Eating Well for Optimum Health

March 6, 2000
Now considered one of holistic medicine's most authoritative voices, Weil (Spontaneous Healing; 8 Weeks to Optimum Health) provides a common-sense approach to healthy eating. While much of this information can be found in other volumes, Weil illuminates the often confusing and conflicting ideas circulating about good nutrition, addressing specific health issues and offering nutritional guidance to help heal and prevent major illnesses. Of particular value is his examination of recent fads, such as low-carbohydrate, vegan and "Asian" diets, with an eye toward debunking the myths about them while highlighting their valuable aspects. Readers will appreciate the brief stories of individuals who have made big changes in their eating habits and solved chronic health problems, as well as recipes for foods that Weil feels will satisfy nutritional needs and the taste buds. Although not the first to link the rise of cancer, heart disease and obesity with the now-prevalent consumption of fast food and processed foods that contain a lot of sugar and few, if any, micronutrients, Weil's articulate plea to reflect on the consequences is convincing. Despite Weil's emphasis on a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, unprocessed foods and much less meat and dairy products than most Americans are used to, readers will notice a profoundly realistic observation of what changes they can readily incorporate into their busy lives. And they will be heartened to learn that they can eat nutritious foods and still get much pleasure from them.

October 1, 1999
The good doctor relies on the philosophy behind his hugely best-selling Spontaneous Healing to help readers make sensible choices about what to eat. The 750,000-copy first printing says it all.

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2000
Two of the four parts of the program Weil so persuasively presented in the mega-selling "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health" (1997) dealt with oral intake of food and dietary supplements, respectively. This book expands upon those two constituents, proposing how and explaining why one should follow Weil's dietary advice long beyond the eight weeks it takes to get healthy. That advice is based on seven propositions: we must eat to live, eating is pleasurable, food can be simultaneously healthy and pleasurable, eating is often an important social activity, diet reflects personal and cultural identity, how one eats affects health, and changing diet can help manage disease and restore health. One huge and five much shorter chapters follow, and as Weil did in previous books, he appends to each chapter one or two personal testimonials to the value of its counsel. The big chapter explains human nutrition by considering the macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins) and the micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals) separately, and the former at much greater length and depth; this chapter alone makes the book more solidly informational than "Eight Weeks." The short chapters outline the "worst" and "best" diets "in the world," mull over weight-loss dieting, advise on grocery shopping and dining out, and encourage personal cooking. Clarity, pertinence, and reasonableness again characterize Weil's writing, and a hefty clutch of recipes concludes. ((Reviewed March 1, 2000))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)