 "Essential Reading!!" | 2009-08-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A188Q8EI0CAERE |
| This book is essential reading for every physician. I have been studying Natural Hygiene for years now and was pleasantly surprised when I came across a book on fasting by a medical doctor. I was ecstatic by the time I had finished it. Dr Fuhrman has written a very important book here that should be required reading at every medical school. Instead of treating patients, doctors should be educating and empowering them. Dr Fuhrman's approach is a breath of fresh air and the only way to solve the health care crisis. This book is in my view one of the best books I have ever read on the subject of health - buy this book - it will probably save your life! |
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 "Not diet program, just shilling for vegetarianism" | 2009-07-12 |
| - Reviewed By mikkcatchall |
Prompted by FitnessBlackBook into investigating fasting as an adjunct to exercise, I purchased three books by MDs on fasting: Fasting and Eating for Health, The QOD Diet, and The Alternate-Day Diet. These three books have quite different focuses. The first is about extended fasts, the second about intermittent fasting for weight loss, and the third about intermittent fasting as a lifestyle for life extension.
What I didn't realize when I ordered it is that Fasting and Eating for Health is not a diet book. It is about long-term (up to 1.5 months!) doctor-supervised fasting as a medical treatment for disease. There's no program you can do on your own. Moreover, most of the book is not even about fasting so much as a promotion of vegetarianism. The Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, whose president provides a forward, is a front-group for PETA, and the book makes some extreme claims like meat is more dangerous than cigarettes. Nothing is too corny to prove that self-deprivation is good for you. The author talks about lettuce tasting sweet after the fast and processed foods like chemicals. Well, I know he's right because I experienced this phenomenon myself while on... The Atkins Diet!
Importantly, the book was written in the early 1990's, and we have learned a lot about fitness and health in the last two decades. Even Dean Ornish, who is referenced multiple times in this book, no longer recommends super-low-fat vegetarian diets. Times have changed. Nevertheless, I can believe that medically-supervised fasting can improve symptoms of some diseases. (This is discussed in The Alternate-Day Diet as well.) The only valuable part of this book is an introduction to management and problems of fasting for health care professionals.
If I were going to recommend only one of the three books I purchased for someone else, it would be The Alternate-Day Diet. If I were going to keep only one of the ones I purchased, it would be a toss-up between The Alternate-Day Diet and The QOD Diet: Eating Well Every Other Day. If I were talking to a patient, I think I would talk to them about fasting rather than recommending a book. You can take from that what you'd like.
Other books that looked of possible interest but that I haven't read yet are The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Fasting, The Fasting Handbook: Dining from an Empty Bowl, and Fasting: The Ancient Practices. Eat to Live by (again) Fuhrman and Mehmet Oz appears to be a re-packaging of Fuhrman's previous work, including recommendations against eating meat. One Amazon reviewer said all the information on fasting is available on the Internet, which is probably true as well. |
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| "Buy several - you'll want to give them to friends" | 2009-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A4FH80ZGNIIF1 |
| If I had to keep only one health book in my collection, it would be this one. (and maybe "The Cancer Answer" by Carter). This book is an interesting read, I couldn't put it down - it's written in laymans terms though it also has an end chapter with more technical information for doctors and others interested. I've ordered more because I find myself lending it out a lot. |
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| "Well written scientific explanation on physiology of fasting ang more" | 2009-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1WGR2T8AJBEFA |
| This book reduces fear of fasting that is very important to me. I run the program where fasting is a primary modality besides massage, exercise, education and cooking. It is an easiest way to have the weight loss as a side effect of detoxifying your body and regulating your metabolism back to normal. Thanks to Dr. Fuhrman it is much easier to communicate all benefits of the fasting to our clients, and when conversation revolves around actual health benefits and excellent side effect ... the Fast getting a totally different prospective. But the biggest thing about Fuhrman is that he shows in all of his books over and over about elimination of the needs of medications if you regulate your health naturally: either with Fasting or with Vegan or Raw food diet. Hi himself was one that learn about Fasting from the father of Food combining and Fasting , Dr. Sheldon. So he have embraced this idea, have become a doctor himself and now, as a "white coat" guy can pass this method with higher authority. Amen to him and him-alike. |
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| "A classic on fasting!" | 2009-07-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: AEGLF3184W7ND |
I read this book when if first came out, and was very impressed. It is well laid out, and the fact that is written by a 'doctor' makes it seem easier for those who are new to fasting. I have fasted many years now, and do recommend this book. It is one of the few good books on the subject.
I did meet someone who knows as Joel, I had to travel a long way, to Panama to meet him, and came home with this DVD that I can also well recommend to get an advanced understanding of fasting.
Transformational Fasting |
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| "How fasting helps reversal of chronic, degenerative diseases" | 2009-05-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: AOPXAQV9GT9XO |
When you're suffering from a chronic, degenerative disease, and the doctors you trust are recommending drugs or surgery, it's hard to believe that simply going without food could be of any lasting benefit. This is also compounded by ridicule in medical circles and the media, which mistake fasting for starvation and label it quackery.
This book provides an excellent introduction into the natural hygiene (see History of Natural Hygiene and Principles of Natural Hygiene) view of health through healthy living. Fuhrman explains how health is maintained, how disease occurs, the role of diet, and the physiological effects of fasting. Fuhrman has a solid grounding in natural hygiene as well as knowledge of diagnostics and pathology.
If you are new to fasting and suffer from a chronic, degenerative disease, this is the book you need to read to understand how fasting can help you return to health and how proper eating can help you not only remain healthy but rejuvenate your body, increase your energy and improve your mental functioning.
Several chapters are devoted to explaining how diseases occur and how fasting can reverse headaches, hypoglycemia, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, overweight and other chronic conditions. But fasting isn't a quick fix. Lifestyle changes must follow to prevent recreating the same diseases.
What this book is not is a detailed treatment of how to conduct or break fasts. The information given is superficial with the caveat that those wishing to fast over three days should do so under the supervision of a qualified fasting practitioner. I discuss the reasons for this in the comment section.
I also do not any longer endorse the vegan dietary model, and Fuhrman is definitely pro-vegan. While I agree that diets high in feedlot beef, confined poultry treated with antibiotics, and farm-raised fish are detrimental, I've come to believe that healthy alternatives (e.g., wild game, grassfed beef) are healthful foods to which our species is biologically adapted (see The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat or NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body for alternative views). If you are a vegetarian or vegan, then Fuhrman's your guy.
If you're looking for a book on fasting itself, I highly recommend The Science and Fine Art of Fasting or Fasting for Renewal of Life, both written by Herbert Shelton. As a young, injured man, Furhman fasted under the supervision of Shelton and was so inspired by what he witnessed at Shelton's school that he later became a doctor. We can thank Shelton that fasting hasn't been completely buried by the American Medical Association and the pharmaceutical cartel, and we can thank Fuhrman for carrying the torch.
Despite these shortcomings, I still think this is an excellent book that offers hope and a path for those who are ready to take control over their health. We need more doctors like Furhman. |
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