Review of Depression-Free for Life: A Physician's All-Natural, 5-Step Plan (Paperback)

In this book, Gabriel Cousens discusses his five-step program for treating depression -- without Prozac.
The book starts by defining depression and discussing the major types (such as major depression, manic depression, andsome others), talks about how anti-depressant drugs such as prozac &MAO inhibitors work, then launches into Gabriel Cousens' five-stepapproach.
The fivefold approach is basically: <1> amino acidprecursors are used to build up the brain chemistry, then <2> he addsvitamin/mineral supplements, <3> essential fatty acids, <4>dietary advice, and <5> lifestyle factors (touch, support, spiritualconnection, counseling, etc.)By far, the main emphasis on the book isabout the biochemistry of depression, as the last section on the lifestylefactors (<5>) is very brief in relation to the rest of theinformation in the book.
Along the way, there are checkpoints (thateasily stand out, for reference) which you will need to determine whichsupplements will likely be the most effective for your style ofdepression.
Some of the stuff in this book is truly new material.Theinformation on optimizing the diet for your specific metabolism (slow orfast oxidizer) is new, and since blood sugar is a major component inovercomming depression, it is very welcome.This is the most mainstream ofGabriel's books, so he does not spend any time going over the benefits ofraw foods, and though he does suggest a mostly vegetarian diet, he does notstress it very heavily here.Nevertheless, the diet section has lots ofvegan raw-food recipes that are used at the Tree of Life RejuvenationCenter, for those who are interested in that lifestyle.
I understoodafter reading this book why I feel much less depressed during the day whenI have sunflower seed meal for breakfast - it has to do with my fastoxidation metabolism combined with the seratonin boosting properties ofsunflower seeds.(I discovered that I felt better eating sunflower seedsbefore I read the book, so it was a pleasure to read the book to discoverwhy that meal is so effective for me.)



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Review of Conscious Eating (Paperback)

This book is one of the best health books I've ever read, no question about it.It combines pretty much every diet fad you've ever heard about into a raw, living food diet.
In this book, Cousens teaches us how to follow the Ayurvedic principles through a 80-90% raw food diet.He also teaches us how to individualize our diets for our metabolic body types.This is one of the only books I know that teaches how to individualize diet for a vegetarian.
The book covers religion, meditation, toxins in our environment, and has a nice living foods recipe section in the back of the book.The nice thing about it, is that with the recipes, he doesn't try to offer dishes that are similiar to those which are cooked.I see a lot of vegetarian recipe books doing that."Try our delicious all vegan pizza!" and of course, it tastes no better than a branch off of the Maple tree in my back yard.These recipes offer new tastes.
I like a particular section in the book where Cousens tries to explain the logic behind why people think he looks much more unhealthy now than when he did when he was a bulky college football player.We live in such an obesce society, that someone of a healthy weight appears too slim, or unhealthy.Because Cousens doesn't have a pot belly, and sagging male breasts, many people say he looks "thin and puny".This book teaches us thatthrough living foods, we can sculpt and shape our bodies pretty much any way we'd like.He chooses not to be muscular anymore, because he feels he has no need for 30 extra pounds of muscle. Steven Arlin on the other hand, is 230 lbs, and likes to feel big and strong.
All in all, this book takes you on a journey through the fascinating world of raw, living foods.It could change your way of thinking.



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Review of Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine (Paperback)

I normally don't write reviews at all, but this book certainly deserves one. The highlights:
* It doesn't consists of all these sweet recipes but has great tasting alternatives (I could never get into all that sweet stuff); there are no dates, bananas, etc., and there are some good explanations as to why
* The recipes don't require a lot of strange ingredients of which I never even heard before; ingredients are easily found
* You don't have to plan days ahead of time to just produce one dish; a lot of it can be put together quickly
* It does have its share of nuts, but for some reason I don't resent that here as I did in most of my other books; they don't seem to be everywhere
* There are NO wheat recipes (yeah!); I'm terribly allergic to that... Instead there are lots of recipes with flax seeds, and there is a very good explanation as to why wheat/grains are not used.
I ordered two other books at the same time I got this one and I already owned two raw food books, but this one is the only one I use. The recipes appeal to me much more than the ones in the other books. There still are tools that are necessary for the raw food kitchen, like a dehydrator, juicer, high-speed blender, etc., but there is a section in the beginning that outlines which ones they recommend.

Product Description
Medical researchers have found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet, combined with environmental pollutants and stress, can lead to a buildup of toxins in the body collectively known as chronic degenerative disease. Here holistic physician Gabriel Cousens provides a dietary regimen that may help reverse this process by introducing whole, natural, organic, and raw foods into the diet. These restorative "live" foods can reverse chronic disease and bring back health and vitality. This eclectic cookbook shares 250 delicious vegan recipes from chefs at the Tree of Life Cafe. Dishes include Avocado Salad with Rosemary, Green Dragon Broccoli, Raw-violis, Lavender Milk, and Carob Coconut Cream Eclairs. International entrees, juices, and aromatherapeutic remedies are also featured.

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