BOOKS: Eat Right, Live Longer

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Eat Right, Live Longer:
Using the Natural Power of Foods to Age-Proof Your Body
by Neal Barnard, M.D.; recipes and menus by Jennifer Raymond, M.S.
Harmony Books (201 East 50th St., New York, NY 10022)
1995, 388 pages, $24.00, hardcover.

Neal Barnard has written yet another
book connecting diet and health, drawing an
analogy between Renaissance Art and the
human body: it is not time but lack of care that
can prematurely destroy the two. Like the art
he references, Dr. Barnard’s work seems to
get better with age.

One might think that by Eat Right,
Live Longer, his fourth effort, the
subject––the health benefits of a vegetarian
diet––would be getting a little stale. One
would be wrong. Not only is Eat Right t h e
best of Dr. Barnard’s books thus far, it is also
the most user-friendly. It was obviously written
with the intention of reaching and influencing
non-vegetarians, and has the potential to
do so.
Publishers of books about diet,
health, and cooking lately tend to leave the
word “vegetarian” off the cover. Harmony
Books observes the convention. Beginning
with an info-mercial approach, Dr. Barnard
slowly entices the reader toward vegetarianism––”certain
nutrients can shield your cells …
I am not talking about supplements”––before
directly mentioning the benefits of a vegetarian
diet after more than 50 pages. By then the
reader has learned about protecting the cells
and cleansing the blood while discovering that
the foods that do this are of vegetable origin,
while the foods from which the cells and blood
need protecting and cleansing come from animals.
Barnard’s most mature book as well,
covering hormonal issues, staying young sexually,
and offering chapters on specific female
and male problems, Eat Right s o m e t i m e s
resembles a frank trip to the doctor. No topics
are avoided.
Jennifer Raymond has put together a
“how to” section to compliment Dr. Barnard’s
text. You owe it to yourself to try her recipes.
All those I tested were fabulous: straightforward
ingredients, easy to prepare, and most
important, tasty.