Monday, October 17, 2016

REVIEW: WHOLE- RETHINKING THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION BY T. COLIN CAMPBELL, PhD

Published by BenBella Books, Inc. Hardcover, 328 pgs
Goodreads Description
      I almost didn't read this because the logic of eating mostly plant-based and unprocessed foods seemed like basic common sense. Then I ended up taking eight pages of notes. I will do my best to create a succinct summary of advice I found the most useful. After note-taking, I realized many of the points I appreciated most (such as the example of Vitamin C found in the apple) were contained in the Goodreads description (so read that too!) 
       The quick rundown by Campbell says "The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible ("whole" foods). Eat a variety of fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80% of your calories from carbs, 10% from fat, and 10% from protein. That's it, in 66 words. In this book I call it the whole food, plant based diet or WFPB).
       The history behind reductionist thinking (moving away from usefulness and applicability by focusing on one element to the exclusion of the big picture) vs. wholistic reasoning was the bulk of the book. Through graphs, studies, and explanation of how research was conducted to prevent bias, Campbell paints a vivid and disturbing picture of how our tendency to view results in a bubble is alarming. "We create specialists to help us solve each problem as if it stood alone. As a consequence, we fail to see interconnections and we fail to see the whole." (pg. 174).
My favorite Sections/Quotes:
1) The modern healthcare myth
2) What to ask yourself when you hear a health claim (Is it true? Is it the whole truth, or just part of it? Does it matter?)
3) How to tell if a health intervention matters.
4) "....Diet deals with so many diseases and conditions that you begin to wonder if there isn't just one basic disease cause- poor nutrition- that manifests itself through thousands of different symptoms (pg 135)."
5) Undisputed global warming implications of gases like Methane (CH4) that are associated with modern industrial livestock production....potentially 72 times more harmful than CO2 levels that are often touted, with Methane being far less known in the public.
6) The unsustainable practices of current food economy (how we use land and water for animals).
7) Reasons why the shift in thinking about food paradigms is so difficult.
8) The incredible interactions between enzymes in our bodies. I'm a person of faith, and while looking at charts on the Krebs cycle and metabolic pathways in science classes bored me beyond description, I look at it differently since I've aged- with awe and appreciation for the miraculous complexity of our bodies.
9) Nature ("genes") vs. Nurture ("nutrition") and what roles each play. 

     Please excuse if this seemed like a regurgitation of facts. I added so much to my knowledge of nutrition and found the insights quite profound. I recommend this to anyone who simply wants to be more informed, regardless of whether you adopt all his tips.
  

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