Book Review :: The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book by Jessica Black

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Since it is Lupus Awareness Month, I figured I would re-publish a couple reviews of books (originally posted on another blog of mine) that have really helped me out in my lupus journey - here is one of those reviews:

The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book by Jessica Black - Find it on Amazon

I checked this book out from our local library recently and really enjoyed it. I liked the informational part of the book...not too in depth and not too sparse, either. The recipe section was great inspiration, even if you never use the specific recipes (although they do look good). It just gives you an idea of how you can modify foods and recipes to fit a new way of eating. The tips in the recipe section are great!

The author is a Naturopathic doctor in Oregon, and because of this she is not just trying to push medicine to help in anti-inflammatory living like so many books about inflammation that are written by medical doctors - she focuses on foods to eat and foods to avoid.

I was able to contact the author and ask a few questions. Here they are and the answers she gave:

Question:
"Tomatoes and potatoes are omitted in your diet plan, but what about peppers and eggplant that are also from the nightshade family [and also paprika (you explain on p 58 that it is part of the nightshade family)]? Is there a reason you chose to include these in your diet while omitting only tomatoes and potatoes? From my reading I have seen most folks say to avoid the entire nightshade family."

Answer:
"I only included eggplant and peppers as a way to not have the diet be too strict. This diet is a mere suggestion for "most" people but for most of my patients, I fine tune the diet for them. If someone was having arthritis problems, then I might have them avoid all nightshades. But for someone who seems to be fine with some foods and their main concern is hormone issues and depression, they may be able to eat nightshade vegetables."

Question:
"What are your thoughts on Grapeseed (not rapeseed) oil? I currently use this as my main oil for cooking or baking and haven't heard much about it compared to olive oil."

Answer:
"I love grapeseed oil - it is made from vitis vinifera. We use Vitis vinifera as a remedy and I know it is high in resveratrol which helps in cholesterol conversion. It is also high in many antioxidants including proanthocyanidins and also has linolenic acid. Also has a high smoke point so great for cooking with. I wrote this book a few years ago when I was not using grape seed oil."

{Review originally published on 2/18/2009.}