Everyone seems to have a different theory about what causes fibromyalgia. This author believes that fibro is an "illness of modern life" despite the fact that there seems to be evidence of cases of fibro throughout history. The author says that fibro is caused by "poor nutrition, poor sleep, hormonal deficiencies and various sources of stress". Many doctors will tell you this, but the problem is, no one, including the author, seem to have real scientific proof that these things cause fibromyalgia and are not just symptoms (poor sleep) or exacerbaters of your symptoms (nutrition) rather than actual causes. Because they can't say what causes it, they can't fix it, merely give you "band-aid" treatments.
Part 1 (pages 16-121) is fairly informative about fibromyalgia, symptoms and common treatments. Of course, the majority of this section is spent on nutrition, food preparation, organic foods, etc. She breaks down foods to show how different things (proteins, enzymes, probiotics, fats, carbs, antioxidents, etc.) affect those with fibro either positively or negatively.
Part 2 includes the recipes (124 - 275) includes the recipes. They are arranged much as any cookbook is, starting with typical breakfast items (smoothies, eggs, fiber) going through appetizers, salsas, soups, salads, entrees, side dishes and desserts. Many of the recipes have nice pictures included. Each recipe includes a brief summary of why the foods in that particular dish are helpful to you (a good inclusion, IMO).
Now on to why I don't particularly recommend this book. First of all, if you are allergic to dairy products (as I am) or lactose intolerant, you will find that many of the recipes in this book include cheese or other dairy. You could probably still cook some of the recipes without the cheese or dairy but many of the recipes do not seem like they would work without the cheese.
Second, prepare to spend a lot of time and money shopping at health food or organic food stores. Many of the recipes call for obscure ingredients that you can't find at normal grocery stores - some you may even have to order online. I would love to eat all organic foods, but the cost is prohibitive. And the ingredients included in these recipes are not ingredients you typically have in your kitchen. I'm talking many different ingredients, not just 10 or so that you can get and use for every recipe. Fresh chopped chives, Hollandaise sauce, scallions, sesame tahini, low-sodium tamari soy sauce, fennel, cumin, cilantro, Himalayan crystal salt, corriander powder, fresh dill, pine nuts, quinoa, coconut oil, water chestnuts, shallots, miso, raw walnut halves, etc. not to mention all the fresh vegetables, fruit and meat you have to buy for each and every recipe.
Third, and perhaps most importantly to those who actually have fibromyalgia, these recipes are NOT quick and easy. Although there are some recipes that have only a few ingredients, most recipes have 10+. Most of the recipes take the better part of an hour to prepare and cook. A few can be fixed quickly, while others need to be prepared days before you want to eat them. If you have a spouse or family member who is willing to spend an hour cooking for you every meal, great. If not and you're like me, however, you don't often feel up to fixing a full meal. Sometimes it's hard to even stick a frozen pizza in the oven.
With a fibromyalgic's typical pain and energy level, both shopping and cooking are hard. Not only do you have to go to more stores in order to get all these ingredients (because you probably won't find a single store with all of them) but you have to make more trips because the fresh ingredients will not last very long. And then once you've got the ingredients, you have to cook them, which is yet another difficult task, especially when most recipes take around an hour preparation and cooking time. Then of course, you have to clean up after cooking as well.
If you have always been the type of person who spends an hour cooking dinner every night, then the recipes in this book will not seem unusual to you. If you are a busy person with little time to cook, or, like me, just don't like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, then these recipes will not be so easy for you - fibromyalgia or no fibromyalgia.
I am sure this book can be helpful to many people, I just want you to be aware of what you're getting before you purchase it. My parents actually bought this book for me when I was diagnosed, however, neither they nor I were overly impressed by it.
One final note is that the book itself is very nice. The pages are high quality, glossy paper and it includes many nice photographs and graphics.
As an aside, I recommend the book What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Fibromyalgia: The Revolutionary Treatment That Can Reverse the Disease by R. Paul St. Amand. He actually puts forth the best theory I have found to date as to what causes fibromyalgia - and since he knows (or at least has an idea) what causes it, he is able to give a treatment that actually reverses it. Even if you don't follow his treatment, just reading his book will lead you to a much deeper understanding of the disease.
