A simple, but thoughtful read. If you belive that most everything is good in moderation, you'll like this book. We receive so much messaging these days about diet, lifestyle and self care and this is a great way to parse it all out. ( )

I received this book some time ago as a review copy and didn't finish it. I guess that's OK because it's the kind of book that can be read in separate chapters, depending on what subject you would like to explore. None of the subjects is covered in depth, but this is a good introduction to "what's actually good for you."

This book offers an interesting view on what society considers "right" and "wrong" and how it is ok to have things that are often promoted as being bad for you ( )

With a light hand and quick wit, the authors take the reader through several of the traditional “vices” and illustrated why they might actually be good for you!

This was a fun and education read. Nothing ground-breaking, mind you, just light science combined with a few remarks on social and cultural traditions that could use a bit of revamping in our minds. Reading this confirmed what I knew – beer, sex, wine, chocolate, and sleeping in are all healthy (in moderation) for us as humans. The authors are quick to point out moderation as an important part of these ideas, but also point out that depravation of anything is not good for us.

The prose lacks the heavy technical jargon and would be easy to read for the general population, but it has enough science to satisfy any academic. Worth reading, for anyone 12+, and would be suitable as a non-fiction selection for a book club, particular one that serves wine and chocolate!

Note: I received this book free through LibraryThing's Early Review Program in exchange for my fair and honest opinion ( )

This is a book designed to address commonly held beliefs about what is healthy and what isn't. These days, medical advice comes at us from all sides and many of the things we have been taught by teachers, parents, and even doctors have since been disproven or at least brought into question. Is it possible that some of the foods or activities we've been avoiding from a sort of puritan moral high ground might actually be... not that bad? The author's of this book seem to think so.

I cannot communicate just how disappointed I was to learn that the doctorate of the author is in naturopathy. I was hoping for someone with a little more hard science chops. I like reading about food studies because they are so complicated and so difficult to accurately measure. The authors are not presenting a new study or findings, rather they are reporting generally about a lot of related studies and drawing extremely tentative conclusions about what they mean for our dietary choices.

My disappointment continued as I read through the chapters.

Hurrah, beer is good for you! Sure it is, as long as you don't drink very much! Um, sorry, that isn't really all that unexpected actually. Yeah, one drink a day probably won't hurt you, but who wants to have exactly one beer and then quit? All women should, apparently.

Rejoice, ladies, science says chocolate is health food! Just don't eat very much. And don't eat ANY that's less than 70% cacoa. Okay, that's not shocking! In fact, I'm pretty sure that's what everyone has always thought is healthy. And at the risk of revealing my immature palate, I'd rather eat nothing than extremely high cacao dark chocolate.

Hallelujah! Bread is basically a heaven-sent elixir of eternal nutrition! Just make sure you grind your own (locally sourced) fresh whole grain and make the bread yourself. The more nuts and seeds you add the better! Again, sorry for my philistine taste buds and wish to spend my free time doing something other than laboring like a medieval miller.

Seriously, by the end of the book the author has advised the reader to not only bake their own bread, but make their own pasta, brew their own beer, pickled their own veggies (while maintaining a massive garden for the purpose), as well as harvest and make their own maple syrup. Oh, and of course all mothers should breast feed for a full year, if possible. And whatever you do, make sure you're happy! Laughter is the best medicine! Are these people serious? Sure, I'd love to live on a farm and age my own cheese, but unfortunately, I live in a city and have a job. When I come home, I'm not looking for a laundry list of artisinal food-crafts to fill my remaining hours.

The only chapters that I actually found revelatory were the ones on coffee and napping. These are two things that I engage in with equal passion. I'd never really thought of either of them as unhealthy per se, but I did sometimes feel guilty for napping - something that makes the indulgence all the sweeter. Anyhow, they are both apparently pretty innocuous.

This book offends me in a way that is hard to express. It presents itself as an important work about freedom and happiness. Finally, we shall all be freed of these restrictive diets and complex layers of shame that have prevented us from truly enjoying life! But that's not really what it's about. It's true premise is that everything is healthy, as long as you eat the healthiest possible iteration of that thing. It's true that adults have been telling me all my life that chocolate is bad for me. But that admonition of course never extended to the unsweetened recesses of the organic, fair trade, 90% ultra dark bars that are the candy equivalent of cuckoo's egg. No kid is going to thank you for snatching their Snicker's bar and replacing it with 3 ounces of that bitter trash. Each chapter seems to be delivered with an smug, "you're welcome." No! I refuse to accept this premise. No one in their right mind would consider eating a slice of Scandinavian Rugbrod an endangerment of your health. It's not normal bread! It's basically a seed loaf! Don't have a chapter on how bread is healthy and tell me that by bread you mean strictly the most healthy possible permutations of bread.

I just. This book is a lie. That is all. ( )