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- Verified Buyer
I've read dozens of nutrition books, and Dr Joel Fuhrman has become far & away my most trusted source. Read ANY of his books! Superimmunity is still my favorite. This one is more focused on weight loss (including psychological aspects) and slightly less specifically about the diseases of affluence that kill most of us, but it is more of the same facts & same message to eat copious quantities of greens & other whole vegetables, ample berries, nuts, seeds, & legumes, little or no animal products (even lowering his limits in this newest book), moderate INTACT whole grains, no sweeteners (caloric nor artificial), little or no processed foods, and zero trans fats. It's not the macronutrients, but the micronutrients!In this latest book, I particularly liked his criticisms of other diets. He attacks the Atkins/Paleo crowd for too much animal protein and too few nuts, seeds, & beans--just what I felt about Good Calories Bad Calories and The Calorie Myth--although the latter acknowledges Fuhrman and follows his lead in pushing for large amounts of phytonutrient-rich non-starchy vegetables.In fact, Fuhrman covered every one of my concerns with Jonathan Bailor's popular new (low carb high meat) book The Calorie Myth (which is still well worth reading AFTER Fuhrman). Bailor really pushes soy protein powders but here Fuhrman explains some concerns about protein powders (although not mentioning the hexane used in extraction).It may take 20+ years for the heightened levels of IGF-1 in Paleo dieters to surface as detectable cancer, but watch out! Fuhrman agrees with the low-carb concepts, but instead of falling into the meat trap, he incorporates low-carbs into a much broader health scenario (with protein from greens & beans). He still prefers algal supplements to fish for EPA & DHA, and he advises wild fish because of contaminants like dioxin in farmed fish.This time, he goes into a bit more detail about carbohydrates, soy isolates, meat, and especially dairy raising the IGF-1 hormone, resulting in fat, cancer, atherosclerosis, hypertension, aging, and any monster you care to name. Even the Calorie Restriction Society turns out to have significantly higher IGF-1 than vegans.Fuhrman attacks the anti-wheat crowd (Grain Brain & Wheat Belly) for confusing flour with intact grains. He attacks the USDA for just about everything--too much meat, dairy, & grain, not enough vegetables, nuts, & beans. (Really, it's too much politics and corporate influence.) He attacks aspects of the Mediterranean diet (pasta & olive oil). He even politely indicts the China Study / vegan crowd for too little plant fat (avocado, coconut, olives, nuts, & seeds). He is right on target!Another topic now covered in a bit more detail is the danger of yo-yo dieting and how regained weight tends to be the more dangerous visceral fat (belly/organs) rather than subcutaneous fat.He reduces his acceptance of eggs on pg 146 stating, "a 23 percent increased death rate from those eating more than one egg a day", but I'm pretty sure the death rate is 100% (just like taxes), even for vegans. Besides, if you divide us into ovophiles & ovophobes, the egg-eating crowd surely also consumes more pepperoni pizza & ice cream, so such correlations, the backbone of much nutritional advice, should not be swallowed too gullibly.(Fortunately) There's nothing remarkably different from his other books, yet they're all worth reading. In this one he adds further information, clarification, case histories, and recipes, and it's at least as good as the others. Now he elevates the importance of raw onions & cooked mushrooms. He explains that onions must be chopped before cooking to break cell walls to release the alliinase enzyme for chemical conversions, just like the enzyme myrosinase in cruciferous vegies that converts glucosides to isothiocyanates. (My hypothesis, if you like your roasted garlic whole, [as with cruciferous] is to eat a little raw green onions with any cooked allium so that the alliinase enzyme is reintroduced.)Some reviewers complain that this book is just a repeat of prior books, and while it is mostly that, why not read this now instead of re-reading the older ones. Fuhrman is worth re-reading.Some reviewers object to the title because this is "yet another diet", although it is more of an informed lifestyle. Of course you don't count calories or watch the scale, but I also completely ignore the mentions of portion sizes, percentages, and schedules and just eat by the concepts (but do correlate your carbohydrate intake to the caloric demands anticipated after the meal). The title helps make this the perfect gift to several fad-diet yo-yo-weight friends for whom I hope it is The Last Diet. (But such a title might sound too fatal.)The appendix is a suitably cautious review of supplements, advising the possibility of a few like vitamins B12 & D but mostly warning of specific dangers, well in accord with advice in Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition and in The Vitamin D Solution. Iodine, zinc, and DHA are covered.Dr Fuhrman is a genuine healer, weaning people off of medications and into healthy lifestyles. He points out how detrimental our medical paradigm is, not only to our health but also to the nation's economy--with diabesity and its direct costs already unprecedented in human history and slated to rise to astronomical proportions if we don't quickly and radically change our paradigm from medical intervention to healthy eating. It's amazing that most doctors don't even know and won't hear of his simple plant-based healings.Searching for any criticism of his principles, all I can muster is that he could say more about spices (see Healing Spices by Aggarwal), doesn't mention circadian rhythms in relation to insulin & weight (see Lights Out, with reservations), and prefers "unnatural" (newly invented) algal extracts over my delicious salmon & herring as sources of EPA & DHA (in accord with The China Study crowd & lowering IGF-1). I can't recall if he has ever discussed oxylate concerns (e.g. in spinach & almonds) or the goitrogenic (iodine depleting) properties of cruciferous vegetables. He distinguishes starchy from non-starchy (you can eat them raw) vegetables in The End of Diabetes, but I don't recall reading it here, except in regards to potatoes. I'd also like him to discuss low-fructose versus high-fructose fruits, as incompletely mentioned in The Calorie Myth. Nor has he yet addressed my concerns about the benefits and detriments of coconut and its oil.These very minor "criticisms" are really "grasping at straws" because Fuhrman is more unassailable than any other nutritional advisor. Fuhrman is THE ONE to follow.I'm neither overweight, diabetic, nor ill, yet this book was a valuable read, as was his The End of Diabetes (most especially the chapter on legumes) and his Superimmunity.After Fuhrman, I also suggest reading Anticancer by Servan-Schreiber, Foods To Fight Cancer by Beliveau, Healthy At 100 by John Robbins, The Calorie Myth (but don't eat his way), and the delightful new Death By Food Pyramid by Minger.Whether you choose this latest book or an earlier one, Fuhrman is your ticket to health wisdom. Then the real challenge is to implement it in your daily life, and he addresses that motivation in this book mostly through testimonials. To your health!8/14/14: I have added more, as a comment.
