Eating Well for Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition

At last, a book about eating (and eating well) for health — from Dr. Andrew Weil, the brilliantly innovative and greatly respected doctor who has been instrumental in transforming the way Americans think about health.

Now Dr. Weil — whose nationwide best-sellers Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health have made us aware of the body's capacity to heal itself — provides us with a program for improving our well-being by making informed choices about how and what we eat.  

He gives us all the basic facts about human nutrition. Here is everything we need to know about fats, protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins, and their effects on our health.

He equips us to make decisions about the latest miracle diet or reducing aid.

At the heart of his book, he presents in easy-to-follow detail his recommended OPTIMUM DIET, including complete weekly menus for use both at home and in restaurants.

He provides eighty-five recipes accompanied by a rigorous and reliable nutritional breakdown — delicious recipes reminding us that we can eat for health without giving up the essential pleasures of eating.

Customized dietary advice is included for dozens of common ailments, among them asthma, allergies, heart disease, migraines, and thyroid problems. Dr. Weil helps us to read labels on all food products and thereby become much wiser consumers. Throughout he makes clear how an optimal diet can both supply the basic needs of the body and fortify the body's defenses and mechanisms of healing. And he always stresses that good food — and the good feeling it engenders at the table — is not only a delight but also necessary to our well-being, so that eating for health means enjoyable eating.

In sum, a hugely practical and inspiring book about food, diet, and nutrition that stands to change — for the better and the healthier — our most fundamental ideas about eating.

?This book has everything you'll want or need in commendably accessible form. I can't recommend it too highly.? The West Virginia Register-Herald

Weil, author of nationwide best-sellers Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, provides a program for improving well-being by making informed choices about what and how we eat. He presents basic facts about nutrition, offers an Optimum Diet complete with weekly menus, and provides 85 recipes accompanied by a nutritional breakdown. He also gives custom dietary advice for common ailments. Weil is director of the Program in Integrative Medicine and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

At last, a book about eating (and eating well) or health — from Andrew Weil, the brilliantly innovative and greatly respected doctor who has been instrumental in transforming the way Americans think about health. Now Dr. Weil — whose nationwide bestsellers Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health have made us aware of the body's capacitiy to heal itself — provides us with a program for improving our well-being by making informed choices about how and what we eat.

Dr. Weil makes clear how an optimal diet can both supply the basic needs of the body and fortify the body's defenses and mechanisms of healing. And he always stresses that good food — and the good feeling it engenders at the table — is not only a delight but also necessary to our well being so that eating for health means enjoyable eating.

Eating Well for Optimum Health is a hugely practical and inspiring book about food, diet and nutrition that stands to change — for the better and the healthier — our most fundamental ideas about eating.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-282) and index.

Andrew Weil, M.D., a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at that institution. He is also the founder of the National Integrative Medicine Council, creator of the monthly newsletter Self-Healing,Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health.

Introduction 3
1. The Principles of Eating Well 5
A Healing Story: From French Fries to Kale 27
A Healing Story: The Knife and Fork Are Powerful Tools 29
2. The Basics of Human Nutrition 31
I The Macronutrients: An Overview 31
II Carbohydrates Revisited: Staff of Life or Stuff of Sickness? 48
III Fat Revisited: The Best Part of Food or the Worst? 72
IV Protein Revisited: How Much Is Enough? 102
V The Micronutrients 124
A Healing Story: A Successful Encounter with Integrative Medicine 144
A Healing Story: Overcoming Allergies 146
3. The Worst Diet in the World 148
A Healing Story: Learning to Make Healthful Food 152
4. The Best Diet in the World 155
A Healing Story: A Healthy Civic Leader 169
A Healing Story: I Gave Up Fast Food 171
5. A Matter of Weight 173
A Healing Story: Conquering an Eating Disorder 187
6. Buying Food and Eating Out (With a Word About Vibrations) 189
A Healing Story: Nothing Is Easy 200
7. An Alchemist in the Kitchen 202
A Healing Story: Why I Eat Healthy 207
8. The Recipes 209
Soups 209
Salads 218
Appetizers 226
Fish 230
Vegetables 234
Pasta, Rice, Potatoes 238
Desserts 245
Appendix A The Optimum Diet 261
Appendix B Dietary Recommendations for Common Health Concerns 264
Appendix C Answers to Common Questions About Food and Nutrition 273
Appendix D The Possibility of Surviving Without Eating 278
Appendix E Sources of Information, Materials, and Supplies 281
Notes 285
Acknowledgments 295
Index