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A review by estherjoybelle
Eat Real Food by David Gillespie
4.0
This is a book that will change your life if you let it - not only in helping you rethink your entire approach to food, but hopefully also in prolonging your life because you followed its advice.
Let's be clear - a lot of nutritional advice is outdated, pushed by the food industry, and actively harming our health. We take it for granted to our own detriment. We've been told that saturated fats are unhealthy, polyunsaturated fats (found in the vegetable/seed oils that were invented in the last century, like margarine) are better for us, and sugar is just empty calories which can be enjoyed in moderation without ill effect. All false. All lies. All creating a perfect storm of ill health - obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease, MS, and more.
But we don't want to give up sugar - we're emotionally dependent on it. And we don't want to go to the trouble of eliminating vegetable oils in everything we eat - it's too daunting.
I read these books not because I'm into conspiracy theories, or because I enjoy contemplating how the foods I eat regularly are probably killing me, but because I don't want to get cancer if I can help it. I read these books to remind me to change my life. And I'm so grateful books like these exist - exposing the lies and laying out the science so I can decide for myself how I'm going to eat and live.
This is perhaps not as entertaining to read as Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food, but it's clearer and more practical. It's very specific to Australia in terms of talking about food brands and products, but the explanations of the science are good for anyone wanting to know more.
(Also, I've been on the real food path for a while, so I liked learning in this book that a lot of my expensive "healthy" ingredients, like almond flour or coconut oil, are really not so necessary after all.)
Let's be clear - a lot of nutritional advice is outdated, pushed by the food industry, and actively harming our health. We take it for granted to our own detriment. We've been told that saturated fats are unhealthy, polyunsaturated fats (found in the vegetable/seed oils that were invented in the last century, like margarine) are better for us, and sugar is just empty calories which can be enjoyed in moderation without ill effect. All false. All lies. All creating a perfect storm of ill health - obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease, MS, and more.
But we don't want to give up sugar - we're emotionally dependent on it. And we don't want to go to the trouble of eliminating vegetable oils in everything we eat - it's too daunting.
I read these books not because I'm into conspiracy theories, or because I enjoy contemplating how the foods I eat regularly are probably killing me, but because I don't want to get cancer if I can help it. I read these books to remind me to change my life. And I'm so grateful books like these exist - exposing the lies and laying out the science so I can decide for myself how I'm going to eat and live.
This is perhaps not as entertaining to read as Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food, but it's clearer and more practical. It's very specific to Australia in terms of talking about food brands and products, but the explanations of the science are good for anyone wanting to know more.
(Also, I've been on the real food path for a while, so I liked learning in this book that a lot of my expensive "healthy" ingredients, like almond flour or coconut oil, are really not so necessary after all.)