I have read many self-help books on dieting or health in general and this is the best. I would describe it as having unlimited access to a doctor who not only is knowlegeable but is an ideal communicator. The writing includes a wealth of material on every aspect of maintaining health as you age, all science-based. The emphasis is on proactive things the reader can do to improve your probablities of living well and as long as possible, with emphasis on the former. The book does not fall into the trap of so many self-help books of claiming some "magic bullet" cure for all your problems. It is clear that the author has spent many years giving commonsense advice to thousands of patients. Though there are no false claims, I felt excited reading the book because I thought the advice was so rooted in the best up-to-date knowledge available. It made sense to me.



Best of all, you can't lose by following the advice given. If you eat "real food" and improve your body chemistry, resulting in a better future for your heart and digestion, you are likely to lose weight. Everything in the book seems interrelated in this way, exercise, diet, sleep, etc., etc. If dieting is your goal and you have a week where the numbers don't go down on the scale, you still feel OK knowing that you helped yourself in a variety of meaningful ways through the lifestyle changes. I've been slowly and steadily losing weight, slightly less than a pound a week, but I feel better every week, almost every day. The book shifted the emphasis for me from the bathroom scale as an exclusive measure of how I'm doing to a much broader view of health, though there is plenty of motivation to get rid of extra weight, especially around the belly. The writing would be extraordinarily good for those lucky people who are at their ideal weight as well. The writing is particularly good for its targeted people 60 and above, but I personally feel it is a gold mine for everyone!