The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach (The New Harbinger Whole-Body Healing Series) [Paperback]

Annemarie Colbin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009 | Series: The New Harbinger Whole-Body Healing Series

It's essential to maintain strong bones to keep an active lifestyle, but aside from taking a daily calcium supplement, is there really anything you can do to improve your bone health? With this complete program for stronger bones created by health educator Annemarie Colbin, you'll learn the best foods to eat to build bone mass and find out which foods actually weaken bones. In The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones, you'll also discover how exercise and finding personal balance can improve your health and prevent fragility fractures, menopause-related bone loss, and osteoporosis.

Learn:

• What puts you at risk for bone fracture
• Why medication and estrogen therapy may not work for you
• How the nutrients in whole foods build bone mass
• 85 easy recipes that maximize the bone-building effects of whole foods

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The bones of the body renew themselves every seven years. With the wholesome wisdom of this book, you can help your bones provide a firm scaffold for your body."
—Mehmet C. Oz, MD, coauthor of YOU: The Owner’s Manual and YOU: Staying Young

"Annemarie Colbin is a long-time mentor of mine. The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones combines her wisdom with much common sense."
—Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

"The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones gives readers the recipe for maintaining bone health without medication. It is a must-read for anyone interested in preserving or restoring the health of their bones."
—Joel M. Evans, MD, assistant clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, founder and director of the Center for Women’s Health in Stamford, CT, and author of The Whole Pregnancy Handbook

"The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones provides the knowledge and inspiration for maintaining a lifelong healthy skeleton. This brilliantly written book is a must-read, ­especially for those who may be at risk for osteoporosis."
—Carol Ellis, MD, medical director of Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation in Branchburg, NJ

"This book by Annemarie Colbin, one of America’s most respected food therapists, gives us a definitive guide to maximizing bone health as nature intended—with a balanced diet and lifestyle. Her evidence-based approach (replete with discussions of ­hundreds of published clinical studies) makes this book an important reference for both consumers and healthcare professionals. Plus, the recipes are fabulous."
—Woodson Merrell, MD, chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, author of The Source

"Annemarie Colbin is a brilliant nutritionist who has once again shown that optimal well-being can be found through living a naturally healthy lifestyle. At a time when our healthcare specialists rely too much on medications, she presents a program that relies on whole foods, exercise, and spiritual understanding. I’m happy to prescribe this book first for anyone wishing to keep their bones strong and live long."
—Stephan Rechtschaffen, MD, cofounder and chairman of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, NY, author of Time Shifting, and coauthor of The Omega Vitality and Wellness Book

"Movement and exercise are necessary to healthy living. But exercise is difficult if you do not have a healthy, strong bone structure to support muscle function. I look forward to giving my patients Annemarie Colbin’s newest book, The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones, as it presents the most comprehensive yet understandable approach to bone health that I have encountered."
—Nancy L. Shaw, MA, MTPT, director of the Myofascial Pain Treatment Center in Washington, DC, founder of the National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists and the Shaw Myotherapy Institute

"Another>Food and Healing over twenty years ago. Her sage advice in The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones is essential for everyone concerned about bone loss and what to do about it."
—Frank Lipman, MD, author, Spent: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again

From the Publisher

In Whole Foods for Strong Bones, maverick nutritional theorist and best-selling author Annemarie Colbin gives readers a complete lifestyle program, including some 100 delicious and satisfying recipes, that can strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications; 1 edition (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572245808
• ISBN-13: 978-1572245808
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.6 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Osteoporosis
  • #41 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Diet > Whole Foods

More About the Author

Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., has been called "a maverick nutritional theorist" (1986) because of her original, unconventional and practical points of view about using fresh, whole, natural, real foods as the basis for a healthy diet. Interestingly, the whole mainstream has shifted in her direction, so she is no longer such an outsider. The school she founded on her principles in 1977, known as The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, has been a major resource for people interested in a career in healthful cooking for more than 30 years. Website: www.naturalgourmetinstitute.com.


Her 20+-year bestseller Food and Healing, is used as a textbook in natural healing schools. She expressed her points of view in her other books, and in her numerous articles, columns, interviews and classes. Her latest book is "The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones - a wholistic approach."

Dr Colbin is a health educator and an award-winning writer, consultant and lecturer; she has won awards for her writing, her business activities, and her teaching. She has taught at Empire State and Touro Colleges, at the Open Center, and yearly at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, as well as regularly at the NGI. Dr Colbin offers private wellness consultations, and is generally recognized as an expert in the uses of food for health. Website: www.foodandhealing.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide to a Bone Healthy Diet August 18, 2009

By Cynthia Sue Larson TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

The Whole Food Guide to Strong Bones provides an outstanding summary of basic principles medical experts now agree on that can tremendously reduce risk of bone fractures and injury. Armed with current information and common sense, it really is possible to greatly improve one's bone health with balanced diet and exercise, and this marvelous book shows how this can be done.

My interest in the subject of bone health has increased as I enter my midlife years, and hear of so many women who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis and low bone density. I have felt I was aware of some basics for good nutrition that improve bone strength and resiliency, but The Whole Food Guide to Strong Bones points out to me how many ideas I have accepted for years are actually based on out-of-date or inaccurate data... such as getting lots of dairy products and/or calcium is one of the best things you can do for your bones.

I was surprised to learn that 75% of people seeking osteoporosis advice are Vitamin D deficient, perhaps due to people spending so much time indoors and using sunblock every time they go outside. Daily lettuce added to one's diet can lead to 45% reduced risk of hip fractures, and some people who eat low calcium diets suffer fewer fractures than their high-calcium diet counterparts, such as people living in the USA and Scandanavia. I am really happy to learn of the advantages of exercise in helping bring the calcium we eat into our bones, as well as the way that we can increase magnesium while reducing calcium intake and actually increase our bone density.

While the fully detailed analysis of how we can best ensure good bone health may seem complex, author Annemarie Colbin cuts through the piles of research and cutting-edge medical theories to make it easy to understand what we most need to know about diet and weight-bearing exercise. I love the examples given of how people have successfully turned their bone health around, and the one third of the book dedicated to bone-healthy, tasty recipes.

I highly recommend The Whole Food Guide to Strong Bones to anyone wishing to enjoy many years of good bone health.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, you need this book March 27, 2010

By B. Manter

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Colbin has been writing about food and health for over thirty years with logic and intelligence. She documents credible resources throughout this book and challenges the prevailing stronghold of the pharmaceutical and commercial food industries over our "well being". She also addresses the roles of exercise and the tenor of emotional energy we embrace upon our whole-being and the health of our living, dynamic skeletal system.
I was trained as a clinical nutritionist and she brings up important factors that were previously never academically addressed, such as crucial pH levels and the utilization of bone calcium to compensate for the out of balance diet, which is standard American fare. This book complements the increasingly popular voice of Michael Pollan, championing the importance of a back-to-basics approach to food: Eat your greens, and lots of them. This simple advice may be the key to surviving, by avoiding, our complex and expensive medical system.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, family, and community library Holistic Medicine reference collections July 11, 2009

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

Enhanced with the inclusion of 85 recipes, Annemarie Colbin's "The Whole-Food Guide To Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach" is an invaluable and informative guide to the role good nutrition plays in strengthen the human skeletal system and can be the key to naturally rebuilding bone mass. Among the vitally important issues comprehensively addressed are which foods can actually weaken bones, diminish bone mass, and why such approaches as estrogen therapy, calcium supplements, and even prescription medications may not be efficacious. Of special note is the information concerning what can place us at risk for bone fracture -- which is a hazard that can be increasingly dangerous as we grow older. Thoroughly 'reader friendly', "The Whole-Food Guide To Strong Bones" is a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal, family, and community library Holistic Medicine reference collections and supplemental reading lists.