Product Description

In an era when many people are reevaluating their diet, this whole foods encyclopedia takes an integrative approach to personalized nutrition, merging modern models with ancient Asian traditions. Featured here are guidelines on nutrition basics including "green foods"; clear discussions on the Chinese healing arts; tips on making appropriate dietary transitions; sections on weight loss, women’s health, food combining, fasting, pregnancy, children, aging, and physical and emotional disorders; and detailed "regeneration diets" designed for cancer, AIDS, and other ailments. This authoritative source on East/West nutrition is completely revised and updated, including new research on the benefits of whole foods for overcoming degenerative diseases; the parasite purge program; and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7880 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-05
• Released on: 2002-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Amazon.com Review
Used as a reference by students of acupuncture, this is a hefty, truly comprehensive guide to the theory and healing power of Chinese medicine. It's also a primer on nutrition--including facts about green foods, such as spirulina and blue-green algae, and the "regeneration diets" used by cancer patients and arthritics--along with an inspiring cookbook with more than 300 mostly vegetarian, nutrient-packed recipes.

The information on Chinese medicine is useful for helping to diagnose health imbalances, especially nascent illnesses. It's smartly paired with the whole-foods program because the Chinese have attributed various health-balancing properties to foods, so you can tailor your diet to help alleviate symptoms of illness. For example, Chinese medicine dictates that someone with low energy and a pale complexion (a yin deficiency) would benefit from avoiding bitter foods and increasing "sweet" foods such as soy, black sesame seeds, parsnips, rice, and oats. (Note that the Chinese definition of sweet foods is much different from the American one!)

Pitchford says in his dedication that he hopes the reader finds "healing, awareness, and peace" from following his program. The diet is certainly acetic by American standards (no alcohol, caffeine, white flour, fried foods, or sugar, and a minimum of eggs and dairy) but the reasons he gives for avoiding these "negative energy" foods are compelling. From the adrenal damage imparted by coffee to immune dysfunction brought on by excess refined sugar, Pitchford spurs you to rethink every dietary choice and its ultimate influence on your health. Without being alarmist, he adds dietary tips for protecting yourself against the dangers of modern life, including neutralizing damage from water fluoridation (thyroid and immune-system problems may result; fluoride is a carcinogen). There's further reading on food combining, female health, heart disease, pregnancy, fasting, and weight loss. Overall, this is a wonderful book for anyone who's serious about strengthening his or her body from the inside out. --Erica Jorgensen

Review
Healing with Whole Foods contains a wealth of information on health, diet, alternative medicine, natural food presentation, and recipes, researched by an expert in the field. Readers will learn how to apply Chinese medicine and the five-element theory to a contemporary diet; treat illness and nervous disorders through diet; and make the transition to whole vegetable foods. The most detailed source book yet published on preparing food and eating consciously, Healing with Whole Foods includes complete sections on Ayurvedic principles of food-combining; the treatment of disease conditions through meals; transition from animal products to whole vegetable foods; micro-algae; selection of waters and salts; the extremely complex varieties of oils, sugars, and condiments; vitamins and minerals; fasting and purification; food for children, food presentation and proportions; vibrational cooking; the physiology of nourishment; color diagnosis and therapy; consciousness in diet changes; plus descriptions of the nature and uses of various grains, legumes, miso, tempeh, tofu, seaweeds, nuts and seeds, sprouts, and fruits. Also featured are sections on chutneys, relishes, pickles, different milks, rejuvelac, yogurt, salads, and desserts. -- Midwest Book Review

Review
"Healing with Whole Foods contains a wealth of information on health, diet, alternative medicine, natural food presentation, and recipes, researched by an expert in the field. Readers will learn how to apply Chinese medicine and the five-element theory to a contemporary diet; treat illness and nervous disorders through diet; and make the transition to whole vegetable foods. The most detailed source book yet published on preparing food and eating consciously, Healing with Whole Foods includes complete sections on Ayurvedic principles of food-combining; the treatment of disease conditions through meals; transition from animal products to whole vegetable foods; micro-algae; selection of waters and salts; the extremely complex varieties of oils, sugars, and condiments; vitamins and minerals; fasting and purification; food for children, food presentation and proportions; vibrational cooking; the physiology of nourishment; color diagnosis and therapy; consciousness in diet changes; plus descriptions of the nature and uses of various grains, legumes, miso, tempeh, tofu, seaweeds, nuts and seeds, sprouts, and fruits. Also featured are sections on chutneys, relishes, pickles, different milks, rejuvelac, yogurt, salads, and desserts."
—Midwest Book Review

Customer Reviews

A Gem Amidst the Mass
You are going to love this one. It is clear, in depth, detailed, and a joy to read. It covers each food discussed with a comprehensive explanation of its energetic properties according to Oriental Medicine.

This book is what you need to make enlightened decisions about what to eat, when to eat it and what to combine in order to have a balanced and self-healing diet.

What I liked most about this reference work is that Pitchford doesn't seem to have an "axe to grind" or a new age philosophy to spout. He gives you the bottom line about food, how to prepare it, when to avoid it, how to evaluate it, how to use it to heal yourself or your patients. He doesn't ask you to believe, just to experiment and use your intelligence.

When you buy this book you will find yourself referring to it for years to come. Warning: You will probably end up giving it to someone you love, so get an extra copy for yourself.

I also recommend you check out Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. It is a good companion to this one and presents a raw food Ayurvedic approach. Enjoy.

An exquisite journey into health with whole foods.

This is quite simply one of the best books ever published on the subject of health and whole foods.
There are no platitudes in this book.

The symptoms of both health and un-health are delineated; the technical workings of the body are explained; the solutions to physical health are presented.
Whole foods in all their forms are described -- what to eat, how to prepare them, recipes, how they work in the body, what they fix.

This book is two inches thick, and probably contains enough information for a degree in nutrition.
It is extremely readable, but don't think you can read it without a good dictionary. The author takes care to define technical terms, but that's no excuse for not clearing up words you don't know as you read.
Published in 1993, the book contains up-to-date nutritional research as well as traditional herbal remedies.
A good index helps you find exactly what information you need for specific conditions.

While the emphasis is obviously on a vegetarian diet, the author treats meat products as therapeutic for particular nutritional problems, and describes how to use meat products in the most ethical manner.
The book even gets into subjects of health such as root canals, parasites and microwave cooking.
Wherever possible, the author compares Oriental and Occidental viewpoints on health and nutrition, leaving the reader with insights that just are not available from references that only consider one or the other.

I hope I've stimulated your interest. Following recommendations in this book will most certainly improve your health.

Informative but energetically incorrect
The author does a great job of covering a vast amount of information with a good amount of detail. The probem I have with this book is that it is extremely bias - it suggests or implies that one would/should ultimately aspire to Sattva ideals. Primarily a lacto-vegetarian diet that tries to eat one to two meals a day. This is simply not in the best interests of many people, certainly not children, teens, or most adults that are working in the real world. To imply it as an ideal - means that anything less than is inferior. It is also not in line with Traditional Chinese nutrition theory.
Furthermore, the food energy classifications are inconsistantly incorrect. He confuses or miscatagorizes many of the foods. Many of the foods he categorizes as cool are in fact warming and vis versa. Many writers that come from a macrobiotic background reverse Yin/Yang, Warm/Cool from that found in TCM however that does not seem to be the case here as the energetics are sometimes in agreement with classic TCM and other times not. A much more accurate catagorization of food energetics can be found in Daverick Leggett's books, Helping Ourselves and Recipes for Self-Healing.

That said if one really understand the asian energetics of food and has a strong sense of good nutrition the remainder of the information is valuable. However it should not be relied on for accurancy or used as a resource or required text in nutrition programs or acupuncture schools due to it's obvious bias and glaring inaccuracies.