[.ca] Foods That Fight Pain: Revolutionary New Strategies for ... (ISBN 0609804367)

From Amazon.com:
Foods have special effects on pain, and research studies substantiate this, says Neal Barnard, M.D., in Foods That Fight Pain, a book endorsed by fellow doctors Dean Ornish and Andrew Weil. You can use foods to fight pain in these ways: 1. Choose pain-safe foods. Reduce inflammation by avoiding foods that may be causing or aggravating your pain. 2. Add soothing foods that ease pain. Different foods may improve blood flow, relieve inflammation, or balance hormones. 3. Use supplements if needed. Herbs, extracts, and vitamins can relieve pain. Barnard explores a variety of medical conditions, such as migraines, arthritis, digestive problems, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, diabetes, herpes, sickle-cell anemia, kidney stones, urinary infections, and back, chest, breast, menstrual, and cancer pain. For each, Barnard explains the causes of the pain and what dietary changes are likely to alleviate it, with exercise and lifestyle recommendations. Barnard backs up his points with 30 pages of research citations. Most of the recipes are quick to prepare, and include an elimination diet to avoid trigger foods. A nutritional breakdown (calories, fat, protein, carbohydrate, and sodium) accompanies each recipe. Following the advice in this book will not only relieve your pain, but increase your overall health. Highly recommended. --Joan Price

Excellent reader-friendly book!:
Literally anyone who eats will benefit greatly from reading Foods That Fight Pain. This reader-friendly book persuasively sorts out what foods can cause pain and what ones do not. Author Neal D. Barnard, M.D., has some of the late astronomer Carl Sagan's special gift for explaining complicated and difficult issues in a lucid, lay-accessible manner. While the book recommends a vegan diet (free of animal products) as a good starting place, it documents that even normally terrific vegan foods such as citrus fruits and tomatoes make the "dirty dozen" list of potential "trigger foods" for causing pain in some people. A sample surprise: what you eat can cause back pain, because cholesterol- and fat-laden animal products can clog the arteries around your spine. The book is supplemented by a tasty smorgasbord's worth of recipes and a credibility-boosting wealth of footnoted scientific references in the back. After devouring this book, you will probably want to try going vegan (if you aren't already). If you do, you will have full confidence that it's an abundantly healthy diet and just wish you had made the switch long ago.

Awesome Book, MUST Reading...Very well-documented:
Excellent book from a physician who has researched this topic thoroughly. Many of the studies here are so informative and crucial to our health, yet you may not find them in other places. Finally a medical authority brave enough to tell the truth and the whole truth with all the science and studies well-documented. More than just a way to treat disease, this book helps you to prevent it in the first place. The chapter about the early human diet is worth its weight in gold. Must read this book...it may save your life, a wise purchase.

No Relative Pain:
I just wanted to post a quickie review of Foods that Fight Pain. One of my relatives recently read the book and has since found tremendous relief for her arthritis. She has suffered for many years, always wondering if food could be part of her problem. As often seems to be the case, her doctors discounted her suspicions, telling her that food could not be to blame. However, she got a copy of Dr. Barnard's book, followed the elimination diet in it, and discovered which her trigger foods are--dairy, coffee, and citrus. Since changing her eating habits, she's had substantially less pain and she credits the book with her turnaround. I think the book is a wonderful addition to the growing library of information about how foods affect our health. Top recommendations from this Amazon customer!

Food Alert:
It is helpful to know the bias or preconceived notions of any author before blindly following his/her advice (including the bias of this reviewer). I am glad I noticed that he was a vegan (very strict vegetarian) before resigning myself to a diet of water, rice and a handful of greens. For a migraine sufferer he bans dairy, eggs and all meat (fish as well), without telling the reader to make sure to eat every 5 hours and to stay away from alcohol in general until one finds one's triggers. Also, he doesn't mention that hot, fresh yeast might be a trigger, but that the next day the yeast may be harmless. I will state my biases up front: MSG is one of my triggers. And I am a crusader to have it labeled on food products, including the amount of grams, so that MSG sensitive persons can adjust their intake accordingly. I know that when I am hungry, I will eat what is on hand and it probably won't be cooked, because I don't have a cook and I am in too much pain to even pop things in the microwave. In addition, when I need to take a pain pill, I must eat to avoid further nausea and I shall eat even forbidden or detested foods in order to get pain relief. People on such restricted diets need a safe harbor, like crackers or cookies that can be found almost everywhere (unlike cooked pears and string beans) to abate their hunger, without losing the benefit of the trial diets; i.e. finding one's triggers. Before a migraine patient starts an elimination diet, I implore them to first get a list of suspect foods from the National Headache Foundation, 1.800.843.2256, instead of using the vegan list in the book. I believe one's endeavors will be more fruitful (:-) if one has a variety of safe foods. Also become familiar with ingredients that hide MSG (1.800.232.8674). Free glutamates that appear in food can turn into MONO-SODIUM glutamates when ingested. A list can be found at the www.nomsg.com site. Each one of us can tolerate differing amounts, but we have no way of measuring the amount we get due to the clever way food companies disguise their ever-increasing use of the stuff. The FDA admits that at least 2% of the US population might be sensitive. At their extremely conservative estimate, at least 6 million people are sensitive in this country and only a handful of them know about free glutamates. MSG is not a preservative, but an "excito-toxin" that cons our brain into believing that what we are tasting is just downright delicious. Amazon has books on this subject. Check for books written by Stanley Blayblock and George Schwatz, MD. One food recommended by my own pain doctor is gelatin. However, the process that creates gelatin (description not for delicate stomachs) ensures that it is full of free glutamates. Also look out for malt, barley and hydrolyzed (insert name of protein here). Any soups, stocks or broths are to be regarded with suspicion unless made in your own kitchen until one is adept at reading ingredient labels. Avoid soup and therefore sauces when dining out; it is not worth giving the cooks the third degree, especially if THEIR sources claim to be msg-free. I have found that restaurant staff are quite willing to review their list of ingredients, however, if they know their customer will become quite ill if unaware of the true nature of the food. Dr. Barnard advises avoiding meats merely because it has no fiber or complex carbohydrates. I hope the recipes included will tell the reader how to make a complete protein with the right combination of vegetables. The reason I gave the book 2 stars is that he does tell about international research results that are probably not found elsewhere and mentions herbs and spices that should at least be given a fair trial to help fight migraines. However, it would be tragic for unsuspecting headache patients to waste weeks of using the elimination diet and not find their real triggers. Sometimes it pays to be skeptical.

Easy to read, informative, valuable:
This book contains all of the information you will need to learn about controlling pain through diet, including how brain chemistry influences sensitivities, sleep disorders, and chronic pain conditions. Organized according to illness, solutions are presented in an easy to follow program of eliminating potentially harmful foods. The book is chock full of delicious recipies that even the novice cook can prepare. As a sufferer of fibromyalgia, I followed the diet suggestions to the letter, and am now in full remission three months later. I now wake up pain free for the first time in over a year! The program should be followed to the letter, however, to obtain optimum results. Excellent book, well written and researched, Dr. Barnard should be commended for helping to change and better the lives of many suffering from chronic pain disorders.