The Nutrition Solution: A Guide to Your Metabolic Type

by Harold J. Kristal

What constitutes healthy eating, and a healthy weight, has become a hugely complex--and too often vexing--question for those looking to discover, attain, and maintain their ideal weight. The Nutrition... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556434375
• ISBN13: 9781556434372
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.1" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

What Type of Food is Right for You?

So many diet books have been written harolding this or that diet plan as the optimal one for all people. While Robert Atkin's high protein and fat diet works well for some peole, others do poorly on it. The same with Dean Ornish's low fat, high carbohydrate diet plan and so many other of the numerous diet guideliness available. Obviously one diet doesn't fit all people, and one man's food is definately another man's poison. So, What type of diet plan is right for you? Are you the tyoe of person who needs more fats and proteins or one that needs more carbohydrates? "The Nutrition Solution" will enable you to determine the diet that is right for your metabolic type. First, you will determine whether you are an oxidative or a autonomic nervous system type. Next, if you are an oxidative type, you will determine whether you are a fast or slow oxidizer. If you fall into the autonomic type, you will determine if you are a sympathetic or parasympathetic type. Parasympathetics and slow oxidizers tend to have a more alkaline blood pH and will need more fatty, pruine rich meat, such as beef, dark meat chicken and turkey, and fatty fish to to bring their blood pH back to normal (a more acid state). Sympathetics and fast oxidizers will tend to be more acid and need more white meat chicken and turkey,low fat fish and complex carbohydrates to alkalinize the overly acid pH blood. All people need fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. It is just a matter of which ones each individual functions best on. Kristal has everyone eat whole grains. As it breaks down the phytates and other enzyme inhibitors, he recommends soaking your grains. He also encourages every one to eat three meals a day at set times. He encourages the purchase of free range meat that doesn't have nitrates or nitrites and feeds on the proper food for it's digestive system. He encourages people to buy organic grains and produce where feasible. Even more important than buying organic vegies or fruits is to purchase the frshest produce you can find. The other outstanding book on the subject of metabolic individuality is "The Metabolic Typing Diet." Each book has its strengths and weaknesses. While "The Nutrition Solution" definately gives the most easily understood explnation of the autonomic and oxidative types, "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott has the best self test to determine your metabolic type. It also gives you a diet for mixed metabloc type people, who need a combonation of hgih fat, pruine rich meats and low fat meats. The mixed types can also eat more liberally of carbohydrates and the sweeter fruits, which is not recommended for the higher fat, pruine rich types. "The Nutrition Solution" does does have a diet plan for a person who has gotten their pH (health) back to normal, that allows a person to eat more liberally of a wider variety of foods. I would highly recommend you read both books. Of the other metabolic type books, I wasn't impressed with any of the ones I looked

sensible nutritional advice

Information we need to get healthier. Explains why the latest greatest diets are not effective for everyone. Also provides eye-opening explanations about the role of cholesterol in our good health, and other things we've been told are good for us but have been shown to be dangerous instead.

This is the answer to diet and heatlth.

Finally, the answer to why diets work for some and not others (low carb, low fat, etc) and why some vitamins are the same way. It is because there are four basic metabolic groups that eat two very different diets. Very informational with some chemistry. I loved it, and it's working great. I also recommend their clinic in San Rafael.

Metabolic typing made practical

A key tenet of Dr Kristal's book is that no specific diet is right for everybody and that one's optimal diet can be determined by metabolic typing. His book builds upon information slowly developed over more than 40 years by a variety of practitioners. Another key tenet is that a healthy body has an ideal blood pH of 7.46, varying only within a narrow range. One of Dr Kristal's personal contributions is the development of simple and inexpensive quantitative procedures to determine a person's blood pH and metabolic type. They avoid the previous invasive taking of large venous blood samples over 14 hours by standard phlebotomy techniques. Instead he takes 4 drop-size blood samples from the finger over about 2 hours during a modified fasting glucose challenge test. He also tests samples of urine and saliva, measures blood pressure and pulse, both standing and lying down, respiration rate, time of holding one's breath, body fat, and weight. He also records self-reported observations at specific times during the glucose challenge, and takes a short personal history. The book explains how this information is used.While the reason is currently unknown, each individual has a dominant mechanism controlling their metabolism. The two most fundamantal control mechanisms that regulate blood pH are the rate of oxidation and the actions of the autonomic nervous system. Each of these two metabolic types has two sub-types: fast or slow oxidative-dominant, and sympathetic or parasympathetic autonomic-dominant. From the test information, one's dominant metabolic sub-type can be determined, which then determines the optimum diet.A major discovery is that most food items will have opposite effects on the blood pH of the major metabolic types, oxidative and autonomic. A food or drink that acidifies the blood of one type will alkalize the blood of the other. This is also true for many vitamin and mineral supplements. This knowledge, which has been verified by tests and clinical results, runs counter to both orthodox and alternative medical beliefs. Fast oxidizers and parasympathetic autonomics have blood that is too acid; slow oxidizers and parasympathetic autonomics have blood that is too alkaline. Because of the opposite effects mentioned above, nutrients are catagorized as Group I for slow oxidizers and sympathetics and Group II for fast oxidizers and parasympathetics. To greatly oversimplify (read the book for details), Group I people should have a diet dominated by complex carbohydrates and Group II should have a diet dominated by protein and fat. Each type emphasizes specific vegetables, fruits, and proteins. Thus no popular weight-loss diet can work for everybody, but by chance may work for some.Using vitamin C as an example, ascorbic acid will acidfy oxidative metabolic types and alkalize autonomic types, while calcium ascorbate does the opposite. Group I requires the ascorbic acid form because it acidfies the slow oxidizer, but alkalizes the sympathetic. Grou