Eating for Energy

Eating for Energy / Yuri Elkaim

(self-published through lulu.com)

This is the first book I have received through the great new website for Canadian bloggers, Mini Book Expo. I requested it because it is written by a Canadian who is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and a fitness & wellness expert. It talks about nutrition for us regular lazy folks as well as having chapters on eating well as an athlete (very timely reading during the Olympics, I'd say!). He also has quite an impressive website for his business, Total Wellness Consulting.

The author, Yuri Elkaim, is certainly enthusiastic about his subject. You can just tell by reading this that talking to him would be an exciting whirlwind of energetic learning opportunities. If he was your personal trainer I don't think you'd lack for motivation! It is obvious that knowledge is his passion and that he wants everyone to live better through the knowledge he has to share. Many of my regular readers know that I find the subject of vegetarian nutrition quite fascinating, and this book recommends a nearly vegan diet for optimal health. However, he does allow that fish oil and the occasional bit of chicken or fish is just fine. For myself, I prefer vegan -- the recent book I bought by Jae Steele, Get it Ripe, is fully vegan, and strangely enough both authors have done the same educational program. It's great to have so much information from a Canadian viewpoint.

This book, because it is self-published, is lacking a few amenities, most notably an index. However, he includes a 12 week menu plan, many recipes, and lots of fascinating nutritional information. One of the things I found most intriguing was his discussion of the need for an acidic-alkaline balance in the body. He talks about the physiological effects of different foods and recommends how and when to eat different things for optimal health. If you are looking for more of a cookbook, I'd recommend Jae Steele's book; she also includes a lot of nutritional information about living as a vegan in the first half of her book. But if you are not strictly vegan and are more interested in eating well while being an active, athletic type of person, this is the book for you. There are lots of great points in here, and lots of 'book bonuses' you can find at the author's website to accompany the text. I'm heading over there to take a look; he's also the originator of the Fitter U iPod/MP3 workouts which are available at his site, and reading him is so motivational I need to check out his products too. There's also a TON of free articles and video workouts to download at his site so if you're in need of a nudge toward better eating and better health, pop over and take a look at just one of the many, many resources to be found there. And try to find this book -- outside Canada you'll probably have to go direct to the website, but that's something you would probably want to do anyhow if you are interested in this topic.