The Magic of Food: Live Longer and Healthier--and Lose Weight--with the Synergetic Diet

by Michael T. Murray

The world’s most renowned doctor of natural medicine, co-author of the Encyclopedia of Healing Foods and The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Third Edition), Dr. Michael Murray draws on his extensive knowledge of food as medicine to promote optimum health.

Food affects our body, mind, and health in many remarkable ways. And certain foods work together in ways that are almost magical. In this groundbreaking new eating plan, Dr. Michael Murray identifies foods that act together to produce a total effect or force that is greater than the sum of the individual foods—what is known as a synergetic effect. Research shows there’s a tremendous synergetic effect that the healing force of nature exerts through each food and each food component. As the foods work together, they improve your energy and your physical and mental health.

Michael Murray’s years of research and clinical experience have led to a definitive understanding of how specific foods affect us. He presents his findings on phytochemicals and other nutrients and why they’re the new “vitamins”; discusses specific healing foods and how to combine them; and explains the principles to follow for eating the most synergetic foods every day. Here also are practical and prescriptive recipes and helpful guidelines for better and delicious eating. All this is in a usable, accessible, entertaining guide that you will turn to again and again as you develop your own personalized program for using food as medicine.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Science

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2017

About the author

Dr. Murray is one of the world’s leading authorities on natural medicine. He has published over 30 books featuring natural approaches to health. His research into the health benefits of proper nutrition is the foundation for a best-selling line of dietary supplements from Natural Factors, where he is Director of Product Development. He is a graduate, former faculty member, and serves on the Board of Regents of Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington.

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Magic of Food" is basically another "follow my healthy diet" book. I'm interested in "foods that act together to produce a total effect...that is greater than the sum of the individual foods" (from the ARC book description). However, what I got was a list of individual foods and the research done on the health benefits of that food or phytonutrient that food contains. And the book was very scientific; he even explained the chemical structure of fats and the structural differences between Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9 fats.

The author started by looking at several societies that live long, healthy lives and briefly explained what foods he thought contributed to that health. Then he looked at good fats versus bad fats, superfood fruits and veggies, and the health benefits of various common spices and herbs. He explained his recommend eating habits then provided some sample meal plans and some recipes. He recommended eating more (and a variety of) plant foods, more fish and less red meat, and eating 3 meals and 3 snacks each day. At the end, he included a list of some health problems (like anemia, constipation, hives, MS, and RA) along with some studies about what foods might help that condition.

While he recommended avoiding GMO canola, for some reason he didn't talk about other GMOs like soy when he suggested foods like tofu and soy milk. He spent some time talking about Glycemic Load and strongly recommended eating low GL foods, then he recommended juicing fruits and veggies (which removes the fiber and makes them into higher GL foods). And then he suggested using a fiber supplement to get enough fiber in your diet. So that didn't seem logical to me. Overall, though, the information was good.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Moises Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative.