Book Review – The China Study

The China Study

I started reading this one last week and I must admit, I didn’t read EVERY SINGLE word in the book, there’s just too much info. His style of writing is a little intense and text booky for me. I have a much easier time reading Michael Pollan’s stuff.

I won’t bother with a recap of what the book is about because you can read that on the website or on Amazon. I will tell you what I liked:

• The scientific evidence he presents is impressive. His studies are complete and don’t seem to have any gaping holes. He asks the questions that my dubious mind were already asking. (ALMOST all of them)
• charts charts and more charts- He does a good job of illustrating the findings with charts which compare with other countries eating/ health habits which made it much clearer. Pretty credible stuff from the looks of it.
• There’s not alot of medical jargon.
• It’s really the first book I’ve read that says “Eat like a vegetarian… it’s good for you… and here’s the proof”. Very convincing!

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• For aaaaaaall the numbers and evidence he presents there’s no description of  WHAT the subjects in rural China (who were the healthiest) were eating! Really?! Why not? This is what interests me the most. Why is there no menus of what these people were eating? What are their staples? What quantities of these staples were they eating?  Chapter 11 outlines “Eight Principles of Food and Health”- which are really things that the educated health nut knows already, and Chapter 12 “How to Eat” has a one page list of foods to eat (whole, unrefined Plant-based Foods) and foods to avoid. Again, something the average health food junky already knows.
• No sample menus
• No sample recipes
• And the most important to me: No description of the quality of meat that the “unhealthy” subjects eat. “Food Inc” already brought to light how terrible the animal proteins we eat can be, but I’d really like to see a comparison or study done on QUALITY meat eaters. My “Primal” friends are some of the healthiest people I know… I wish someone would do a study on them. Compare their incidents of heart disease, bad cholesterol levels etc both to vegetarians and regular “supermarket” meat eaters.

The book was effective in making me again think about the amount of meat-protein I want to consume = Less. But my last point above still has me in doubt about becoming a full fledged vegan.  I think for me personally, the answer lies in between.  More plants, less “meat” more QUALITY (free/ wild/ organic/ hormone free) meats. Which is where I was before I guess. I need good, I mean really GOOD Vegetarian Recipe Book. Can anyone recommend one?

So that’s my take on it. Have any of you read it? What did you think?

Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout Review

Update: Jan 16, 2010
Still loving this game and it still builds up a great sweat. I’ve unlocked some of the other “levels”, skip rope- which is really hard to get the rhythm down! (of course… I do suck at this in real life too, so maybe it’s just me! LOL).

The ab workout although dull (only one exercise that I’ve seen so far) is still fun to do as you have to keep in time with the whistle/ trainer. Good motivator! As I’ve unlocked the more advanced levels it’s gotten more fun and even a bit more challenging.

Still definitely worth the buy! 🙂

I’m a newbie to the wii world of gaming and exergaming, but I thought I’d post my initial thoughts on this game. It’s my first purchase (other than the games that came with the Wii Fit).

Awesome fun!! I played for an hour straight and only stopped because I had an apt to keep. I’m not a newbie to boxing drills so I was able to clear the beginner lessons and workouts pretty easily. I love not knowing what’s coming next and watching my trainer do the moves with me. I live in a 2 story house so I was concerned about making too much noise over my neighbours heads, but I definitely worked up a sweat. Not a kettlebell sweat, but it was a good workout nonetheless. I’ll strap on my HRM for the next go.

Fun Features

• watching your punch count go up
• pretty decent boxing instruction
• getting “GOLD” points to buy stuff at the gym like new training clothes, gloves and shoes
• choose your own workout setting
• you can choose what music track you work out to.

Annoying

• Sensors didn’t always catch my moves but it wasn’t too bad.
• balance board not really used. (#FAIL!) Too bad the board isn’t used for more of the workouts.
• So far most workouts are boxing based… so be warned! If you’re not into boxing… this might not be for you.

I’ll update this post after I’ve played it for a few weeks.

Overall- I give this one a BUY!