The Self Healing Cookbook : A Macrobiotic Primer for Healing Body, Mind and Moods With Whole, Natural Foods [Paperback]

Kristina Turner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A friend sent me your book and I am bowled over! It's a gem....a macrobiotic book with heart. My husband was also highly impressed (please note that I don't usually get excited about cookbooks). -- Anne Scott, Author, Serving Fire

"The Self-Healing Cookbook is amazing! I worked for 6 years in a natural foods store in Florida, and saw many people who were told to make drastic changes in their eating habits, yet left their doctor's office with little information to help them ease into this new lifestyle. I did my best to help them--then I was blessed with this book!. . .

"A customer brought it in--saying she felt like a good friend was speaking to her and supporting her as she cooked. I loved it! We ordered it that same day, and sold out of it within a week. We recommended it left and right for our customers. They invariably returned to share it with a friend--with absolutely wonderful feedback. This book is such a breath of fresh air--especially helpful for anyone feeling overwhelmed by dietary changes. Kristina's love comes through on every page." -- Taryn Berris, The Netherlands, 1998

Kristina is part of a small group of rurally-based cooks (I would include Meredith McCarty and Edward Espe Brown in this company), who've been guided to bring all of us back to a deep appreciation of the art and joy of wholesome home cooking and the sharing of simple food as a unifying ritual in our lives....What I love most about this book is that Kristina dares to be human. She understands the needs of old and young, heavy or thin, sad or angry....In her clear, loving and down-to-earth way she entices us to bring our hidden fears around food out of the pantry....she wants the reader to not only learn to cook but to passionately enjoy cooking, free of guilt, pain and blame.... Nobody, and we mean nobody, who is going through a healing crisis or shifting to a more natural lifestyle should go another day without The Self-Healing Cookbook. -- The Monk, Books on Revue, Autumn, 1988

Wonderful!...One of the most practical and valuable books on macrobiotic healing." -- Michael Tierra, Author, The Way of Herbs

From the Publisher

Happy 15th Birthday to The Self-Healing Cookbook! Now available in the 9th Revised Edition, this playful, user-friendly guide to macrobiotics has become a well-loved classic (over 180,000 copies sold). A favorite repeat seller in natural food stores and alternative health care clinics, it has been used a textbook for college classes in Holistic Health, and as a handbook for nutritional counselors training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. Many thanks to amazon.com for continuing to host this book on the web.

Much more than recipes, The Self-Healing Cookbook gives fresh, heartwarming support to anyone aiming to prevent or recover from diet-related moods and health symptoms. A starter shopping list, food-mood charts, self-healer's workbook, and healing foods glossary are included. Along with a wealth of wisdom on how to eat locally, think globally, cook with the seasons, lose weight naturally and nourish growing kids.

Word-of-mouth has carried this book to Great Britain, Canada, Singapore, Israel, and Australia. Over 21,000 copies have sold in the Japanese edition. In April, 2002, it will be published in Brazil, in a Portuguese edition. We'd love to hear from international readers where else it has found a home in your kitchens. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Earthtones Press; 6th edition (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945668104
• ISBN-13: 978-0945668107
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Book (in any edition) for Healing Yourself with Food, March 13, 2005

By 

happycamper45 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Self-Healing Cookbook: Whole Foods To Balance Body, Mind and Moods (Paperback)

I have owned this book for more than 15 years and refer back to it often. Like the other reviewers, I can't say enough good things about this book. I especially like the way the information is organized.

The author does a superb job of explaining, in several different ways throughout the book, how different foods can affect your mood and overall well-being. Simple and effective charts really get the author's points across. Recipes, for the most part, are pretty tasty and, just as important, easy to digest and satisfying.

If you want to get well and stay well, the best place to start is with your diet. This is the perfect book because it cuts through the clutter and shows how to do it for real and lasting results.

When I saw the book listed here as the current "9th edition, revised," I bought one hoping there would be some new recipes.

What I found is the book is exactly the same as the original edition except for an updated two-page resource section and author bio in the very back of the book. Not my idea of a revised edition.

My advice: Buy a used copy in good condition. You'll not only be healthier but wealthier for it.

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learn about helping yourself and family through macrobiotics, January 26, 2005

By 

Glutton for books (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Self-Healing Cookbook: Whole Foods To Balance Body, Mind and Moods (Paperback)

The first macrobiotic cook book I read was by Kushi, and I find Kristina Turner's book far more approachable and accessible, than any thing by Kushi. She uses many recipes whose ingredients can be found any where, even out in the country far from thriving organic communites. I heard of her from Jessica Porter's "Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics."

She organizes information about food and its relationship to moods and physical ailments in neat, easy to remember and easy to read tables. Her introduction to sea weed, is very helpful, as some cook books assume every person understands the difference between wakame, nori, and kombu, among others - so many macro-ccokbooks start throwing ingredients at you that are unfamiliar and you have no idea how to identify them or even why to try them. I liek the fact too that she gives many varieties for miso soup. She also includes a chapter on deserts, so people don't feel deprived, and that there are goodies for the kids.

There are many exercises introduced in the cook book (in fact this is more of a work book than a typical cook book) that are deisigned to help you realize the connection between food and your body, and to help you learn how to choose what is best for you, based on learning how what feels right and why. These exercises can be done with children, if you are switching a family's diet or, as Turner recommends, the book can be done with a friend to make it more fun. Not partner is require though.

Learning macrobiotics should be as much as learning about you as learning about food. Macrobiotics is the art of balancing, and to a degree every one is an individual, and diets should not be a carbon copy of each other because individuals differ too. Turner recognizes this.

Drawbacks for the books were its unprofessional style. It looks like it was done on a typewriter. I also thought that the recipes introduced by Christina Pirello were more family-friendly (meaning easier to cook and less foreign looking) and offered a greater variety than Turner's selections.

63 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Title Says It All -- Use This Book For Healing Recipes, January 24, 2006

By 

Heather Fougnier "Success Coach" (Saba, Dutch Caribbean) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Self-Healing Cookbook: Whole Foods To Balance Body, Mind and Moods (Paperback)

I turned to macrobiotics after learning of wheat and sugar sensitivities. My list of foods was so restrictive that I wasn't sure what I would be able to eat -- or if anything would even taste good!

This book makes the challenging topic of macrobiotics seem easy (yin, yang, expansive, contractive, etc.). Kristina Turner knows that all we want to do is feel good -- and enjoy our food!

She offers tips on how to:
-Tell if our bodies need healing
-Stay in slim mode
-Shift our moods
-Create an easy shopping list
-Work with leftovers
-Prevent imbalance
-Understand all of the confusion around food & nutrition

One thing to keep in mind: Macrobiotics does not emphasize the use of spices. This can mean that foods could taste a little bland. Turner's recipes are for the most part, tasty. However, you may want to be creative with spices (if your diet allows you to do this) in order to get the flavor that you want.

After studying many healthy forms of eating (Ayurvedics, whole food, macrobiotics, conscious eating, ph diet, raw foods, etc.), I found Turner's book one of the best and easiest beginner books on good, sound nutrition. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the food-mood-health connection.