by Darya Pino Rose
I can't go all gaga over this book--there were a couple of things that bugged me. For one, I wished she'd used more citations. I respect Darya Pino Rose and I trust her research. But when she snaps out a fact like, "eating too little causes the body to go into starvation mode," I want to know a couple of things: where's the research? And what's the current definition of "too little"? If this is an established scientific theory, then I would assume it applies to anorexics or persons in a famine. But what about a slightly overweight woman eating 1400 calories a day? 1200?
I'd liked to have seen a citation for this one: "An ideal breakfast has a low glycemic load and contains a good amount of protein." Oh, wait!!! There WAS one. Objection withdrawn. But what about his one, "Weather and soil quality are the biggest determinants of the nutritional value of agricultural products (including the animals that feed on the plants)." So genetics is a minor determinant? And predation, or the lack thereof?
As I said, I trust her research and it may have been her publisher's fault that the book was so short. I wonder why they didn't choose the style of using insets (those square boxes of extra material that they put in some books) to include some of the extra information that I wanted to read. For the "weather and soil" fact, they could have given her a page or half-page to describe some of the research backing this up.
My other annoyance, which I cannot not fault her for, involves my old expectations vs. actualities tangle. When I read "real science", I was thinking more "nutritional science and physiology" and less "psychology." After she pointed out that people can thrive on all sorts of different diets, she didn't talk much about nutritional science and even less about physiology. Instead it was all about brain and society. The Habits And Rewards chapter was very interesting in this regard. To live healthfully, our brain can be our worst enemy. She's all about making it our best friend.
The reason I was looking for nutritional science and physiology is that I still have conflicting thoughts about The Zone and some other diets which increase protein and possibly fat at the expense of carbohydrates. Now, I know The Zone does not consider itself a high protein diet but rather a balanced diet, yet somehow when we were doing it, I had to add a lot of protein in to get the ratio right. People do lose weight on those kind of diets. Some swear they keep it off without effort. But is it really health-promoting for the long run? I was hoping this book would give me some insight, but that's okay. I'll keep looking elsewhere.
All that aside, she's written a great book. If you're a regular reader of Summer Tomato on the web then you may not find much that's new, but it's put together nicely. (The part about her Dad was new and incredibly cool.) I'll be re-reading this time and again, and maybe someday, just maybe, her habits can be my habits.
Personal note, skip if you wish: I have a bad habit of calling my current eating regime a "diet" when speaking to people, just because it's a quick and convenient excuse for not taking the free cookies or for leaving half the food on my plate. Bad me! In my mind it's not a diet--it's the way I plan to eat for the rest of my life. We need a new word for this...she calls it "Healthstyle". How about, "non-it"? I can say, "I can't eat cookies, I'm on a nonit," i.e., no need it diet--my body has no need for cookies right now, so I'm not eating them. Someday I might; not today.
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