THE JUNGLE EFFECT: The Healthiest Diets From Around The World—Why They Work And How to Make Them Work For You by Daphne Miller, MD
I was a devoted Vegetarian turned Vegan until 2013, when an exercise injury left me unable to walk or stand longer than five minutes. After months of tests, traditional medical specialists found no reason for the excruciating pain. I tried all the alternative therapies that were available to me. A Chinese acupuncturist was able to lessen the pain, but it always returned, sometimes worse than before. By the time I started to think I might never be physically active again, the acupuncturist said my Vegan diet might be hindering my recovery. According to Chinese medicine pain comes from stagnant chi. He believed if I added animal energy—meat—to my diet, the chi would slowly begin to flow again. The pain was so bad I jumped on the meat wagon and indulged in steak that same night.
Maybe it was psychological desperation, but I believed I felt better the next morning. My body also seemed to crave more meat, so meat became a staple on my shopping list. My mind kept saying, I’m doing this for my health, but emotionally I was torn. I’d been a vegetarian for so long eating meat felt like a betrayal. I couldn’t accept that adding meat back into my diet wasn’t any different than choosing to eliminate it. To me it wasn’t a dietary choice, it was a Cardinal Sin.
Only then did I see the ultimate problem. I was afraid of meat, or more precisely, afraid of food. Before I became a vegetarian I had gone through an anorexic phase, which was followed by a phase of secretive binging. The meat issue made me realize my choice to be vegetarian or vegan was just another way for me to wage war against my fear of food. Enter Daphne Miller, MD and The Jungle Effect, my bridge to finding peace with food.
Dr. Daphne Miller is a board-certified family physician. She has a private practice in San Francisco and teaches nutrition and integrative medicine at the University of California. Dr. Miller’s research into indigenous diets was prompted by her patient Angela whose battle with excess weight, high blood pressure and knee problems were eliminated when she returned to the foods she ate while growing up in the rainforest.
I’ve eaten and sweated through an eclectic mound of diet and exercise programs. They all seemed logical. None had staying power. The Jungle Effect is not a diet book, or exercise program. It is however, a book that will provide such outstanding information and evidence that your current point of view on food and exercise will be shaken and may, in fact, change. This healthier attitude will stem from the combination of Dr. Miller’s research and the patient stories she shares. Each patient story is from a person like you and me—no celebrities with personal trainers and culinary chefs on their payroll are highlighted these pages. Yay!
The majority of serious health problems that we are experiencing in the United States can be traced back to poor diet […] Each patient whose story is featured in this book has a different ethnic and cultural heritage as well as a distinct set of health issues […] A return to an indigenous style of eating helped them accomplish a diverse set of health goals including weight control, blood sugar and cholesterol management, and improvement in energy and mood.
The Jungle Effect takes a look at specific cold spots—places in the world where the rate of certain health issues are minimal because of the indigenous diet eaten—such as Mexico, Greece, and Iceland, and shows us how to regain control of our health and prevent disease. You’ll learn how avocados and sweet potatoes can prevent Colon Cancer, something relatively rare in West Africa, and how tomatoes, watermelon and egg yolks offset breast and prostrate cancers in Okinawa, Japan.
The entire book was fascinating, the more I read the more I wanted to read. But the most helpful portion of The Jungle Effect for me was Part Three. This is where Daphne Miller shares the recipes she acquired on her indigenous food journey and how to go about shopping for these foods in our modern world. She also included a section on the best ways to cook certain ingredients. For optimum health she recommends you rotate through all the recipes in the book. It’s a marvelous idea. I wish I could say I’ve done it.
I have, however, tried many of the recipes, even the meat dishes. They were delicious. And thanks to The Jungle Effect, I’ve experimented with all kinds of foods and kept a journal about how my body responded for the last nine months. During that time I got rid of my sense of betrayal over eating meat and discovered I could enjoy it. But my experimentation has shown me how much I prefer a vegetable based diet. I could call myself a vegetarian, but I now prefer to say I’m a whole-food foodie who doesn’t eat meat. I buy fresh, local and organic at least 90% of the time, and my new favorite place for recipes is on-line at New Roots.
For the first time ever, I no longer fear food. I have Daphne Miller to thank for this extraordinary change in my life. Whether you’re afraid of food or not, The Jungle Effect is one book on health that needs to be required reading because everyone needs to eat, and health makes living a lot more fun.
