Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Healthy Joints for Life Book Review and Giveaway!


Well, this is sort-of a review of the book Healthy Joints for Life by Richard Diana, M.D.  I don't accept many book offers anymore because I don't read as much as I used to...generally if I'm sitting down having quiet time, I'm knitting, whereas five years ago I would have been reading.  And while I miss reading, my attention obviously is elsewhere right now.  That said, when I was offered this book for review, I got excited because I've been feeling all kinds of joint pain for several months now, and if I can get some tips on dealing with that, well then, I'll read a book!

Except that I didn't get very far in reading it.  This book has some good information, but it's a little technical for me - I ended up thumbing through it and skimming some of the stories.  It's written by Dr. Richard Diana, who was a National Football League player - he retired after his team went to the Super Bowl in 1983, and then went to medical school.  He's an orthopedic surgeon and I like the idea that he advocates for healthy eating as a way to reduce joint pain and inflammation.  That said, I think a lot of what he specifies as a joint-friendly diet is very familiar to any healthy-living dieter; I wonder if I got just a little more stringent with my eating, would my joints stop aching so much?  I'm not at that point yet that I am willing to put more effort into my diet, but if I keep having these weird pains (for several months, my elbows and my non-dominate wrist have been hurting a lot), I may give this plan a serious try.

Just to give you an idea, here's Dr. Diana's Eleven Nutritional Commandments for joint health:

1. Thou shall respect insulin as the body's primary inflammatory hormone and recognize that it is secreted in direct response to eating carbohydrates.
2. Thou shall control blood sugar levels by understanding the glycemic index and load of specific carbohydrates and by eating slower-digesting complex carbohydrates.
3. Thou shall help control blood sugar levels with fiber.
4. Thou shall avoid high fructose corn syrup.
5. Thou shall avoid trans fats.
6. Thou shall eat "smart" saturated fats, minimize processed polyunsaturated fats, and beware of fried foods, especially those fried in polyunsaturated fats.
7. Thou shall maximize omega-3 fatty acids.
8. Thou shall remember that omega-6 fatty acids are unsaturated and essential but still need to be minimized, because they are so easily oxidized and are the basis for inflammatory pathway building block, arachidonic acid.
9. Thou shall eat as much fish as possible, keeping in mind that salmon is preferable to all others.
10. Thou shall choose healthier animal proteins, like buffalo, chicken, and turkey, and leaner cuts of those proteins, like the strip and breast.
The Bonus Commandment:
11. Thou shall combine healthy fats and proteins with healthy carbohydrates in order to effectively reduce the glycemic index (GI) of the carbohydrates.

Sounds pretty familiar, right?

I have one copy of Healthy Joints for Life available for giveaway.  If you want to be entered in the random drawing, just leave a comment on this post saying you're in.  U.S. residents only (sorry, international readers!) - please be sure to leave your email address in the comments if it's not connected to your name.  Winner will be announced this Friday.

FTC disclosure:  I received a copy of Healthy Joints for Life for free; opinions expressed are all mine.  Giveaway will be fulfilled by PR company.

10 comments:

  1. Oh my God, that name is such a blast from the past! Rich Diana was my first big crush in junior high -- he played football for Yale and we used to go to all the games back then. He was so dreamy! :)
    He was a hugely successful player (Yale doesn't exactly have the same kind of powerhouse teams as Big 10 schools, LOL), one of the few to be recruited to the NFL. I wondered what happened to him -- looks like he became a successful doctor. Wow, good for him.

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  2. Thanks for the review, Shelley! That list looks a lot like the way I strive to eat, but I'll admit I could stand to pay more attention to those Omegas. Why do they have to be so complicated?

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  3. Sounds like a great book. It seems like a lot of health problems are linked to blood sugar levels.

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  4. Sounds interesting-count me in, please!

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  5. This sounds like an interesting read even though it does sound pretty technical. Since I was diagnosed with arthritis several years ago, I have made sure that we eat a clean diet with no fried or breaded foods. I also take daily supplements of Omega for joint health as well. And with my hubby being the hunter he is, our meat of choice is venison. Green smoothies are also part of our regular diet which we love.

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  6. Sounds interesting, and I know I need to pay more attention to the way I've been eating. Count me in!

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  7. I try to set myself up for good food choices and take appropriate supplements, but I could definitely use an intensive refresher to put it all together. Sounds like a good book to start with, thanks.

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