Food Is Your Best Medicine: The Pioneering Nutrition Classic

I was raised in the '50s and '60s on a basic diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains. My sisters and I were healthy, strong and rarely sick. I started raising my own children the same way. I read this book shortly after my 4th child was born. The 1st 2 has just had their tonsils removed (1969). After reading the book, we immediately made some changes, including putting my 3 boys on fresh goat milk and continued nursing my newborn daughter. Our 6 children now range in age from 38 - 60. We never had another case of tonsillitis and no one has ever had a serious illness. Our grandchildren are strong, healthy and bright. All this is to say that the tenets in this book made a significant difference in the health of our family. I was thrilled to see it still available so I could give a copy to one of my granddaughters who showed great interest in MY copy, which is still in our bookcase after 55 years. She just gave birth to her 1st child. It's full of great info! Dr. Bieler was way ahead of his time.

Dr. Bieler's book here is amazing. I have an original edition hardcover from 1965 and bought this paperback reprint just so I don't wear out the original. Really sad to see in the new book he died in 1975; in the old version, he was still practicing medicine. This idea of how important the food you eat (or don't eat) is for your body's health is so important to understand. This doctor cared for stars in Hollywood, and average people too, and was able to help so many with his simple techniques and in most cases without drugs. I recommend you buy this book, and then come back for more to give to anyone you care about to get them healthy.

This book came highly recommended to me and it was a long time coming. I heard about this doctor when I read an autobiography of Gloria Swanson when I was about fourteen. Then decades later I was unknowingly sent to his protige for a food plan. I really mean this, for me this is the best and most simple solution to a very healthy and extremely energetic life I have ever found. The soup is simple to get (vegetables and parsley only) and easy to make. It is fantastic even when I eat all the wrong things one day, it gets me right back in balance and settles any problems I may have. I have nicked named the soup "the elixer of life" as for me it is truly that and nothing less. When I follow this food plan and eat the soup regularly, I loose weight easily, gain emense energy and feel amazing.

best book by far for introduction to food's chemistry in the body. written by an md with real experience, it's easy enough for non medical person to understand. it is so good, i feel it should be a required book for school children, so they grow up with a real understanding of how food interacts with their body, and how daily choices of certain foods can work for (or against) their own bio chemistry. most food books are written by calorie counters - people who understand nutrition, but not human chemistry. other scientific books are beyond the non scientific person. this is written by an md, someone who understand human chemistry. calorie counters are not helpful, because good nutrition is not about calories. it's about gaining an understanding of what foods are good for the body, what foods are not, and appreciating how the body transforms food into fuel the body needs to do everything from replenish the blood supply to healing a cut. it may be dated in its examples, but the overall point of stressing an appreciation for the chemistry that happens within the body is clearly explained. the reader will be left with a sense of awe at what human nature created, and bewilderment (and perhaps a bit of cynicism) as to why this is not taught in our schools. the book is readable with a teacher lead at the 9th grade level, and why not teach them while young, rather than wait until they are older and lean it the hard way? simply learning nutrition (calorie counting exercises) is like teaching an auto mechanic to name car parts only, without teaching them how to care for the parts, fix the parts, or maintain the car working properly by having all the parts work together.

Dr. Bierler was once an overweight, pill-pusher who sought not to fix the source of disease but to cover the symptoms. Many of his contemporaries (and probably many of today’s doctors) thought he was nuts. “Malnutrition from synthesized, heavy foods causes disease; nonsense!” They cried, but Bieler proved again and again that diese could be curbed with a proper, nutrient-dense diet.This book is not intented to give recipes and the reader an easy way out (something he states from the beginning, though he does give you some ideas of how a healthy person eats). But he does give you deep insight into how the body works, and how it is affected by the food, and for a lot of people, garbage that we put in it.While he does not shun medicine, he rather asserts it should only used when diet change alone cannot fix our bodies. Much like the chemicals we cannot process from junk food, the effects of medicines on the body can sometimes outweigh the benefits.This books is for those of us who are serious about health, who realize that food is not all about sensory pleasure, rather the feeling of good health over a long life. Instant gratitude is not in Bieler’s vocabulary; you must fix the problem you’ve compounded over time. He time and time again compares the body to a machine that we must put proper oil in, such as fasting on nutritious vegetable broth during illness to let our bodies recover.Bieler is one of the people I think about when judging my own health. “What would he say about this issue?” I ponder. I know that he would advise me to eat a proper amount of nutritious food and I will feel well at the end of the day. And I do.

Informative, yet a bit dated. Having said that, this material should be required reading for all allied health professionals, as it is apparent that we must take measures to counter pharma's self-serving influence in health education.

Aunque ya pasó el tiempo desde que lo escribió 1965, sus conceptos son muy actuales aplicables en esta época. En hora buena.

A must read for those who wish to lead a disease-free life.

This book is wonderful and absolutely still applies today! I would not say it is dated in the least as some have commented. In fact the NHS are still advocating "half fat" products today such as "semi skimmed milk' rather than full fat whole milk products which are far better for health. Much of this information is foreign to the masses who still blindly follow any doctors orders and happily take the pill rather than taking responsibility for ones own health.A lot of what he speaks of is talked about in Classic Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, knowledge dating back 5000 years. Food IS the way to illness or health and this book explains why.Also wanted to add that the vast majority of low reviews on here are because of the size of the book and font. Yes, it is tiny and the print is at times hard to read but it is a gem never the less and worth the effort!Happy reading! Let's take back our body sovereignty!

Stay away from the SAD diet and eat whole natural unprocessed foods.

E' un libro che si legge con interesse e piacere. Interessante notare che un approccio alle malattie senza l'uso di farmaci utilizzando una dieta accurata e mirata sia stato utilizzato sin da tempi lontani. Il libro è difatti stato pubblicato negli anni '60. Il suo pregio è di non dare un'indicazione generale sugli alimenti da mangiare o da non mangiare, come a volte avviene in pubblicazioni più recenti, ma che gli alimenti devono essere personalizzati a secondo del bisogno della persona, e della malattia. E, a parte alcuni alimenti come i formaggi, siano più o meno tutti ammessi in linea generale basta che siano il più possibile naturali e poco processati dall'industria alimentare.Unico appunto, a mio avviso, è che verso alcune sostanze il Dott. Bieler è forse un po' drastico. Come ad esempio, considera le spezie tutte negative il che sappiamo oggi non essere assolutamente vero visto che molte danno un grande aiuto all'organismo e nella risoluzione delle patologie. Così è per il sale che viene negato assolutamente anche in minime quantità.Esisteva anche tradotto in italiano ma è fuori stampa da tempo. Peccato.