The Plant Plus Diet Solution: Personalized Nutrition for Life

by Joan Borysenko

Nutrition for the 21st Century
  Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. , a Harvard-trained cell biologist, health psychologist, and New York Times best-selling author, believes that when you’ve got the right information, you can make powerful choices to change your life. She cuts through the thicket of confusing—and often downright wrong—advice on nutrition and gives you easy-to-digest, bite-sized servings of real scientific information so you can discover which foods your body needs to heal and thrive.
Since Joan wears two hats—as a psychologist and a cell biologist—you can trust her to psych out your inner saboteur, enabling you to make the changes you’ve been dreaming of. And as a busy woman who loves good food, she’ll teach you how to make simple, scrumptious, satisfying meals that you and your family will love whether you’re omnivores, vegans, or vegetarians. In this groundbreaking book, Joan will help

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Cookbooks, Diets, Cooking, Food, Self Help

331 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2014

About the author

This distinguished pioneer in integrative medicine is a world-renowned expert in the mind/body connection.

Reviews

[Illimar Kaasiku · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nowadays its pretty difficult to sail on the foggy waters of food, diet and nutrition. It's very easy to hit an iceberg -- to get stuck on some sort of controversial and partial point of view. American physician Steven Bratman, M.D. calls one of them for example 'orthorexia' that is an eating disorder characterized by extreme or excessive preoccupation with eating food believed to be healthy. Fortunately Joan does a brilliant job in this book helping us to navigate these choppy waters of nutrition and disease that is also called 'our generation’s civil rights movement'.

For example, she shows how to make difference between 'good science' and 'bad science' in order to make good and sustainable decisions about our diet. Many food and diet studies are unfortunately biased by food industry or by food fanatics. So we have to wear our thinking hats when reading ground braking news or studies. She also demonstrates very clearly that there is no 'one diet fits for all'. Like Christopher Gardner put it: “It’s less a matter of crowning a single winning diet than of finding the winning match between a diet and an individual.”

Joan shows how we are metabolically unique and one man’s or woman’s food is another person’s poison. On the light of that she writes beautifully: "When people feel seen and heard, and are confident that their opinion counts, your household will feel more harmonious and cooperative. Eating whole foods and eliminating processed food is a bottom line for all family members that you’ll need to negotiate. Another issue to discuss is that Plus foods vary depending on metabolic needs, values, and preferences. Perhaps one family member is a vegetarian, for example, and believes that everyone should eat in the same way, but someone else in the household thrives on animal protein. Judging others’ Plus foods and trying to convert them to yours is a no-no."

She continues: "For that reason alone, I think that having a “cheat” meal once a week or so after the Reboot is over (always out of your home) is a good idea. It helps prevent hardening of the attitude and hopefully discourages judgment of yourself and others. One year when I was a speaker at a major health expo, I watched a famous alkaline-diet guru polish off a huge plate of french fries with obvious relish. Good on him, I thought. He eats well, but he’s not a fundamentalist. So if you see me walking down the street licking an ice-cream cone on a hot summer’s day, please celebrate my flexibility rather than punish my lack of rigidity."

In overall, truly integrative and up-to-date book. Hence the 5 stars. A good introduction can be found on the new and upgraded Integral Life page: https://integrallife.com/plant-plus-personalized-nutrition

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to the author in the end people are divided on the basis of the speed with which they metabolize carbohydrates, if you are among those who are not very fast, it would be better if you ate a lot of protein, but good ones. Exhaustive compendium of scientific and biological information about food, metabolism and diets, with the addition of a number of tips and recipes. Interesting.

Secondo l'autore alla fine le persone si dividono sulla base della velocitá con cui metabolizzano i carboidrati, se siete tra coloro che non sono molto rapidi, sarebbe meglio se mangiaste molte proteine, ma di quelle buone. Esaustivo compendio scientifico e biologico con aggiunta di una serie di consigli e di ricette. Interessante.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND HAY HOUSE FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think that there's any earth shattering information in this book. We have known for a long time that a plant-based diet is the basis for good health. I guess for someone who has no diet awareness the book could be useful.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

The PlantPlus Diet Solution is one of the most comprehensive books out there in terms of understanding everything going on in the diet/health world right now. It makes for a long read but also an especially good one for those who need to understand why lifestyle/diet changes are needed and how they work. Without this information, going on a diet blindly ends up feeling like having the joy pulled out of one's life. But armed with the knowledge of sobesity being a symptom of slowly poisoning oneself, it puts it all into perspective. As well, a lot of the latest diets are discussed with observations on why they may or may not work for individuals. In the end, this isn't a particular diet so much as directions on making the best decisions if you need to improve your health.

The book breaks down into three parts: Science Bits (discussing all aspects of health, from gut bacteria to metabolism, fat and calorie war, wheat belly and paleo pigs, and nutrigenomics. If there is a topic that has been discussed about health somewhere, author Borysenko has summarized and given viewpoints on it here (she even includes cautionary tales about interpreting research/studies).

There are a few recipes in the back but mostly what we have are guidelines, suggestions, and recommendations - and then resources on where to find recipes for the type of diet that works for you, personally. The Doctor's Diet cookbook is definitely the best diet/health book out there right now so I feel the recipes in this book are more about examples of healthier eating rather than a comprehensive plan. Borysenko's recommendations do vary a bit from other diets on small points but for the most part, it does align with eating a lot of plants. I would have liked her to be a bit braver about her opinions on the other diets (there are hints here and there of which she feels have a better chance of success than others) but for the most part she shies away from making any stance other than to fully cut out all grains of any type (many diets allow for whole grains).

The book treats the reader intelligently and all the science is surprisingly palatable. It's not so much about "Americans are all unhealthy" and statistics on how overweight the population/cost of obesity. Rather, it's more about the latest findings about how your body deals with various foods. That's important right now because there is so much research coming out on the subject, especially in the last ten years, that really needs a comprehensive summary for the layman.

It's a confusing path to figure out which diet to use and how to reorganize one's lifestyle. This book aligns with the current stress on the principle of 'detox/cleanse/reboot' - get rid of the processed foods, GMOs, and sugar. Add more vegetables but go a bit more careful on the fruits. Give a diet or program at least four weeks to retrain your body not to crave sweets or have cravings.

I have reviewed many diet books this year and The PlantPlus Solution is definitely the most comprehensive, up-to-date, yet also free of 'faddishness' and narrow-minded recommendations. There is a real attempt here to respect and recognize the individuality of the needs and problems of those who need a lifestyle change (even the unfairness of having friends with better metabolisms). Although there are a few pages on the psychology, those seeking more emotional lifestyle changes (emotional eating) won't find much here (there are much better books out there for that - the topic can fill a whole book itself). And you'll likely use this along with another diet-oriented book such as the Doctor's Diet or Wheat Belly.

In the end, I found this very informative and was glad to have read it.

Reviewed from a copy provided by the publisher.

[Edythe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Plant Plus Diet Solution is comprised of scientific information regarding the food you digest and its effect on your health, and how to incorporate plant-based foods into your diet while omitting processed foods. The information includes chapters on metabolism, carbohydrates, sugar, insulin, and the fat anc cholesterol war.

The Plant Plus Diet Solution is not a recipe cookbook, 48 out of 303 pages contain cooking recipes to sample. The book has a few menu plans, suggestions on checking insulin levels, many references from medical institutions and articles on healthy eating.

If you are seeking scientific information on the hows and whys relating to eating habits and changing your diet, instead of cooking recipes, this is the book for you.

I received this book from Hay House Publishers through the BookNook review program in exchange for an honest opinion in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Borysenko is a scientist jack of all trades. This latest book showcases her method of analyzing all of the recent research reports on nutrition, and then explaining it in a way the rest of us can understand. Her biggest message in this is 'one size does NOT fit all' when it comes to diets, and as the proud owner of a living body you have to learn what fuel to give yours to make it work best. Once that is said, she shares the system she came up with that works for her and her husband which ended up being pretty much gluten free and instead focuses on lots and lots of veggies. Her recipes look pretty good too, I will be trying several of them. (The impression I sort of got is her friends and acquaintances were constantly bugging her for her method, so she broke down and wrote the book to make them happy.) Worth reading, her humor shines.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like maybe 3 1/2 stars. The book was easy enough to read and quite interesting. A majority of it is the science behind food and different types of diets and how it all affects us. I really like the idea of eating Plant+. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like there was enough "how-to" in this book. If I remember correctly she devoted two very short chapters on the actual "plan" or "solution". One was what you should and shouldn't eat for the first four weeks or so to kind of reset your body and the other was how to figure out what your "+" foods were. That part in particular was not detailed enough for me. Another issue was not with the book itself but the formatting of the eBook version. There are some charts towards the end of the book that I could not read which is unfortunate.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decided to buy and read this book after learning about the author and meeting her husband in Santa Fe. Lots of good, interesting information for a healthier lifestyle that is not too difficult to follow.

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foolishly I thought this would a more vegan kind of book, however was still interesting all the same, i would have preferred if the recipes were throughout the book

[Fabrizio Poli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a clever book with lots of useful information. Instead of being the usual natural health book about plant-based diet and why it's the healthiest solution out there this talks about incorporating a lot more plants into your diet. This is an approach more in tune with most people out there, especially if you love your meat.

I personally follow a plant-based diet but admit most people just aren't interested in this type of eating.

If you're a big meat eater and you want to improve how you eat without eliminating meat from your plate then this is a good book for you.

[Jan Jaap · Rating 5 out of 5]

.
Very well written with expert knowledge. Breathtaking speed. Extremely realistic based on practical experience.

Some time ago, the author was mentioned in a very useful book about angels.

Looking her up, I discovered this book.

[Jamie Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review on my blog.

[Jennifer Ritz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book but too much science and not enough practical/how to/instructional info.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but just more of eat veg....

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

After watching the documentary, “Heal” on Netflix, I was very impressed with Joan Borysenko. After looking up all she had written I bought this book and her book on 52 meditations. This book was very well written and took great pains to explain the importance of a mainly Plant based diet. I have read some of the suggestions made before, but now understand why to make a change.