4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks A Physician’s Advice by Morton E. Travel, MD is a non-fiction book dedicated to debunking “snake-oil,” or false myths and misconceptions in health. The book covers several different aspects of health, including nutrition, exercise, treatments, and other controversial topics. If you want to know what the best way to diet is, this book is for you. If you want to know really how much effective your medicine is, this book is for you. If you want to know which health products do what they advertise, this book is for you.
As reflected by the title, the book is divided into three sections—tips, myths, and tricks. In the tips section, Dr. Travel gives nutritional advice on not only everyday foods, but also on controversial foods, such as red wine and artificial sweeteners. The myths sections provides insight on common beliefs, such as conspiracy theories, genetically modified foods, and bottled water safety. Lastly, the tricks section identifies recent health scams and how to avoid them.
There were two main things that I appreciated about this book. The first thing is the book’s organization. As I previously mentioned, the book is divided into three sections. Each of these sections are further divided into chapters that each cover a specific subtopic. The subtopics are organized further by specific headlines. At the end of each chapter, the main points are highlighted. Thus, if you are looking for specific information and do not want to read the whole book to find that piece of information, you could easily do so. Dr. Travel even states, “after the scanning the chapter titles, the reader may wish to concentrate on those of special interest.” The book is designed to be helpful to an “eclectic audience.”
The second thing I appreciated about this book is its factual basis. Dr. Travel is well known throughout his field for his work. Unlike some dieting, exercise, and other self-help articles, this book can be depended upon as having the correct information. In addition, the book ends by listing all the references used to gather the facts. These references can be used if someone wished to obtain further information on a certain topic. Sometimes, specific, well-known scientific studies were discussed in detail to defend certain facts. The only downside to this is that this may turn off some readers who find scientific terminology challenging. Dr. Travel did his best to write the book in a casual style that could be understood by the general public, but there were occasionally some words that would be easier to understand with a scientific background.
For these reasons, I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars. It was well-written and contained minimal grammar and syntax errors. The book can be used as a reliable self-help book for someone who is looking to lead a healthy lifestyle.
******
Tips, Myths and Rips: A Physician's Advice
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Star88's review? Post a comment saying so!
