Health Revolution audiobook

Well written, well researched and very inspiring. Maria Borelius presents her findings both convincingly and balanced, at the same time that she's telling an inspiring story about her travels and search. She approaches everything with a healthy dose of scientific enquiry, discounting some things and embracing others. Not everything is 'proven without a doubt' though, but some things are incorporated into her own total picture, some things get in there because they feel good and this gives a nice and reasonable balance to something that obviously not is black or white.I have 2 small grievances; at times, in her efforts to translate scientist speak into everyday language, it gets a bit annoyingly 'cute'. Secondly, all of a sudden, while giving examples on things you might consider doing to feel better she totally un-ironically says: Find a guru, an app, follow Deepak Chopra. And that last part I just cannot believe is compatible with a harmonic life.But the rest is so good, so I'll happily forgive these small missteps. She even made me see a wrong thinking I made myself guilty of my entire adult life. I've always been notoriously skeptic towards trendy truths when it comes to training and diets that people are trying to sell as the ultimate answer; LCHF, paleo, the toxicity of carbohydrates, 'born to run'-nonsense, forefoot running, barefoot running etc. etc. My main objections have been that if this was true, the devotees would be better, healthier, stronger - and, even though many of them claim to be, that is just not true. The first 100 finishers in any Marathon do not run in Fivefingers, the guy that never eats potatoes is not demonstrably healthier than his peers. What I always missed when it comes to food and fitness, though, is that being healthy or not is not a digital state. Quite contrary, health is of course a continous scale. And where someone's at is made even harder to determine because of the remarkable ability of the human body to get used to and adapt to ailments or changed circumstances. A lot of the advice and tips in this book I've taken to heart and in the short time of two weeks, I feel better in many small ways. I may be imagining stuff, but I will keep an eye on running results, the bathroom scale and my blood pressure going forward, so I'll get back to you in a few months and tell you if I was tricked and seduced or if we're on to something here. I'll keep my eye out for a follow-up to this book as well.

I was stocking books at Oxfam the other day and the title of this book caught my eye. The first line of the introduction is this: At the age of fifty-two, I was experiencing menopause symptoms, back pain, fatigue and a general feeling of melancholy about my life. I felt that everything was beginning to go downhill. Immediate attention-grabber, as I could say exactly the same. As the saying goes, this book seemed to be speaking directly to me.Borelius is a Swedish journalist with an academic background in biology and she puts both disciplines to good use in this book. I really liked the way she combined the personal aspect with the latest in scientific research. (Although she is at great pains to use analogy and simple language to get across the scientific bits, I would still struggle to explain them to someone else. I did, however, manage to grasp the main points of the research and what it means for health.) The beginning of the book begins with a memoirish aspect in which Borelius outlines not just the particular challenges of her life (which many women will relate to) but also her exercise and eating habits over the years. She progresses through this fairly quickly before getting to the first major change she makes in her life: weight-lifting. Later in the book she begins to explore why weight-lifting actually reduces inflammation in the body - as does all exercise. The whole point of the book is that inflammation (caused by everything from unhealthy processed food to stress to environmental toxins to lifestyle factors) causes every kind of disease in the body - and also seems to aggravate and perhaps even create the conditions for mental health problems. Borelius travels all over the world, speaking to scientists, doctors and health practitioners of every kind, to determine exactly why this is so - and what we can do to counteract it. Most of the nutritional advice wasn’t new to me, although she made some new connections for me in terms of understanding and explanation. The connections between mind, body and gut aren’t ‘new’ either, but again, she does go further in explaining how everything is integrated. I am not particularly sceptical as a thinker, and a lot of the ideas in this book make intuitive sense - for sense, that it is calming to spend time in nature - but for those more trained in the scientific method and approach, Borelius makes sure that her personal observations are always grounded in research. Her foray into ‘awe’ - and how it can reduce inflammation in the body - was particularly interesting. I’m already doing many of the things recommended in the book, but I’ve already made a few trips to the health food store since reading it - and I suspect I will be doing more. I do slightly balk at weight-lifting, but it was interesting to learn that ”muscles seem to have an immune defence of their own, which was activated when the muscles began to work.”. Certainly my main take-aways will be that I need to keep cutting back on sugar, eating more vegetables, exercising every day, and practicing all of the techniques that I like to think of as ‘self-soothing’.

Gediget arbete med research, forskningsmaterial och intervjuer för att gå till botten med vad en så kallad antiinflammatorisk livstil kan göra med hjärnan och kroppen. Författaren ger inga pekpinnar utan presenterar fakta och ger smarta tips. Allt handlar inte heller om mat och träning och hur extremt mkt dessa kan påverka oss till det bättre. Det handlar även om hur vi som människor är delaktiga i nåt stort, nåt som vi borde hänföras av mer och känna tacksamhet för. Förutom att köpa omega 3-tabletter så är det nåt jag tar med mig från boken. Fler soluppgångar, höga berg och kärlek!

I really enjoyed reading about Maria’s life journey loving an anti-inflammatory lifestyle — anti-inflammatory meaning, eating foods that act as reducing body inflammation. Most of the foods are fruits, lots of veggies & fish.

Tack för den här boken!Den bestod av en avvägd blandning av fakta och personlig erfarenhet. Inspirerar till att bry sig om sin hälsa utan pekpinnar eller fördömanden. Bra att den inte var ensidig och bara handlade om mat utan även inkluderade meditation, motion och allmänt välbefinnande.

Har inspirerat mig till förändring, därav femman!

I enjoyed very much this book. It was very well written. I feel Maria Borelius conveyed in a very authentic way her story, insights, learnings, and experiences regarding an anti-inflammatory lifestyle in this book.The author talks about her personal struggles with her back and her health in general, and how she sought out for help, and eventually got into the science behind an anti-inflammatory lifestyle and its benefits. I liked a lot to know about her life since she was at college, and all the research she was able to make in regards to the science behind inflammation and its consequences on health, and how an antiinflammatory lifestyle could be of so much benefit, as well as the technical explanations for the mechanisms and processes within the human body.It seems that some of the reviewers just wanted to know the scientific aspects of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, and how to achieve it. This book definitely tells all that as well, but it is very important to understand what was the goal of Maria Borelius when writing this book, and that is to tell her personal story around how she got into this lifestyle and the changes and improvements she experienced. She has transmitted what she has lived, which is much richer than just talking from theory, without having experienced what is conveyed. In any case, if you would be just interested in getting to know what you need to do in order to grasp the benefits of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, I would still recommend very much this book. Just skip to Chapter 15, The Journey to an Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle, where you will find what the author refers to as the "path to bliss", and its principles. Borelius talks here in a very concise manner what are the anti-inflammatory foods you should aim to consume, as well as what products you should rather avoid or at least be mindful of. She also shares recipes that are quite simple and easy-to-follow. Finally, in Chapter 17, she shares what she would recommend for a three-day bliss program, in which you could benefit as much as possible following the proposed anti-inflammatory principles in this short period of time.

This might be the start of something new. I almost read this book non-stop for a couple of days. It's extremely well written and is based on Maria's own journey through a new lifestyle based on food, yoga, meditation and awe. The word Bliss (Swedish acronym) sums up the message in the book quite well: Boost with Anti-inflammatory food, lower your sugar intake, be active, stillness and seak out wonder. Filled with facts it's a fascinating and life-changing experience if you start to practice what you read. So far I have only read and not practiced :)

Wow... amazing book of the author's journey of health. This was exactly the book I was wanting and looking for a LONG time. The author travels the world finding different healthy environments and events to improve her health. I'm on a similar quest, so I found most of the chapters intriguing and read them like a thriller. Sometimes a chapter pertained more to a women than men, though I still found it interesting. The end of the book provides helpful every day advice and recommendations.

I loved this book! I've read so much about antinflammatory lifestyle, if I would have started with this one it would have been enough. I like the way it's written and the valuable information it has. I have to say I'm not too crazy about her recipes, but there are specific recipe books that'll help you on that part.

Inspirerande hälsobok med ett lite annorlunda upplägg jämfört med andra böcker i samma genre. Jag gillar att boken inte bara består av pekpinnar utan att den blandar fakta med personliga upplevelser samt uppmanar alla att själva testa sig fram. En bra bok att lyssna på när man behöver lite motivation i livet!

This is the best book on how to eat I've ever read. It is informative, scientificslly backed up, and supported by personal testimony. It has already changed how and what I eat and I feel educated and empowered in my decision making. Highly recommended 👌