Morgan Blackledge's Reviews > How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

This book is an unflinching, fearless journey to the dark heart of one of our cultures most contentious and taboo subjects.

Food.

It's not commonly recognized as such. But in my experience, if you want to instigate a fractious argument amongst an otherwise civil group, about a topic that is is absolutely mired in superstition, opaqued by endless layers of literally centuries worth of misinformation, and of which people hold highly defended, deeply emotional, bizarrely irrational and literally deadly serious opinions about, all you have to do is simply……

talk about which foods are healthy and which foods are not in mixed company.

Particularly whether or not one should eat meat including poultry and fish.

Then just sit back and watch the conversational blood sport begin.

Before it's all over, close friends may become bitter enemies.

In my opinion, the BIG 3 nuclear discussion topics are:

1. Politics
2. Religion
3. Food

And in Los Angeles, you can pretty much hyphenate those together into one big word.

politica-religio-nutrition.

Angelenos are religious about their kale smoothies and view consumption of certain foods as treason.

For this reason, I try to avoid the subject all together. Besides. I've already read a bunch of vegan terror tactic books like The Pleasure Trap (a classic) and I have already seen the vegan terror propaganda films e.g. Forks Over Knives (another classic).

I thought I already had all of the data.

I (for above stated reasons and more) was intensely resistant to reading the book and would have passed without second thought had it not been at the emphatic behest of my lovely and wise wife.

As usual, she was right and I was wrong.

So I understand if you're feeling resistant or on the fence about this book.

But if you are, all I have to say to you is.....

OMFG! do yourself a massive solid and read it.

If you've already read the book you may pick up on the fact that there's a pretty awesome (however unintentional) pun embedded in that sentence.

Seriously though, read this book.

Or better yet listen to the Audible version. It's narrated by the author, and he's the quintessential Nebbish.

For those of you unversed in Yiddish, that means lovable-nerdy-intellectual-good guy-dork.

His ridiculously vast knowledgebase is quite literally awesome. That combined with his over-the-top enthusiasm makes the audio version of this book absolutely infectious (in the good way).

Now for the kick in the teeth.

The good doctor presents literally reams of evidence against consuming meat (including fish and chicken) and for a eating a plant based, no processed food diet.

And his argument is overwhelmingly (terrifyingly) convincing.

As he puts it "this is not a vegetarian diet, or a vegan diet, it's an evidence based diet".

And how!

To say the evidence presented is "motivational" or even "coercive" is an understatement.

By the half way mark of the book he had me eating broccoli as if my life depended on it.

This is the perfect first book of the year.

Read it, turn over a new leaf and stuff it in your pre-diabetic pie hole.

Here's to a long healthy life!

Five stars*****