General Books

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Nutrition -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 465 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The True Cost of Eating Your Lunch 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Journalist Michael Pollan has written what appears on the surface to be a boring book. He decides to eat four meals and explore the history and consequences of each. He chooses an industrial agricultural meal (fast food), a large-scale organic meal, locally raised farm meal and finally he hunts and gathers his last meal.

By capturing the social, economic, and ecological as well as the moral, and ethical consequences of each meal, Pollan has written a modern day masterpiece on a task most people take for granted - eating their lunch. It's an intricately woven narrative with a massive amount of pain-staking research. But one thing "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is not is boring. Its captivating reading.

It should be required reading for anyone who as eaten a Big Mac or thinks that shopping at Whole Foods is going to save the planet. Every food item people purchase and consume is a political statement and has rippling effects on their health, the environment, and our society. Pollan has written a wake-up call to all of us.

And for those vegetarians out there? Pollan makes one of the best arguments I've ever read about why vegetarians are inherently hypocritical and why the vegetarian lifestyle may be more unnatural and nature defying than any other diet.

Here are some of the highlights from Pollan's fascinating book:

* Meat might not be that bad for people. The problem is the way we raise cattle. Cows evolved to eat grass. Their stomachs are complicated six chambered organs designed to break down and digest grasses. Industrial raised cattle are fed ground up corn, which is unhealthy for them. As a result, the cattle become ill and the corn has to be injected with antibiotics and other chemicals. It's the corn that marbles beef and causes it to be unhealthy. "In the same way ruminants are ill adapted to eating corn, humans in turn may be poorly adapted to eating ruminants that eat corn," according to Pollan.

* Cattle are fed corn for about 150 days before they are slaughtered. It's a good thing because it is unlikely that cattle could survive the chemical-laced corn diet for much longer than that. Even at 150 days, most of the cattle we eat are sick.

* Food companies have an enormous challenge in order to grow and meet Wall Street expectations. The biggest problem: "fixed stomach." People can only consume a limited amount of food each year - about 1,500 pounds. So food companies are forced to do one of two things: entice people to eat more or convince them to pay more for what they already eat. This has lead to the development of a new type of corn starch which has zero calories. In other words, the food companies are on the verge of developing food with no calories so you can eat as much as you like.

* A child in the U.S. born in 2000 has a one in three chance of being diabetic.

* Hunger is complicated in human beings due to our feast or famine digestive system. As a result of this evolutionary trait humans won't stop eating when they are full. In fact, when presented with an overabundance of food, human will eat up to 30 percent more. It's one of the reasons why "super-sizing" portions has worked so well at fast food chains.

* There is butane in chicken McNuggets. Why? Lighter fluid apparently adds freshness. The FDA allows 0.02 percent of the chemical TBHQ in food. That's kind of them because one gram of TBHQ causes: "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, and a sense of suffocation and collapses." Five grams of TBHQ kills human beings.

* People in the U.S. each more corn than any other food. Corn byproducts are in nearly everything we consume. A breakdown of corn in a typical McDonald's meal looks like this: Soda (100 percent corn), milk shake (78 percent), salad dressing (65 percent), chicken nuggets (56 percent), cheeseburger (52 percent), and French fries (23 percent).

* The organic food movement is starting to look a lot like big business. The grocery chain Whole Foods, for example, buys most of its food from two enormous organic food companies Earthbound Farms and Grimmway Farms - rarely buying food for local farms. For example, milk can be called organic and the only difference in treatment and conditions for the cows is that they are fed organic corn instead of regular corn. Cows, of course, don't naturally eat corn.

* Under pressure from big organic farms, the U.S. government allows synthetic additive including "guar and xanthan gum" and "carrageenan" to be called organic. That's why consumers can buy organic TV dinners, which, if you think about it, isn't really possible.

* Lots of organic farming operations uses fraudulent claims to entice people. A perfect example are chickens. Pollan visited a farm that claimed its birds were "range free." This conjures images of uncaged birds roaming grassy lots. He found these chickens in a shed crammed with 20,000 birds - fed, of course, organic corn. They got to call the birds range free because there was a door on the side of the shed that lead to a small fenced in yard. But the door is only unlocked after the chickens were five to six weeks old. They are slaughtered two weeks later.

* Mushrooms are not plants - they are fungi and actually closer related to animals than plants. There is a fungi in Michigan that takes up more than 40 acres and may be centuries old.

* Pollan takes on the vegetarian mentality. He says the concept of "mourning" the death of an animal is a new modern emotion - a departure from the way nature is. Death - animals killing other animals for food - is the way nature was designed. It's the grand design.

Read more "Literate Blather" at the Dark Party Review [...]

Editorial Review:

A New York Times bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winner Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us—whether industrial or organic, alternative or processed—he develops a portrait of the American way of eating. The result is a sweeping, surprising exploration of the hungers that have shaped our evolution, and of the profound implications our food choices have for the health of our species and the future of our planet.

How Doctors Think

Jerome Groopman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Without risking failure there is zero chance of success 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

When Dr. Jerome Groopman began his medical internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he placed a high priority on facts. While in medical school he had tirelessly tried to "store an encyclopedia in [his] mind" as so that when faced with patients, he could "open the mental book and find the correct diagnosis and treatment." Thirty years later he saw students and residents relying on statistics, algorithms, "evidence-based" guidelines -- tools he feared would shackle their cognitive processes. How do doctors think, he wondered? How SHOULD they think?

This book is the product of his thoughtful consideration of those questions. He read the available research and spoke with many colleagues about their theory and experience, assembling cases to illustrate his findings. There are many ways a doctor can fall into errors of cognitive process. Representativeness error matches the patient against a prototype and fails to consider other possibilities: a fit, active man is probably not having a heart attack. Attribution error leads a doctor to categorize the patient negatively: the disheveled patient with edema and an enlarged liver is probably an alcoholic. Affective error prevents the doctor from looking beyond favorable indicators for a liked or admired patient. These and other errors are based in social assumptions and pattern recognition, and in the general rule that when you hear hoofbeats, you should think of horses, not zebras. In these days of managed medicine, there is bias toward a linear approach and "satisfaction of search" -- settling for the first answer that reasonably accommodates the available data.

The detailing of these and other cognitive errors and shortcuts actually forms a small part of How Doctors Think. Dr. Groopman goes on to discuss situations where errors of thinking are likely to occur: the reading of X-rays and CT scans, the impact of marketing on medical decision making, the roles of variability and uncertainty in treating babies with malformed hearts, the treatment of cancer. The patients and their stories are well integrated with Dr. Groopman's discussion of his subject: how to partner with the patient for the best possible outcome.

This is not a book of medical horror stories, nor of doctor-bashing; not even of managed care-bashing. It's a measured exploration of the doctor's role, with a final chapter offering advice to patients on questions they might ask their doctors. Required reading for all parties in the health care team. Yes, that means you!

Linda Bulger, 2008

Editorial Review:

How Doctors Think is a window into the mind of the physician and an insightful examination of the all-important relationship between doctors and their patients. In this myth-shattering work, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpints why doctors succeed and why they err. Most important, Groopman shows when and how doctors can -- with our help -- avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Mary Roach

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 358 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting... but makes your stomach churn 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Lots of interesting facts and I was impressed at how the author managed to write about this subject. Seriously, if someone told me they were going to write a book about cadavers and it was going to be a best seller, I wouldn've thought they were crazy. That being said, Mary Roach did manage to write a best selling book on the subject, although some of the information and description of the facts made my stomach churn. Maybe I'm just squeamish, but her descriptions on the way the human cadaver were used throughout history made me a bit nauseous. Also, I don't know why people thought this book was hilarious. Interesting maybe, but hilarious? I don't see it. Some of the facts she uncovered were amusing (in an interesting way,) but I didn't fall down laughing. If you're interested in knowing what happens to human cadavers and has a strong stomach, then this book is pretty informative, but if you want a funny book, go somewhere else.

Editorial Review:

For 2,000 years, cadavers---some willingly, some unwittingly---have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and, in so doing, tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

The Power of Positive Thinking (minature edition)

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 171 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a gift from my parents. Such a great book and very helpful with life's issues. Definitely a book that can be read multiple times when needed.

A little dated in the presentation, but not the content. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I found myself a bit distracted by the lack of specific references as to who the annecdotes were about. A lot of "a certain high ranking executive in an important industry, in a major US city..." These days we expect to be told which executive in which industry and and which in which city. Maybe we have all gotten a bit more skeptical about sources in the Internet age.
But that quibble asside, I have been making a concious effort to put Dr. Peale's ideas into practice, and found them very helpful. In another 50 years the presentation will seem more dated yet, but I am sure the ideas will be no less important. I am glad I bought the book.
As as has been noted in many other reviews, this book is about living a rich, full, happy life in a Christian framework. If that's not what you are looking for, keep looking!

Editorial Review:

This condensed version of the most famous self-help book ever written is a pocket-size volume of inspiration that's as relevant today as it was when first published in 1952. It contains the wisdom of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's best-selling original and Peale's sage advice about developing the mental acumen to surmount obstacles and maintain a positive outlook.

The Fat Flush Plan

Ann Louise Gittleman

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Diets & Weight Loss -> Diets -> Low Fat
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Diets & Weight Loss -> Diets -> Weight Loss

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 237 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Kiss cellulite goodbye!

The Fat Flush® Plan melts fat from hips, waist, and thighs in just two weeks and re-shapes your body while detoxifying your system. The Fat Flush Plan is a groundbreaking low carb/detox diet and fitness program. Fat Flush is known as the only diet program that gets rid of bloat, supports the liver, cleans up the lymph, and helps to eliminate the appearance of cellulite – for good.

An international best-seller with legions of devoted followers, The Fat Flush Plan has been featured on "The View," as well as in cover articles in Time, Glamour, Self, and many others. It is based upon essential fats (such as flax seed oil and flax seeds), balanced proteins (including eggs, meat, fish, and moderate soy) plus low-glycemic healthy carbs from fat flushing fruits and vegetables. The Plan also features “cleansing” tonics such as unsweetened cranberry juice and water, the “Long Life Cocktail,” and daily hot water and lemon juice as well as a delicious array of fat burning, water regulating, and insulin controlling herbs and spices (think cayenne, mustard, cilantro, parsley, cinnamon, and cloves).

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Atul Gawande

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 156 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A brilliant and courageous doctor reveals, in gripping accounts of true cases, the power and limits of modern medicine.Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is -- complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human. Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He also shows us what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. Gawande offers a richly detailed portrait of the people and the science, even as he tackles the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives.At once tough-minded and humane, Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties that lie at the heart of modern medicine, yet always alive to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor.

Examkrackers Mcat Complete Study Package (Examkrackers)

Jonathan Orsay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 95 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The first time I took the MCAT I took a Princeton Review class. It really was great, I got a mountain of books and practice questions and I scored well on the test, however, it was incredibly expensive. I decided to take a break form school so I held off on applying to medical school. When I decided it was time to apply I had to take the MCAT again. I decided to buy Examkrackers and study myself. The content of these books was so much better then the class I had taken. Everything is clear and concise which makes learning the huge amount material you need to cover very easy. My only gripe would be that there aren't nearly enough practice questions. (Of course you can always spend more money and buy the books that have more practice problems.)

If you have the discipline to study this by yourself I would definitely suggest getting this study pack. If you need a little extra nudging then I would go for a review class that is structured, if you are lucky you can take one of Examkrackers' classes.

Editorial Review:

This is a 5 volume set of the newest editions of the now famous ExamKrackers MCAT Manuals. You'll find everything that you need to know to score your best on the MCAT. For the first time, these books are sold as a five volume set with a top quality, full length practice MCAT included as a bonus. 980 pages of color and black and white illustrations on text book quality paper. 31 thirty minute topical exams in MCAT format. Over 1400 MCAT questions in all. This 5 volume set is certain to become the top selling MCAT study set this year.

First Aid for the USMLE Step 2

Tao Le, Chirag Amin, Vikas Bhushan, Ross Berkeley, Ross Levine, Diego Ruiz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Not yet ready for Kindle 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Don't get me wrong; I love the paperback, but I bought this for my kindle,and was sorely disappointed. The tables (that make up the majority of the book) were not properly formatted for the e-book, and the arrows used to signify increases and decreases show up as question marks instead, as the kindle's text does not recognize those icons.

Take Step 2 Early and Use This Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is the only book you need for to crush Step 2. Packed with great facts. I read this book twice and did the usmleworld question bank and my score was nearly perfect. Take Step 2 early because residency programs are much, much more interested in your score than before. I saw my score circled and starred on several interviewers sheets. My friend is going into surgery and took his exam late; many of his programs were calling him to ask for a Step 2 score while rank lists were being prepared.

Editorial Review:

Outlines the history, physical exam, differential diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of the important and commonly encountered diseases on the USMLE Step 2. The topics and images are based on student feedback from the March and August 1998 exams. Includes information on the computer-based format.

Examkrackers MCAT101 Passages in MCAT Verbal Reasoning (Examkrackers)

David Orsay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

next edition? 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

does anyone know if the next edition will be out any time soon? Or should I just get this one (pub 2002) for my test in may?

Thanks

Examkracker verbal 101 passasges review 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Since the MCAT changed from an 8 hour exam to a 5 hour exam, this book has lost its relevance. It is not that helpful anymore because it does not reflect the AAMCAS structure or question type. It is far too difficult and irrelevant. They need to come up with a newer version where the verbal tests are 40 minutes each, the passages are shorter, and the questions at par with the real test.

Editorial Review:

The passages in this book have been designed to closely resemble official MCAT Verbal passages. From the type font to the subject matter to the number of words in each passage, question, and answer choice, these exas have the real MCAT feel. The questions in this book accurately duplicate the intended ambiguity that is the challenge of the actual MCAT. As is true of the official MCAT, you won't find the answers to these questions by hunting through the passages to find specific details. Instead, you'll need to understand the passeges in their entirety, just as you will on official MCAT day. The explanations in this book provide a comprehensive breakdown of correct, and incorrect answer choices. If you want lots of practice with tough, accurate MCAT exams to boost your Verbal Reasoning score on MCAT day, this book is for you.

Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2005-2006: United States and Canada (Medical School Admission Requirements, United States and Canada)

Association of American Medical Colleges, Meredith T. Moller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

eh 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

unfortunately, it was only when i got this book that i realized how much of a waste of $30 it was. i really wish i could have skimmed through it at a nearby bookstore so i wouldnt have to pay 30$ to look through less than 1/10 of it. i strongly recommend browsing through it at a bookstore (if it has it in stock!!!) or chipping in on buying one with a friend or borrowing a friend's. i remember that the 2007 edition strongly resembled this year's- so recent editions should be okay!

Great resource! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a great reference book and resource. It has all the information you need about medical schools and their admissions requirements, standards, and much more. A must have for the medical school application process. Great book!!

Editorial Review:

The most up-to-date information on application procedures and deadlines, tuition and student fees, and statistics on acceptance rates from every accredited medical school in the United States and Canada. For people who are just thinking about medicine as a career, we've also provided an overview of the entire application and medical school process, with a timeline to help you get started.