The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World--Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home (Hardcover)

by Daphne Miller (Author)
Key Phrases: spot recipes, palm fruit oil, indigenous diet, The Jung, Copper Canyon, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Family physician Miller had seen countless cases of chronic illness and weight gain, but it wasn't until she saw a patient recently returned from Brazil that a light bulb went off in her head: the patient had noticed marked improvement after just a few weeks in her father's native village. Intrigued, Miller did some research and found a number of "cold spots" around the world, areas where chronic diseases like diabetes, depression and heart disease are disproportionately low. She then embarked on a world tour to find out why. As she travels through Copper Canyon, Mexico to Cameroon, West Africa to Iceland-where locals manage to avoid depression in one of the darkest and coldest regions in the world-and beyond, Miller finds that, in each case, local diet plays a key role. Many of her overarching tips will sound familiar (eat fresh foods, eat more fish, avoid refined sugar, watch the salt, etc.), but a handful of suggestions, such as eating fermented foods and using mushrooms to fight cancer, should come as news. Miller's work is consistently informative and educational, if at times meandering; each "cold spot" is accompanied by a specific regimen, and Miller's practical advice and recipes are all geared for the novice. Anyone unafraid of modifying their diet will find this anthropological diet guide useful.
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Review
"In this bracingly hopeful and eminently practical book, Daphne Miller shows us how we can bring the wisdom of traditional diets to our own plates, in the interest of both our health and our pleasure. The Jungle Effect is a fascinating, useful and important book." -- Michael Pollan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food

"Miller’s work is consistently informative and educational...and Miller’s practical advice and recipes are all geared for the novice. Anyone unafraid of modifying their diet will find this anthropological diet guide useful." -- Publishers Weekly online

"Presents us with a unique travelogue of healthy eating." -- Gail Altschuler, MD, Medical Director, The Altschuler Clinic, A Center for Weight Loss & Wellness

"The Jungle Effect was such an enjoyable read that I almost forgot I was being fed a steady dose of valuable nutrition advice—advice that combines the wisdom of our ancestors with the latest nutrition research." -- Bradley J. Willcox, MD, co-author of the New York Times bestseller, The Okinawa Program and Clinician-Scientist, Pacific Health Research Institute, University of Hawaii

"[F]ascinating, well-researched." -- Miami Herald

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061535656
• ISBN-13: 978-0061535659
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good read; makes healthy eating fun, May 24, 2008

By	Eclectic Reader (California) - See all my reviews

It's a travelogue, a nutrition advice book (complete with case studies), and a cookbook, too. Writing in the first person, Daphne Miller brings these three books together into one fun read. She's adventurous and curious, which makes a book about preventing diabetes, cancer and depression into a delight. Who'd have thought!

Several ideas come together here: "Cold spots" are places in which chronic Western diseases are noticeably absent. Miller explores what and how people eat in the cold spots. Then she cites the research showing why a particular indigenous diet provides protection against a particular condition. She was led to the cold spots in her efforts to help individual patients who were struggling with health issues--and whose ethnic heritage is tied to the cold spot. That's another piece of the puzzle: in this fast-food world, it's not easy to maintain the ideal diet as usually presented: fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and varying advice on carbs. " But a Mexican "cold spot" diet might be easier for a Chicana patient to stick with. The foods might appeal to cultural memory, or even an individual's memories of grandmother's cooking. Sure enough, it turns out that way, as Miller returns from cold spots with traditional recipes to share with her patients. For example, a Scandinavian patient, who turns up her nose at ubiquitous California salads, turns out to love the Icelandic diet with plenty of berries, fish, and waxy potatoes. And eating the Icelandic way helps her out of a serious depression. Miller explains how it works.

The book invites us to eat our way around the world and learn the principles of each indigenous diet. We can sample from Camaroon, Crete, Okinawa and more. The recipes look good--I haven't tried them yet-- and are written to incorporate ingredients easily available in most US towns. Miller finds out about the recipes by peeking into kitchens and cooking with locals, who are colorfully portrayed. I found inspiration for healthy eating in this book, and learned a lot about the mechanisms behind the adage "we are what we eat."

I should tell you that Dr Miller is our family doctor. She's just as devoted to her patients as it seems in the book. And her constant scan of medical and nutrition research has helped our whole family. While I haven't made any of the recipes yet, I recognize changes we have already made based on her advice.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Jungle Effect, September 1, 2008

By	Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

`The Jungle Effect` is what Dr. Miller noticed when her San Francisco practice patients went on a "native diet". Unlike typical Western diets, which caused her patients health problems, when they switched to native diets - traditional foods from native cultures - their health improved, often dramatically. To learn more about native diets, Dr. Miller visited places such as Iceland, Nigeria, Crete, the Amazon, Okinawa to discover what they are doing right. Thousands of years of human trial and error, according to Dr. Miller, have selected for the best diets for human health and longevity.

Dr. Miller is not new in this approach. Dr. Weston A. Price in the 1930s observed the same heath giving benefits of traditional foods and today there is a large and active community of native nutritionists surrounding Price and his legacy (see Sally Fallon's classic Nourishing Traditions). However Miller's book does offer some new and interesting perspectives. She actually traveled to native regions and sampled the foods and diets, and this makes for fascinating reading in an up to date journalistic human-interest story style. She dispels the notion that genetics plays a significant role, suggesting that anyone of an ethnic background can adopt any native diet (eg. a European can benefit from an Okinawa diet). Finally, she suggests food is more than its parts, each dish is symbiotic, so it is important to eat the entire food way, not just its elements. For example olive oil is good, but best in combination with the entire Mediterranean diet. Oddly enough, she also recommends mixing and matching various native diets (she personally cooks from different regions each night).

Dr. Miller's book is an excellent primer for anyone not already familiar with native nutrition. Her research supports and adds to the work done by the Weston A. Price Foundation, with a slightly different approach. Her field-trips make for excellent reading and reveal specific regional food-ways. `The Jungle Effect` is a valuable contribution to the growing literature, and an easy and fun to read introduction to native nutrition.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What You Eat Can Help What You Are!, July 11, 2008

By	cinnamin "mama" (oakland, ca) - See all my reviews

The old cliche is true - Dr. Miller has been my personal doctor for years and proved it to me. Her approach helped my health and well-being tremendously and is so logical and common sense - it's a shame that more doctors don't use nutrition as the first line of defense and offense for good health.

I expected it to be an interesting resource with some good recipes - but it is a highly readable and inspiring book. Worth owning and living by!!