3 out of 4 stars
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Health tips, myths, and tricks. A physician’s advice. - Morton E. Tavel, MD.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, because it is a good book indeed. It gives you what you expected before reading it, it goes to the point, gives you the medical information about the subtitle you are about to read, it is short, it gives you arguments, you get to know a lot about stuff and how it works with your body, and you can totally rely on the information given, to start changing your habits. It gives new information about many, many things, and it is written by a physician, so what else would you want from a book.
The reason I did not give it a 4 star rating, is because in my opinion it can get into a box of only some health issues like the heart, etc; and sometimes, we would like to know in addition to that, things like how stuff works on your skin, your face, your hair, your mood, etc. It definitely says A LOT of pros and cons of things going into your body, but in a lot of topics it looks like the priority of the book is to talk about heart, circulation, blood pressure, and everything related to that.
It is sad, but we live in a world that a lot of people give more weight to exterior matters of the body, than inner stuff, like blood pressure. So it could be a great, almost perfect book, if only it would add more “superficial” things, like how “something affects the faster reproduction of wrinkles in your face”, for example.
What I liked about the book was the fact that it talks about a lot of topics. From chocolate to cigarette smoke inhalation. It has 62 chapters, so you can only imagine how much stuff you can get from it. You can get to learn so many good and bad things about “everything” that concerns you that interact with us on a daily basis. We tend to like food or stuff more than other “healthy things” and we get to know how much it affects us.
I love the fact that it talks about the good, the bad, and health tips, but also about the MYTHS and TRICKS. Which is amazing; because first of all, there are a lot of myths that we believe are true, and the author unmask them. And second, it can be in a way, hard to keep a healthy life, but if we obtain tricks, it makes it much easier, a piece of cake in many cases.
After reading it, I can say that it can be a book for young, middle aged and old people. It can also be a great book for parents concerned for the health of their kids. In a few words, it can be for everybody.
It is easy to read, and even when we are talking about healthy matters, it can be entertaining. It is even humorous and funny. The chapters are small so you can really absorb the information and use it, and you don’t get bored, so you keep reading it and get to know about a lot of things in a short period if time. You can always re-read a chapter and you don’t have to hurry reading it. It is also easy to take notes from it.
What I did not like about the book was what I said before. It can be very repetitive in the blood pressure, heart, etc matters; and that, is the part that can get boring in the book. Also, the fact that I was expecting more information about other stuff, like the skin, for example.
It can be contradictory what I am about to say, but even though I liked that it is short, some times I ended a little empty. Like I needed a little more from the chapter I was reading.
And for me, it was like: “Ok, it will not cause me a heart attack, but what else can it do for me?”
The other thing I disliked from the book was that in some cases, it used words like: “It may, it might, for some people, etc.” And that would cause me to doubt some stuff. It made me ask myself, “so will this help me or not?” Will this cause me a stroke or not?”
For me, the words: (may cause, maybe, sometimes, etc,) are very important in a book based on science.
What I like most about the book is that you don’t find a book that has HEALTH TIPS, MYTHS, AND TRICKS BY A PHYSICIANS ADVICE. It looks like a dream. It was like a “miracle” for me. There are obviously A LOT of books giving healthy tips, but this was like all the information put together in one solo piece. And, I never saw a book that would talk about myths. So it really has it all. In this times everybody is going crazy with healthy matters, that is all we want to know or read about.
It goes straight to the point and doesn’t try to look very intellectual and over the top, filling it with empty words that become trash. On the contrary, it gives you what you want in a colloquial and easy way.
What I like least about the book is the fact that sometimes it prioritizes the topics: heart, blood pressure, circulation, etc. Sometimes it feels like that is the only healthy stuff the chapter talks about concerning something like chocolate for example. And that would cause dissatisfaction some times.
Summary of the book: Like the title says: It is about: health tips, myths, and tricks. It goes from what makes you fat, what makes you lose weight. What is bad for your health in general and what is good. It begins with the tips, with many chapters, then the myths with its chapters and last the tricks. Some of the topics it talks about are: Trans fat, coffee, foods to avoid, cranberries, fish, sodium, red meat, red wine, arsenic in food, what to do when you have a cold, junk food, electronic cigarettes, dietary supplements, artificial sweeteners, pain killers, sleep, sunscreen, back pain, exercise, stretching before exercise, energy drinks, gluten free diets, bottled water, probiotics, raw milk, radiation of foods, allergies, commercial air travel, medical tests, false cures, etc.
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Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
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