Review of The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet (Paperback)

Occasionally someone comes along and just plain gets it right in a field of study, and Susan Schenck does just that. Her new book, "The Live Food Factor" is a work that intelligently makes a multi-layered subject understandable for the neophyte while addressing the complexities that arise for those already initiated.

I have been involved with raw foods and Natural Hygiene for nearly twenty years and having been exposed to almost every significant work on the subject, I'll say that Ms. Schenck has produced something that I've wished to see for a long time: a single-volume, easy to read book about raw foods that I can confidently recommend to others and not have to personally explain the many caveats about the subject. Ms. Schenck identifies and explains them for us right in the book.

Like any study, "raw foodism" spawns diverse schools of thought, and "The Live Food Factor" satisfactorily deals with nearly all of them. Without the somewhat off-putting "absolute tone" that other raw food works occasionally assume, Susan Schenck even-handedly discusses arguments and counter-arguments about various doctrines within the field. She includes chapters on the history of the movement and the pioneers and leaders that brought it to where it is today.

The book also contains informative testimonials by raw food users, complete with before-and-after pictures that should provide inspiration for any reader. Add to this a question and answer chapter, a recipe section, sample menus, five appendices, a massive bibliography, lists of raw food restaurants, lots of raw food resources, and a very useful index, plus much more.

Although the book is very comprehensive regarding foods and their impact on health, it only touches upon other areas of Natural Hygiene like rest, fresh air, and exercise. However, these are studies unto themselves and beg to be sequels to "The Live Food Factor." I would hope that Ms. Schenck writes them, particularly if they are as well done as this first book

In summary, "The Live Food Factor" is a very informative one-volume course on the raw food lifestyle. As much as I've managed to learn on the subject over the years, this book still held for me new bits of information on nearly every page. It is well formatted and written in a good, readable style (thanks to the editing skills of Bob Avery, himself a leading exponent of raw foods). In my opinion, the book could be used as a text for anyone learning or teaching the raw food lifestyle for personal fitness or at spas, retreats, resorts, health clinics, etc., and I highly recommend it for such.

Giles Fischer
gcfischer@earthlink.net


Product Description
The Live Food Factor is the first comprehensive guide to not only the raw food diet, but also the raw food movement itself. This diet is sweeping America as people discover its power to not only make a body lean, but also keep disease at bay and bolster the immune system to heal from what are typically considered "incurable" diseases. Everyone who eats should read this book! The first edition won the IPPY award as "most progressive health book of the year." The second edition of the Live Food Factor is an updated, expanded and revised comprehensive guide to the raw food diet, with a section on inspiration, a section on science, a section on the history of raw foodism, a complete how-to section, including frequently asked questions & answers, and recipes. It contains 66 scientific studies to support the superiority of eating raw. This second edition brings a summary of all the benefits of Natural Hygiene as well. It includes several chapters written mainly by Victoria BidWell, including the true cause of illness, how to detox and an entire chapter on fasting. It also includes a new chapter written mainly by Dr. Vetrano and Dr. Tosca Haag on how to get children to eat raw. There are new testimonials, many new recipes, updated science studies, and even 3 new appendices. It is packed with new and updated information. In fact, this edition has about 37% more information! (The font had to be slightly smaller to squeeze everything in!) It also contains forewords by Dr. V.Vetrano, DC, hMD, PhD, DSci (who worked extensively with Dr. Shelton of the Natural Hygiene movement) and Victoria Boutenko (one of the most noted leaders of the raw food movement). It was carefully edited for accuracy by Bob Avery, expert on the raw food diet and former editor of the M2M magazine, as well as Victoria Bidwell and Dr. Vetrano for accuracy in the Natural Hygiene components.

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