Scan barcode
dejahentendu's review
2.0
trying to read this to understand more about nutiotion, but this guy's folksy, populist "science is too confusing" attitude, and his insistence that he's the victim of a conspiracy to squash his findings is really making it hard for me to accept his arguments.
peripetia's review
2.0
Edit: I'm changing my review system and bumping this down to 2 stars.
In spite of giving this a three star rating, I have more complaints than compliments, and I have spent many hours now thinking about them while I listened to the audiobook. My ranting is probably not very interesting or useful, so I will try to make this as brief as possible.
The author does make good points, and I think it was a good choice to explain how science and research actually work. It's quite obvious to me that many people don't know, and even those that do are not experts in fields outside of their own. This leads to a lack of understanding of what it means when you read "research shows potatoes cause cancer". So that was great.
However. The author spends a significant amount of time explaining what reductionism is and why it's bad. Reductionists only focus on one small thing and refuse to see outside of this narrow focus. They do not acknowledge alternative truths or differences of opinion. This is probably true, but it's very ironic that the author himself is such a reductionist. All other research and opinions outside of his own are, at best, misguided, and possibly due to corruption.
Much of the book revolves around his hurt boomer ego. He is offended that official institutions as well as other researchers have not embraced his fringe research as the gospel truth and instead based their opinions on the current scientific consensus. The consensus might not be correct, but the logic is obvious. He offers a lot of anecdotes from the 90s that in his view show that academia, media, the government, and the medical field are all corrupt. There is no other explanation for criticizing his research.
It gets even wilder when he advocates for "alternative treatments" for example for cancer, and is affronted that doctors refuse to even discuss solving serious cancer diagnoses through diet. I mean... you shouldn't be telling people to just go vegan to cure serious illnesses jfc.
The author seems to think that nutrition as a way of taking care of your health and preventing illnesses is not discussed or taken seriously. Now, we might have different contexts due to our ages, geographical locations, gender, and media (he does not mention social media at all), but I find it hard to believe that this trend of borderline obsessive healthiness is not widespread. People really buy into this belief that they can prevent and cure all diseases with whatever diet they deem to be the One True Diet.
It's true that declining healthcare systems focus on disease-care, not preventative healthcare, but health has become another thing that's shoved firmly on the shoulders of the individual, who is supposedly responsible for all medical problems.
In conclusion: what a mess. Maybe it was full of all this extra whining because it doesn't actually take that long to say "eat plant-based whole foods, here's some evidence, goodbye".
In spite of giving this a three star rating, I have more complaints than compliments, and I have spent many hours now thinking about them while I listened to the audiobook. My ranting is probably not very interesting or useful, so I will try to make this as brief as possible.
The author does make good points, and I think it was a good choice to explain how science and research actually work. It's quite obvious to me that many people don't know, and even those that do are not experts in fields outside of their own. This leads to a lack of understanding of what it means when you read "research shows potatoes cause cancer". So that was great.
However. The author spends a significant amount of time explaining what reductionism is and why it's bad. Reductionists only focus on one small thing and refuse to see outside of this narrow focus. They do not acknowledge alternative truths or differences of opinion. This is probably true, but it's very ironic that the author himself is such a reductionist. All other research and opinions outside of his own are, at best, misguided, and possibly due to corruption.
Much of the book revolves around his hurt boomer ego. He is offended that official institutions as well as other researchers have not embraced his fringe research as the gospel truth and instead based their opinions on the current scientific consensus. The consensus might not be correct, but the logic is obvious. He offers a lot of anecdotes from the 90s that in his view show that academia, media, the government, and the medical field are all corrupt. There is no other explanation for criticizing his research.
It gets even wilder when he advocates for "alternative treatments" for example for cancer, and is affronted that doctors refuse to even discuss solving serious cancer diagnoses through diet. I mean... you shouldn't be telling people to just go vegan to cure serious illnesses jfc.
The author seems to think that nutrition as a way of taking care of your health and preventing illnesses is not discussed or taken seriously. Now, we might have different contexts due to our ages, geographical locations, gender, and media (he does not mention social media at all), but I find it hard to believe that this trend of borderline obsessive healthiness is not widespread. People really buy into this belief that they can prevent and cure all diseases with whatever diet they deem to be the One True Diet.
It's true that declining healthcare systems focus on disease-care, not preventative healthcare, but health has become another thing that's shoved firmly on the shoulders of the individual, who is supposedly responsible for all medical problems.
In conclusion: what a mess. Maybe it was full of all this extra whining because it doesn't actually take that long to say "eat plant-based whole foods, here's some evidence, goodbye".
tmrogersjr1's review
3.0
This book aims to answer two primary questions: What does science say is the best way to eat? and why don't people already know about it?
Dr Campbell asserts that proper nutrition is the key to eliminating, reversing or lowering our top chronic diseases in America.
What is proper nutrition? What is the ideal human diet?
Dr Campbell calls it WFPB or The Whole Food Plant-based diet, which means consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible(whole foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans, legumes and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added fat, salt, oil and sugar. Aim to get 80% of your calories from carbohydrates, 10% from fat and 10% from protein.
He covers ALL the science in DETAIL which made it read like a research paper but was extremely informative. He deals with critics of his work, and also why the media, pharmaceutical, meat, dairy, and medical industries don't want you to know this simple information.
If you like science and learning (in detail) about research and nutrition than this book is for you. This book is not about being practical, in the sense of telling you what to eat, providing you with recipes etc. Its about the hardcore science of proper nutrition and why this information is being kept from you. I like more practical books myself with not so much science but it was worth the read.
**Just as a side note I adopted a plant-based diet about two and a half years ago and have never felt better. Im currently working on getting my macronutrient ratios more close to Dr Campbell's recommendations**
Tony Rogers Jr
Author of Visionary: Making a difference in a world that needs YOU
Dr Campbell asserts that proper nutrition is the key to eliminating, reversing or lowering our top chronic diseases in America.
What is proper nutrition? What is the ideal human diet?
Dr Campbell calls it WFPB or The Whole Food Plant-based diet, which means consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible(whole foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans, legumes and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added fat, salt, oil and sugar. Aim to get 80% of your calories from carbohydrates, 10% from fat and 10% from protein.
He covers ALL the science in DETAIL which made it read like a research paper but was extremely informative. He deals with critics of his work, and also why the media, pharmaceutical, meat, dairy, and medical industries don't want you to know this simple information.
If you like science and learning (in detail) about research and nutrition than this book is for you. This book is not about being practical, in the sense of telling you what to eat, providing you with recipes etc. Its about the hardcore science of proper nutrition and why this information is being kept from you. I like more practical books myself with not so much science but it was worth the read.
**Just as a side note I adopted a plant-based diet about two and a half years ago and have never felt better. Im currently working on getting my macronutrient ratios more close to Dr Campbell's recommendations**
Tony Rogers Jr
Author of Visionary: Making a difference in a world that needs YOU
e_laugh12's review
I thought this was more a book on the science of nutrition. It’s everything we’ve heard the last 15 years, but preachy. Not what I was expecting.
didactylos's review against another edition
4.0
Personally disappointing - it is a very scholarly and thorough exploration of what is wrong with our current views of nutrition and illness. You cannot fault his coverage. However I was already a convert so much of this was just me nodding for page after page. I had hoped that there would be more... so this is what to do.... dropped one star as it’s totally USA centric.