Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing [Paperback]

If you are looking purely for an objective scientific book on women's health then don't bother with this. There is a lot of scientific info but there's a lot of "non-science" as well. Read the lowest reviews first which fairly summarise the weaknesses of this text. I agree that this book comes across as flaky in places however it is a breakthrough work in terms of systematically exploring the integration of mind and body and the effect of this balance on health.

While I applaud the effort to make people realise how their mental state can impact their health, the other side of that sword is that women feel they are to blame for having the "wrong state of mind" which leads to poor health.

For instance in one story a woman became infertile because, in the author's opinion, she didn't feel her husband was the right person to have children with. If you're pragmatic you can hear this story, consider if it applies to you and discard it if it doesn't fit. But some women could develop a guilt complex over something that is upsetting on its own without the added blame.

Ultimately, the problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a vicious worry cycle: you worry that you might not have the right state of mind for good health... and then you worry that your worrying risks your health further! But to ignore this altogether also poses risk. Stress does cause disease and an integrated approach to health cannot exist without considering a person's state of mind.

Because this book provides significant medical information, the reader could be lead into taking all the author's opinions as fact. Take the opinions as just that and you will find the book enjoyable. It is informative and thought provoking.

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It's a complete, holistic guide to women's health that every woman should read. I bought one for my mother and one for my sister. Both are benefiting greatly.

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Unfortunately, Dr. Northrup's dietary advice is dangerous in the extreme-namely a macrobiotic diet based on vegetables, grains and soyfoods. According to Northrup, this deficient diet "promotes inward spiritual attunement while eating red meat produces more aggressive tendencies." Northrup repeats the falsehood that meat and milk are too high in protein "and the process of protein metabolism creates a slightly acidic condition in the blood. . . since the average American diet is too high in protein, all of us, not just menopausal women, are in danger of developing osteoporosis."

For Northrup, dairy fats are especially taboo. They contribute to everything that ails us-cancer, heart disease, varicose veins, gallstones, constipation, osteoporosis, heavy menstrual bleeding, fibroids, weight gain, depression and PMS-she warns. Nevermind that these conditions have increased as American women have abandoned dairy fats for vegetable oils.

And while acknowledging that sugar may be harmful in large amounts, Dr. Northrup says it's fine to indulge in the sugary foods we crave. Plant foods will supply all the nutrients we need, she assures her readers, but a number of supplements are recommended, just in case.

Dr. Northrup had the great good luck to grow up in a family that lived on a farm. Her father raised organic beef and knew about the work of Weston Price. But the lessons of Price seem to be lost on Dr. Northrup, who seems to know nothing about the importance of fat-soluble vitamins present in dairy fats. In interviews, Dr. Northrup mentions the fact that she consumed high amounts of dairy products during her growing years, including ice cream (rich in butterfat) every night, a diet that allowed her to grow into a healthy, high-functioning individual still in possession of her uterus. But her readers are told that dairy foods are bad news, bad for growing children and bad for adult women.

In the second edition of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, published in 1998 and again in 2002, Dr. Northrup makes no mention of macrobiotics. Although she still pegs dairy foods as the villain in the American diet, she admits that women actually do need some animal protein and fat in their diets.

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom swept Dr. Northrup into nationwide acclaim. She appeared twice on the Oprah Winfrey show and was the subject of a special report on National Public Radio. Her influence has been enormous-and baleful. Many copycat books on women's diseases repeat her dietary advice, sometimes verbatim. The consensus diet that has emerged is anything but wise--low in fat, stingy on animal foods, deficient in calcium and high in mineral-blocking whole grains and thyroid-depressing soy foods. This unnatural diet has probably ushered thousands of women onto the operating table for the hysterectomies they were trying to avoid.

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