The connection between inflammation and heart disease, arthritis, and other chronic ailments has become increasingly clear. Many food allergies and poor dietary choices over stimulate the immune system and cause inflammatory responses that erode the body’s wellness and pave the path for ill health. Based on her naturopathic practice, Jessica Black has devised a complete program for how to eat and cook to minimize and even prevent inflammation and its consequences. The first part of the book explains the benefits of the anti-inflammatory diet with an accessible discussion of the science behind it. The second half contains 108 recipes. The author offers many substitution suggestions and includes a healthy ingredient tip with each recipe. Most of the dishes can be prepared quickly and easily by even novice cooks. A week of sample menus for summer months and another for winter are included, as well as a substitutions chart, allowing readers to modify their favorite recipes to in...
Customer Reviews:
1 of 1 found this review helpful:
Learning to like tofu, 2007-04-05
I am female, age 55, and in my second round of physical therapy because of a frozen shoulder. When I realized that my shoulder has both bursitis and tendinitis, I thought about some things I could do so as not to work against my therapist's treatments. I found Dr. Black's book, and have been following the anti-inflammation diet for about 2.5 weeks.
Actually, after the first 2 weeks, I noticed something interesting. One Saturday, I was up early and giving the house and yard everything I had.... just on my feet all day. Well, this kind of frenetic activity typically aggravates my plantar fasciitis so that my feet are killing me after a few hours. Didn't happen this time! I barely noticed any pain. How great.
So, now, I am even more motivated to stick with the plan. I must say that having these great recipes in my mind does make the trips to the market so much more interesting and stimulating.
Give up beef? I barely miss it, and it was lacking in flavor, to boot. It seems that on this diet, I don't want a whole chicken breast, either (even though it is allowed).
I'm not perfect; I do drink one cup of green tea daily (caffeine load, a measly 25 mg.). I also eat Ezekiel bread, sparingly. That bread has a low glycemic index and should be OK in small amounts, right?
Oh, by the way, I could stand to lose 10 pounds. But that is not what motivates me right now. Armed with the excellent information and very tasty recipes contained within this book, I trust that I am working toward a new, more vital and healthy lifestyle. Thanks, Dr. Black.
3 of 3 found this review helpful:
Hard-to-get ingredients, 2007-04-01
Dr. Black does a good job of explaining how foods can cause inflammation in our bodies and how that triggers chronic diseases. Having read a lot on this particular subject, there wasn't much here I didn't already know. However, if you are just beginning your research of this topic, the first part of this book gives you a solid foundation and understanding of inflammation.
However, I specifically bought this book because I was looking for direction in the elimination of inflammation-causing foods. There are a lot of books out there about inflammation, but not many that give you specifics and a real-life how-to guide. Unfortunately, while more than half of this book is devoted to recipes, I will not be able to use many of them. Unless you live in a town with a health food store which also carries a large selection of organic produce and meat, this book will not be of much help. With recipes that have ingredients such as grape leaves, brown rice syrup, organic chicken, turkey, beef and lamb, spelt flour, organic coconut oil, and xanthan gum, I am at a complete loss. I live in a very small town which has two conventional supermarkets. The nearest health food store is at least 80 miles away, and I doubt it has half the things in these recipes. I am very disappointed in this book and I'm glad I didn't pay that much for it.
0 of 0 found this review helpful:
Beat inflammation, 2007-03-31
This book explains how eating affects and helps with managing inflammation-related pain and disease. Includes tasty and interesting recipes.
4 of 4 found this review helpful:
It has given me hope!!!, 2007-02-23
I think this book is wonderful!! My husband is permanently disabled due to multiple back problems and so obviously, he has a lot of inflammation. Originally, he didn't want to change his eating habits, specifically because we weren't convinced it would help him. But he tried this diet for about a week and did see some lessening of pain, although very minimal. It was so slight we couldn't really attribute it to anything. So we were still doubters.
But after that week, my husband binged on the foods this book says to stay away from. Within a few hours, his back went out. Seized up and he was stuck on the floor in horrible pain for days. Now both he and I are convinced that what we eat definitely affects inflammation. Since reading this book, we've also looked back into the past. We knew that my husband's back went out every year around Christmas, and this book helped us put 2 and 2 together--it's because our diets are terrible around Christmas! Every year we eat all those sweets and everything else Jessica says increases inflammation.
Since my husband has been faithful to this diet for a couple months his back has been healing from 'going out' faster than normal. He still has back problems and is in constant pain--and that will most likely never change. But hopefully with this diet, we'll be able to decrease some of his inflammation, and therefore, pain. We've already seen benefits and hopefully we'll continue to experience more! Thank you for writing this Jessica Black!!!
PS--We also really like a lot of these recipes. So far, we've enjoyed every one we've made! And that's really impressive, considering my husband loves sugar, fried foods and all the stuff that's definitely not healthy. Jessica is making healthy eating easy on him! Thanks!
3 of 4 found this review helpful:
A Brilliant Diet and Recipe Book, 2007-02-21
Let Jessica Black's book end your search for the perfect diet for healing chronic disease caused by inflammation. Most books advise us to eat more nuts, seeds, whole grains, Omega-3s, herbs and spices, etc., but they don't tell us how to do it. If I add these foods to my already high-calorie diet, I'll weigh more than ever. The recipes in this book show us how to make simple dishes using these items, how to substitute whole ingredients for processed ingredients, such as coating fish fillets with ground sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, or almonds instead of bread crumbs. How simple. How delicious. How nutritious.
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