I just finished reading a good book that my good friend Charlie had me read. It's called In Defense of Food. It's definitely a must read if you care about your health and what you eat. Even if you think you're eating healthy, it may not always be the case...
The book follows a basic idea. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants". The author backs up this idea mostly with common sense. When he says "Eat food", food is considered to be anything edible in its natural form, nothing processed. He argues that "food" is what we've evolved to eat, not something that comes in a box and includes 30 different ingredients. Lately, most grocery stores sell very little "food". Even if you're buying something that you think is healthy because it includes essential vitamins & minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, etc...these nutrients are not being digested by your body as well as it would in real "food".
Much of the real "food" has been pushed out of supermarkets in the last 40 to 50 years. Even fruits and vegetables sold today are grown in industrialized soil and contain about 1/3 of the nutrients of a fruit/vegetable grown in organic soil. Also the animals that feed on industrialized grain diet lack these nutrients as well. The author believes that this is a good reason for the kind of obesity we see with the western diet. Since much of the food we eat is lacking in nutrients, our bodies tell us to eat more of it. Cultures who do not follow the western diet have much lower rates of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
One interesting part of the book talks about a group of Aborigines that developed diabetes from eating the western diet. This group agreed to participate in an experiment in which they reverted back to their non-western diet. After only 7 weeks on a new diet, their diabetes symptoms were either completely gone or significantly lower.
I strongly recommend that you read this book. There are tons of tips on how to eat healthier. And my review pales in comparison to the knowledge that you'll gain from reading it. I was so motivated by this book that I spent a couple hours today planting a vegetable garden. So I will soon be able to eat tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers that I grew myself!
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2 comments:
Bravo! My opinion is obviously biased on this one, but I have to reiterate, no, beg that people read this book. It came to my attention by the New York Times and I highly recommend it. My favorite bit is when he says that when you read ingredients, if there is anything that you cannot pronounce, do not eat it. That is not "food." Plain, simple, genius!
While I totally agree that most of what we eat is not actually "food", fixing the root of this problem is going to involve a lot more than educating the public about the dangers and deficits within the foods they ingest. Our culture has become so convoluted with mass hysteria about the war on terror, rampant consumerism and television brainwashing (to name a few) that eating is no longer something that we do in order to survive. Food is a comfort for people, a way to escape their daily lives, and until we can figure out a way to address our major food-related issues, including an emotional dependence on food, this problem is only going to get worse.
On a side note, have you read up on anything regarding Calorie Restriction? Apparently these people live on the brink of starvation, almost in a state of glorified anorexia, with the thought that by limiting their daily caloric intake they will live longer, healthier lives. Medically speaking, while people who practice CR have substantially lower BMI's than the typical "norm", they are much healthier than average people with almost non-existant incidences of diabetes, heart disease and diabetes. I actually read a story about a man in his 70s who practices CR that had his vision return to 20/20 after decades of wearing eyeglasses.
I may have to steal this book from you when I am back in PA in a few weeks:)
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