Dear friends. I like to keep abreast of nutritional trends and research, and today I'm reviewing a new book which explores inflammation in our bodies, the harm it causes and how to eradicate it.
It's particularly interesting to those of us "of a certain age" because some of the changes brought on by getting older are exacerbated by inflammation.
The book is called "The Anti-Inflammatory 30 Day Reset" by Sophie Richards. She suffered for 10 years with chronic pain, bloating and fatigue. No medical help was available. She set out to find her own way to alleviate her symptoms and completely transformed her life.
I bought the book and this is my honest review.
Now I had a couple of reservations about the book. Firstly, Sophie describes herself as a women's health practitioner who runs a women's health community called Found, and hosts a podcast, The Finally Found Podcast. Hmm, I thought: an influencer who is not a medical practitioner.
Secondly, I was worried that the book would be aimed at a different demographic: women who menstruate.
But I'm pleased to report that the book overcomes my reservations. The science-y bit is well researched and written in an easy-to-understand way. She isn't spouting "woo-woo." When Richards covers hormones and their impact on inflammation, she includes the impact of menopause. Plus the recipes are easy to make, wholesome and look delicious.
As you can see from my capture, Sophie has identified 6 pillars of inflammation. Her approach is holistic, not just covering nutrition but also sleep, stress and exercising (particularly over exercising).
Inflammation is a key driver of hormonal imbalances, which may explain why some women suffer more than others through perimenopause. Although hormones and blood sugar aren't part of the 6 pillars, they're the entire foundation beneath them and show up in every area of our lives.
I don't suffer from the symptoms that Sophie has, but as an active oldster interested in good nutrition, I see reducing inflammation as a desirable thing to optimise my longevity.
Getting to the meat of the book - the philosophy and eating guidance - Richards explains how food fights or fuels inflammation. At the start of the mission to solve her problems, she discovered that some so-called healthy foods were not helping. These are the infamous UPFs - ultra processed foods.
Her advice for the best macronutrients is for half of your plate to have non-starchy carbohydrates (broccoli, peas, carrots, cauliflower); a quarter to be starchy carbs (fruits, vegetables and grains); a quarter to be protein (eggs, meat or fish), and to include healthy fats such as avocado or coconut.
There's quite a lot of detail about the specifics, as you would expect. Two of the current nutritional hot topics, Fibre and Gut Health, are covered. Richards' All Star micronutrients are also explained.
The Plan
There are three structured plans to choose from, depending on where you're at in your anti-inflammation quest. If it's all new to you, you might opt for the Gentle Reset first. Each plan has 6 steps: morning daylight, lymphatic drainage, food, mindful moment, movement and sleep. If, like me you groan at any mention of mindfulness, it is included but not in an onerous way. In fact I started using the meditation sessions in the Samsung Health app a few months ago and found them extremely helpful when I was going through a period of bad sleep.
Recipes
The recipes are mouth wateringly delicious. It's important to view this lifestyle as a blueprint for your future, not just a "diet". It's not intended for weight loss. Eating high quality protein and fats keeps us satiated, and there's plenty for an interesting diet.
The recipes indicate if they're suitable for vegetarians, if they contain grains and so on. Most are family friendly.
One thing to be careful with the book is eating too much if you're older. The biggest difficulty for over-50s when wanting to lose or even maintain weight is the fact that the average calorie requirement of 2,000 calories for women is goes out of the window.
I'm petite and at 65 my basal metabolic rate only requires 1200 calories a day. Most of you would consider this as dieting. It's why I'm so keen on exercising, to give me more calories to play with. I wouldn't rule out some of the breakfasts but I'd make them a brunch. Some of the lighter lunch suggestions would also be fine as dinner options.
If desserts are your vice there are plenty of recipes which won't cause blood sugar spikes, including banana and chocolate pancakes, healthy caramel sauce and chocolate spread, cocoa and almond energy bars, velvety vanilla custard, rich chocolate cake and no-cook vanilla cheesecake.
Many of the ingredients can be found in a well stocked store cupboard. I can't wait to start adding the recipes to my repertoire. The first recipes I'm going to try are spiced lentil and chorizo soup, pistachio crusted cod, Greek style lamb chops and grilled spice salmon.
Summary
A very readable and well researched book with lovely pictures and tempting recipes. It's holistic in that it addresses other causes of inflammation - stress, poor sleep, exercise, mindfulness- and builds guidance for these into the plan.
4 out of 5 stars.
This book counts towards my total of 12 in the Non-Fiction Reader Challenge hosted by Shelleyrae at Bookd Out. Category: Food.
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