Customer Reviews

Energetics of Food

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One of the most important insights for anyone who has personally experienced the diet/disease, diet/symptom connection is the awareness of inevitable food diet dogma--meaning, the initial tendency for any student of natural health to create fairly hard-edged principles around what is Right Food and Wrong Food and believe them as incontrovertibly true for the rest of their life and for all of humanity. Generally at that moment, a student of natural health will join one of churches--er I mean groups--that best fit those beliefs, be it the All Raw group, or Vegetarianism, or Macrobiotic/Vegan/Natural Hygiene/Paleolithic or any other of the well-known food philosophies.

It is at that point that I suggest purchasing a copy of Steve Gagné's The Energetics of Food. Like a master cult de-programmer, Gagné gently helps dislodge hard-earned dogma that any of us students of natural health inevitably have gathered over the years of study, and through the cunning use of a concept called logic, he gets us to see a wider view on what food is, what it isn't, and how it's been used historically by healthy cultures throughout the world to heal and stay healthy.

The thing I love the most about The Energetics of Food is not that it gives one more bunch of dogma to set up and believe. In fact, the author encourages the reader to realize that we're each our own walking Petri dish, and to find conclusions in their own health and culinary experiment. More, the brilliance of the book is that it gets you thinking. In ways you wouldn't expect. I found myself going, "hmm... hadn't thought of that" throughout the pages, and then I'd find that my next few days' meals would be influenced by his ideas.

Whether you are just waking up to the realization that most of your symptoms are diet related, or are an old salt in the study of the food and health connection, The Energetics of Food is simply one of those must-have books. And I'd bet money that it will remain in your library as a reference tool for decades to come.

Scott Ohlgren
author, The 28-Day Cleansing Program
http://www.howhealthworks.com

I was extremely interested in the book and took a chance based on the title. I've studied nutrition and the energetics of food and herbs; however, I am always interested in other informed perspectives. I was hoping for information that would be of practical value in terms of nutritional counseling provided to my clients.

This book starts out OK; however, it is cobbled together from disparate traditions with no harmonizing approach. Some of the assertions are ridiculous--for example, that eating bitter foods regularly will make people psychologically bitter. Bitters, such as salad greens (radicchio, dandelion etc.) enhance digestion and if anything would be likely to enhance temperament by stimulating digestive physiology.

Some of the ideas are borrowed from traditional Chinese medicine in a piecemeal fashion and others from various traditions. There are no references, which would prove extremely helpful for anyone serious about this potentially value subject.

I would advise readers to explore some of the established literature in traditional chinese medicine and look at other books, such as Marc David's Nourishing Wisdom.

The best I can say is there some interesting information in this lengthy book interspersed among the unsubstantiated opinions.

This is a great book. It really examines how your body is constantly an experiment and that you have to test yourself as an individual to know which foods work best for you and make you feel great. It holds a similar concept as Joshua Rosenthal's book,"Integrative Nutrition." This is another good book because it supports the concept of bio-individuality and is an easy read for those who don't want anything too scientific.
Integrative Nutrition

As a healthcare professional that works in the natural medicine arena I found this information very valuable. He has a lot of research and understands the "illusive" energy connection between who we are and what we eat. I would recommend this book for anyone that is interested in eating the food that is right for you and your health.

Everything Is Energy...It never disappears, it Just changes its form... Physical is Just the result of thoughts... U look what U eat, U R what U think... So B healthy happy and rich..Eat, LOve and Pray!!! :) Life is GOoD, so GOod Luck!