Customer Reviews

Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a great book. So much information of the advantages of a Vegetarian and Vegan diet. What a great way to get healthy and stay healthy and help the planet as well!!

I am so inspired by this book & now I'm going to read "The China Study" to get even more insight into this wonderful aging story.

I had the opportunity to meet John Robbins in the fall of 2006, and to hear him speak at the Vegsource Healthy Lifestyle Expo in California. The hardcover version of this book is the first book Random House has ever published on 100% post-script recycled paper. Also, at least in part due to a non-confrontational letter John had written to the president of Random House, explaining his position on this, Random House decided to up the percentage of recycled paper in all of their books from about 3% to 30%. I forget the number of trees this is expected to save.

While the theme of this book centers around four cultures ( Abkhasian, Vilcabamban, Hunzan and Okinawan ) that thrive on plant-based diets, it goes way beyond that. It examines relationships and other elements common to these cultures, which may help explain why although they have hardships, ( in fact Robbins cautions readers against idealizing these cultures ) they are relatively happy and healthy with sometimes very little.

Interwoven are some short thought-provoking "sidebars", such as "The Jim Fixx Story", and "The Man Who Had Everything". Like other John Robbins books, there is a distinctive and endearing writing style that offers glimpses into his personal life, as well as into the lives of those who have impacted his life.

He was certainly fortunate to be born into the family that he was. Not for the ice-cream cone shaped swimming pool, (or all the free ice-cream) but for the opportunity to turn his back on it all, and in so doing foster a credibility that few can match. Little wonder that Colin Campbell chose John Robbins to write the Forward for "The China Study".

I'd give this title 5 stars if he wasn't so darn wordy and repetitive. Very useful information and lots of data to back everything up.

The supposed mainstream medical professionals have us all hyped into believing that a pill here and there will cure everything that ails us, and that many of the diseases we suffer from in this day and age are a result of it's just "the way it is". John Robbins, from analyzing those populations who have an extraordinary number of elders shows this is just not true. Over and over he documents cases whereby these elder populations suffer from none of the common diseases such as heart disease, cancer, etc. but, when the Western world knocks on their doorsteps in the form of unhealthy foods and ideas, the number of disease-free occupants takes a nose-dive.

It is very obvious it is our diet and lifestyle that causes these diseases, not the "it's just the way it is" and attack it with a pill doctrine.

A whole section of the book is devoted to feel-good things such as family and friends and purpose making a difference in how long people live as well.

Nothing complicated about the ideas in this book - just common sense once you've read the data. Ignore the almost daily studies that espouse this or that being good for you with contradictions galore. Time to get back to basics and use your head. Read this book and you'll be convinced.