Customer Reviews

How to Become Smarter

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Russian-born microbiologist Nikolai Shevchuk takes his years of self-tested theories about food and delivers this knowledge in an easy to read format called, "How To Become Smarter". Although I found the title misleading when considering the direction of the content, Shevchuk's book is crammed full of all kinds of information you won't find in other food resource books.

"How To Become Smarter" is Shevchuk's comprehensive and in-depth study of foods, food additives, and elimination diets and their affect on mental clarity and mood. While well documented and interesting, he also responsibly notes several times in the book that these experiments are self tests and not clinically proven. His tests do have limitations, though as his results are subjective and based on opinion, there are no experimental or control groups utilizing various ages or ethnicities, nor could there be any blind or double blind set ups for validity. He does point this out several times throughout the text to avoid misleading his readers. Shevchuk tackles such subjects as natural versus unnatural foods (ie. additives, flavor enhancers, coloring, etc), raw versus cooked foods and the chemical changes which occur as heat is added, and the effects of these foods on mood, concentration and such disorders as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivitiy Disorder (ADD/ADHD), testing, reading, and writing abilities, and a wide range of emotions and social tendencies. He offers elimination diet ideas for all types of intellectual, emotional, and social goals while pointing out that these diets are a temporary fix and not permanent solutions. The book ends rather abruptly after his chapter on social intelligence; Shevchuk offers no wrap up or conclusion for the reader.

I did find Shevchuk's "How To Become Smarter" title to be quite misleading; I was definitely not expecting a `food book'. Something like, "Mood Food", "Feed Your Mind", or "Anything and Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Food" would better suit the text while appealing to a wider audience (such as those interested in alternative, natural, and holistic health and wellness). With over 400 pages of details, observations, comparisons, research, suggested foods to eat or eliminate which relate to specific goals, the title "How To Become Smarter" didn't seem to do the book justice.

Nikolai Shevchuk writes an intelligent, organized book on the mental and physical effects of food on the human body. Meant to serve as informational versus clinically proven fact, "How To Become Smarter" is a great resource!

This author brings a very interesting and unique view of the brain, and the correlation between what improves thinking and the foods we eat.
He has a Master's in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Oncology. I enjoyed how he has personally tried several types of diets in an effort to find those that assist mental acuity as well as those foods that suppress our moods and thinking ability. What would you eat to improve your SAT or GRE scores? Want ways to improve your fluid intelligence--raw foods!
What foods suppress, or antagonize your mood and behavior? Want to learn a language? What is the fastest way?
He outlines critical elements for your success. The book has great appendices which outline various types of diets. For example, the anti depressant diet, and the anger management diet. He explains how they alter your body's chemistry. There are interesting sections on ADHD, autism and ADD.

This book outlined what an IQ test consists of and how to improve scores. It explains crystallized social intelligence (measures vocabulary, general knowledge) vs. fluid socialized intelligence (the ability to understand and solve novel problems) which I found very interesting. The author explains "mental clarity", "social intelligence," and how they are measured. He explains ways to improve the brain and how to think better. I learned a lot and will use many of his ideas.
The book reviews control vs. placebo studies, standard deviation, significance and insignificance in a statistical study and how to interpret evidence from a study.
Breast fed vs. formula? Animal products significantly affect our thinking and our health. Eskimos for example eat raw foods without artificial ingredients. However, in industrial societies, today's animal products have changed and have pathogens which our immune systems can't handle.
Our brain can't adapt to processed foods, chemicals, refined sugars, and artificial ingredients. Food additives, sweeteners, thickeners vegetable gums, table salt, MSG, and nitrates impair learning and affect alertness. This book covers an enormous amount of facts and allows you to look at being smarter in a new light. Be prepared- you will want to take notes. I learned a lot and will go through it again to digest all of this information.


I received a complimentary review copy.

When I picked up How to become Smarter by Nikolai Shevchuk, I wondered if I was smart enough to read this book. I was pleasantly surprised. Either I am very smart, or Nikolai's book is easy to read. I tend to go for the latter in this case, I was never a high academic achiever at school. Earlier this year I had my son tested by an educational psychologist. He appears to be quite smart with many things, but when it comes to exam situations, something happens and he might end up writing the same sentences over and over again. The educational psychologist found that he was above average intelligence and there was no reason why he could not perform academically when under pressure. That is, he had no apparent learning difficulties. Nikolai Shevchuk's book seems to be the answer to my problems with my son and academic performance. He explains how he too was a classic under-achiever at school, until he started trying some of the strategies in the book. I read the twelve things How to become Smarter can do for you and I was hooked. It was almost as if this book was written especially for my son and me.
This book mostly discusses ways of improving functioning of the brain. Preservatives affect your intelligence in a negative way. Feed your kids natural foods, but avoid giving them raw food because raw food often comes with diseases. Although, raw foods are the best at increasing your mental abilities. Something interesting I read in this book, is that cooked grains can act as a mild sedative. I guess that explains why I feel tired after a bowl of hot porridge and lazy after a sandwich. Shevchuk gives diets to try to increase intelligence. He reckons, that we need to go back to our ancestral diets. He propagates mixing meat and milk which is against the Jewish religion. However, he does say that diets are not the only way we can improve our mental faculties.
Although he confesses to not being a chef, Shevchuk does give recipes that one can use to create a diet that increases your mental ability. After reading this book I know what I have to do. I have to drastically change my diet.
There is quite a bit of technical jargon and evidence of a lot of research in the book. I definitely felt smarter after I finished it, as I ate my dinner of boiled meat, vegetable and grains.

Although the material can be dense, each chapter includes a summary as well as key points at the end of each section helping the reader to easily digest the important points.

The topics discussed in the book are quite interesting and are ones that most people can relate to such as: tips on learning a foreign language and how to overcome the fear of solitude. If you are seeking a greater understanding of the factors influencing human intelligence and how to become smarter, you won't be disappointed!

Note that this is a detailed study that covers how to be smarter in particular areas; but not necessarily in all areas at once, and not necessarily without scarifaces you wouldn't want to make. For what it is, it is excellant, and shows a lot of research and work by the author. It has exhaustive detail, and for anyone at all interested in this, it's an excellant study and resource.

Initially, I had thought this book would fall into that particular category of How-to books, which are difficult to get through unless one is desperate to be/do whatever the title may promise. I was mistaken. In fact, I could say the primary critique I have to offer in this case is the choice of title; it is misleading, perhaps, to the point of deprecating this work.
With this said, I will now remark upon the meat of this volume:
It is commonly known that from it's conception, the human body must have the correct balance of nourishment to form properly. It is also known that a person's diet and dietary habits are essential to good physical health. On the other hand, it is not so rampantly understood just how crucial one's diet may be in regard to the synchronous influence it offers to their mind and body's overall health and performance. These days, if you search the bookshops you may discover a plethora of books that focus on the correlation of adult human diet and individual mental capacity. However, within How to Become Smarter, Mr. Shevchuk takes this line of study one step further. He not only draws a distinct relation of the human body's consumption and consuming habits with the direct effect such has on the brain and it's reactionary capabilities; he then categorically separates and defines the types of intelligence, as well as the brain's utilization of each. Although I am of the opinion that certain intelligence or mentally stimulated reactionary occurrences are integral to humankind, and not developed or effected by human diet, Mr. Shevchuk does indeed earn the scientific/theoretical license he utilizes on more than one occasion within this opus. As an objective historian, I have ascended to the Socratic opinion that such an exercise in controversialism is the best method of ferreting out the truth. Hence, I consider the author's suggestions on Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized Intelligence-Quotient/Academic, Emotional, and Social Intelligence to be quite intriguing and thought provoking. Furthermore, the author's representation of natural foods - their values, consumption, and ultimate effects on one's mind and mood are admirable. An important addition to the library of anyone pursuing a wholesome and complete lifelong eating regime; rather I should say, a science of daily hygiene--the general maintenance of the body, with specific emphasis on the choosing and consuming of mind and body rejuvenating foods, based on scientific/historical findings, to be utilized throughout one's life, in an effort to maximize one's mental, and in turn, physical capabilities. This work is an excellent effort, and a serious reference volume! Not to be purchased, read, and then shelved, it should actually be referenced until the concepts within may be adroitly applied to one's daily approach to eating/thinking/living. By the way, once you have properly consumed the substance of this work, you will probably be a bit smarter for your effort.

This book provides some great objective suggestions for making yourself not only smarter, but most certainly a faster learner and a more effective test taker. The author takes us through several topics in which we traditionally assess intelligence: the absorption of a new language, reading/writing test scores, the ability to concentrate and even social/emotional intelligence. The author backs up his suggestions with evidence and reliable data on how his methodology affects physiology and in turn, shapes brain power. The book also provides some valuable information on the Paleo method, which is coming into vogue as a way of not only honing physical endurance, but sharpening mental agility as well. For those who believe that obtaining mental clarity and intellectual fitness is only determinable by genetic factors, this book will change your mind. I already feel smarter.

its s good book took a while reading quite interesting the author also provides good resources would definetly recommend to anyone

Nikolai Shevchuk writes an intelligent, organized book on the mental and physical effects of food on the human body. Meant to serve as informational versus clinically proven fact, "How To Become Smarter" is a great resource!

Some people criticize that the author is switching his writing style throughout the chapters. This is true, but also great. He is a brilliant in analyzing and weighting experimental results - I actually never read a book about this topic where this has been done as good as here. And when he makes his own assumptions, he uses a more common language that helps you to differ between experimental studies and own assumptions which makes the author a very honest guy. I love his style and he is a brilliant scientist, and whether you believe him or not, you can not ignore the experimental results.
And especially for 0.99 cents I have never seen better literature.