I Married A Nutritionist is a book on health and nutrition with a twist. It's written as a conversation between nutrition expert Karen Roth and her husband, Steve, a television comedy writer. It's very apparent from the beginning that Karen knows her stuff and Steve is a pretty funny guy. Each chapter is a zingy back-and-forth between Steve and Karen while presenting information about health and nutrition for the reader. The information is presented in a modestly racy form (inching towards an R rating as Steve mentions in the book). Presumably this is to lean more toward the guy point of view.
The first chapter covers "The Big Stuff" and presents an overview of issues surrounding soy, organics, healthy choices for meat and eggs, as well as providing information about soy, nuts, and gluten.
Other chapters cover liquids, veggies, fruit, cooking, and toxins. There is also as a chapter which deals with body issues such as allergies, sleep, hormones, and more. Each chapter has subsections which are just a few pages in length making them easy to get through.
In each subsection of each chapter is a "bottom line" point which is written in boldface type to make it easy to find. One bottom line point: "Organic Fermented Soy, like miso or tempeh, good. Processed Soy, such as soy milk and soy burgers, bad. And people who consume too much soy are creating excessive estrogen in the body and for men, as well as women, that's not a good thing." These bottom line very concisely sums up the point although there is more in depth information to be found in the subsection itself.
The book also includes some recipes as well as food preparation suggestions which give the reader some ideas as to how to make the transition to healthier choices. One example of a not-quite-but-really recipe is the conversation about beets on page 64. It looks like a conversation but winds up being a recipe for a delicious sounding appetizer with beets, balsamic vinegar, goat cheese and endives. Other more formal recipes are scattered throughout the book.
My one complaint about the book is that it doesn't have an index making it easier to find things like vitamin D across all categories, or highlighting the pages of the recipes, or mentions of specific health conditions.
If you are looking for a campy yet serious talk about nutrition and health this may be just the book you are looking for.
If it works, it works but nothing can be a great index! So says the daughter of a librarian.
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