The Kitchen Shrink: Food and Recipes for a Healthy Mind

I always thought that I was the kitchen shrink; the kitchen is the room where my children, spouse, and friends hunt me down to pour out their latest woes. Generally, I offer them a cookie. After reading [i]The Kitchen Shrink[/i], I know a cookie will just make them grumpier after their blood sugar peaks and drops. So I should at least serve some milk with the cookie! And a yogurt / fruit parfait (protein and fiber) would be a healthier treatment (along with mom's tea and sympathy, of course). Nutritionist Natalie Savona explores the complex relationship between what we eat and our emotional health in her book, [i]The Kitchen Shrink[/i]. This slim volume explains, clearly and concisely, how poor dietary choices can lead to adverse emotional health states. Recipes comprise about a third of the text and are wonderful examples of the type of diet Savona recommends for optimal health. The book is organized around specific issues a reader may face, such as low mood (blues or mild depression), premenstrual syndrome, sleeplessness, and forgetfulness. Each section includes a diagnostic checklist, so the reader can learn the features of these emotional health disturbances and judge how extensively the problem affects him. Savona explains the physiology of each problem in terms of nutrient lacks or imbalances. These discussions are among the best features of the book; they are detailed, yet simple and understandable, and go beyond the typical vague advice of "eat - trendy food of the day - It's good for you." With good lay explanations, Savona tells us what specific nutrients do for our bodies and how they do it, and then recommends rich sources and gives recipe ideas. For example, in the sleeplessness section Savona lists eight different aspects of sleep loss and explains sleep's biochemistry - from hormones (cortisol and growth hormone) to neurotransmitters (serotonin). Our bodies make serotonin from tryptophan, and the book gives the reader a list of good sources. The nutritional explanation sections throughout the book reference the recipe section, so if the reader feels he'd like to address one of the specific health issues, several examples of what an improved diet looks like are readily available. The recipes are light in fat and sugar, and many have an Asian or Indian flair. Savona also includes several family recipes from Malta, such as Nanna's rice salad, which I'm anxious to try. The book does include fish, poultry, and lamb recipes, but none for red meat. And, of course, it presents many wonderful ideas for vegetables, whole grains, and seeds. The book is lavishly illustrated throughout with color photographs and also includes informative sidebars (such as "Toxic Metals" and "Phytoestrogens") and tables (such as "Glycemic Index of Foods" and "Key Energy Nutrients"). Kathy writes about food at hhtp://www.bellaonline.com/site/HealthyFoods

Don't judge a book by it's cover! This book has beautiful photos inside, and the recipes are amazingly tasty and gourmet (and easy). Lots of good info on mood disorders as well. I bought this for my mom but kept it for a while and made the recipes. Now I want one for myself because they are so yummy!

I had to admit that when I first encountered the title of this book, I succumbed to an abiding uneasiness. Who, I thought, knows better than anyone else what constitutes a healthy mind? What if there's some aspect of my brain that varies from the definition? What if I eat what she recommends and end up turning into somebody else? If I am what I eat, shouldn't I change what I eat only with the utmost care?Further, in matters of nutrition, I am wary. I firmly believe that people do not have opinions on nutrition; they have convictions. Whenever I catch wind of a looming nutritional crusade, I run lest I be targeted as the infidel. There's nothing worse than sitting down to a meal you love and not being able to enjoy it because you're worried about what other people will think.But Natalie Savona is not the kind of nutritional writer who thinks you should be burnt at the stake for eating burnt steak. She has attracted rather than repelled me with her concentration on the blood sugar/mood connection. In my case, she's preaching to the choir. I remember what all that ice cream used to do to me in my younger days.The Kitchen Shrink is a beautifully produced, large format book, filled with Savona's food doctrine. Though Savona includes some interesting recipes at the tail end of the book, her writing on the food/mood connection is the gist. She comes to the point quickly. Blood sugar balance isn't the whole story, but it comes first for a reason. We've heard it before (but we can stand to hear it again): the "blood sugar seesaw" puts our bodies through an unnecessary daily workout. It makes our daily stress worse; it is itself stress. Stimulants like alcohol and coffee, sweet, sugary and starchy foods give us temporary highs, then more pervasive, longer lows.Savona suggests adding certain foods to strengthen the adrenal gland and build up the body's ability to handle stress. "At least three times a week," she writes, "eat pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp, and flax seeds and/or oil-rich fish, such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, or herring." She follows with predictable advice about choosing fresh foods, then specific advice as to which foods, vitamins and minerals enhance levels of serotonin, dopamine, and other mood maintaining neuro-transmitters. She covers familiar ground in talking about good and bad fats, essential fatty acids, and the virtues of olive oil. But then she has an interesting section I found very useful: a complete strategy to use nutrients to give the body's "waste disposal" systems, like the liver, a needed break. Fiber and water are important here, but we should also avoid processed foods, too much alcohol, too many prescription and over the counter drugs, too much food in general. For the truly motivated, she lays out a complete 21-day body cleansing program.After a short concession to issues of food sensitivity, Savona moves on to what I consider her most original work, individual sections on how to use food to alleviate speci

This was a ... sort of purchase. I bought this figuring I might find a few good dietary nuggets. To my surprise and delight, Natalie Savona has stuffed "The Kitchen Shrink" with loads of truly inspired advice and recipes. This is not the usual "stop eating xyz!" nonsense. Ms. Savona's guidelines--while not necessarily consistent--is nonetheless easy to read and easy to follow. Most importantly, her dietary suggestions just plain make sense--meaning readers are more likely to adopt them and follow them over a long period of time. In the recipe portion of the book, Ms. Savona really struts her stuff. There is an incredible variety of recipes here, and it would take years to try everything.All in all, this is a pretty impressive volume. Well done, Natalie!