Fuel for Life: Achieve Maximum Health with Amazing Dairy, Wheat and Sugar-free Recipes and My Ultimate 8-week Eating Plan

by Bear Grylls

The ultimate guide to nutrition from adventurer and bestselling author Bear Grylls. Mouth-watering, travel-inspired recipes are accompanied by shopping tips and nutritional nuggets. Packed with comprehensive advice on ingredients, Fuel for Life includes over 70 simple, mouth-watering recipes. Bear's encouraging and practical guidance will motivate you to try new foods and show you healthy versions of your favourite meals. Free from wheat, gluten, dairy and refined sugar, this is delicious, natural and wholesome food that you and your body will love. Fuel for Life will help you feel healthier, happier, stronger and more energised, and will your nourish your body for maximum success and long-term health.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 2015

About the author

Bear Grylls has become known around the world as one of the most recognized faces of survival and outdoor adventure. His journey to this acclaim started in the UK on the Isle of Wight, where his late father taught him to climb and sail. Trained from a young age in martial arts, Bear went on to spend three years as a soldier in the British Special Forces, serving with 21 SAS. It was here that he perfected many of the skills that his fans all over the world enjoy watching him pit against mother-nature. Despite a free-fall parachuting accident in Africa, where he broke his back in three places, and after enduring months in military rehabilitation, Bear went on to become one of the youngest ever climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Bear went on to star in Discovery Channel's Emmy nominated Man Vs Wild and Born Survivor TV series, which has become one of the most watched shows on the planet. Off screen, Bear has lead record-breaking expeditions, from Antarctica to the Arctic, which in turn have raised over £2.5million for children around the world. In recognition of his expertise and service, Bear was appointed as the youngest ever Chief Scout to 28 million Scouts worldwide, awarded an honorary commission as a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy, and has authored 10 books, including To My Sons.

Reviews

[7jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written with the help of Kay Van Beersum, a nutritional therapist, this book introduces a dairy, gluten/wheat, and sugar-free diet, with a little over 70 recipes, and a 8-week dieting plan. This book is also not perfect for I disagreed with some things:
- disagree with certain oil: rapeseed oil is not bad, and I don't like favoring coconut oil too much
- tap water: it really depends on where you are if you need a filter or bottled water (and with latter I want to have the chance of recycling!) I filter water mainly because the water here has calcium a bit much, but I don't avoid tap water
- I don't believe everyone should go gluten-free, only those who are celiacs or gluten-sensitive
- I find soya products plenty tasty, and yes, there are vegan cheeses
- fish eaters are *not* vegetarians (but pescatarians)
- I don't think microwaving is that bad
- fasting is fine, detoxing is not needed but already happen naturally

This said, the rest of the book (and its opinions) are solid, and the recipes are good. Onto the contents:
* eating principles: food as respecting body, the 80:20 healthy-not healthy eating ratio (or 70:30 or 50:50)
* food facts: for each food part, plus on calories, cholesterol, superfoods, supplements, organic food, sports nutrition, shopping strategies
* pantry and tools (a top10 with latter)
* the recipes, some with photos (he really likes chocolate, and coconut; there's a great flax eggs recipes to use in recipes outside the book, too)
some that I liked: BG super-healthy pancakes, Power pancakes, Bear-style oats, Spicy buckwheat breakfast muffins, Not your average coleslaw, Rainbow salad, Bear's luxury nut roast, Mean bean burger, Stir fries, Protein bombs, Kale chips, Indian quinoa bites, Five-minute chocolate brownies, Sticky toffee pudding, Healthy herby bread, Super-seedy crackers.
* 8-week eating plan: can be done in shorter time too; tracking it; caffeing cutting-down

This is a flawed book, but most of information, and the recipes, make it worth it, even when you don't consider it to be that urgent to own or borrow.

[ifknot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't read this book I bought it in the vain hope of cooking something "manly" myself. I eagerly showed it my wife - I had my first cookbook! My wife flicked through it and lingered a little too long over the full page pics of Mr Grylls in his unbuttoned shirts and tops; declared that the ingredients were too hard to find for me (at least in non-bulk quantities) and what was the point of dark chocolate in a fridge that would melt - just buy a bar of plain chocolate.

Ho hum - one star for making me feel inferior.

[MindOverMatter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned a lot. I am new to the low carb food revolution and this book is great for beginners. At first, I found Mr Grylls to be a bit annoying writing his history with food (typical self improvement book style: "I was broke, half dead, obese, super ill but then I discovered the secret blabla" + floppy writing style), but he has charm and together with his co-author, he really wrote a nice book with lots of knowledge and inspiration for healthy eating. I have to say that by the end of the book, he totally won me over.

The book is not a scientific book with pubmed references and the like (I usually prefer those), but it is a nice read that is fun and has a lot of information packed. It covers all aspects of healthy eating - some maybe very shortly, but it is there.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will try the recipes one by one. Changed the way I eat and drink while reading and became a huge customer of health shops. I can recommend this book.

[Fusquenllo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once my father told me something: never buy power tools in a supermarket (think a screwdriver set in Aldi)

Well, you could go with the same here. Don't try to learn nutrition from someone whose field of expertise is not nutrition. The book has star tips like, (typing from memory) "blend your carrots because the fibers are too tough for your body to digest." "Never use a microwave because, well, waves, you know?". And other jewels that luckily I don't remember anymore.

It has two stars because some of the recipes are nice.

[Anjj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book, very insightful and made me really think about what I'm eating and drinking.. iv been dairy free for last 10 years plus and now I have to be gluten free also and iv got to say out of all the info I was looking at and the books about DF & GF recipes I find exactly what I need as a starting point in Bear Grylls's book.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bear here tries his hand at nutrition and with the help of an expert, I think he pretty much nails it. Easy to read, simple instructions with a bunch of recipes that he thinks is 'tasty' and 'healthy', here's a guy who started off eating bad and wound up healthy and fit, and not just because he can live out in the wild on worms and mushrooms. A quick and easy book that I hope will inspire others to try and just get plain 'healthy'.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow recipes
Ingredients can be expensive (I bought bigger packs so it worked out cheaper)
Introduction contains information on health with explanations which were helpful
I haven't yet tried the recipes for myself but I have the ingredients ready!
I love the sound of 'Bears chocolate' it's a great variation to the processed chocolate we know.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bear writes in a very relatable manner and comes across as a fellow normal human suffering from the usual health downfalls! Can't wait to try the recipes on my hokkien mee loving boyfriend, courgette carrot avocado pasta awaits! :D

[Kamil Świątkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt really surprised finding no traces of any sugared insects nor roots cooked in a pot of sea water. It's a plain cookbook for people wanting to stay in shape.
8 week programm included.