Probably true to say that I knew most of the stuff that was in this book. But Graham Lawton has put it together in a very accessible form and it come with the added authority of the New Scientist behind it. (Well, more or less). He gives credit to a lot of the New Scientist staff. How has it impacted me? A couple of things. I'm still skeptical of a lot of the sleep research ....just seems to me to be too easy to draw a link between just about any symptom and sleep disturbance. Burt whether the lack of sleep contributed to the problem may not be so easy to establish. Anyway, I've resolved to try to go to bed earlier and at more regular hours. (Not that I have any problems getting to sleep). But the drainage hypothesis ...that the brain is busy getting rid of all the built up detritus while you are asleep ...just seems a bit too "pat" to me. Why doesn't it also work while you are awake?
And he's pretty negative about vitamins and supplements. OK, I'll grant you that most of it is probably just excreted but I've just had a cold and it seems that vitamin C and Zinc might be helpful in the recovery process. No worries, just eat lots of leafy green vegetables and walnuts etc. But so happens that, for one reason and another, that the meals I've been having over the last few days have been a bit short on the walnuts and the leafy greens. So it's comforting to know that I have a decent dose of Zinc in the multivitamins and I even upped my intake of vitamin C. Lawton does make the point (very strongly) that nutritional research is very difficult because we all have very varied diets and it's hard to put humans on the same restrictive diets that we might give to mice or rats. And, anyway, our foods interact and interfere with each other in very complex ways. So, the mere fact that the "research" hasn't (yet) shown Vitamin C to be beneficial over a "normal" diet is not necessarily convincing to me.
I was aware of the alcohol- cancer link but he's re-enforced in me the positive benefits of being a teetotaller. (I'm not exactly TT but fairly abstemious). One thing he doesn't discuss is the fact that dieticians routinely say things like "Walnuts are rich in Omega-3 oils" but the actual content depends somewhat on the soils and conditions in which they grow. (There can be a 10-45% variation in the content of a particular component according to US data). And, short of analysing each packet of nuts, you have no way of knowing what your intake actually is.
Time and time again, Lawton returns to a familiar theme: eat plenty of leafy greens, exercise, and get a decent sleep and that's 90% of staying well. (Actually, staying off the grog, not smoking, eating oily fish and nuts get a fair few mentions as well). So how am I doing? Well. generally Ok, I think. Need to get more sleep, maybe an extra helping of wild salmon each week, and eating more walnuts. And my fasting kicks are probably quite good for me. But a useful book. I'm trying to get my son to read a few bits of it. (Don't like my chances). But happy to give it five stars. ( )