Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life

by Ezekiel J. Emanuel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

USA TODAY BESTSELLLER

INDIE NATIONAL BESTSELLER



From one of America’s leading doctors, an authoritative, practical, and entertaining guide to living a full and healthy life.


Everyone wants to live a full and healthy life—and every day brings a tidal wave of attention-grabbing misinformation, faddish ideas from “wellness” influencers, and bizarre advice from news outlets over-extrapolating the results of tiny, outlier studies. The “Wellness Industrial Complex” prescribes conflicting and complicated regimens while promising us more time to enjoy in the future—though it sure is demanding a lot of time right now. But what actually matters most to our health and longevity? What has the most robust, actionable evidence? What’s the junk you can skip?


In Eat Your Ice Cream, renowned physician Ezekiel J. Emanuel argues that life is not a competition to live the longest and that “wellness” shouldn’t be difficult; it should be an invisible part of one’s lifestyle that yields maximum health benefits with the least work. Dr. Emanuel cuts through the noise with wit and good humor, giving readers just what they simple, high-impact, evidence-based guidelines on such issues as alcohol consumption, food and nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental acuity, and social engagement. Resisting the tide of the latest trends to extend life at all costs, Eat Your Ice Cream reveals that many of the tools for a long, healthy and meaningful life are already within reach.


Pairing common sense with uncommon wisdom based on his decades of expertise and experience, Dr. Emanuel helps us consider which lifestyle changes are worth making and how to most easily implement them for longer, healthier, and happier lives. Readers will come away with greater clarity and a deeper understanding of what really matters for well-being—connection, purpose, and sustainable choices backed by rigorous science.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Self Help, Science, Audiobook, Mental Health, Nutrition

247 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 6, 2026

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read many books on longevity, health and wellness.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel does a terrific job putting everything in perspective so that readers don't need to consume massive amounts of books, articles, and podcasts to live a healthier, more purposeful and meaningful life.

He also allows for grace and not over-obsessing about doing everything 100% perfectly. He feels wellness should be an invisible part of your life. He pairs common sense with uncommon wisdom.

He encourages us to follow Thoreau's advice to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I highly recommend.

[Jenn Ochieng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was a breath of fresh air!

As a family medicine clinician, my days are filled with discussing lifestyle with patients while trying to combat all the misinformation and marketing that is....everywhere. 

The book is laid out by 6 general principles to support a balanced lifestyle. It is written to simplify health and return back to the crucial, high yield elements that we all need to figure out to maintain a healthy, good life. The author's entire point, which I whole heartily agree with, is that wellness behaviors should just be woven into the fabric of our life (and in that they become more automatic and less cumbersome). This is what I try to teach and reinforce with my patients daily!

I genuinely think the general public would benefit from reading this book especially those that find themselves sucked into the new wellness trend or fad. 

[Madeline Richer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author makes some good points about the problems with wellness discourse, and he’s clearly well-researched. However, for my taste, the book was lacking in political analysis. Ezekiel pays lip service to the economic factors that impact people’s health and lifestyle choices. In a time with such extreme health disparities across class and racial lines, these factors deserve more than lip service.

Another issue for me is that Ezekiel’s target audience is the absolute average person as he imagines them. He gives generalized advice without caveats. For example, he makes the sweeping claim that supplements are “probably a waste of money,” without acknowledging that for people with specific health conditions, supplements can be hugely beneficial. He’s not thinking about people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, and in fact uses language that implies that fatness, disability and even autism are conditions to be unequivocally avoided. He also uses binary language about gender, making statements about what “women” need and what “men” need. In other words, he’s behind the times with regard to body positivity, neurodivergence, and gender as a spectrum.

If you’re an able-bodied, cis, upper-middle class person who is at the total beginning of your health and wellness journey, this book might be a good place to start for some concrete next steps.

[kellymross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes! This book is wonderful. The author is level headed and provides a non shaming reading experience for those of us who want to live long lives- because we want to live full lives and not lives consumed by strict rules or unrealistic goals.

This is a health book for those who are tired of the influencer culture and the hamster wheel of wellness recommendations. This book is great for anyone looking for a healthy reset or just confirmation that they are doing their best! Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy!

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sending gobs of appreciation to Ezekiel J. Emanuel for researching and writing such an accessible, approachable, and helpful overview of how to live a better and healthier life. Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life is both simple AND profoundly helpful.

This is not a long book, and there are NO miracle cures or quack fads to be found in Emanuel’s book. In fact, one of the best themes of the book is to avoid major unsustainable changes, avoid obsessing over one health or longevity metric, and to forgive oneself for minor slips.

Since Emanuel is so forthright and cuts to the chase, here's a quick review of his six commonsense practices for a longer, better, and more fulfilling life:

Because wellness is simple, this book is simple. It focuses on the six fundamental wellness behaviors that yield the maximum benefits with the least work:
1) Don't be a schmuck. Avoid self-destructive risks.
2) Talk to people. Cultivate family, friends, and other social relations.
3) Expand your mind. Stay mentally sharp.
4) Eat your ice cream. Consume healthy food and drink.
5) Move it! Exercise well and regularly.
6) Sleep like a baby. Get the rest you need.

Definitely recommend! 4.8 out of 5 stars!

[Kerri]

I really liked the main sentiment of this book: that wellness is not about any one thing (particularly diet or exercise) and that it should not be an obsession or your main focus in life.

“Wellness ought to be in the background: an unconscious part of your lifestyle, not an obsession.”

“the pervasive notion that wellness is all about the physical—eating, exercising, and sleeping—is wrong. In popular culture, the most important wellness and longevity behaviors—the social and mental—are forgotten or deemphasized in favor of the physical. . . . Cultivating social relations and staying mentally engaged are even more important than eating well or exercising.”

Overall there were several points in this book that will help my own health and that of my patients. I loved that he points out that typically in the wellness world we are told that we can only be healthy if we make one very specific change perfectly (exercise like this or you aren’t healthy, eat this very specific diet perfectly) and benefits of social interactions not mentioned (and often the wellness obsessions are at the detriment of social interactions).

For various reasons I cannot give it 5 stars. Here are the main ones:

Having just read Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science, I couldn’t help but notice some flawed conclusions of research findings, particularly in the nutrition chapter. As with the whole book, I liked the overall sentiment of the nutrition chapter, but it had some problems.

Starting with the title of your book- Eat Your Ice Cream. The sentiment is great. You can eat ice cream and still be healthy. But let’s not mix up correlation with causation here.
“…’among diabetics, eating half a cup of ice cream a day was associated with a lower risk of heart problems.’ Yes, you read it right, ice cream lowered the risk of heart problems.”
No… it was *associated* with lower risk of heart problems. We still cannot say it actually lowers the risk or if there is another explanation.

Similarly, after an overall balanced view on alcohol, he makes the claim that “Overall, this suggests that between zero and 1 drink per day is the limit before you tip into anti-wellness, unless you happen to be a middle-aged man for whom moderate alcohol use protects against heart disease.”
No… moderate alcohol use is *associated* with lower rates of heart disease in middle-aged men. Maybe men who drink alcohol at this age are inherently healthier (haven’t been told to stop due to a health condition or are not completely sober due to a history of heavy drinking). He words this as if middle aged men should go out of their way to drink more. I’m probably being too picky and he probably didn’t really mean this but I think the wording should have been more clear.

There is also the preposterous claim that there are 1000 calories in 2 cups of beans (depending on the bean this is 500 calories at most).
“consuming the same amount of protein as in 4 ounces of meat would require about 2 cups of beans at roughly 1,000 calories.”
*dried* beans, maybe, but considering the amount of protein in 2 cups of cooked beans equals 4 oz of meat I don’t think that’s what he meant. He actually suggests a diet with limited amounts of meat and encourages beans so I found this mistake to be very odd.


There are also several other bold claims based solely on his opinions.

Finally, I can’t in good conscience rate a book 5 stars that hates on potatoes! (thankfully he admits this is controversial)

[Hannah Kreuser · Rating 5 out of 5]

He said eat more dairy and I said say less.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the no-nonsense truth that cuts through the noise of the nonsense that the wellness industry peddles. The author outlined six principles of simple lifestyle choices that all reinforce each other and result in wellness and longevity. He included none of the gadgets or potions or ridiculous systems. It isn’t sexy and won’t make anyone millions but just comes down to minimizing risky behavior, cultivating relationships, engaging in cognitive stimulation, eating real food, exercising, and sleeping. That’s it. The only truly absurd thing he mentioned was the blue zones. This work has been thoroughly debunked and I’m surprised and disappointed that he cited it. Same with his suggestion that intermittent fasting is a good idea. The data are clearly showing that it’s a hoax. It’s just too bad that he has a higher opinion of the general public to think they can embrace lifestyle choices to live better.

[Preethi Kumaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the general definition this book gives to wellness- that it is a wholistic idea that we need to strive for constituting of physical, mental, and very importantly, social. I appreciated the interesting studies and facts brought up in the book, but there were quite a lot that much of our eduction doesn’t agree with.

For example, saying that ALL supplements are a waste of money unless you are trying to get pregnant or old is a very skewed view, and there were many supplements and benefits that the author missed, such as iron, biotin, zinc, etc. This also may not apply to many people with chronic disease or other issues, even anemia. He also says that all forms of potatoes are bad and gives the evidence of very specific studies that support his findings. Potatoes are very common in many diets and are said to have many nutrients including potassium and vitamin C, and even more in sweet potatoes.

While I did enjoy some of the chapters and recommendations, they seemed to come from a pigeon-hole view. This book is written for a very specific demographic, and doesn’t mention diverse communities at all. The assumption is very much that you have a stable lifestyle where you can afford to put money into high quality food, spend time to socialize, and have time and ability to exercise regularly. While he mentions those in lower SES or people with injuries, these topics are not delved into. I am surprised since the author is involved in many public health efforts and I didn’t feel like he wrote with that lens.

I also liked how in almost each recommendation, the effect of technology and social media is clearly shown. With diet, exercise, cognition, sleep, and socialization, our phones have negatively impacted our wellness.

I didn’t learn too much from this book in terms of what to do, but it does remind me to not look at numbers and focus on the impacts. I don’t need to count protein or fiber, but just be intentional about it. It does do a great job of breaking down the 6 things that are most important to prioritize which made me realize the inane number of fads that social media has brought to us.

[Kay Gee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book … I mean how could you not with a title like that!

[InfiniteLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Ezekiel K. Emanuel, Netgalley, and Highbridge for a complimentary audio arc of this book in exchange for an honest reviews.

I don't tend to read self help books often but I saw this one pop up, and then read a review which said how the author (and narrator of the audiobook), was interviewed on television and came across as such a nice, down to earth guy, I decided to give this one a chance. As well, as being a pretty good self-help book in my eyes, which aligns quite well with a lot of my own values, this is also something of a critique of other self help books and courses out there.

Ezekiel's argument is that people often spend too much time obsessing and stressing about finding ways to live longer, trying diets, new fads and what other techniques are out there, when they could spend that time simply... living and enjoying life. The idea here is about quality of life over quantity, and this is something which I wholeheartedly agree with. The six tips themselves are fairly simple and explanatory but it was Ezekiel's own thoughts and opinions on the self help industry which really resonated with me here.

Overall, a great listen - Ezekiel is great at narrating his own words - and definitely made me think about the world of self-help through a more objective lens.

- note - dropped to a 3.5 as the latter side is a bit preachy.

[Lizzie Guan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I trust Zeke w my life🤝

[Heather Olins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have strong and conflicting feeling about this book. I loved some chapters and found some others to be very frustrating. The author’s criticism of wellness culture and emphasis on social relationships is a much needed and important counter point to our obsession with fitness and nutrition.

However, a lot of the nutrition advice in this book felt a bit out of touch. Equating fat to unhealthy is an unhelpful oversimplification. As is rounding all packaged foods up to junk food. The offhand remark about how some packaged/processed foods (apparently anything in a package is processed and therefore junk) might be fine but it’s not worth our time to try to figure out which is which . Not all of us have time to cook “real” food meals for our families 3 means a day (which apparently we should be doing without any salt). So, the advice to just stop eating all processed foods was frustrating. Some other topics (intermittent fasting, sleep hygiene, even alcohol consumption) are explained with good deal of helpful nuance in the book, but packaged foods get none of that.

Additionally, despite mentioning at one point that correlational studies don’t show causation, most of the nutrition advice seemed to come from association studies. Words of caution about interpreting these association studies seem to be unequally applied to certain topics over others.

[Bridget Hanks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was… fine. As a book about the basics of wellness it was measured and research-based and not extreme or fear-mongering. But it also didn’t have too much to add to the conversation other than just basic, boring moderation. The most compelling parts of the book were the parts about social interaction… that was where I learned the most. I didn’t know that social relationships had such a major impact on health and longevity, even for introverts… it’s not something the wellness industry focuses on. Unfortunately it’s one of the areas where ‘self-improvement’ is the most difficult… by its very nature improving relationships requires other people to be on board, and isn’t easy to learn from books or the internet. He does have some tips on putting yourself out there, but that and the mental challenge chapter had me like ‘yeesh… I’ve gotta make a bunch of new friends and learn a second language or I’m going to die young?’ It kind of threw me for a loop. But that definitely doesn’t mean he’s wrong… when I think of the older folks I’d like to emulate as I age they are all socially open and mentally sharp. I’ve got work to do, and not in the obvious wellness areas!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book and it took me longer to get through it than I had anticipated. Only six chapters. I bought a hard copy after listening to an interview he did with Norah O'Donnell. I knew immediately it was a keeper and I would want to re-read it. I ended up taking my time and savoring it. I enjoyed it for its wisdom and common sense approach. There are no magic bullets. Diet, exercise, sleep as expected but also socialization. He's a straight shooter and tells it like it is. It's a book filled with hope- you can do this and don't be swayed by hype and false prophets.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this book a 4 Star rating because I can make these small changes. It's pleasant to hear him say we don't need to obsess about wellness. This is a refreshing change from many other health-centric books.

Easy things I can do:
1. try kefir & kimchi
2. stop taking a multivitamin

Hard things I will attempt:
1. return to actual cooking, instead of the simple assembly of food that I've been doing since becoming blind in my left eye
2. spend less time on my phone, prioritize time with people
3. try a digital Sabbath, or at least an 18-hour digital "fast"

[Ruth Kindall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non fiction interesting book, but try to get it at the library ( vs owning it)…. Don’t usually read books like this, but I saw the author on CBS Sunday morning and he was so cute I wanted to support him( do buy the book if you want to😂😂😂). His six simple rules for living a long and healthy life made me feel good about what I’m doing right. Some things are hard to change…but you’ll find enough information to probably make it worth your while( no matter your age). I have to give it 3⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Stefan W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently had cardiac bypass surgery and needed a different point of view about how to improve my habits. This was a good book to reinforce my needed changes. He simplified and humanized many of the concepts about healthy eating and sleep management. Worth a read.

[Miguel Magalhaes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sprinkles of science on top os a huge pile of BS. Most horrible example being the science behind the title.
Avoid.

[Evelyn Petschek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing really new here, but short and readable and good reminders.

[Seth Ingram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest book title ever. Enjoyed reading some helpful tips to live a long and healthy life. Eat your ice cream was obviously the most important advice provided.

[Haley Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much I didn’t already know, but simple and concise information amongst an over-saturated field

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple rules, clear writing. I don’t agree with all of what he says, but I look forward to discussing this with book club.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

He raises a number of good points and I’m generally in agreement with him about exercise sleep and alcohol. Some of what he talks about in the nutrition section I disagree with I think he’s pushing dairy unnecessarily and I will side with his former professor, Walter Willett and go against dairy. Also, he says that blueberries are a good source of B12 as far as I understand B12 can only be obtained from animal sources and if you’re a vegan, you know, it’s all about nutritional yeast to get your B12.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

​I found the subject of Eat Your Ice Cream fascinating. Ezekiel Emanuel provides a great deal of study-based data to support a healthy lifestyle, which makes it a really powerful tool for making informed decisions. While I didn't necessarily learn anything groundbreaking, it was an excellent reinforcement of the healthy habits I already try to follow.
​However, I had two main issues that made it hard to fully connect with:
​A "One-Size-Fits-All" Approach: The book focuses heavily on the "average" American. It doesn't really account for the realities of people dealing with low incomes, disabilities, mental health challenges, or learning difficulties. Because it stays so focused on a specific "standard" lifestyle, it can feel a bit out of touch and hard to relate to if you don't fit that exact mold.
​The Audiobook Experience: I struggled with the format. The author narrates it himself, and with chapters running 30 to 45 minutes without many natural pauses, it was very difficult to stop and start during a busy day. It felt like a bit of a marathon listen rather than something I could easily digest on the go.
​Final Thoughts: This is a good "back-to-basics" guide if you want scientific data to back up your habits, but it definitely has its limitations when it comes to inclusivity and production.

[William J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this down. Don’t be a schmuck read this book! It reinforced my diet choices and offered sound advice on key health issues we all face.

[Lindsey Geer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean. I audiobooked this but I have no clue why I listened to this. I just saw it in a bookstore and liked the title. It was educational I guess but yeah I mean sure

[Misha · Rating 1 out of 5]

🎧 Repeat after me: causation is not causality.

I had few expectations going into this book. First of all, I saw it’s written by an MD, so I hoped the information would be factual. In this case, I think it’s important to state that being a doctor (an oncologist, no matter how good one) doesn’t automatically mean you’re a specialist in life in general or qualified to give advice on, for example, nutrition. My second expectation is closely tied to the first and is also the main reason I’m giving this book 1 star. The phrase Eat Your Ice Cream, as the title suggests, implies enjoying life and not villainizing “unhealthy” food. This is not the case at all.

To be completely frank, my credentials in health and wellness are basically “trust me bro” and “school of life.” I’m not a medical specialist, so I have no ability to formally oppose the health claims made in this book. On the other hand, I’m someone who completely turned their life around in the wellness department, lost a lot of weight, and along the way gathered a lot of information about nutrition. I’ve been through multiple modern nutrition seminars by highly trusted professionals, so I’d argue my opinions on this topic are not completely pulled out of my ass.

My issues with this book:
- The claim that potatoes are bad. The supporting evidence is a study of doctors and nurses who gained weight over 20 years and also ate potatoes. The science is not explained, and the whole claim reads like pure correlation treated as causation. Working in a high-stress environment is likely a much bigger factor than potatoes. Also, the fact that Americans overeat fries or other fried potato products doesn’t make potatoes inherently bad. This is a perfect example of villainizing a harmless food based on thin reasoning or misrepresentation of facts.
- Repeating over and over that yoghurt is basically a superfood because Dutch people eat it and they’re very tall. Please consider lactose-intolerant people. “Yoghurt is good for you, especially when replacing junk food.” Groundbreaking. Unless you replace junk food with a different kind of junk food, it will probably be better for you.
- The author ridicules a colleague for serving his kids toaster waffles for breakfast and mocks his students for not knowing how to cook and eating premade food, while those students are medical students. I’m not a med student, but it’s widely known how demanding that path is. They probably don’t have time to perfect your roasted chicken recipe, Karen.
- The overall tone-deafness of the author shows repeatedly. For example, ballroom dancing and cross-country skiing are presented as ideal physical activities for wellness. It’s not surprising to learn the author comes from a wealthy family, and his life experience is clearly skewed by that fact.
- In general, he relies heavily on his own life experiences as anecdotal evidence without offering proper scientific explanation.
- He claims introverts need social interaction more than extroverts, without any solid reasoning, beyond vaguely suggesting that introversion doesn’t matter because humans are social animals.
- Many claims are based on known facts about Blue Zones, which isn’t inherently bad. But then he proceeds to impose bizarre rules and restrictions on daily activities that people in Blue Zones likely don’t care about at all, such as dividing physical activity into timed regimens based on activity level.
- He suggests parents forbid their kids from playing football because they could “smash their heads in.” You can literally trip at home and smash your head on a random household item with a higher probability than sustaining a severe head injury at a school football practice. If anything, we should encourage kids to touch grass more.
- He praises intermittent fasting without providing any evidence. He even goes as far as suggesting a 24-hour fast once a week “because he does it and it works for him.” You really don’t want to hear this kind of reasoning from a doctor.

To be objective, the advice in this book is generally not harmful (excluding the villainization of “bad foods” and the lack of ability to explain basic nutrition instead of throwing out claims like “eating ice cream decreases risk of dementia”), but most of it is just common sense. Do you know what’s anti-wellness? Coke and drunk driving. Advice like this isn’t worthy of a book that wants to be taken seriously.

I honestly wonder who this book is for. If you have any basic knowledge of wellness, you won’t learn anything new. More likely, you’ll find something to take issue with, like I did.

If you’re a literal blank slate, unaware that not smashing your brains in will prolong your life, then sure, you might find something valuable here. In my opinion, the entire book can be summarized in one sentence: sleep well, don’t eat junk food, don’t be a hermit, talk to people, engage your brain to lower dementia risk, and don’t smash your head.

I should probably mention that I’m not American, so I’m not personally affected by the state of the U.S. healthcare system. Thank God.

I listened to this book on audio, which is a double-edged sword in my opinion. If I’d read it in print, I’d want to take notes and dig deeper into the claims and themes. Since I only listened to it, I can only comment on what stuck in my head. The audiobook production itself is fine, with no distracting noises. I personally didn’t like the narrator’s voice (the author narrates it himself). It’s very nasal and did grind on my ears. That said, he’s easy to understand, so in that sense the audio is technically successful.

ALC via NetGalley
I am leaving this review voluntarily

[Jesse Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see that Dr. Emanuel's new book is trending at about 3.96 on GoodReads, which makes sense: a lot of people are rating it 4 or 5 stars, but a 25 percent have it at 3 stars. We all have something to nit pick when it comes to wellness, even though we welcome this attempt to simplify and summarize the deluge of wellness information. I fall into the same boat, but I'll upvote to 4 stars to show the value of the big takeaways.

By far the biggest takeaway for me is to double down on limiting my screen time and getting out there to engage with friends and family. And what do you do with friends and family? Strive to improve. At the heart of the bourgeois virtues is to set goals, learn new things, and try to make the world a better place, even into old age. Like Emanuel, I am deeply inspired by the life and work of Benjamin Franklin, and it was a real pleasure to see him referring to Franklin throughout the book.

Second down is Emanuel's wholesome, homespun wisdom "Don't be a schmuck." Which means, don't take unnecessary risks. Which entails an ability to estimate risk. And here's where the book still feels like it could use some improvement. We are often Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues, which means that in the aggregate, people were schmucks before, schmucks now, and will remain schmucks ever after. The limitation of bourgeois virtue ethics is its focus on the individual choice, missing the laws of large numbers. A good GP might not make a good public health doctor, and vice versa.

This has implications for managing big populations, and it might also affect the advice we dole out to people. For me, a line that stuck in my craw was, "But the frequent high doses of pesticides are dangerous to the agriculture workers and to the groundwater. So if you can afford it [organic vegetables], why take the risk?" I no longer disagree with this advice in any form or fashion, and do my best to not only buy organic, but buy local. But what about the people who can't or feel that they can't afford organic produce? I guess it's too much to ask Dr. Emanuel to solve the problems of the food system, as opposed to simply giving the individual consumer useful advice. And, in a way, he did raise awareness of the issue. Maybe I was just left looking for the clear statement: society as a whole should not have to farm with high doses of pesticides that are dangerous to the workers and the groundwater.

Like Emanuel, I have a strong tendency -- a dream, perhaps -- to picture the country as full of book-reading, organic-buying citizens, who participate in the political process, and all have health insurance, and know their primary care physicians. Maybe someday? How do we get from here to there? Given the state of things we are in now, is it somehow a big mistake not to at least acknowledge them in this book? I'm not actually worried about wellness for my own sake, anyway. I'm worried about my extended family, the ones who say on Facebook that they support Trump, Robert Kennedy, and ICE. The ones who work so hard but only earn $13 an hour and don't have health insurance. I mean, they're all schmucks, right? What am I supposed to do about them? I guess, following Franklin again, it can start with me reaching out to them.

[Julie Houseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded down from a 3.5.
About a year ago, I read Peter Attia’s Outlive, which outlined the ways in which we could not only live longer but live better. Supported with an almost overwhelming amount of scientific data, the book outlined the ways in which living a better, healthier life as possible. I almost feel as if Emmanuel’s book was written as a counter-argument to Attia’s. He criticizes the all or nothing mentality in workout regiments like 75 Hard and attempts to simplify the idea of six concepts.
Some of what Emmanuel said was pretty obvious, particularly in the chapter called “Don’t Be a Schmuck” (don’t smoke; use sunscreen; don’t drink too much), but I was interested in the chapter about maintaining one’s cognitive abilities (and felt validated by his suggestion to prioritize sleep). The chapter on food seemed to contradict his more relaxed attitude to health. I wasn’t surprised to hear his criticisms of soda or processed foods, but I was surprised about his negative stance on potatoes and even meat and annoyed that he seemed to justify splurges on what he enjoys eating the most due to his sweet tooth. I was also surprised that, in the first chapter, he suggested health screenings at a different rate than anything I’d heard before (a pap smear once every five years and a mammogram every other).
I liked the book, and I learned some things from it, but at the same time, I almost wish I would have read it instead of listening to the audio version. There is something aggressive about the tone of his voice that put me off despite some pretty good content. Overall, a decent read although nothing ground-breaking, especially after reading Outlive.