Nutrition Frenzy

#1: You can reduce cholesterol and blood pressure without using drugs.

#2: Broccoli’s super-chemical, sulforaphane, can cure cancer.

#3: You can reduce cholesterol and blood pressure without using drugs.

#4: When your stomach is empty, it produces a hormone called ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry.

#5: Fatter people have higher metabolic rates than thinner people, not the other way around.

#6: Garlic causes the body to relaease nitric oxide into the bloodstream. So does viagra.

#7: Regular users of caffeine suffer withdrawal symptoms when deprived of their favorite drug.

#8: Eating little and often can keep you going for longer.

#9: Most people don’t need to drink two liters of water every day—and coffee, tea and alcoholic drinks do count toward your fluid intake.

#10: Tomato skins are a great source of lycopene, a chemical that helps prevent skin cancer.

Why so much confusion around the topic of food? Because there is so much conflicting information and many of us can’t seem to make sense of it. As Ms. Fullerton-Smith writes in the intro, “Understanding complex research can be hard going; experts disagree; journalists speculate; and old myths die hard. It seems the more we know the more we have to worry about, and the less sure we are of the truth.” I say “Amen” to that.

Dr. Mehmet Oz who wrote the forward adds this; “If food were merely fuel, we could consume a simple, tasteless liquid and be on our way, just as we full up our cars with gasoline to keep us on the road. But nothing about food is simple. Even the most basic signals that tell us we are hungry or full are confused by a host of psychological and physiological triggers that often make it difficult for us to identify when we need to eat or-more importantly for most of us-when we need to stop eating.” This statement alone might have some of you singing the hallelujah chorus.

The Truth About Food is written as a series of “How Tos.” How To: be healthy, be slim, feed the kids, be sexy, be the best, and stay young and beautiful. To support their ideas they use great photos, sidebars, and “top tips.” These are the little take away gems that you don’t want to exclude in your new way of eating.

During their two years of experimenting they managed to prove that you can lower cholesterol and blood pressure without drugs, (no surprise there), that calcium does have some chops in the weight loss category, and that most people do not need to drink two litres of water per day to remain health and hydrated. Water haters rejoice!

Think of this book as evidence that “foods are powerful weapons in our fight to stay healthy,” as Dr. Oz puts it. This isn’t a diet book but can be the basis of a new way of eating for weight loss or weight gain for that matter. You will learn why certain foods produce certain results in some and not in others. The writing is engaging and the science is easy to follow.