Customer Reviews

Probiotic and Prebiotic Recipes for Health: 100 Recipes that Battle Colitis, Candidiasis, Food Allergies, and Other Digestive Disorders

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

 

 

Probiotic and Prebiotic Recipes for Health is an excellent book to read if you are looking to improve your digestive system and health with practical tips, guidelines and recipes. They say your digestion is the engine that drives your bodies overall health, immune system, daily energy levels and protection against illness. Since I have food allergies and food intolerances, I found this book loaded with easy-to-read information that I am using to improve my own allergies. Now I'm not confused about all the differences and health benefits of yogurt, kefir, and the other varieties of fruits and vegetable for improving digestion. As a physical therapist, I will highly recommend this book to my patients who are suffering with digestive problems.

When I read this book, I just thought 'wow' - and not in a good way. This book is very unlike most books on this topic.

There are so many good health books out there which go against the conventional wisdom and offer valuable information that is not in the mainstream.

This is not one of those books. The information in this book is of the quality you would see in any lightweight news story on health on television or in the Sunday papers health sections.

Readers are warned about the immense 'dangers' of taking any type of probiotic supplements in pill form, despite their long safety record as one of the safest supplements there is. Readers are also warned that they may cause gas and bloating but the author seems to be unaware that these symptoms are to be expected when taking probiotics and are actually a sign you want to see, as it is a sign they are working!

Yet the book also recommends the hugely dangerous statin drugs and many, many other drugs and doesn't so much as mention the huge problems associated with them which occur in a very high percentage of users. For information on the huge risk of statin drugs and why the saturated fat/cholesterol = heart disease hypothesis is dead, see books such as Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage) andThe Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It and Cholesterol: The Real Truth.

The book warns against saturated fat and recommends a low fat diet, and even such heavily processed and problematic items such as egg substitutes and no-fat milk. (No fat milk contains dry milk power which contains oxidised cholesterol, and also possibly whey protein. This makes this type of milk a very poor choice for health and especially so for anyone that has allergies.)

According to this book, sugar-filled fruit yogurts (which feed the bad bugs) full of chemicals are a good healthy choice while probiotic supplements which have been used with success by a vast number of practitioners, are not. The book also cautions about listening to anyone who says that HFCS is bad for you and says there is no need to avoid products which contain it.

The treatments for Candida the book recommends are anti-fungal creams and suppositories. This book lacks the most basic understanding of treating the cause of disease and not just suppressing the symptoms with drugs. We can get this same low quality and biased information from the media each day, why write a book on it?

It is claimed that non-prescription niacin can cause liver failure, but there is no evidence for this claim whatsoever. (See books by Abram Hoffer for the facts about niacin.) Readers are warned that only prescription niacin is safe.

The book is ultra-conservative with anything that isn't drug based, and super permissive with the acceptance of all drugs. Sources quoted in this book are the USDA, the Mayo Clinic and the CDC which says a lot, I think.

The basic diet advice is also poor. High carb foods feed the bad bugs and to advise those with bowel problems to avoid fats and meats just makes no sense, as genuine books on restoring gut health such as Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Internal Bliss-GAPS Cookbook (2 Books) and Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet explain.

If you think fruit flavoured low fat yogurts with lots of sugar in, egg substitutes, graham crackers, margarine, pasta and oat bran muffins and the like are health foods, and that the RDAs for each of the vitamins are more than adequate, and you can survive on a low fat and low protein diet that is very high in carbs, then this might be the book for you.

If not I would recommend any of the books listed above or the book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. These are real health books that are full of recipes containing real food ingredients that are genuinely good for you. Making your own 24 hour yogurt will do so much more for you than buying store-bought sugary yogurts with minuscule amounts of good bugs in. You can feel the difference after just a few days. The two products are like chalk and cheese!

The one star rating is for the recipes this book contained to make your own kefir and kimichi, and also for the recommendation to eat foods such as these as this is also good advice.

This is very insightful about how what we eat effects our digestive system and hence our energy level and overall well being. I have tried a few of the recipes - really easy and good. I definitely feel better since adhering to Tracy's advice. This book is a definite keeper.

This is a really nice book with many pictures and recipes. The recipes are easy and look delicious. There are early chapters with a lot of excellent info on the role of probiotics for health. It's really a lovely book that was put together to be easthetically pleasing as well as informationally useful. If you need probiotics in your diet, this is a good book to have. The recipes won't necessarily work miracles for your health by themselves but they will inform you on how to enhance your diet with foods that have pre/probiotic qualities. The only criticism I'd have of it would be that the recipes aren't as potent for probiotics as could be designed by let's say a real master, perhaps an experienced herbalist who cooks for healing. That would make it a much better book. So don't get your healing hopes up too high when you get this book. I have a book on chinese medicine that has a few recipes for healing in it that really work-- that's what I mean. Other than that, this is a fine book.

After reading "Probiotic Revolution" this book was simplistic, but easy to understand without being overwhelming. Not a "keeper" for me, I'll donate it to the library.
I was hoping for more sophisticated recipes. They were pretty redundant and unimaginative.
But I would recommend the book to someone new to probiotics. Charts and things make it easy to understand.

Maybe I'll keep it!

Not the book to choose if you suffer with candida. You have to be strict to starve the yeast and this book includes foods you should avoid.

I ordered this book because the author lives not too far away and if I liked what she had to say I'd make an appointment to see her. I never made the appointment.

I'd recommend Probiotics Revolution and Bacteria for Breakfast (which needs an index).