Food Rules [Paperback]

For supper last night, we had an organic chicken, roasted at only 190 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5 or 6 hours. (At first I didn't know how to roast an organic bird -- they're so muscular that high heat doesn't work.) We also had cucumbers and roasted local beets. On the table was some Bubbies fermented sauerkraut and relish. For dessert we had local Saskatoon berries with whipped cream (with a touch of sugar in it). After supper I stuck the chicken bones in a slow-cooker with water and I'll use the broth until it's gone. The chicken is a bit more than $30 but it'll serve us for 2 days and then provide healthful broth.

This is NOT the way I used to cook. I was a devotee of America's Test Kitchen, and when the Best Quick Recipes wasn't fast enough, I'd use the "30-minute cookbook" and when that wasn't fast enough, I went for the "Simple" recipe book. I'd be flying around the kitchen like a lunatic opening jars of exotic ingredients that I had purchased for that recipe alone. If the recipe called for one quarter teaspoon of lemon juice, the rest of the lemon was, to me, useless. My husband joked that I was the Messy Chef. (I don't know if that's entirely true . . .)

Okay, so then I read Deep Nutrition, and I was stopped in my tracks. Eat meat on the bone? Eat organ meats? Local fresh produce? I barely knew what our local vegetables were. I realized that I am absolutely 100% disconnected from the land I live on -- clueless, as in, it's snowing outside; let's have mangoes and pineapples!! After reading that book, my perspective changed radically, but what's more, I was really motivated to make changes.

I've been passing on to my friends what I've learned, and they've been jotting down the name of this author. The friends who have begun to implement Dr Shanahan's advice have noticed startling changes, and they are intrigued, to say the least. Better sleep for one friend, curing of bowel problems for another, mood improvements for someone else. It's weird that with her book she's curing people miles away!

This book is a wonderful companion to Deep Nutrition, because it focuses on how to feed yourself and your family. I'm glad Dr Shanahan wrote this book too, because it presents all the main points in a simple way and tells you what to do in the kitchen. In the back is a sampling of some types of meals you could assemble, and I've tried to replicate some of them. I think it makes a good stand-alone book too, but I find that Deep Nutrition is a good starting point because it explains the WHY of making food changes in a comprehensive and clear way, and includes really fascinating information about seemingly unrelated issues -- our ancestors, beauty, babies, genes, teeth, jaws, symmetry, food. For such a reasonable price, worth throwing into your Amazon cart.

In her first book, Deep Nutrition, Catherine Shanahan MD explains that what you eat changes your gene expression and that most diseases are caused by faulty gene expression, NOT permanent genetic changes and that what you eat can affect your family's genes for generations.

Deep Nutrition is so much more than just another Paleo diet book. In short, the author recommends that we eat real old-fashioned food. Eat good quality meats and don't take the fat off, eat good fats like olive oil and coconut oil, eat the usual meats but also organ meats, eat bone broths (chicken stock etc.), eat fermented and sprouted foods, eat lots of fresh vegetables and go easy on the fruit. Avoid at all costs sugar in all its forms as well as the dangerous unnatural fats; trans fats.

Deep Nutrition is a great book but it takes a bit of time to read and contains a lot of dense research, which not everyone has the time to engage with.

If all you want is simple and easy to take in information on what to eat and how to prepare your food, with a minimum of extra research and long explanations of things, then this book is the best of its kind out there by far!

It gives you information broken down into lots of short sections, and covers:
* Which fats are good for you and which should be avoided and why saturated fats are good for you
* Why soy products can be dangerous
* Why sugar consumption should be reduced and starchy foods eaten only in moderation
* Why MSG should be avoided
* Why eating more veggies is more important than eating more fruit
* Why good quality grass-fed meats are so important, and factory farmed meats can be bad for you
* Why low fat dairy products are not the best choice
* Why raw dairy products, fermented vegetables and kefir can be healthy additions to your diet
* Why fake healthy foods should be avoided and how to pick them
* Why adding salt to veggies and other dishes makes them taste better and is good for you
* Why eating bitter foods is good for you...and much more.

This book is a great choice for anyone that wants to start eating healthily, or more healthily, but doesn't have the time or inclination to read pages and pages of research. It has lots of tips for how to get kids eating healthily too and so is a good choice for parents.

I have only two problems with this book.
1. It could contain much more information on why some of us will do better avoiding all grains and dairy products. This is particularly important for anyone battling any serious illness and may impede healing progress.

2. The information on supplements in this book is misleading and incomplete. While there is a big grain of truth in the statement 'don't expect most supplements to do much' it is also misleading to leave it at that, and to ignore all the evidence we have that supplements are necessary for most of us and certainly when it comes to healing disease and the right supplements for the right person can often have amazing effects and is backed up by a lot of compelling evidence. (Lots more information on this is in many of my other reviews, I wont go into it all here.) The author is an expert on nutrition, but is not at all an expert on orthomolecular medicine or high dose vitamin C - it is far better to get information on this important topic from those who specialise in it and that have years of experience and familiarity with all of the relevant research. Improving diet and gut health is the first essential step in healing any disease, but the vast majority of us will also need additional nutritional support and diet alone is just not enough. This is particularly true when disease is severe.

But other than these two points the book is just about perfect, as was Deep Nutrition, which is remarkable. This book summarises so many of the best diet books into one tiny volume that just about anyone can read and follow.

Deep Nutrition is so important for everyone to read, but especially those that are thinking of becoming pregnant. It explains how positive or negative genetic changes can happen over generations based on the food we eat. Deep Nutrition is a great book and it is even better if read together with Primal Body Primal Mind by Dr Nora Gedgaudes. They each cover different ground to a significant extent but come to very similar conclusions. (Gedgaudes believes that dairy foods and grains may not be for everyone, particularly anyone battling illness. This is an important point.)

If you are physically able to read either or both of these longer books I highly recommend it. Really understanding the WHY of why some foods are recommended in this book and why some are not is just so helpful. It helps you explain what you are doing to others more clearly and for me it helps give me more motivation to stick to eating healthily. Reading about what trands fats acy=ually do to the body and to your hells is horrifying, for example. The books are also just genuinely fascinating and enjoyable reading.

If you are after some recipes for traditional foods such as sauerkraut, kefir, soaked nuts and organ meat dishes then you might like to buy Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. It is pretty great. Soaked and dried nuts digest so much better and the sauerkraut is delicious and also helps your digestion. Know Your Fats by Mary Enig is also good for more information about healthy fats and why saturated fat is actually good for you. The Weston A. Price Foundation site is also wonderful and packed with good information and articles.

The author has done a great job with this book and the diet she advocates (or something very similar to it) is a wonderful and essential first step in any healing program. Supplements and other things are necessary to healing as well if you have a severe disease, diet alone wont be enough, but having a nutrient dense diet with no nasties just has to be the first step in healing. The idea that all these new diseases are caused by old fashioned traditional foods such as meat, eggs and fats including saturated fats is just illogical nonsense. Our ancestors thrived on traditional foods and so do we.

This is by far the superior 'Food Rules' book! The basic food advice is the same as on the Weston. A Price website too, for anyone that can't afford the Food Rules book. But having this information in such a brief and easy to read format is sure to be really helpful for lots of people.

I'm planning on giving copies to a few people. Although I will also unfortunately have to include a brief note noting that the information on supplements should be avoided and that they may also want to read up on why some of us do better with no dairy or grains. This is a 4 and 3/4 star book in a world of mostly 1 and 2 star books.

(I'm using a dairy and grain free version of this diet to slowly heal a severe neurological disease that I have had for over a decade, along with additional nutritional and detoxification supports, etc. I just wish so much I had found this real nutrition advice earlier, along with information on real healing vs just symptom suppression.)

Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (HFME)

only 3 stars,that is because she contrdicts herself in this book, she tells you that some foods are just plain bad for you and why then in her description of what she eats the bad foods are their ?