This week, I downloaded this free ebook, to help me recover from my poor eating over the holidays. I have no excuse, really, and I surely know better than to let bad eating habits get the better of me. The holidays are peak season at my job, and they are my peak season for my painting business as well. So, I have been quite busy. Still, that's little consolation where I'm sitting now, with my back hurting and my head stuffed with cold, nor was it comforting on Christmas Eve and Christmas day - which I slept through in my flu induced fever. I'm sick and sore and desperately needing to take a healing approach to food. I found Dr. Axe's book to be a wonderful refresher, and I love that it includes some very easy meal plans to follow while I'm still quite busy dealing with the holiday aftermath.
Introduction: Dr. Axe begins the
introduction with statistics on America's health crisis, outlining
the most common ailments and diseases. He then shares a personal
story of his mother's fight with breast cancer and lung cancer, and
how changing her diet to include superfoods and natural eating helped
her fight/beat cancer the second time.
The format of the ebook is in PDF. With
a clear and easy font, bold and colorful subtitles and illustrations
and photos on every page, it makes the reading easy to follow.
In Chapter 1, Dr. Axe shares the
benefits of superfoods, and includes a list of 20 top superfoods,
which include berries and almonds, among others. He also lists four
plans that he created, to help tailor your diet to which health
problem you are most affected by:
- Weightloss
- Detox
- Anti-Aging
- Muscle Building
While I read all of the chapters for
review purposes, I chose to focus on 2, 3, and 4. My goals are
specific to creating a healing diet to help my body recover from
injury and illness; after poor eating during the holiday season; help
my muscle and cardiovascular system remain youthful so that I can
avoid further strain, injury and illness that are likely to affect me
now that I'm over 35; and building muscle to help support my skeletal
system and again, to avoid trauma to my joints and spine.
In Chapter 2, Dr. Axe discusses the
benefit of weight loss and the decreased risk of heart disease. He
then lists the foods that specifically aid in weight loss, and not
only outlines the foods origins but describes how it works in the
body to help lose weight. By specifically naming the compounds that
affect metabolism, fat stores, digestion and other contributors, it's
easy to see how utilizing them can help meet weight loss goals.
At the end of Chapter 2, the doctor has
compiled an easy to follow meal plan and super simple exercise
regimen.
In the following three chapters, Dr.
Axe continues in the same refrain, specifying foods that meet the
needs of those agendas: Detox, Anti-Aging and Muscle Building,
where he outlines certain foods to meet those needs, and follows up
with a meal plan and exercise regimen.
Beyond telling us what foods are most
beneficial, afterwards is a section discussing which foods are most
damaging, including conventional meats and dairy and hydrogenated
oils, among others. There is a short section on Beyond Organic, which
talks about the importance of avoiding chemicals in our food, and
shares the story of Jordan Ruben, who was riddled with disease until
he began eating foods that are much more natural, and who went on to
write a best selling book, start a vitamin chain, and started a
company to create the healthiest superfoods in the world.
There are many religious (Christian)
references in the book, and mentions of eating the way God intended
or eating in a biblical way. Many may likely find this an enjoyable
touch. I personally love that Dr. Axe writes from his heart and is
obviously passionate about sharing his information and the stories of
how good, natural, Earth based foods have helped his loved ones
become healthy and even brought them from the brink of death. Very
nicely written and advice and information to live by.
If I have one criticism, it's that Dr. Axe did not include beans in his book, which, by many experts assertion should be write at the top of the list of the top 20. Nonetheless, if you follow this book and throw in some beans, you should be pretty well set!
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