Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is not nutritional advice at its best - I wanted to like this book. It's with the best of intentions that it confuses and encombers as well as soft-pedals what readers interested in protecting their brains really need to hear. Promotes long-ago disproved ideas such as "complete proteins" are only found in meat and eggs. If the word "Fish" where cholesterol, I'd have heart disease from reading this book - gushing over the "magical" qualities of olive oil and fish -- even suggesting one eat fish three times a week and saying nothing of the neurotoxin, mercury, nor the vast list of other contaminants now regularly found in fish and that build up in the blood of fish eaters. Late meta-analyses simply do not support the fish-is-heart/brain-food myth that so many health writers have latched on to. This one asserts that fish is "required." Chock full of contradictions and conflicting advice, and overladen with superlatives and hyperboles. The author reveals what she calls her "secret weapon": caviar. Caviar? What, at $320 per 2 ounces? Really? States, "There is no connection between the amount of cholesterol you eat and your brain's function" - and talks about eating a 5-egg omelet. That would contain 1,000+ mgs of cholesterol, alone! Readers might wish to look at these studies that have a differing opinion: Matsuzaki, T., et al., “Association of Alzheimer’s disease pathology with abnormal lipid metabolism: The Hisayama Study,” Neurology 77 (2011):1068–75. // Notkola, I. L., et al., “Serum total cholesterol, apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele, and Alzheimer’s disease,” Neuroepidemiology 17 (1998):14–20. Interested parties may also wish to read up on cholesterol and oxysterols and their access to the brain. With the prescription of daily wine, caviar, chocolate, oodles of extra virgin olive oil, and salmon three times a week, one needs a serious food budget to keep up. Who can afford to eat like this (if it were healthy in the first place). Vascilates in her position on plant versus animal-based foods. Says new brain cells can't be formed, then later says they can be formed later in life. Says "Babysitting" qualifies as exercise (page 154). Says that "having a family you love is enough to stave off dementia, provided you connect with them happily and as often as possible. " (page 163). No comment. Claims, without evidence to support, "red wine has long been known to protect our brains..." -- seen no decisive evidence in the literature supporting that claim. Refers to those who "feel a little low on iron" (you know this because you crave steak!). What does feeling low on iron feel like? Given iron's powerful oxidative capacity and concern over iron-overload and the cautionary stance many health authorities are now taking around iron supplements, etc., why leave readers to make guesses about something so critical to heart and brain health? (page 269). The solution to feeling "low on iron?" She suggests one have duck bacon. While virtually any move away from the standard American diet should be favorable for brain health and heart health, - and this suggests a move away, in part -- this book still misses the mark in too many areas.