Healing with Whole Foods, Third Edition: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition

By Paul Pitchford

Book Overview

A comprehensive, personalized path to whole-body health--for more than 20 years, Paul Pitchford's Healing with Whole Foods has been the bestselling go-to resource for readers seeking real answers about nutrition, wellness, and longevity.

This landmark book bridges ancient food wisdom with modern science--including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, and nutritional science concepts--and presents them in a way that's practical and accessible for everyday use.

At its core is a powerful premise: Food is "foundation medicine." And when you learn how to make nourishing, nutritious choices that are aligned with your own individualized constitution, a whole foods-forward diet can prevent illness, address degenerative disease, support physical health, and bring your mind-body wellness back into balance.

Drawing on the eight principles of diagnosis--yin, yang, and the six divisions of heat/cold; interior/exterior; excess/deficiency; and qi vitality, Pitchford teaches you to recognize patterns of imbalance and guides you to choose foods that restore harmony and vitality. This book is grounded in the simple but potent truth that your health isn't a one-size-fits-all prescription: it's a dynamic equilibrium shaped by age, climate, season, environmental factors, and your unique needs.

Pitchford also uses a five-element system--earth, fire, metal, wood, and water--to map connections between organs, emotions, seasons, and physical symptoms, offering targeted dietary guidelines for managing blood sugar, enhancing your immune system, and combating infections and degenerative conditions.

Comprehensively researched and deeply practical, Healing with Whole Foods has sold more than 650,000 copies worldwide and continues to serve as an enduring classic for readers wishing to build common-sense strategies for a healthy, holistic life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556434308
• ISBN13: 9781556434303
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Length: 784 Pages
• Weight: 3.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.6" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

healing with whole foods

If everyone in this country follows the suggestions about food and health in this book, I believe, there will be much fewer health problems in America. As an organic integration of Chinese healing practice and western nutrition, this book provides one of the most systematic and comprehensive discussions of the relationship between food and health. Basically, there are three aspects I find most helpful about this book. First, the large scope it covers: from raw food to cooked food, from herbs to animal product, from water to minerals, from food combination to the art of chewing...the book explores these topics in an unhurried, sensible, and lucid manner. The analysis on each of the major foods near the end of the book is useful for the reader to select meal ingredients that can best help improve his/her health. Second, I like the "middle path" approach the author takes, without going to extremes with either his theory or practice. For instance, the author himself practises vegetarianism, as shown by some parts of the book, but he also acknowleges the effectiveness of meat in treating certain deficiencies. Third, I like its flexibility in tuning into each reader's different individual need and condition. For instance, raw vegetables and fruits may help the person who has "heat" signs, but may be too cooling for the person who feels cold constantly, especially in the colder season. So each person can use this book to fit his/her individual needs. Because of my interest in food, health, and nutrition, I have read widely in these fields. But more often than not, I encounter books that take a narrow-minded, absolute, almost fanatic approach that makes you wonder what they are really selling. Paul Pitchford's book, however, impresses me as honest, intelligent advices given by a trusted friend, who has a full grasp of the eastern (mostly Chinese) food healing art, and discusses it from the perspective of western nutrition. I only wish my copy of this book were a hard-cover so it probably could better withstand my frequent consulting (for almost three years).

A Gem Amidst the Mass

You are going to love this one. It is clear, in depth, detailed, and a joy to read. It covers each food discussed with a comprehensive explanation of its energetic properties according to Oriental Medicine. This book is what you need to make enlightened decisions about what to eat, when to eat it and what to combine in order to have a balanced and self-healing diet. What I liked most about this reference work is that Pitchford doesn't seem to have an "axe to grind" or a new age philosophy to spout. He gives you the bottom line about food, how to prepare it, when to avoid it, how to evaluate it, how to use it to heal yourself or your patients. He doesn't ask you to believe, just to experiment and use your intelligence.When you buy this book you will find yourself referring to it for years to come. Warning: You will probably end up giving it to someone you love, so get an extra copy for yourself.I also recommend you check out Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. It is a good companion to this one and presents a raw food Ayurvedic approach. Enjoy.

Exceptional and pragmatic teaching tool for healers

This is possibly the best instructional book of any I have ever read. Pritchford conveys the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), modern nutrition, biology and spitituality in this primer for healing arts. This book teaches the symptoms and causes of illness and makes clear recommendations about foods and herbs that should be used to lessen the impacts of toxicity and bring the sick back to health. I have used it extensively and have bought several copies for others, the latest for someone who is responsible for cooking for adolescents in a halfway house for substance abusers. About 1/4 of the book is recipes. Book is extremely well indexed for relationships between disease and herbs/foods that minimize impact of disease.I have used this book to learn basic - but very solid - understanding of energetic balances between diet, psyche and spirit. Well footnoted with current research. It is a must have.

An exquisite journey into health with whole foods.<p>

This is quite simply one of the best books ever published on the subject of health and whole foods. There are no platitudes in this book. The symptoms of both health and un-health are delineated; the technical workings of the body are explained; the solutions to physical health are presented. Whole foods in all their forms are described -- what to eat, how to prepare them, recipes, how they work in the body, what they fix. This book is two inches thick, and probably contains enough information for a degree in nutrition. It is extremely readable, but don't think you can read it without a good dictionary. The author takes care to define technical terms, but that's no excuse for not clearing up words you don't know as you read. Published in 1993, the book contains up-to-date nutritional research as well as traditional herbal remedies. A good index helps you find exactly what information you need for specific conditions. While the emphasis is obviously on a vegetarian diet, the author treats meat products as therapeutic for particular nutritional problems, and describes how to use meat products in the most ethical manner. The book even gets into subjects of health such as root canals, parasites and microwave cooking. Wherever possible, the author compares Oriental and Occidental viewpoints on health and nutrition, leaving the reader with insights that just are not available from references that only consider one or the other. I hope I've stimulated your interest. Following recommendations in this book will most certainly improve your health.