Living Foods for Optimum Health : Staying Healthy in an Unhealthy World

This book advocates a diet primarily of "fresh, organic, uncooked, unrefined foods that provide the body with everything it needs to stay strong, healthy, and vigorous." Switching to this diet of "living" foods can be a big step for the millions of fast-food addicts out there, but the long-term health benefits--cancer prevention, weight loss, increased longevity and energy--are more desirable than a measly paper bag of salty fries.

Written in conjunction with the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, which has been known to help cancer patients into remission through diet, this book takes a slightly scare-tactic approach, citing a few too many frightening health statistics ("1 in 3 Americans alive today will develop cancer"). However, its intentions are spot-on. To make the transition to the Institute's recommended diet (75 percent raw fruits and vegetables and 25 percent cooked foods--mainly grains and soups), it gives more than 100 recipes and a week's worth of sample menus, and even instructions on how to sprout your own seeds and nuts. For anyone truly dedicated to going beyond vegetarian to living the whole-foods way, this book is a solid, encouraging guide.