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BodyFueling Reviews

The Wellness Concierge
Eating On The Go: It's In Your Hands

Nutrition advocate Robyn Landis shares the secret to staying healthy and feeling good on the road. Can you guess what it is? Get the 411 on healthy eating habits in this Road-Ready column -- Read More...

Amazon.com Reader Reviews

A Must Read
,
Reviewer: A reader from New York, NY USA

I bought the earlier version of this book in 1994, after gaining 30 lbs during the first 2 years of college. The author's use of fitting metaphors helps her to clearly explain, in lay terms, how the body processes different types of food and nutrients. This is not like so many of those weight loss "plans" that are difficult to maintain long-term. Rather, the book provides information that empowers you to make life-changing alterations to the way you live. After reading the book the first time, I lost the 30 lbs and 3 sizes. My copy has since yellowed with age, and I'm ready to buy a new copy and read it again, to help me get back on track after a year of working & the accompanying lifestyle changes that has brought about. I highly recommend it to everyone.

A Voice of Reason!
Reviewer: starmania25 from BC, Canada

I purchased this book on a whim, and have never regretted it. Robyn Landis explains clearly and rationally why diets don't work, how the body uses food, and why it stores fat. She outlines a balanced, common-sense approach that involves eating small meals at regular intervals (every 3-4 hours). I appreciated the author's emphasis on becoming lean (as opposed to "losing weight"), and her emphasis on personal responsibility when it comes to health. Readers are encouraged to trust their own instincts and body signals when it comes to hunger and food.
It is possible to adapt meals to accommodate vegetarian preferences. Within days, this way of eating was second nature to me and I was very happy with the increased energy I experienced.
I highly recommend this book! If you are looking for a simple, healthy, and sustainable way of becoming leaner and healthier, "BodyFueling" may be for you.

Dynamite! And it really works!
Reviewer: An Amazon.com Customer

This book really opened my eyes to some of the scientific facts about nutrition. Two months later, I'm 12 'fat' pounds thinner, feeling great, happily eating all day long, and never feeling hungry. One of the main pluses is I'm over the 'terminal' depression I'd been sinking into over the last few years constantly thinking that if I was going to be thin, I was going to spend every day the rest of my life starving myself! What a relief!


Life-Changing,
Reviewer: A reader from Boston, MA

I highly recommend this book. I picked it up during a period when I was having a lot of headaches, fatigue and dizzyness. I suspected it was connected to my diet because the symptoms seemed to get worse after I ate. This book offers great information as to how your body actually metablolizes carbohydrate, protein and fat-in layman's terms-and it's fascinating. The author makes a very convincing case for the importance of eating frequently and plentifully (and how/why NOT eating will make you fat). While I don't subscribe to the bread and pasta she advocates, the book helped me understand how my body worked and the source of my problem-too much high glucose food. Like just about everyone else in this country, I thought bagels, pasta, fruit juice, etc. make a healthy diet. Once I changed my eating habits, using the information from this book, my symptoms diasappeared. Also, while I was never overweight, I lost ten pounds and virtually ALL the cellulite I'd had on my body. I wish I'd read this book as a teenager-and would recommend it to any parent with a teenage daughter who has issues with weight control/diet. Another excellent book about nutrition is Bob Arnot's Revolutionary Weight Control Program.

Anyone on a diet should read this
Reviewer: Marcey Smith from San Leandro, CA

This book should be read by anyone who has been on a diet or watches their eating habits. The author clearly describes what food and excercise does to our bodies (good and bad). It is amazing how much we understand how our cars or computers work, but not our own bodies. Amazing!! A Must Read!!


ePinions.com
How To Be A Lean, Happy Bodyfueling Machine! Feb 08 '02 (Updated Feb 08 '02)
Author's Product Rating  FOUR STARS!

Pros
debunks many scary myths about dieting; detailed, good advice with examples

Cons
Wish I'd read new released version if it actually has 80 more pages

The Bottom Line
This may change the way you eat for life. No bull.

Full Review
Robyn Landis was 25, muscularly lean at about 16% bodyfat, healthy and very happy when she wrote this very controversial health and fitness book, published in 1994, advocating a high complex carbohydrate, low protein and low fat eating style that slowly sculpts your fat away as muscle tissue is allowed to grow. It had taken her two years to lose fifteen pounds of fat and grow fifteen pounds of fat-burning muscle, but time didn't matter to her since she had never been healthier, more strong, more fit-looking and more energetic. Time should not matter to you, either, if you want the same results.

Since reading parts of her excellent, up-to-date website at bodyfueling.com, she has become a vegetarian and recommends a moderately high complex carbohydrate, moderate protein and moderately low fat diet, or basically one with a 55-65, 25-30. 15-20 percent range. I like this better, but having so much whole grain, also endorsed by the USDA, is just too much for me, it seems. I'd be perpetually tired from experience.

In the book, she has detailed recommendations for how your three meals and three carbo snacks a day may look like, which is how she has been eating for at least two years. She does not add any oils or butters and likes some vegetables, but only as "garnish." Fruit is more of a simple carbohydrate, as well as potatoes, candy and junk food, (gives an immediate sugar rush as opposed to the much slower use of glucose/sugar in complex carbohydrates) and should be limited, also. Animal protein adds fat and protein that if eaten in excess of a few ounces a day will turn to stored fat. Soy milk and tofu were cautioned against in the book, but were highly recommended on her website. She now even drinks a Spiru-tein shake that uses soy milk or fruit juice like I do, though I use soy milk and fruit always.

What You'll Find In The Book

FOREWORD by Kaaren A. Nichols, M.D.

She has academic training in physiology and biochemistry, a physician, teacher and founder and director of Seattle Medical and Wellness Clinic. Gives hearty approval of Robyn's health advice.

INTRODUCTION: Lies and Truth-Your World Turned Upside Down
Robyn starts out by asking such things as "do you believe you will lose fat if you stop eating fat?" And "do you believe that losing weight is synonymous with getting fit; it is always good to have lost weight; there is an ideal weight you should weigh?" Her book will show you why those are products of distorted diet thinking through explanation of how the body really is fueled by eating the right food, frequently and in quantity.

CHAPTER ONE: Fueling Your Future (Why fuel?)
CHAPTER TWO: What's Weight Got To Do With It? (Nothing; it's fat you want to lose! Fast weight loss means you're losing muscle and you become fatter when you start eating again)
CHAPTER THREE: Fueling The Human Body: Your Owner's Manual (Details...)
CHAPTER FOUR: Exercise: Increasing the Fuel Demand
(This shows you why Bill Phillips' Body For Life is very unhealthy and another case of diet thinking)
CHAPTER FIVE: Diet Thinking (Ahh, a better explanation finally)
CHAPTER SIX: Beyond Diet Thinking (why Dr. Atkins' high-protein, high-fat, low-carb diet is a very bad way to treat your body among much more)
CHAPTER SEVEN: Overturning The Overeating Myth (Robyn gets 2500 calories a day and has not lost weight, but has muscle and little bodyfat, works out moderately)
CHAPTER EIGHT: Diet Thinking In The Media (just amazing examples)
CHAPTER NINE: Body Fueling Day to Day (listen to your body)
CHAPTER TEN: From The Shelf To Your Table: A Practical Guide (helpful details, I especially appreciated her explanation of how to read nutrition labels)
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Bodyfueling In Progress (no one's expecting perfection)
CHAPTER TWELVE: The "Fat-Loss/Muscle-Gain" Movement (inaccurate methods)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Surrendering The Suffering (eating healthy doesn't have to be a chore you dread)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Getting Your Priorities Straight (your body can't run on vitamins and minerals, it needs complex carbohydrate food that fuels it)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Education: The Ultimate Answer (we need to start teaching kids how to eat right, not start them off wrong)
EPILOGUE (spread the good news, you can make a difference)

My Conclusions at this Time

I can't tell you how provoking this book has been for me. Not that her debunking of the diet mind and the weight-loss programs surprised me in the slightest. That all made perfect sense and it was wonderful that someone as level-headed and personable as Robyn Landis exposed what so many yoyo dieters who are obese or with around forty percent bodyfat need to hear desperately.

It's provoking to me because I have been eating a more balanced percentage of complex carbohydrates, protein and fat. I do eat nuts, seeds, olives, avocadoes and add walnut or canola oil to stir frys, salads and what I bake. Robyn says we don't need added fat, but then she was not vegetarian and I am a vegan to boot without fat from meat, dairy or eggs. She says that fats are not fuel unless we're serious athletes, which is why I ran a marathon with a lot of peanut butter as well as complex carbs and vegetable protein in my diet. Maybe, though, she's inspired me to add more servings of whole grains to my diet now.

There's one big question I have, however, in spite of all her evidence. Why were so many people for so many years able to live off of what they hunted, fished or gathered? Domesticated crops were developed over in China in the Neolithic Age, ten thousand years ago, and they were not plentiful really until many, many centuries later.

American Indians didn't eat bread until long after the Europeans came over. Obviously meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds have been the staple of diets for billions of people, but perhaps their health wasn't too good. Or maybe I'm missing some information and our bodies are different today? That aside, this information is still excellent for helping people get off the diet merry-go-round and to eat healthier, more substantial food. She may have improved the newly rereleased book, too. Landis has written a new book, Herbal Defense, which sounds like more than just talk about herbs. As in Bodyfueling, a 290-page book (originally at least) of nonstop challenging insight and practical ways to change your body's composition, her new book looks to be our first line of defense against heart problems, diabetes, obesity and cancer because when the body is fueled properly, the body will happily work like it is meant to.

I hope you will find the book as enjoyable as I did and check out bodyfueling.com, too. She will definitely give you lots to think about and, I think, a lot of pretty good advice you can take or leave according to how it feels to you.

Recommended

Yes

Ingram
Dispelling the myths that starvation and self-control are the only ways to lose weight, a fitness educator offers a plan that is designed to promote fitness, extend life, and transform food into a pleasurable energy resource.

Booklist
Landis, a health writer, and coauthor Khalsa, a practicing herbalist who provided factual information, present a comprehensive approach to health through herbs and food. They draw from diverse traditions, including Ayurvedic, Chinese, and Native American, for preventive and therapeutic herbal options for numerous physical, emotional, and additive disorders. Landis excels at detailed explanations in lay terms of herbal research and empirical observation; extensive references and a bibliography provide documentation. Highlights are her discussions of the history of herbal medicine, herbs versus pharmaceuticals, the immune system and how to support it, and recent myths and controversies about herbs. She ably counters criticism of herbal medicine from the medical community. Information on preparation and dosage and a few healthful recipes round out this handbook. Penny Spokes

Fitness Partner Connection Jumpsite
Are you ready to stop dieting and start fueling? Robyn Landis has written a practical and informative guide to eating for health, energy, and fat loss. She exposes all of the dieting myths and explains how the body actually uses food. You'll learn all the basics of nutrition and exercise physiology, allowing you to make informed choices about what, when, and how much to eat. Bodyfueling is like an owners manual for feeding the human body. 1994 Warner Books.


Herbal Defense Reviews

BookPage
Review by Eleanor Sommer

If you are serious about your health and interested in alternative methods, "Herbal Defense" should be an addition to your bookshelf. Don't be fooled by the title -- this book does emphasize the use of herbs for health, but it contains a lot more information including one of the best explanations of the immune system I have encountered to date. While "Herbal Defense" is not encyclopedic in scope, many of the herbs mentioned are covered in detail which reflects the latest scientific research. You'll discover facts about herbs not often found in popular books.

The amount of practical information is impressive. Author Robyn Landis clears up myths surrounding herbs and explores how herbs are gentler and more user-friendly than many of today's synthesized pharmaceuticals.

Landis informs us up front that she is not a health practitioner but an informed and empowered "ordinary" consumer who has studied and worked with herbs extensively. She draws from her personal experience in overcoming illness and from her studies with renowned herbalist and educator Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa. Many books of this ilk present cursory listings of herbs, their basic properties, and most common uses. "Herbal Defense" is compact and dense but follows a mostly narrative form, listing herbs within chapters such as "Health-Building Herbs, Foods, and Nutrients," "Herbs for Depression, Addictions, Anxiety, and Insomnia," "Herbs for Skin" and "Herbs for Longevity." There are several chapters dealing with specific concerns including allergies, arthritis, heart disease, headaches and digestion.

Landis, with the support of her mentor Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, has created an expansive whole health resource which provides enough information for anyone to start a regimen of health supported by nutrients and herbal remedies that are available on the shelves of health food stores, grocery stores and many allopathic pharmacies -- or even in your own backyard.

Library Journal
Landis, creator of the BodyFueling concept, here tackles herbal medicine. Written with herbalist and Ayurvedic practitioner Singh Khalsa, this work looks at wellness and healing from a natural perspective. At first glance, it shares many characteristics with other works in the herbal canon: it is informal, includes case studies and recipes, and is mildly anti-establishment. On second glance, two things set the book apart. First, the authors explain Ayurvedic principles in some detail and include charts describing the three doshas, or energy/body types; Ayurvedic principles also underline much of the herbal lore. The second difference is the book's consumer orientation; many natural healing guides assume that the reader is well versed in herbalism. Landis includes information on selecting a practitioner, preparations to buy or avoid, and dosage guidelines. An extensive bibliography encompasses popular herbal literature and papers from the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research, JAMA, and Carcinogenesis. Written by a recognized wellness author, with an accessible style and format, this book is sure to be in demand. Recommended for public libraries in particular and of interest to more specialized collections as well.Elizabeth Braaksma, Brodie Resource Lib., Thunder Bay, Ontario

If you are serious about your health and interested in alternative methods, "Herbal Defense" should be an addition to your bookshelf. Don't be fooled by the title-this book does emphasize the use of herbs for health, but it contains a lot more information including one of the best explanations of the immune system I have encountered to date. While "Herbal Defense" is not encyclopedic in scope, many of the herbs mentioned are covered in detail which reflects the latest scientific research. You'll discover facts about herbs not often found in popular books.

The amount of practical information is impressive. Author Robyn Landis clears up myths surrounding herbs and explores how herbs are gentler and more user-friendly than many of today's synthesized pharmaceuticals. Landis informs us up front that she is not a health practitioner but an informed and empowered "ordinary" consumer who has studied and worked with herbs extensively. She draws from her personal experience in overcoming illness and from her studies with renowned herbalist and educator Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa.

Many books of this ilk present cursory listings of herbs, their basic properties, and most common uses. "Herbal Defense" is compact and dense but follows a mostly narrative form, listing herbs within chapters such as "Health-Building Herbs, Foods, and Nutrients," "Herbs for Depression, Addictions, Anxiety, and Insomnia," "Herbs for Skin" and "Herbs for Longevity." There are several chapters dealing with specific concerns including allergies, arthritis, heart disease, headaches and digestion.

Landis, with the support of her mentor Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, has created an expansive whole health resource which provides enough information for anyone to start a regimen of health supported by nutrients and herbal remedies that are available on the shelves of health food stores, grocery stores and many allopathic pharmacies-or even in your own backyard. -Eleanor Sommer

"This work looks at wellness and healing from a natural perspective. .. . {It} includes case studies and recipes. . . . The authors explain Ayurvedic principles . . . and include charts describing the three doshas, or energy/body types; Ayurvedic principles also underline much of the herbal lore. . . .Landis includes information on selecting a practitioner, preparations to buy or avoid, and dosage guidelines." (Libr J) Bibliography.

 

Ingram
Grounded in biological research, a guide shows how to use herbs and nutrients to enhance the body's immune system, relieve women's health concerns, avoid respiratory and digestive problems, and fight the degeneration of aging. Original."

Can Herbal Medicine Help Thyroid Disease?
Herbalism Up Close, With Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa
by Mary Shomon
Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, known as K.P. Khalsa, is one of the world's premier herbalists. As a member of the American Herbalists Guild, with more than 25 years of experience with medicinal herbs and natural healing, he represents one of the most astute and innovative experts on the subject of herbal medicine in America.

Khalsa, in addition to being an accomplished master of Kundalini yoga and natural healing, focuses his herbal studies on Ayurvedic medicine, and also teaches and writes about Chinese and North American herbalism. After years in patient practice, Khalsa now concentrates his efforts on writing, speaking at conferences, providing in-person and web training for other professional herbalists around the nation, and consulting for Herb Technology, a company that provides herbal medicines for practitioners.

Khalsa is widely known as author of an immensely respected book that everyone should have as part of his/her health library, "Herbal Defense." I consider "Herbal Defense" one of the truly essential works for anyone who takes herbs, and in particular, for those with chronic health conditions and an interest in long-term wellness. Herbal Defense offers a comprehensive approach to understanding health through herbs and food. The book integrates herbal information from a variety of traditions, including Ayurveda (the medical system of India), Chinese medicine, and Native American herbalism. The book offers information on both preventing and treating conditions using herbal medicine, and a special focus on the immune system and how to support it.

I had the honor of exploring Khalsa's view of thyroid disease, and to learn of his perspectives on using herbs to treat thyroid and autoimmune disease, in a phone interview earlier this summer.

First, Khalsa believes one must identify what some of the general health triggers are that are allowing for the thyroid condition to take place. Says Khalsa, "as people begin to degenerate and experience imbalance, they begin to develop inflammation in various places. Why does one person get arthritis, another thyroiditis? Because they have a particular familiar tendency, or ate a lot of something that triggers an allergic sensitivity, or for some reason, the immune system didn't have the resources it needed to support appropriate vigilance. Ultimately what works very well is to get healthy. The way to treat this disease and many of these other slipperier, obscure inflammatory and autoimmune diseases is to treat what ails them."

Next, Khalsa believes that the objective for any chronic disease such as thyroid disease is to provide overall support for the immune system herbally, and then provide support to the targeted organ -- in this case, the thyroid -- using herbal medicine.

At the same time, with thyroid disease, Khalsa also recommends that yoga shoulderstands, and exercises that use neck rotation and neck extension are all classic help for the thyroid. "Anything that puts blood into and out of the thyroid can be a help," says Khalsa.

What types of herbal remedies should be taken?

That's a question that can't really be answered in an article. Trying to pick your own herbs and self-treat autoimmune disease is tricky, says Khalsa. "The most common story is that people are interested in herbal medicine, enthusiastic, they go to Walmart and buy a particular remedy, try it, and it doesn't work. Practitioners will suggest things that are more potent, effective and really do the job."

Khalsa feels that there's not a "one-size fits all" formula for thyroid disease. "You probably can't really self-treat an autoimmune disease in general," says Khalsa, " as you have to take a whole body point of view to get better results."

In fact, he doesn't even feel that an herbal approach focused on the thyroid is always even called for, when there is a thyroid condition. Says Khalsa, "I don't think that the approach always needs to be specially focused on the thyroid. What people almost always have is generalized chaos in the endocrine system, a chronic endocrine dysregulation. You can see thyroid disease, or adrenal disease, or even female hormone imbalance. It depends on the lens the practitioner is looking through."

Solving the problems are doable, says Khalsa, but it points up the need for assessment and treatment by an expert. Khalsa describes the interplay of hormones as a "symphony," and "by working on the whole system, an expert can get all the glands come into play."

Says Khalsa, "I always encourage people to see a practitioner at least once or twice."

Even in the most expert of hands, Khalsa counsels patience. "Hypothyroidism responds very slowly to natural therapies." According to Khalsa, he has found that autoimmune conditions like Hashimoto's and Graves' disease are "some of the slowest responding conditions." His advice was, "expect a year for complete recovery and transition to a maintenance protocol."

To find a world-class herbalist like Khalsa Contact the American Herbalists Guild and see their Herbalist Referral page. Enter your state in the search box and hit submit, and you'll see AHG herbalists in your area.



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