Age-proof Your Body: Your Complete Guide to Lifelong Vitality

Rating:
Summary: Another Hokey Book by Elizabeth Somer
Review: I do not recommend this book.

Though an excellent writer, Ms. Somer is a registered dietician (RD) and the limited and conservative training these health workers receive is painfully evident in this book. For those of you who do not know, RD's are the establishment nutritionists who staff hospitals and oversee the creation of meals for larger institutions (schools, prisons, etc). In effect, it is RD's who have single-handedly created "hospital food." The overseeing body of RDs, usually a national dietetics organization, advocate and recommend the whole gamut of processed food items, from imitation eggs to artificial sweeteners. This is not difficult to understand in light of the fact that dietetics associations receive much of their operating capital from processed food companies.

In short, dieticians preach "politically correct" nutrition. For many decades, RDs have recommended that people eat margarine and avoid butter; to avoid saturated fats and consume corn oil; to trim fat off of meat; to eat more vegetarian meals; and so forth and so on.

This misinformation about nutrition permeates Ms. Somer's book. While she rightfully instructs her readers to consume as much whole, unprocessed food as possible, she recommends such highly processed and unnatural foods as non-fat dairy products, skim milk, Cheerios, granola bars, aspartame, bagels made with white flour (topped with non-fat cream cheese!), imitation eggs, packaged "pizza sauce," white flour pastas, nonfat soybean oil mayonnaise, frozen orange juice concentrate, canola oil, white sugar, tofu, soy milk, and on and on. It is truly despicable and a bit tragically humorous. I, for one, would like to know just how people can stay healthy on this array of gobbeldygook, even if fresh fruits and vegetables are included (which they are, but canned beans and frozen veggies pop up from time to time in recipes). If you want to know why Westerners are dying miserably, read the food suggestions in this book!

Somer also believes that meat is a bad food and that it should be kept to a minimum in any diet. She suggests to replace meats with whole grains, tofu, beans, and vegetables. One of the reasons for this is her ridiculous claim that meat and fat contribute to weight gain and that complex carbs do not. (Somer astoundingly does not list refined sugar as a definite factor in weight gain, but this is to be expected from an RD. She seems to have forgotten that excessive carbohydrates, whether simple or complex, are converted into fat by the body.

She also has forgotten, or more likely does not know, that all fats are not fattening. The olive and fish oils that Somer so highly recommends are primarily long chain fatty acids that definitely contribute to weight gain if used to excess. Short and medium chain fatty acids, even saturated ones like lauric acid from coconut, are used for energy by the body and are NOT stored in adipose tissue.

Somer's chapter on fat is woefully inaccurate. Her claim that low-fat diets stimulate the immune system, and that saturated fats hurt it are dead wrong. Research on coconut oil, a highly saturated fat, consistently shows it to be immune-stimulating .... Additionally, animal fats are typically rich in such immune-enhancing nutrients as vitamins A and D. Butter from pasture-fed cows is rich in selenium, a potent antioxidant.

Just what is the basis for her claim?

Without question, refined vegetable oils and trans-fatty acids are hurtful to the body and immune system, but Somer seems to treat all fats (except for olive and fish oils) the same. Dead wrong again.

Somer's book also repeats that dietary hogwash that saturated fats are unhealthy and that too much protein results in an increased cancer risk and bone loss. These claims are false. RDs typically receive little to no training in lipid biochemistry--they are hardly qualified to make such dubious pronouncements about fat. Somer also erroneously believes that dietary cholesterol contributes to serum cholesterol levels in the body and, further, that cholesterol clogs arteries and contributes to heart disease: All false. See Uffe Ravnskov's book THE CHOLESTEROL MYTHS for a thorough debunking.

While Somer recommends a "moderate dose" multivitamin/mineral supplement, you can tell that she knows little of vitamin/mineral therapy because she barely discusses it. Yet, nutritional deficiencies are a major problem for the elderly, mostly because of limited financial resources leading to poor food choices, but also because of poor digestion. While Somer acknowledges that the elderly tend to have weak digestion, she offers no solutions or strategies to resolve it. Digestive enzymes, available at any health food store, are a virtual must for the elderly. Unless the person has an ulcer, seniors need extra hydrochloric acid (HCL) for proper mineral, vitamin B12, and protein absorption.

Another thing to watch for is Somer's recommendations for soy products during menopause to ease "hot flashes" and menopausal discomfort. What she seems to be unaware of is the increasing evidence that the phytochemicals in soy (called isoflavones) are actually cancer promoters and depress the immune system. There is also little real evidence to support soy's benefit to women during menopause. She also makes no distinction among traditional fermented soy foods like miso and tempeh and hyper-processed non-fermented soy "foods" like soy "milk" and "cheese."

Lastly, in the beginning of the book, Somer amazingly asserts that life spans in times past were very short, between 30 and 40 years. We're wondering where is the proof for this claim? While it is true that city-dwellers had high rates of infectious disease (due to unsanitary living conditions) and did die earlier, the notion that peoples of earlier times lived short, disease-ridden lives is absolutely false. Numerous explorers reported great longevity among native peoples. Somer seems to state that people of earlier times lived shorter lives because of their diets--this is simply wrong. Other factors such as dangerous living conditions factored in more significantly.

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Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: This book is better, in my opinion, than many other health books on the market right now. This is because the author focuses not only on the practical side of what to eat and so on, but focuses also on the emotional and spiritual side of health. There is more to being healthy asnd youthful than simply eating enough veggies and working out. Excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Too bad it can never work
Review: Yes each little gem of advice in this engrossing wellspring of youth could very possibly help you slow down the aging process. Yet, wouldn't it be better to focus your energy embracing the changes occuring to you instead of running in fear, in terror away toward some mythological end to old age.Oh wait, its a crime to look older than thirty, and if you actually act old your loving family will whisk you off to a rest home. Earlier in our nations history the type of people who write and publish these kinds of books sold another kind of product, but I must admit bottling snake oil is quite a messy business. [e-mail]