My Impressions: Nutrition Facts

I bought this book because it was on discount on Amazon for $1.99.  

This is one of those books that the content matches the title closely.  Many books don’t do that anymore because they want attention-grabbing/selling headlines.

Nutrition Facts: The Truth About Food

So in a way, the book reads in a dull way.  Goes through the carbs, the fats, the proteins, the different time of minerals and vitamins…  No story book for sure.  

Midway, the author reviews a variety of “popular diets” and rates them on a health level and a weight-loss effectiveness level.  These diets include vegetarian, DASH, Mediterranean, ketogenic, weight watchers, paleo, Atkins…etc.  

Chapter 5 is a list of common ailments and what to eat to help with those situations including allergies, kidney stones, insomnia, headaches…

Basically like an encyclopedia.  You can look up any vitamin or mineral you want and find out what it’s good for, the daily recommended amount…etc.  

I guess the most important is the conclusion.  “Perhaps what is needed is a return to simpler nutrition, when it wasn’t necessary to read labels to know what was in your food; or, if you did, the ingredients were easily pronounced and understood.” The simpler way of nutrition is to eat real food, and eat colorful food.  

After coming full circle to the book, the main thought for me is still: common sense is not so common.  Either that, or, we are just ignorant to the damage we do to ourselves.  We all know smoking is bad, we do it anyway.  I don’t think anybody would argue smoking is good for our health.  The same goes with all the fizzy beverages, the daily 20 oz venti coffee loaded with fat and sugar, the processed foods that come on boxes and cans with never expiring artificial ingredients.  Does it take a genius in our world to know that fast food can’t be healthy no matter how much cabbage they add to your burger?  A vegetarian doesn’t mean you “eat clean” if you’re loading yourself with cheese pizzas and nacho chips.  Don’t hide behind a “healthy diet” while cheating yourself on execution…

Tea is cheaper and healthier than coffee/alcohol/soda…  Rarely in this world do we have something that’s cheaper and the same time better for you anymore?   Even better than that, water is free!

You are what you eat.  You are what you think.  You are what you do.