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Eating Well for Optimum
Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition by
Andrew Weil M.D. (Author)
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- Hardcover: 307 pages ; Dimensions
(in inches): 1.23 x 9.59 x 6.59
- Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition
(March 7, 2000)
- ISBN: 0375407545
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Book Description
At last, a book about
eating (and eating well) for health -- from Dr. Andrew Weil, the
brilliantly innovative and greatly respected doctor who has been
instrumental in transforming the way Americans think about health.
Now Dr. Weil -- whose nationwide best-sellers Spontaneous
Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health have made us
aware of the body's capacity to heal itself -- provides us with a
program for improving our well-being by making informed choices
about how and what we eat.
He gives us all the basic facts about human nutrition. Here is
everything we need to know about fats, protein, carbohydrates,
minerals, and vitamins, and their effects on our health.
He equips us to make decisions about the
latest miracle diet or reducing aid.
At the heart of his book, he presents in
easy-to-follow detail his recommended OPTIMUM DIET, including
complete weekly menus for use both at home and in restaurants.
He provides eighty-five recipes accompanied by a rigorous and
reliable nutritional breakdown -- delicious recipes reminding us
that we can eat for health without giving up the essential
pleasures of eating.
Customized dietary advice is included for dozens of common
ailments, among them asthma, allergies, heart disease, migraines,
and thyroid problems. Dr. Weil helps us to read labels on all food
products and thereby become much wiser consumers.
Hopefully, years from now, Eating Well for Optimum Health
will be looked upon as the book that saved the health of millions of
Americans and transformed the way we eat--not as the book we
overlooked at our own peril. It clarifies the mishmash of
conflicting news, research, hype, and hearsay regarding diet,
nutrition, and supplementation, and further establishes the
judicious Dr. Weil, the director of the Program in Integrative
Medicine at the University of Arizona, as a savior of public
well-being.
If you've ever wondered what "partially hydrogenated soybean oil"
really is, been perplexed by contrary news reports about recommended
dosages for supplements, or questioned the safety of using aluminum
pots for cooking, Dr. Weil will make it all clear.
Weil (pronounced "while") bravely criticizes
many of the major diet books on the market, and backs up his
admonitions with science. He warns readers to not fall under "the
spell" of the anticarbohydrate Atkins Diet, but also criticizes the
eating plan advocated by Dr. Dean Ornish--which has been granted
Medicare coverage for cardiac patients--as being too low fat for the
majority of people. (The omega-3 fatty acids missing from Ornish's
diet are essential for hormone production and the control of
inflammation, he says.)
It's also fascinating to learn that autism,
Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease may be caused by
omega-3 fatty acid deficiencies, while an excess of omega-6 fatty
acids--very common in the typical American diet--can exacerbate
arthritis symptoms. Weil's explanation of the chemistry of fats will
prove difficult for most readers, but few will want to eat fast-food
French fries ever again after reading his appalling reasons for
avoiding them, which go way beyond their well-documented
heart-clogging capabilities.
After a thorough rundown of nutritional basics
and a primer of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber,
and phytochemicals, Weil unveils what he feels is "the best diet in
the world," with 85 recipes, such as Salmon Cakes and Oven-Fried
Potatoes, that are healthy, tasty, quick to prepare, and complete
with nutritional breakdowns.
He includes a stirring chapter on safe weight
loss (he sympathizes with the overweight and comically recalls his
one-week trial of a safflower oil-diet while an undergraduate).
Other, equally enlightening sections include tips for eating out and
shopping for food (with warnings on various additives and a guide to
organics), and a wondrous appendix with dietary recommendations for
dozens of health concerns, including allergies, asthma, cancer
prevention, mood disorders, and pregnancy.
Eating Well is an indispensable
consumer reference and one not afraid to lambaste the diet industry
and empower the public with information about which the majority of
doctors--to the detriment of the public health--are ignorant.
--Erica Jorgensen
From the Publisher
"Now considered one of holistic medicine's most authoritative
voices, Weil provides a common-sense approach to healthy eating...
Of particular value is his examination of recent fads, such as
low-carbohydrate, vegan and 'Asian' diets, with an eye toward
debunking the myths about them while highlighting their valuable
aspects... Readers will notice a profoundly realistic observation of
what changes they can readily incorporate into their busy lives.
And they will be heartened to learn that they can eat nutritious
foods and still get much pleasure from them." -- Publishers
Weekly
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