Nutrition for Life [Hardcover]

Lisa Hark (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1405303069 | ISBN-13: 978-1405303064 | Publication Date: March 3, 2005

From vitamins to free radicals, this no-nonsense nutrition bible tells you how to eat your way to better health. Explodes the myths of 45 of the most popular diets separating the fact from the fad and dispenses with unnecessary jargon to provide you with what really matters: straightforward information on every aspect of nutrition. Includes all you need to know from food basics to using diet to prevent and treat diseases and through real-life case studies the guide reveals how to put good diet into practice. Covers nutrition for all age groups from infants to senior citizens.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this straightforward guide to a healthy diet, Hark and Dean, nutritionists and educators both, decode the conflicting messages about nutrition that people often get from the news and from various weight-loss programs. After imparting tips on subjects like smart snacking, exercising and drinking water, they explain nutritional concepts, breaking down the food pyramid and providing a directory of vitamins and minerals. Perhaps the most useful section describes how to "eat for the time of your life"; the authors include graphs of healthy weights, charts listing foods that are good for certain age groups and plenty of sound advice for athletes, pregnant women and people of all ages. They also demystify the main fad diets, look at how food is related to health problems and discuss buying and storing food; a handy guide to common foods' nutritional value appears at the end. Lists, questionnaires, "jargon busters" and even a few recipes are sprinkled throughout in colorful boxes, and sidebars containing case studies (i.e., a preschool child who will eat only white food) provide advice for common problems. Although most of the information conveyed here has been said before without making people change their ways, this book neatly combines it all into an authoritative reference tool that's particularly useful for families.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Lisa Hark PhD, RD, is a renowned medical nutritionist with over 20 years experience in nutrition counselling and promoting the benefits of healthy eating. She is Director of the Nutrition Education and Prevention Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Lisa resides in Philadelphia. Darwin Denn MD, MS, is a family doctor and award-winning nutrition educator. He is Director of Undergraduate Medical Student Education for the Department of Family and Social Medicine at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Darwin has practiced and taught Family Medicine in New York for over 30 years.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley H/B (March 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405303069
• ISBN-13: 978-1405303064
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,566,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY, A DEFINITIVE BOOK ON NUTRITION, January 23, 2005

By 

Aimee Sands "Aimee" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nutrition for Life (Hardcover)

It's about time a book was written clearing up all the confusion about what to actually eat. It's the only book that I've read, and I've read them all, that provides an honest and accurate assessment of 45 of the most popular diets. It taught me exactly what I need to eat to be healthier, happier, feel better and live longer, not to mention information on almost every medical condition, and how we eat impacts each specific medical condition. It's like a one volume encyclopedia, with everything you need from birth to reach a ripe, healthy old age. I bought a copy for my friend who has a young children, my grown daughter living on her own in NYC, and my 79 year old Mother. There's something for everyone in this book, and one of the best parts is how incredibly user friendly it is.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great guidelines for healthy living, January 16, 2005

By 

A.J. Hills "Bibliothecaire" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nutrition for Life (Hardcover)

This book is for people interested in improving their overall life style. This is not a diet book with predetermined meals and strict guidelines on dieting. This is an educational helpful guidebook for those who have done the strict and sometimes drastic diets and want a more balanced rational alternative. The authors include reviews of some of the popular diets.

Although, this book does not contain that many recipes, it does contain directions on healthy food preparation. Dr. Hark and Deen do give recipe examples and covers nutritional guidelines for each age group, including pregnant women and new mothers. It is nice to know there are nutritionists who believe that people are capable of thinking and acting for themselves rather than needing very restrictive instructions.

The only criticism I have is that the weight table does not take into account body types, which does change the weight table range.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book takes a very medical approach, July 30, 2005

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nutrition for Life (Hardcover)

For sure now, five times a day I will be eating fruits and vegetables. NUTRITION FOR LIFE admits that being overweight can be a big problem, and that high blood pressure (defined on page 214 as greater than 140/90mmHg) is one problem that is directly related to having a body mass that overwhelms the cardiovascular system often enough to make cardiovascular disease the number one killer in North America. I am old enough, heavy enough, male and interested enough in the future to notice that whole grains, nuts, seeds, and dry beans are supposed to be good for this condition. The word "Potassium" appears five times on page 220, which also has a chart showing serving sizes, like three and a half oz. (100g) cooked meat, for The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH). Sticking to this diet is supposed to be effective enough to reduce "diastolic blood pressure (the lower measurement of blood pressure, taken between heartbeats when the heart is relaxed) by up to 5mmHg," (p. 220). The DASH diet is effective for people with high blood pressure that ranged from 140/90 to 159/99mmHg. If I exercised more, my blood pressure might drop to that range someday, right?

The Food Analysis charts at the end of the book start with grain, and a cup of cooked bulgar has only 151 kcal but 8.2 grams of fiber, so making a bowl of Tabbouleh according to the recipe on the whole grain bulgar cracked wheat package (keeps best refrigerated or frozen) I bought today seemed like a nice experiment, using my imagination and baby spinach leaves because I did not have 3 cups finely minced Parsley. I'm sure people eat this stuff because I have gone to restaurants that had a bowl bigger than any of mine in the salad section. Even Parsley, freeze-dried, is on the food chart with 4 kcal, though a quarter cup does not have a gram of anything tabulated. The index on pages 328-335 helps locate foods in the chart. Trying to find why bananas would be my ideal food is not easy just using the Index, unless I look up blood-sugar levels, which is also a problem for me, and the glycemic index does not say anything about bananas. I want the next page, about soluble fiber, gut flora, and the feeling of fullness caused by fiber-rich foods. This tells me what page to look for to learn how a high-fiber diet helps prevent diabetes. The Diabetes Meal Planner on page 249 suggests half a medium banana at breakfast, yogurt for a snack in the morning, but "If you would like a small glass of 100 percent juice, skip the fruit." As a final try, the index has a few entries for potassium (K). Men and women need 3,500mg per day. Good sources include potatoes, spinach, and red meat, but bananas might give me enough potassium to help lower and control blood pressure. Bananas also have chromium (Cr), which "helps insulin bind to its receptors on the membrane of body cells, which then allows for the sugar glucose to move into the cell where it is used to produce energy for the cell's needs." (p. 65).

In the section of the book on vitamins, there is a picture of bananas with the caption:

"Bananas A particularly good source of vitamin B6, bananas also provide folate, potassium, and soluble fiber. They are best eaten ripe--when the skin is speckled brown." (p. 55).