this book, I don’t think anyone will ever want to step foot in a grocery store with me. For instance, did you know that the cyrystalline fuctose, ascorbic acid, dextrose, lactic acid, lysine, HFCS, xanthan gum, and modified or unmodified starch, are all derived from corn? I’ve strayed away from products with corn for years because I know that corn in this country is genetically modified and inauthentic. I feel as though we’re not meant to eat things that are artificial—it messes up the food chain! And up until reading this book, the only corn-derived “chemical” I knew of was high-fructose corn syrup. So, yes, you will learn a lot when you read this book.
I liked the structure of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It is broken into three parts: The first section discusses industrial farming; the second, organic food, both on the industrial level as well as the local level; and in the third section, Pollan experiments with hunting and gathering. Each section concludes with a meal representing the particular production of food-- a cheeseburger and fries from McDonald's; roast chicken, vegetables and a salad from Whole Foods; and grilled chicken, corn and a chocolate soufflé (made with fresh eggs) from a sustainable farm; and, finally, mushrooms and wild pig, from a forest near his home in California.
Pollan does an incredible job of submerging himself into the particular environments of each section. He visits industrial farms and even tries to follow the life of a particular cow from its birth two weeks prior to being shipped to an industrial farm to its death—steer 534, the poor fella. Pollan works on a small sustainable organic farm in Virginia and even participates in slaughtering the chickens (I certainly winced quite a bit here). Honestly though, Pollan reveals so many interesting facts about how unhealthy meat and processed food is in this country. For instance, when you read a label on chicken or beef that says “vegetarian-fed,” don’t let the marketing fool you. The vegetarian grains that these animals eat are highly processed granules of corn and soy. So unnatural!!!
Pollan has a sense of humor too. This book is satisfying on so many levels. After reading it, you will feel like an educated consumer and you will have had a few good laughs as well. Take for example Pollan’s first attempt at hunting—absolutely hysterical! All in all, this book only reaffirms my desire to bring health and wellness back to basics!!!
