Customer Reviews

Nutrition and Your Mind (Coronet Books)

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I first read this book in the late 1960s, when pop psychology and messianic fever raged. For those of you in my generation, pop culture was ruled by the likes of New Age gurus and psychobabblers as R. D. Laing, Baba Ram Dass, and Alan Watts. I recall at that time, that the magazine "Rolling Stone" posted a review of Dr. Watson's work, in essence calling him a lunatic for believing that psychological disorders were primarily driven by bio-incompatible nutritional regimens. At least that review was open minded enough to end on the following note, "But what if Watson's right?" Well, needless to say, Dr. Watson was, and continues to be correct. Tragically, (and with the exception of Dr. Rudolf Wiley's book, BIOBALANCE: THE ACID/ALKALINE SOLUTION to THE FOOD-MOOD-HEALTH PUZZLE) ALL - yes, ALL of the diet/health books are just plain wrong. You can see it in their contradictory conclusions and their disproportionately large number of failed cases. Metabolic diversity is the reason why these books have failed. Both Watson and Wiley explain in easy to understand language how and why we humans are metabolically diverse. Of equal importance, they show you what you must eat in order to banish a broad spectrum of disorders ranging from PMS to weight management problems to depression to panic attacks, etc.; disorders which have far too often been swept under the rug by the medical industry as being "psychological in origin," or (to use the revised diagnosis) "stress induced." They are not. ALL - yes ALL of these disorders are caused by bio-incompatible nutrition. Wiley's insightful work (a spin-off of Watson's) goes to special lengths to vastly simplify how you can determine your metabolic type by your response to one and only one question, namely, are you caffeine tolerant? Wiley has discovered that caffeine tolerant individuals generally optimize or peak-out on vegetarian cuisine, while caffeine intolerant individuals generally require an abundance of purines (certain proteins) which are found in abundnace in certain seafoods and meats. Incidentally, forget more recent pretenders to the "metabolic diversity throne" such as Wolcott's book. These posers haven't got a clue as to how to meaningfully categorize metabolic types to produce an effective nutritional therapy. If you are interested in learning about this fascinating field from authors whose work is based upon both metabolic rate kinetics as well as double blind placebo controlled studies, I would urge you to read both Watson and Wiley, the 2 definitive sources in the food-mood-health connection. As for the rest of the authors in this arena . . . they produce marvelous fodder for the talk-show circuit replete with crying women, posers and talking heads intent on turning a dollar at your expense. It comes as no surprise that Watson and Wiley share (between them) doctorates in biochemistry, mathematics and physics. THE revolution in psychophysiology has been spearheaded by 2 outlanders. But then again, what have M.D.s, nutritionists and clinical psychologists added to our knowledge in this field? Nothing.