Books I've Recently Read (That Have Had An Impact On Me)

I thought it might be useful for some of you to see a list of books that I thought were interesting and enlightening. I feel it is my responsibility to my clients to stay informed about nutrition, health and fitness.

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" Barbara Kingsolver
Ms. Kingsolver writes books that are very enjoyable to read. This book is not a novel. It is about the year the whole family moved from Nevada (I think) to Virginia (I think) and tried to live almost completely on what they grew. After reading about peanut butter killing more than one nursing home inmate and sickening scores of people around the country the idea sounds better than ever.

"Younger Next Year" Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, M.D.
This very readable book gives you the science behind the reason you want to exercise. Did you know that the inflammation you feel when you have sore muscles from a workout is a necessary signal for your bones and muscles to make more bone and muscle cells? Having plenty of bone and muscle cells is in your best interest. The book is loaded with little gems like that. I'm willing to trade a little soreness for health and vitality.

"Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain" John J. Ratey
Exercise is the best treatment for depression. The effects of exercise "kick in" faster then drugs and a year later, the exercisers are better off than the people given drugs for their depression. I've had a nurse tell me a half hour walk is equal to a Prozac. Any neurotransmitter secreted by your brain is secreted better after a bout of cardiovascular exercise. Exercise is good for ADD/ADHD, Parkinson's Disease. Studying for a test? Exercise will make your brain perform better!

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" Michael Pollan
More information on food and how much of it in this country is grown and manufactured. Very, very good information. It is enough to get you to eat organically raised meat or become a vegetarian.

"The End of Overeating. Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite"
David A. Kessler, MD
I am half-way through this book and for me it is a page-turner. I see people all day long that are struggling with their weight. I tell them all to stay away from food that comes in crinkly packages and learn how to cook at home. This book points out that the people who sell us prepared food - Kraft, Nabisco, Chilis, Outback Steakhouse, Starbucks - pay people who lie awake at night thinking of new ways to get you to buy more of their junk that masquerades as food. They do not have your best interest at heart, they don't care about your health. Their goals are to make a product that is addictively tasty with a terrific profit margin. There isn't a lot of money in selling potatoes, but there is a ton of profit in selling French fries or potato chips. Guess what? A lot of the stuff you are eating isn't even food. It is chemicals masquerading as food. They have chemicals that taste like bacon, blue cheese, cinnamon. They are cheaper to use than the real thing.

The last thing I'm going to mention is not a book, it is a documentary available on video that is very watchable. It is called, "King Corn" by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis. Recently graduated from college, Ian and Curt decide to go to Iowa and follow an acre of corn that they plant. Our misguided farm subsidy policies seem to have caused a glut of genetically modified corn on the market. The outfits mentioned above are only too happy to take all that corn in the form of cheap meat and high fructose corn syrup and turn it into fast food. You will learn a lot about food by watching this video. One fact that Ian and Curt point out is that this generation growing up now is likely to be the first generation in the U.S. that is expected to have a shorter life span than their parents. That is a sobering thought. We live in a country where medical care is at the most advanced it has ever been and our kids are going to die at a younger age than their parents.

An aside: Years ago, there was a disease called Adult Onset Diabetes, so called to differentiate it from Juvenile Diabetes. Juvenile Diabetes is an autoimmune disease that strikes young people. There are a bunch of theories, but no one knows for sure why it strikes the kids that it strikes. Adult onset diabetes is another story. After years and years of abusing your body with lots and lots of sugary foods, you either wear out your pancreas or your develop an insensitivity to the insulin that your pancreas is churning out. Anyway, the name of that disease had to be changed from Adult Onset Diabetes (because you really only saw it in people over 50) to Type II Diabetes because more and more children are developing this disease. Guess what? You can completely control Type II Diabetes with diet and exercise. No one wants to. It is so much easier to take a drug to artificially lower your blood sugar and get to keep eating the crap that got you into this medical mess in the first place. Researchers estimate that one out of three children living today will develop Type II Diabetes.