On aging and health – two books

I write about these two books together because they are rather similar: none of them is vegan, but both of them underline that you should keep low the intake of your meat and animal protheins; both of them focus on several tips, without deepening none of them.

As for the first one, Super Salute (= Super health): the author, Massimo Gualerzi, is a cardiologist, expert in cardiovascular illnesses, who founded a sort of medical gym in the city of Parma. But I must remind myself never to buy a book when its price is lower than 10 euros. First of all, because the cardiologist was not able to write the book alone, but he needed the help of Claudio Rinaldi, a journalist: in my opinion, if you want to write a book, you must strive to write it alone. Secondly, I do not like books about health when the include recipes. For God’s sake: give the information, deepen the topic, and then let people invent their own recipes following your suggestions, we do not need Accademia Barilla to give us recipes… but this is perhaps just my opinion and a myriad of ladies out there is willing to read and try them, nobody knows.

He suggests a sort of revised Zone diet and give other tips about stress, overweight, sleeping, salt, relaxing, exercise. I believe that none of these points says anything new to me, but in the last years I really read a lot of this sort of books, therefore if you are struggling with fat and diabetes, yes, do read this book, because this book is – for sure – better than a stop by McDonald.

The second book – Till 100 years old – is Filippo Ongaro’s, the first Italian to get the Board Certification in Medicine of Anti-Aging by American Board of Regenerative & Anti-Aging Medicine. He worked for European Space Agency (ESA) on nutrition and fisical preparation of space crews. I liked this book more than the first one, although it is also not deepening a single topic. It teached me, for instance, that aging is very linked to muscle mass. Moreover, albeit not vegan, he stresses that daily intake of vegetables should be around 400-500 gr and that we should count more on spices (and he prefers fish instead of meat, not far away from Dr. Berrino’s position).

Considering my last readings on oils, I do not fully agree with him when he says that extra virgin olive oil and avocado are not harmful at all. I believe that such a sentence could push people to exagerate with fats: yes, they are not dangerous like saturated and animal fats, but it is better not to take a glass of olive oil per day first thing in the morning, just because it it mono-saturated fat:-)

He then add some other information about willpower, nutrigenomic, exercise, character, habits, spirituality, but I felt less annoyed than the Gualerzi’s book, because I follow Ongaro’s blog and I maybe I think he is more inspiring in his assertions. Yes, maybe mine is just a subjective feeling…

After all, you know that I am a grumber and my final suggestion is always the same: please do read both ones and put them into practice. I am myself not 100% vegan, I allow myself some exceptions, and these two books’ tips are still better than a couch potato meat eater life!

 

Happy Brain – Wendy Suzuki

My Italian edition tells “more intelligent, more active, happier – the method that awakens and empower the mind”. So you expect an essay about scientific researches on brain, neurons and hormons.

This is actually a part of what you will find on this book: updated and carefully examined. But the most funny part is Suzuki’s life.

When she was a child, she dreamed to become a Hollywood star. Then she became a swot and shy girl. After that, she became a very awarded scientist and teacher.

But she was not happy.

This is the story of her change.

She started with the relationship with her parents: they never told each other sentences like “I love you” and when she decided to change this aspect, she first asked for… permission!!

Then she noticed that she was fat and in no shape at all. So she got on diet (again: a high protein diet, my god, someone must tell her to read Campbell, Esselstyn, Fuhrman, McDougall, Barnard, because she cannot he healthy with such a lifestyle) and started to exercise.

Exercise is the pivot of the book; Wendy Suzuki even put the exercise in a college class! The author analyses the effect of exercise on the brain, on the memory, on creativity and on self-image. She explains using her knowledge of neuroscience, but the book is never hard to understand.She also gives us some tips: how to develop our brain capabilities through 4-minutes easy and little things (for instance: listen to TED’s videos or go up and down from your stairs).

Of course I do not agree with her high protein diet decision. And I do not agree with her when she says that the intentional exercise shall embody self-empowerment sentences without distinguish among them (for instance, she once suggests a negative wording like “I have no fear”, when I know that such sentences must never be negative, as it seems that our unconscious does not recognize the “not” form). But I liked her change a lot!

She was almost 40 years old when she noticed that something did not work in her life. Above all, I like her sincerity when she tells about her love affairs. I gasped when I read that she tried to meet new men through a meeting-organizer and through internet: is this so normal in the USA? And what about the coach? And the feng-shui mentor?

A well-know neuro-scientist with such whims!

Thanks God: I still have hope.