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Book review: Healthy Gut Healthy You (Dr Michael Ruscio)
Healthy Gut Healthy You is the long-awaited book by Dr Michael Ruscio, an American functional medicine practitioner, researcher and podcaster. Dr Ruscio started off as a chiropractor and discovered functional medicine during his own healing journey. He focuses on treating the gut as the first step for improving a wide range health conditions, many of which don’t manifest as gastrointestinal discomfort. In both his book and his podcast, Dr Ruscio offers a very sensible clinical approach. I think this is a product of working with real patients and noting what actually works. He avoids dogma and excessive testing, restrictions and treatment. Healthy Gut Healthy You The book has 5 parts:…
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Book review: The Longevity Diet (Prof Valter Longo)
The Longevity Diet is one of these few diet books worth reading. It was written by Prof Valter Longo, one of the leading scientists in the field of longevity. Prof Longo has been experimenting with fasting-mimicking protocols in order to extend life and vitality. One of the coolest facts about Prof Longo I learned from his book is that he wanted to become a rock star and that’s why he travelled from his home town in Italy to the US. He was on his way through a jazz composition major when he decided to change gears and pursue an interest that had been dormant in his mind: to study the…
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Book review: Gastrophysics (Charles Spence)
Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating is a recently published book by British experimental psychologist Charles Spence. I had heard about his work in a few food podcasts I listen to, particularly his experiments with “sonic seasoning” – the effect that sound has on taste and texture perception. The introduction was written by British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck, with whom Spence has collaborated for a number of years. This fact certainly gives the author more credibility than the Ig Nobel Prize he won in 2008 for his sonic seasoning research on potato chips. What is gastrophysics? As described by the author in chapter one, gastrophysics is…
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Book review: The Bad Food Bible
I first heard about this book in a food-related podcast (can’t remember which one). The full name of the book – The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully – was totally unappealing to me but somehow the book showed in my Audible list of suggestions and I decided to give it a listen. The book was written by paediatrician Aaron Carroll. I have some bias against doctors who think they know more about nutrition than everyone else, especially knowing that they don’t get much nutrition education in uni. However, I decided to chill out and just listen to what he had to say. Turns out that Carroll…
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Book review: Cooked by Michael Pollan
I finally listened to Michael Pollan‘s latest book, Cooked – A Natural History of Transformation. Pollan, a contributor writer for The New York Times, is one of the thought leaders of the real food movement. His previous books, which include The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense Of Food and Food Rules, focus on the intersection of food, history, politics, society and health. I am a big fan of his writing, both in style and in content. Although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he stands for, I think the gist of his message is nothing but positive. Cooked is divided in the four elements: fire, water, air and earth, which are…
