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Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger
1 review
charley0796's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.75
A comprehensive book about why and how to prevent early death from leading diseases like CHD, cancers etc. It’s packed with research to back up claims, though as Dr Greger reflects, these are mostly small scale or correlations studies. He does a good job of reminding the reader of flaws in the studies he mentions, which is more than most researchers seem to do in non-fiction books!
The second half of the book is all about his daily dozen recommended foods and activities to help stay healthy. These are steep, and hard to achieve. But, as he said, his ‘prescriptions’ aren’t about feasibility but non-watered down medical guidance - which is more than can be said for the current ‘5 a day’ or exercise guidance. He also doesn’t acknowledge how to reach the daily dozen, and doesn’t mention societal/money etc barriers to good food which would be helpful. A lot of his insights are from a USA perspective (for example when talking about latitudes and supplements for vit d based on this, he just mentions USA cities until the last bit). It would have been much better if this book could have a more global reference throughout.
I do also question some of his categorisations of ‘green light food’ for example, soy yoghurt or tofu is considered red light food. But then he doesn’t encourage avoiding red light all together but using these as tools to boost reaching the daily dozen - I.e. if eating yoghurt in the morning squeezes in flax, nuts, berries and fruit then that’s fab. I’m probably going to count soy products as a bean on the checklist 😂.
There are parts where the research seems clearly cherry picked, and you can see articles online that do challenge this. For example, this health line article says: ‘as evidence that high-oxalate vegetables aren’t a problem for kidney stones (a bold claim, given the wide acceptance of foods like rhubarb and beets as risky for stone formers), Greger cites a paper that doesn’t actually look at the effects of high-oxalate vegetables — only total vegetable intake (pages 170-171).’ This is backed up by the nhs guidance which says to avoid rhubarb etc - perhaps it’s outdated guidance but it’s still up on their website!
Overall, I think it’s a really good book and would love to have a new copy with up to date research to see if it all holds up.
I’d also like to read the how not to die cookbook, for inspiration in how to add the daily dozen into my week.
The second half of the book is all about his daily dozen recommended foods and activities to help stay healthy. These are steep, and hard to achieve. But, as he said, his ‘prescriptions’ aren’t about feasibility but non-watered down medical guidance - which is more than can be said for the current ‘5 a day’ or exercise guidance. He also doesn’t acknowledge how to reach the daily dozen, and doesn’t mention societal/money etc barriers to good food which would be helpful. A lot of his insights are from a USA perspective (for example when talking about latitudes and supplements for vit d based on this, he just mentions USA cities until the last bit). It would have been much better if this book could have a more global reference throughout.
I do also question some of his categorisations of ‘green light food’ for example, soy yoghurt or tofu is considered red light food. But then he doesn’t encourage avoiding red light all together but using these as tools to boost reaching the daily dozen - I.e. if eating yoghurt in the morning squeezes in flax, nuts, berries and fruit then that’s fab. I’m probably going to count soy products as a bean on the checklist 😂.
There are parts where the research seems clearly cherry picked, and you can see articles online that do challenge this. For example, this health line article says: ‘as evidence that high-oxalate vegetables aren’t a problem for kidney stones (a bold claim, given the wide acceptance of foods like rhubarb and beets as risky for stone formers), Greger cites a paper that doesn’t actually look at the effects of high-oxalate vegetables — only total vegetable intake (pages 170-171).’ This is backed up by the nhs guidance which says to avoid rhubarb etc - perhaps it’s outdated guidance but it’s still up on their website!
Overall, I think it’s a really good book and would love to have a new copy with up to date research to see if it all holds up.
I’d also like to read the how not to die cookbook, for inspiration in how to add the daily dozen into my week.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
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