John-Michael

Very good, maybe 4.5 stars, but I think I liked Recursion better. Hard to tell since I read it first and awhile ago.

Shawshank: 5
Apt Pupil: 4
The Body: 5
The Breathing Method: 3

Overall: 4.25.. but I'm rounding up, because the 5's are that good.

Not bad. Probably a better intro for middle/high schoolers IMO. It was a decent reminder/summary of some methods to build wealth but the tone towards the highly educated and working class was a bit of a turn-off.

Loved it.

I was writing a longer review for this before Goodreads crashed... Overall, I think the book is pretty good, but I disagree with her on some bold, important points. One, she thinks saturated fats are healthy because they may help blunt glucose levels. This may be true, but it doesn't outweigh the downsides of saturated fats. There's more evidence that high LDL/ApoB is detrimental to your health than there is for high glucose spikes for healthy individuals, and most people would benefit from lowering their saturated fats. Two, she thinks that PUFAs are unhealthy, which again the science doesn't seem to support. MUFAs are probably healthiest, but I'd prefer PUFAs over SFAs. Third, she singled out canola oil for being unhealthy because it's a processed vegetable oil, which was just another sign she was behind on the literature on fats. In regard to cooking oils, canola is probably second only to olive oil. That said, the best tips of hers really boil down to this:
- Eat your fibers, then proteins, then starches
- Eat sweets for dessert, not snacks (the fiber and protein in the meal will slow down the glucose absorption)
- Pregame with greens (salad with vinegar based dressing, for example), or other high fiber ingredients. Blueberries are a personal favorite
- Move after eating: go for a walk, do some squats, etc
- Be wary of all the different types of refined sugars, and that fructose won't show in glucose levels.
- Fructose/sugar in fruits is fine, but dried and blended (such as in a smoothie) fruits let you eat more in a shorter amount of time, leading to a greater spike than normal.