Eating Well for Optimum Health
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The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition
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From one of our most trusted authorities on health and alternative health care, a comprehensive and reassuring audiobook about food, diet, and nutrition.
Building on the scientific and philosophical underpinnings of his Spontaneous Healing -- the body's capacity to heal itself -- and presenting the kind of practical information that informed his enormous best-seller 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Dr. Weil now provides us with a program for improving our well-being by making informed choices about how and what we eat. He explains the safest and most effective ways to lose weight; how diet can affect energy and sleep; how foods can exacerbate or minimize specific physical problems; how much fat to include in our diet; what nutrients are in which foods; and much, much more. He makes clear that an optimal diet will both supply the basic needs of the body and fortify the body's defenses and mechanisms of healing. And he provides easy-to-prepare recipes in which the food is as sensually satisfying as it is beneficial.
Eating Well for Optimum Health stands to change -- for the better and the healthier -- our most fundamental ideas about eating.
 Write a Review of Eating Well for Optimum Health
 
LOLDavid, February 17, 2006
Reviewer: LOLDavid
from Los Angeles, California
This was a very level headed guide to healthy eating. Weil combines scientific research along with common sense to see through all the dieting hype and contradictions and point to some fundamentals for good nutrition. He discusses a lot of the popular diets in the market and discusses their strong and weak points. At times Weil uses too much scientific terminology for the lay reader to follow and his reading is a little dry, but in the end you feel you can trust him and that you’ve got the knowledge to start eating healthy.
Some of the most sensible nutrition information around, February 17, 2006
Reviewer: LOLJPB
General Content – Andrew Weil is renowned in the world of health and nutrition and this book offers evidence as to why. Weil’s approach to nutrition smacks of a lot of common sense backed up by good medical research. Furthermore, he recognizes the value of food as something to be enjoyed rather than simply ingested for good health. I think this is an important point of differentiation from many other nutrition books. His principles are mostly consistent with many of the principles I have read in other books.
One of the only criticisms that I have is of Weil himself. If his diet is so healthy (and if he adheres to his diet) then why is he overweight? I think Weil would claim that being overweight and being healthy are not mutually exclusive conditions. However, it does cause me to question his theories a bit. Other than that, Weil has produced a superior book and readers will certainly be able to improve their diets by incorporating many of his suggestions.
Audio-Specific Content – I listened to the abridged (3 cassettes) version of this title. I do not feel that abridgement presented a problem (although in fairness I have not had a chance to review the unabridged title). The version is read by the author and I found Weil’s voice to be highly listenable. The production was first-rate as well.
Donald, February 17, 2006
Reviewer: Donald
This Text Refers to the Hard Cover Edition:
If you are tired of trying to make sense out of all of the conflicting claims about foods, diets, and various diseases, this book is your answer. The author bravely takes on any school of thought about food (including unhealthy ones), and provides a balanced perspective on what is wrong with that approach.
Health is not only about eating. It is also about exercise, sleep, relationships with others, genetics, and environment. But for the part of health that relates to food, this book is the be-all and end-all for now. I say that not because of any weakness the book has, but simply because scientific information about health is expanding so rapidly.
As Dr. Weil points out, the information he shares in this book is often news to medical students and physicians. Food and health are subjects that are poorly connected in our minds at this time.
The book begins with an excellent section on what food means to us. While most health books focus on the disease related issues, Dr. Weil points out that food not only runs our bodies as fuel, but also is a source of pleasure (did you ever think you would hear that from a physician?), a way to create social interaction, a part of health, and a way to address some diseases toward restoring health.
The second section is on the basics of what our bodies need. This is where scientific studies are neatly put together into a consistent description. I was especially impressed with the section on fats. It is very easy to omit getting the right fatty acids in your diet, and I was pleased to see this issue addressed well here.
The third section then looks at the worst diet you could possibly eat (the fast food diet) and explains why the food is so appealing, yet why those french fries could be the death of you (for more reasons than you probably now know about -- beware of reused cooked fats!).
The fourth section goes on to look at the best diet you can eat. Don't worry! It's nothing extreme. In fact, those who are a bit fanatic about their food regimens may be disappointed. I was pleased to find that my regular Saturday lunch of vegetable soup and a half a tuna sandwich are a good idea. There's also no harping on the need to maintain some extremely low weight.
Weight is the next subject, and he looks both at how you should think about what your weight should be and how to get to that weight and stay there. A lot of the material on the satisfaction duration of the food you eat will be new and of interest to you.
The next section was also very helpful to me. It talks about how to buy food and how to decide what to eat and order in restaurants. Since I travel a lot, I always need help with the latter. I got a number of good ideas.
The final section was on recipes that are healthy and quick to make. Many of them sounded very appealing to me, and I was pleased to see that there were more for desserts than for any other part of the meal!
The appendices are very helpful. One summarizes the optimum foods to eat; another looks at how foods can help you deal with various diseases; and another summarizes nutrition information.
Dr Weil can definitely help you have a good time with your food and enjoy a healthy life, too!
Donald Mitchell
http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/
- Published:
2000
- Average Customer Ratings:
(4, Amazon.com)
- LearnOutLoud.com Product ID:
E002820
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Volumes |
ISBN |
ISBN-13 |
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Cassette |
10 Tapes |
0375409637 |
9780375409639 |
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Self Development
Health & Fitness
Self Development
Diet & Nutrition
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