Fascinating and informative, but ultimately dizzying.
An octogenarian and “human ecology” expert condenses his trilogy of better-living guide books into one powerhouse volume.
Using charts, equations, graphics and a plethora of acronyms and photographs, Kedar makes good use of his 40-plus years in academia and as a physical fitness coach. At 83, he believes that everyone is obligated to stay healthy. Split into three sections, “Vit-a-Dancing,” “Vit-a-Eating” and “Vit-a-Living,” Kedar rigorously advocates for the obvious–the benefits of regular exercise and strength training–as well as the not-so-obvious, like Retro-Striding, or walking backward. The author gets controversial and certainly bucks some national trends when addressing nutrition. While he implores readers to avoid fried foods, he also warns of “modified,” i.e. reduced-fat milk, and the dangers of soy. But he supports the consumption of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, fish, eggs, red wine, raw mushrooms and coffee, while encouraging readers to engage all five senses into the act of ingestion. Kedar’s arguments about the hoodwinking of the general public form the strongest, most believable sections. The author contends that produce touted as “organic”–and thus “150% more expensive”–might not be so natural, since the organic industry has yet to be regulated. Kedar also encourages consumers to eschew over-the-counter medicines, fad diets, bottled water and the hype surrounding medicinal herbs and probiotics. Instead, readers should embrace his “vitality lifestyle,” which the author claims can alleviate everything from obsessive-compulsive disorders, Type 2 diabetes, hair loss and sexual dysfunction. Some of these ideas are plausible while others seem inane and unrealistic, like his fully illustrated variation on the calorie-restricted diet: “Never ever eat more than two bites from one foodstuff within one portion!” Thus, some of Kedar’s advice can be contradictive, repetitive and seemingly unsubstantiated, but his message is clear–to sustain optimum levels of healthfulness, a person must exercise, eat smart in strict moderation and be educated about what can help attain maximum vitality.
Fascinating and informative, but ultimately dizzying.Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-965-7238-44-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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