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Summary: Unique and Excellent Nutrition Information
Review: I think what I enjoyed most about this book is in fact it combined Nutrition 101 and Cooking 101. You are what you eat has never been explained so well. For anybody that cares about the health of your loved ones, this book is revealing as it is helpful - and here I thought I knew it all!
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Summary: Love it or hate it, this book will make you THINK
Review: This book, along with Life Without Bread, has seriously changed my life for the better--I have more energy, clearer skin, lower weight, healthier tissue and fewer mood swings ever since I adjusted my diet and methods of food preparation, using many ideas from this book. I am not surprised that this book receives both rave and harsh reviews. Falon herself is a Diet Dictocrat, and what she advocates is radical because it goes against what most of us have been taught about nutrition and about being healthy. However, even if one doesn't adopt her dietary advice (even though I want to, I simply cannot follow it to the letter), just reading the margin notes is highly entertaining and informative. She has an amazing bibliography and some pretty fun facts for anyone interested in food. For example, I love the list of additives commonly found in both commercial ice cream and rubber cement, plastics, etc. I love her diatribe against the processed food industry. I have adopted many of the guidelines and tried most of the recipes. Her technique with soaking and roasting nuts is wonderful, as are some of her gourmet desserts (none of which contain processed white sugar). Her fish recipes are great. I recommend this book--but use it as a book, not as a Bible.
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Summary: Mmmmm....yogurt dough......
Review: Yes, this book is a fantastic resource. Yes, the advice is controversial, mainly because it is old-fashioned. Yes, the recipes are strange and labor intensive. And yes, you have to plan ahead.But boy that yogurt dough is good! I just received my copy and have not had the opportunity to overhaul my whole kitchen Sally Fallon-style. Nor have I found a good source for fresh, organic dairy. But being so eager to try out a recipe or two, I purchased a tub of commercial yogurt (active culture) and tried out the basic "yoghurt" dough.. It made magnificent, mouthwatering, delicious pizza crust. It was so good that no one in my family noticed it was made out of whole wheat. They can usually detect that health-food stuff a mile away, but not this time! The soaking process improved (removed!) the harsh wheat flavor and improved the texture; it literally melts in the mouth. This recipe alone is worth the price of the book. Kudos to Sally Fallon and Dr. Enig!
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Summary: Oh Please
Review: Dairy is not good for humans. Period. It is meant for calves and not people. The authors have done the reader a great disservice by preaching this false information. Shame on them.
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Summary: Alot of information for the money
Review: This is one of the most interesting books I've read. There is so much important information jammed into the book. I've recently tried to start eating healthier and thought I was doing pretty good, but this book made me realize I have a long way to go! I thought I was doing well buying Sucanat but now have changed to Rapadura. Also I have started buying real raw honey, not the clear stuff called that in the store. Eliminating almost all white sugar and flour products aa well as processed food has made a huge diference in my life. I have never slept better or felt better. I have so much more energy and even my allergies are better no longer requiring medication.
I am a pediatrician and see the epidemic of obesity in children secondary to the processed foods. I also see the epidemic of ADD as well as psychiatric problems which I am sure could be reduced dramatically if people would be willing to change their diet. I hope I can have some some influence with this. I I have already recommended this book several times.
I have also started using coconut oil and suggest you read about this.
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Summary: Conflicts with more than just p.c. nutritional advice
Review: About the best parts of this book have to do with the travesty of the pasteurization of milk and the benefits from eating animal products. You can learn about those issues elsewhere. The chapter on lacto-fermentation suggests using whey for just about all fermented products; I have serious doubts about the wisdom and usefulness of those recipes, even the safety of some. Much more informative and reassuring books (in terms of the testing and safety of the recipes) are available regarding naturally fermented (brined and pickled) foods. Also, the advice in the grain section about soaking in whey isn't convincing and is inconvenient to follow. Much more comprehensive as well as clearer and easier to follow advice from is "The Splendid Grain," by R. Wood. Fallon aggressively pushes a certain distributor in her book--whose catalog just happens to recommend her book--which sells products you might think you need if you read no further than NT. Caveat Emptor.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good, some bad...
Review: A year ago I posted a glowing review of this book. After following many of the suggestions in this work for more than a year, I have a more mature view of the contents of this work. While I still believe that this book changed our lives for the better, it is still only a STEP in the right direction and not the be all and end all of sound nutrition as Ms. Fallon would have us believe. We are still vegetarian and always will be (Ms. Fallon's assertion that vegetarians are atttempting to take heavan by storm is indicative of her many biases). However, using information from this book, we learned the importance of saturated fats, animal source proteins, lower carb food choices, the benefit of fermented foods, and the "conspiracy" of soy. All of these things have profoundly affected the way we live and feel. There are several health complaints we had that have disappeared completely simply through the above mentioned changes. Things like mucous (throat and nose), bloating, lethargy, skin irritation, joint pain etc. What I most appreciate from this book is that it made me aware of things I'd never really heard of before. And considering that I come from a very health conscious background, I was rather suprised at what I was missing. I would still recommend this book as an introduction to many subjects that mainstream (and alternative) health experts are often silent on. However, I would definately advise everyone to continue further research of the subjects presented. On a side note: the recipes in this book are, by and large, a nightmare. I don't know about you, but I personally don't have time to make whey, soak grains 2 days ahead, make stock (by boiling down a whole chicken for hours), and lacto ferment a bunch of veggies for ONE RECIPE!! This book is a GOOD introduction, but a poor practical day to day guide on nutrition. ... Hope this helps.
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Summary: A Weird Assortment of Contradictory Advice
Review: Look, I know that many Americans have adopted some awful eating habits. We drink too much soda, eat too much sugar, etc. Advice that straightens us out a little is valuable. This book claims to free us from the "diet dictocrats" and "challenges politically correct nutrition". The authors, in turn, seem to be pretty strident themselves. Incidentally, I find it funny that authors from metro Washington, DC seem to know so much about agriculture and farming. OK, so what's contradictory? We're supposed to eat organic this-and-that, use sea salt, stay away from deadly rice cakes... but we should drink raw milk, because Pasteurization is bad. Just find a good farmer to get it from so you don't get brucellosis. There are reasons why most (if not all) agriculture agencies in the US and Canada warn against drinking raw milk: e. coli, salmonella, campylobacter, and other nasty bugs that can make you very sick. Even the EU, which is looking positively at raw milk in cheese, has a problem with drinking the stuff. Then there's water. It's bad too. Don't bother trying to find out if the water supply in YOUR community has a problem, water is just not good. So what should you drink if you're thirsty after a hot day working on the Collective? Why a tall glass of a lacto-fermented beverage. Yum! The authors want to return to a Neverland of old America, where men worked in the fields and came home to eat organ meats like brains, livers, and kidneys with gusto; there was no refrigeration and people ate pickled and fermented produce; and people cooked with goose fat instead of corn oil (another toxin). The recipes will break your pocketbook if they don't kill you first.
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Summary: Second thoughts on this book
Review: I reviewed this book earlier and gave it 5 stars. I still believe it is a good book however, I have to say that in practice, much of the food (dairy and grains) doesn't work for me. About dairy - if you are gonna use dairy, you must use raw dairy. Turns out for me that raw dairy is just as bad as pasteurized homogenized dairy. I may have an individual allergic/intolerance. But my point is, don't think you can compromise with pasteurized dairy if you can't get raw dairy. Pasteurized dairy is very bad for you, for so many reasons. Probably worse than any processed soy product. I think the emphasis in this book on raw dairy is wrong mainly because most people cannot get it or have easy access to it and may assume a little of the pasteurized stuff is ok - also, raw dairy was actually not consumed by many peoples and if you go a little further back, it wasn't consumed by anyone. Obviously the authors have no problem digesting dairy. Most people in the world cannot digest it and have no history even of trying to digest it - apparently even in raw form. This book also bases a lot of its traditional methods of food preparation on very recent techniques. 1000 years ago is nothing in human time and there does seem to be evidence that for most of humanities time, we ate nothing like this. We are mainly meat, fruit and non starchy veg eaters, with very small amounts of denser carbohydrate foods thown in. There is much evidence that we did not consume grains for most of our history. Nor did we use yeast in our foods. Or dairy. In a sense, these three foods could be labled newfangled as the amount of time we have been eating them is a drop in time. Another problem is the books very strong emphasis on debunking the whole saturated fats issue. The problem many have with saturated fats is not saturated fat in and of itself, it is the type of saturated fat. Mainly the kind of fat that develops when you feed an animal (or human) large amounts of grain. This is not a healthy fat and is not the kind of fat that was eaten 20,000 years ago. Also, some of the long lived peoples that are referenced apparently have been studied and have been shown to have deficiency diseases and to have partaken in selective breeding where sickly offspring are allowed to die which makes for a very hardy population.... Still, the book has very good information. Processed foods are very bad for you - especially processed grain based foods and sugar. Price saw the effects of this type of food first hand. If you want a healthy diet stick with fish, free range grass fed meat with the fat, coconut oil, olive oil, fruits and mainly non starchy vegetables and avoid any form of bread and pasta. Be careful with raw dairy, yeast foods and any form of grain, especially gluten grains (wheat, rye, barley and probably oats). They have a relatively very short history of use and they give many people huge problems regardless of how they are prepared. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Second thoughts on this book
Review: I reviewed this book earlier and gave it 5 stars. I still believe the book has some good information, but I have to say that in practice, much of the food (dairy and grains) doesn't work for me. I think this book way overemphasies the importance of dairy. I'm allergic to all forms myself but even in its raw form, very few peoples have traditionally consumed raw milk. And further back, no one consumed it. Most people on the planet to this day cannot digest raw milk. There is still too much lactose whether you leave it raw, culture it or wish it had none. Pasteurized milk is really bad for you but raw milk still has some of the problems as it still has the lactose and the proteins. It aslo needs to be handled very carefully. Cultured pasteurized products like yogurt still have many of the problems of pasteurized milk. I found the suggestion to include whey, a major milk protein, as a starter in many of the recipes unless you are very allergic too it not to make much sense as you should completely avoid foods you are allergic too as they act as a poison in your body. I did try some of the recipes without whey and they didn't work very well. This book also bases a lot of its traditional methods of food preparation on very recent techniques. 1000 years ago is nothing in human time and there does seem to be evidence that for most of humanities time, we ate nothing like this. We are mainly meat, fruit and non starchy veg eaters, with very small amounts of denser carbohydrate foods thown in. There is a lot of evidence that yeasts may not be so good for many of us. There is speculation that it may contribute to autism amoung other conditions. There is much evidence that we did not consume grains for most of our history. Nor did we use yeast in our foods. Or dairy. In a sense, these three foods could be labled newfangled as the amount of time we have been eating them is a drop in time. Another problem is the books very strong emphasis on "debunking" the whole saturated fats issue. The problem many have with saturated fats is not saturated fat in and of itself, it is the type of saturated fat. Mainly the kind of fat that develops when you feed an animal (or human) large amounts of grain. This is not a healthy fat and is not the kind of fat that was eaten 20,000 years ago. Also, some of the long lived peoples that are referenced apparently have been studied and have been shown to have deficiency diseases and to have partaken in selective upbringing where sickly offspring are allowed to die which of course makes for a very hardy population.... Still, the book has some good information about fats. If you want a healthy diet stick with fish, free range grass fed meat with the fat, coconut oil, olive oil, fruits and mainly non starchy vegetables and avoid any form of bread and pasta. Be careful with raw dairy, yeast foods and any form of grain, especially gluten grains (wheat, rye, barley and probably oats). They have a relatively very short history of use and they give many people huge problems regardless of how they are prepared. Good luck!
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