Customer Reviews

Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

You are going to love this one. It is clear, in depth, detailed, and a joy to read. It covers each food discussed with a comprehensive explanation of its energetic properties according to Oriental Medicine.

This book is what you need to make enlightened decisions about what to eat, when to eat it and what to combine in order to have a balanced and self-healing diet.

What I liked most about this reference work is that Pitchford doesn't seem to have an "axe to grind" or a new age philosophy to spout. He gives you the bottom line about food, how to prepare it, when to avoid it, how to evaluate it, how to use it to heal yourself or your patients. He doesn't ask you to believe, just to experiment and use your intelligence.

When you buy this book you will find yourself referring to it for years to come. Warning: You will probably end up giving it to someone you love, so get an extra copy for yourself.

I also recommend you check out Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. It is a good companion to this one and presents a raw food Ayurvedic approach. Enjoy.

This is quite simply one of the best books ever published on the subject of health and whole foods.
There are no platitudes in this book.

The symptoms of both health and un-health are delineated; the technical workings of the body are explained; the solutions to physical health are presented.
Whole foods in all their forms are described -- what to eat, how to prepare them, recipes, how they work in the body, what they fix.

This book is two inches thick, and probably contains enough information for a degree in nutrition.
It is extremely readable, but don't think you can read it without a good dictionary. The author takes care to define technical terms, but that's no excuse for not clearing up words you don't know as you read.
Published in 1993, the book contains up-to-date nutritional research as well as traditional herbal remedies.
A good index helps you find exactly what information you need for specific conditions.

While the emphasis is obviously on a vegetarian diet, the author treats meat products as therapeutic for particular nutritional problems, and describes how to use meat products in the most ethical manner.
The book even gets into subjects of health such as root canals, parasites and microwave cooking.
Wherever possible, the author compares Oriental and Occidental viewpoints on health and nutrition, leaving the reader with insights that just are not available from references that only consider one or the other.

I hope I've stimulated your interest. Following recommendations in this book will most certainly improve your health.

If I could give this book 10,000 stars I would. This book is absolutely incredible! Some points:

- This book is HUGE!! 750 pages full of information (I was surprised I didn't have to pay much more for it -- for the amount of info this books contains, I would have easily expected to pay at least twice what it costs!)
- Amazingly well-written!
- Takes no sides, gives you the facts in a clear, concise way
- Complete with theories of Chinese Medicine and descriptions of disease patterns and how to cure them
- Very up-to-date -- this book is not just about old remedies -- it discusses all the issues of the "modern westerner"
- Very well organized with an incredible index that you can use to find absolutely anything
- Lists more foods than you probably know of, as well as the characteristics and therapeutic uses of each
- Provides numerous recipes (though it's not meant to be a cookbook, I was surprised to find that it not only describes the foods, it tells you how to *use* them, how to *prepare* them, and even how to store them!)

If you are looking for a guide to foods that is modern and up-to-date, yet helds to the traditional premises, this is it!
This book made me think about what I've been eating and drinking (and I don't mean alcohol -- you'll find some eye-opening truths here about the water you drink, as well as what the meat, poultry, and eggs go through before they get to your fridge.)
This book made me become a vegan.
This book made me purify my water before I drink it.
This book made me a conscious citizen of the planet!
But don't worry -- there is NO preaching! If you are intent on eating meat -- fine! All the suggestions in this book provide for carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, and everyone in between! It simply tells you te facts and allows you to think for yourself.
Thank you, Paul Pitchford, for putting together such an incredible book -- it's an immense achievment!

This is possibly the best instructional book of any I have ever read. Pritchford conveys the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), modern nutrition, biology and spitituality in this primer for healing arts.

This book teaches the symptoms and causes of illness and makes clear recommendations about foods and herbs that should be used to lessen the impacts of toxicity and bring the sick back to health. I have used it extensively and have bought several copies for others, the latest for someone who is responsible for cooking for adolescents in a halfway house for substance abusers. About 1/4 of the book is recipes. Book is extremely well indexed for relationships between disease and herbs/foods that minimize impact of disease.

I have used this book to learn basic - but very solid - understanding of energetic balances between diet, psyche and spirit. Well footnoted with current research. It is a must have.

If everyone in this country follows the suggestions about food and health in this book, I believe, there will be much fewer health problems in America.

As an organic integration of Chinese healing practice and western nutrition, this book provides one of the most systematic and comprehensive discussions of the relationship between food and health. Basically, there are three aspects I find most helpful about this book. First, the large scope it covers: from raw food to cooked food, from herbs to animal product, from water to minerals, from food combination to the art of chewing...the book explores these topics in an unhurried, sensible, and lucid manner. The analysis on each of the major foods near the end of the book is useful for the reader to select meal ingredients that can best help improve his/her health. Second, I like the "middle path" approach the author takes, without going to extremes with either his theory or practice. For instance, the author himself practises vegetarianism, as shown by some parts of the book, but he also acknowleges the effectiveness of meat in treating certain deficiencies. Third, I like its flexibility in tuning into each reader's different individual need and condition. For instance, raw vegetables and fruits may help the person who has "heat" signs, but may be too cooling for the person who feels cold constantly, especially in the colder season. So each person can use this book to fit his/her individual needs.

Because of my interest in food, health, and nutrition, I have read widely in these fields. But more often than not, I encounter books that take a narrow-minded, absolute, almost fanatic approach that makes you wonder what they are really selling. Paul Pitchford's book, however, impresses me as honest, intelligent advices given by a trusted friend, who has a full grasp of the eastern (mostly Chinese) food healing art, and discusses it from the perspective of western nutrition.

I only wish my copy of this book were a hard-cover so it probably could better withstand my frequent consulting (for almost three years).

The author does a great job of covering a vast amount of information with a good amount of detail. The probem I have with this book is that it is extremely bias - it suggests or implies that one would/should ultimately aspire to Sattva ideals. Primarily a lacto-vegetarian diet that tries to eat one to two meals a day. This is simply not in the best interests of many people, certainly not children, teens, or most adults that are working in the real world. To imply it as an ideal - means that anything less than is inferior. It is also not in line with Traditional Chinese nutrition theory.
Furthermore, the food energy classifications are inconsistantly incorrect. He confuses or miscatagorizes many of the foods. Many of the foods he categorizes as cool are in fact warming and vis versa. Many writers that come from a macrobiotic background reverse Yin/Yang, Warm/Cool from that found in TCM however that does not seem to be the case here as the energetics are sometimes in agreement with classic TCM and other times not. A much more accurate catagorization of food energetics can be found in Daverick Leggett's books, Helping Ourselves and Recipes for Self-Healing.

That said if one really understand the asian energetics of food and has a strong sense of good nutrition the remainder of the information is valuable. However it should not be relied on for accurancy or used as a resource or required text in nutrition programs or acupuncture schools due to it's obvious bias and glaring inaccuracies.

This book literally changed my life! I was desperately seeking an alternative to doctors and drugs and happened to choose this book at the bookstore. I couldn't put it down. The Oriental approach was fascinating and captivating. I've applied what I learned and my health and life has dramatically improved. I no longer rely on modern Western medicine. I feel that I am in charge of my own health through eating properly. I have read it cover to cover once, but I am (almost daily!) constantly referring back to it for information on certain foods and their effect on our condition. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in taking charge of their own life and spirituality and health.

I found this book three years ago in a health food store. Soon after that, I attended a "nutrition and awareness" retreat and a "healing with whole foods" course given by the author. Since then I have gradually incorporated more and more of the knowledge and principles presented in this book into my life. I have recovered from severe anemia and deficiency that I inflicted upon myself as a result of my ignorance and arrogant attitude about health and nutrition. I have learned how to prepare and cook foods in a healthy way. I have become acutely aware of the numerous toxins and pathogens that we are all exposed to on a daily basis. I have cleaned up my body and my environment and continue to make more improvements as time goes on. Paul Pitchford and his book set me on this road toward greater self-awareness and personal responsibility. The author's presentation is very balanced, offering basic knowledge of eastern and western perspectives on diet and health that support the needs of vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. The book achieves its purpose of serving as a complete and thorough reference on the health-producing attributes of whole foods. It contains no fads, no hype, only essential information for living as well as we can in our very toxic world.

This is an extraordinary book. I got the book because I have an interest in nutrition and found the oriental traditions very fascinating. This book actually ended up helping me avoid surgery. I had pain in my upper right abdomen for several months which I tried to ignore. After several weeks of increased pain which was debilitating, I went to my internist. The end result was an ultrasound where I found out I had lots of small gallstones including a very large one. Needless to say, I was scheduled for surgery to remove my gallbladder. Thinking that I had nothing to lose, I decided to follow this book's instructions on dissolving large gallsones before I resorted to surgery. Within several days, the daily pain went away. My stones have disappeared. It has been one year and I feel great.

I have fibromyalgia and got tired of doctors experimenting on me with drugs and other substances. The nutrition information out there is highly contradictory, and I wanted to find a way to eat and to live that would make me feel better but also be practical to do and make sense.

Pitchford presents his material in a logical and mostly easy-to-understand way. Drawing from Asian traditions (mostly Chinese medicine but also Ayervedic) with a wealth of supporting Western research, he goes from general to specific so that both those without medical training and those with can make good use of the book. It's far more than just "eat less refined food." If the end result is that you do so, you'll have gotten plenty of value for your purchase and the good news is that you'll want to. But Pitchford also presents much more information, and although the wealth of specifics pertaining to Chinese medicine were too much for me to understand and reconcile, his approaches to my general constitution type and specific medical complaints were very easy to understand and implement and what's best, they work.

Pitchford doesn't have a particular dietary axe to grind, other than the aforementioned elimination of refined foods. His recommended way to eat incorporates lots of whole grains and vegetables, but he doesn't advocate vegetarianism for everyone, nor does he present absolutes such as "you should never eat ______." He talks about easing into a new way of eating and makes it painless to achieve. I have shelves full of books on diet and health, but this is the only one I consider indispensable. I wish I'd started living my life this way before I started collapsing. Thankfully, I am well on my way back to a normal life, and I consider this book a large part of the reason why.