Rating: 
Summary: Image Marketing for the Masses
Review: What's this all about? A diet rich with white sugar and fried foods for 'optimum health'? This book makes it success not because the diet propounded therein is healthy, but for the following two reasons:1. People are drawn to the smiling, Santa-Clause like face on the cover. This is great marketing. In Andrew Weil, people see the comforting images of an old granddaddy or the robust Santa. The problem is that a healthy, round smile has nothing to do with eating a healthy (in terms of good-for-you) diet. Fats Waller, the 350 pound, hamburger-grubbing, cigar-smoking pianist looked happy too. He died of overconsumption. He was a brilliant pianist, but did not give dietetic 'optimum health' advice.
2. Since when was a diet rich in sugar and fried foods healthy? What this book amounts to, besides the marketing success of the jolly plump man on the cover and the catchy (albiet misleading) title, is a diet for those whose willpower is really too weak to make any significant changes. Its an everyman's diet, but really not much of a diet at all. Most of these foods are the regular ole fare found on the shelves of Safeway or in your average restaurant.
I'm sure that eating all these foods, in such large portions, makes everybody happy; They certainly make Mr. Weil very happy, and rich. The final analysis, however, is that this should not be called a diet at all, for it has very few parameters. But people like this sort of thing- its easy, and yummy! One needs no personal discipline. Unfortunately, those who adhere to this garbage might also enjoy the sugary ice cream they serve at the hospital when they are laid up beside the author due to poor diets.
Ann Wigmore's "Hippocrates Diet" is the real thing. Most people can't handle the discipline, however, so they turn to books like this and the Neanderthal Diet (whose author eats a pound of fried bacon a day!). You who give this book five stars are all so lost, I feel sorry for you.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite Dr. Weil book --packed with good info
Review: This is hands-down my favorite book of Dr. Weil. I like it even better than "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health" and that's saying a lot. Dr. Weil doesn't believe in crazy dieting. Good for him. He does believe in healthy eating habits and can explain why certain fats are bad for you, and THEN he gives delicious recipes to substitute for things like french fries (oven-fried potatoes.) In fact, many of the recipes are very very good, especially the fish recipes.
He also debunks both the high-fat high protein diet and the very low fat (and difficult to maintain) diets as well.
In addition, the recommendations of food choices for various illnesses were helpful. When you finish reading this book, you are left with plenty of good suggestions to help you choose foods at home and when you eat out, and you don't have to give up good things to live on rice cakes and seaweed puffs. This book is fun to read, too. What more could you ask for?
Rating: 
Summary: Good eating habits for this day and age
Review: Dr. Weil gives a good, clear review of why certain foods are good or bad for us. He is realistic in his observation that eating is also a social event and why many dieters aren't able to stick with a diet. I'm inclined to concur with all the kudos other reviewers have given him. A lot of what he reports makes sense. I was going to wholeheartedly recommend this book to my young adult daughters. However, there are a couple of things that gave me pause: Dr. Weil's liking for hemp products (this is the not first time he has recommended them) and the appendix on fasting. Young adults and teenagers probably have the worst diets among us and need to have some guidance in their eating habits. (Are there any books out there especially for teenagers and young adults who live away from home?) Advocating hemp products is a little dicey for something so closely related to marijuana. Giving information about not eating at all is disastrous for a culture where many young women struggle with bulemia and anorexia. As an observation and curiosity it is OK but to put it in a book that has a mainstream audience was not a wise choice for the author or his publisher. It is a pity that these two things (the hemp and non-eating) detract from and perhaps even undermine the rest of the book's good sense and sound scientific data. In spite of these reservations, the book is well worth reading and his diet is an important step in improving America's health. But I would recommend taking Dr. Weil's more unconventional ideas with a grain of salt.
Rating:
Summary: Common sense eating
Review: I can tell you that this is a very well thought out , helpful and most important a very common sense explanation of how to eat healthy. I was seriously considering becoming a complete vegitarian, but after reading Dr. Weil, I believe that is not the way to go for me and probably for most people. He does get a little detailed on some molecular level, but even so the book is pretty clear. I highly suggest everyone read this book. In fact, I plan to buy a few copies to send to some friends who really need it bad.....
Rating:
Summary: Read This Book After Live Right for Your Type
Review: I have found Live Right for Your Type to be the best single book I have read about healthy eating, but I could appreciate that book as much as I did because of what I learned from reading Eating Well for Optimum Health. I recommend that you read both books, with this one being the second in order.
If you are tired of trying to make sense out of all of the conflicting claims about foods, diets, and various diseases, this book is your answer. The author bravely takes on any school of thought about food (including unhealthy ones), and provides a balanced perspective on what is wrong with that approach.
Health is not only about eating. It is also about exercise, sleep, relationships with others, genetics, and environment. But for the part of health that relates to food, this book is the overall be-all and end-all for now. I say that not because of any weakness the book has, but simply because scientific information about health is expanding so rapidly.
As Dr. Weil points out, the information he shares in this book is often news to medical students and physicians. Food and health are subjects that are poorly connected in our minds at this time.
The book begins with an excellent section on what food means to us. While most health books focus on the disease related issues, Dr. Weil points out that food not only runs our bodies as fuel, but also is a source of pleasure (did you ever think you would hear that from a physician?), a way to create social interaction, a part of health, and a way to address some diseases toward restoring health.
The second section is on the basics of what our bodies need. This is where scientific studies are neatly put together into a consistent description. I was especially impressed with the section on fats. It is very easy to omit getting the right fatty acids in your diet, and I was pleased to see this issue addressed well here.
The third section then looks at the worst diet you could possibly eat (the fast food diet) and explains why the food is so appealing, yet why those french fries could be the death of you (for more reasons than you probably now know about -- beware of reused cooked fats!).
The fourth section goes on to look at the best diet you can eat. Don't worry! It's nothing extreme. In fact, those who are a bit fanatic about their food regimens may be disappointed. I was pleased to find that my regular Saturday lunch of vegetable soup and a half a tuna sandwich are a good idea. There's also no harping on the need to maintain some extremely low weight.
Weight is the next subject, and he looks both at how you should think about what your weight should be and how to get to that weight and stay there. A lot of the material on the satisfaction duration of the food you eat will be new and of interest to you.
The next section was also very helpful to me. It talks about how to buy food and how to decide what to eat and order in restaurants. Since I travel a lot, I always need help with the latter. I got a number of good ideas.
The final section was on recipes that are healthy and quick to make. Many of them sounded very appealing to me, and I was pleased to see that there were more for desserts than for any other part of the meal!
The appendices are very helpful. One summarizes the optimum foods to eat; another looks at how foods can help you deal with various diseases; and another summarizes nutrition information.
Dr Weil can definitely help you have a good time with your food and enjoy a healthy life, too! That's the kind of balance that we all need in our thinking about eating.
Rating:
Summary: not for the "mainstreamers"
Review: This was a well researched book. Yet, be prepared for a healthy dose of Dr. Weil's own observations and beliefs. If you feel comfortable with his brand of medicine than this is the ideal book for enlightening you about your diet and lifestyle. You can't help trying to be healthier (at least for a little while!)after reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: eat it up
Review: This is a book well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Good Information for optimal Health
Review: Dr. Weil is well informed about the subject he deals with in this book. His belief that diet can prevent the epidemic of many diseases we see on the rampage seems to be astonishingly accurate. The increases rates of cancer can be attributed partially to the lack of many essential micronutrients the body's defense system requires. Certain types of oils and fats we are consuming could be the culprit for the western civilization heart attack epidemic. On of the things Dr. Weil made me acutely aware of is the danger of processed foods and their additives. They are amlost all deleterious to our health. Food manufactures use them for economical reasons while the health of their costumers suffer. Yes, modern medicine is a very powerful tool. My concern is that many of our expensive medical treatments would not be necessary if we would simply provides our bodies with what they need to tak care of themselves. You will hear much of what you have heard before, but now you will understand the siginifigance of it. You will also become acutely aware of many other dietary truths that will aid you on your path to better health. My only gripe is that Dr. Weil provides an obvious affinity for eastern trains of thought and much liberalism at the same time. Besides that I commend this book to everyone.
