Nutrivore: The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need from the Food You Eat - Dr Sarah Ballantyne

Big surprise with Dr. Sarah Ballantyne's new book is that she makes no mention of her four previous, best selling books on the Paleo Approach, Paleo principles and the Healing kitchen nor her PaleoMom.com website.

Since 2011, she specialized in using Paleo principles for specific auto immune protocols she developed, and those rules have been swept under the rug with this book. I agree with her new focus on nutrition with fewer "food rules". Dr Ballantyne has made a clean break from the diet wars, she even looks different!…and it is refreshing but surprising.

The Diet Wars are Over! https://nutrivore.com/book/

Eye opening, she does list the nutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies that can develop for each diet camp. For example, the Paleo diet can be deficient in calcium, chromium, biotin, vitamin B9, E, K, D, B12, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iodine, and selenium. Low carb and keto diets have even longer lists of nutrient insufficiencies! She goes so far to say the vast majority of fad diets [her term, don’t shoot the messenger ] have restricted dietary structures, and regardless of what food you’re restricting on these eating plans, the unintended consequences is that you are also reducing your intake of essential nutrients.

One of the main conclusions of the Nutrivore Philosophy is "dietary nutrient short falls, are worsening, if not driving, nearly every health problem" So it is Understandable she has moved beyond paleo, low carb and keto diets to join the nutrient focused doctors.

She covers all the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients…what they are, and why you should eat them. For example, Vitamin D has 12 links to health. Find it in fish, shellfish, liver, eggs and mushrooms. Extensive detailed sections on Nutrients and your Health, which I enjoyed reading. She gives studies that support a wide range of Protein, and for active/older, up to 2.4 grams per kilo body weight.

The chapter, Busting myths on what, when and how to eat, is also good. She shows (or not) the evidence for 12 myths and concludes that you are Allowed to Enjoy Food! She also has a huge table of heath conditions and what nutrients decrease risk of those many conditions. For example, osteoarthritis has a list of 18 nutrients. Hair loss and brittle fingernails, 11 nutrients. Eating real food, not supplements, is the way to include such a wide spectrum of nutrients.

But I don’t need yet another nutrient density scoring system. The biggest negative for me is that it starts with a standard food plate, versus the PE, SPC or ON protocols that start where you are now, then adjust foods to be more nutrient dense, higher protein, lower fat, etc. Eating like a NutriVore can be as simple as a one page graphic, a moderate focus on nutrients in your diet, or a more complicated approach in this new book.

Nutrition is about Nutrients. Everything else is just Noise. Marty Kendall
Do not 'go on a diet.' Start eating now, the way you are going to eat forever. Dr. Ted Naiman