bookchickdi: What to Eat When by Michael F. Roizen MD & Michael Crupain MD, MPH

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

What to Eat When by Michael F. Roizen MD & Michael Crupain MD, MPH

What to Eat When by Michael F. Roizen MD & Miachael Crupain MD, MPH
Published by National Geographic ISBN 9781426220111
Hardcover, $28, 352 pages

January is the month when people make their resolutions, and many people choose to get healthier as their top one. Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Michael Crupain (both of who have worked with Dr. Oz) have a new book What to Eat When to help achieve that goal.

What to Eat When gives the reader a 31-day plan to work on, as many other diet books do. What makes this book unique is that is also has chapters that deal with eating in specific situations- what to eat when you are stressed, experiencing grief, when you get a lot of headaches or when you are in pain.

They also have chapters on what to eat when you are taking a big test, going for a job interview, when you are on a first date, or on vacation. If you're going to a party or a baseball stadium, they recommend making the rounds of all the food at the party or stadium before making a food choice. That way you'll be able to make the healthiest choice. They also suggest eating a healthy snack and drinking water before you go.

There are chapters for women on what to eat when you're trying to get pregnant or nursing, have PMS, or hot flashes. Men have chapters on what to eat to boost testosterone and improve fertility.
If you want to protect your heart, have healthy lungs, or reduce inflammation, they have chapters on that as well.

The most helpful advice I found was to eat within a 12 hour period each day, which means fasting for 12 hours a day. They do suggest to eat only when the sun is up, but as someone who grew up in a cold, snowy environment where it gets dark at 4pm during the winter, that is hard to do.

They also suggest eating three-quarters of your entire day's calories before 2pm, meaning a big breakfast and lunch, and only consuming 20% of your day's calories at dinner. That is a radical change for most of us. I did find that some of their suggestions would be difficult for many people to strictly follow.

There were many foods that popped up frequently on most of their menus- salmon, walnuts, extra-virgin olive oil, and avocado are tops on their list of the best foods. Unfortunately for many people, those foods are expensive. But their suggestion to drink more water is one that everyone can easily achieve (they also like coffee). They also recommend making a plan for healthy eating, stating that "planning is kryptonite to temptation."

At the end of each chapter is a chart that gives you healthy substitutions.- guacamole for cheese dip, whole citrus fruits for juice, extra-virgin olive oil for butter, corn on the cob instead of nachos or fries at the stadium- that will train you to think more carefully about your food choices.

What to Eat When has lots of good advice for those looking to get healthier, although following it strictly may be difficult for many people. Just making a few of their suggested changes though, will certainly help.