Friday, September 02, 2011

Read: What your doctor doesn't know about Nutritional Medicine may be killing you


Title: What your doctor doesn't know about Nutritional Medicine may be killing you
Author: Ray D. Strand, M.D.


One of my good friends, RL, thoughtfully gave me the above-mentioned book as a gift. The best way to reciprocate was to read it. Thankfully, I was in the mood to read a book on nutritional medicine in the hope to enhance health.

Interestingly, the author, Ray D. Strand, insisted that all readers ought to read the chapter on diabetes even if the reader has never been diagnosed with diabetes. The author put forth the idea that the high-carbohydrate and high-fat diet which is especially common in the modern American's diet has contributed to making the body to be less sensitive to one's own insulin. As a result, insulin resistance occurs over time, and more and more insulin is needed to keep blood sugars normal.  He argued that the elevated insulin level could lead to a Syndrome known as Syndrome X. To enhance one's health, the author recommended lifestyle changes in the form of modest exercise and appropriate diet.

This book also discusses on the concepts of oxidative stress. I learnt how essential it is to have a diet consisting of adequate antioxidants.

This is overall an informative book and I do find many of its arguments sound. For anyone who would like to better appreciate how he or she could better take charge of his or her own health through sound nutrition, this book is worth a good read.

While the author stressed that nutrition medicine could not be a substitute to the conventional medical treatment, it appears that nutrition medicine could help prevent early onset of certain medical condition as well as complement medical treatment.

3 comments:

pinkie said...

I somewhat think that humans lack the discipline to do what is right and give excuses for not taking care of our own health. Myself included, sadly.

goldilocks said...

Any insight from the book you have gained and would like to follow in your diet. :p

oceanskies79 said...

Pinkie: I guess awareness is a good start, now that we are aware. Yes, discipline to do it regularly is the constant challenge.

Goldilocks: I kept seeing in every chapter that one needs more to supplement one's diet with than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of several kinds of antioxidants. The more and varied, the better.

So here's a convenient list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antioxidants_in_food