Book Review: Deep Nutrition

One of the Best Health and Wellness Books of 2017 — Sports Illustrated

Deep Nutrition was comprehensively authored by Catherine Shanahan M.D., and Luke Shanahan. Catherine is a Biochemist and Physician. Luke is her husband that stays involved in her life and in her writings. In her book, Deep Nutrition, Catherine definitely goes deep to the literal soil and more!

Catherine begins her book with a story about one of her past patients, which seems to be one major story amongst many stories that fuels her passion to care for her patients and the type of diets they eat and the nutrients or lack of nutrients in their regular eating habits.

After her story she addresses her two major pet peeves in which vegetable oil and sugar are the most unquestionable devil. The book is a quite lengthy book and in this entire book, it was what her thesis of her pet peeves rests upon.

Catherine gets deep in so many ways. She discusses history both nationally and internationally and especially has a lot to say about Native American Indians. Catherine has a serious admiration for the types of diet that they ate. She talks about the land, climate, and soil as it is essential for plant growth. Most importantly, she discusses the cellular and biochemical levels of the human body that she discusses.

If it wasn’t for such a genuine and sincere introduction,I might have stopped reading Deep Nutrition when she talked about genetics. I’ve always seen it as a very controversial issue. The issue of genetics is one that doctors cannot avoid, and it is obviously best to have their own mindset and opinion. She mostly focused on genetics and beauty when talking about genetics. She came across as if our present-day lives, and especially our past ancestors’ lives, are the most definite reason any person looks the way they do based on their dieting habits alone. It takes “we are what we eat” to the extreme.

I would believe dieting influences how we look and the amount we weigh. I like to think our DNA makeup comes together with more factors than just eating alone. More so, I feel we are more than just genetics, and that our genetic makeup shouldn’t limit or classify our sense of being or personality.

Anyway, this genetic section of the book was lengthy, and I became offended after some time when she talked a lot about beauty and features. She mentioned there was such a thing as a diagnosis for kids called FLK, which stands for “Funny Looking Kid.” According to her thoughts, the best examples of people at the top of the genetics food chain are Hollywood stars, and we should be more curious about the diets they eat. I wanted to say the book title should be renamed “Be a Pedigree Petri Dish (or Pod) at your Best.” A person could make their pedigree beauty obsession off of that chapter. I’ve already had my own opinion of personal dislike when it comes to being that beauty-obsessed.

Later in the book, she talks about how nutrient deficiencies affect our genetics for other purposes such as allergies, diseases, and other health disorders that people could develop. Deep Nutrition, of course, stresses avoiding any nutrient deficiencies.

Revolving back to her main thesis, that vegetable oil is the devil, I found a lot of her information very interesting, and it motivated me to eat a lot healthier. I’ve heard of the harm that trans fats can do before, but never thought to focus as much on vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is said to be found in so many places besides the bottles you find in the baking aisle. Most fast food, regular dining, and even grocery market items contain vegetable oil.

She mentions that canola oil is bad too, and to avoid that. She does say the oils that are healthy for you and that should be used instead. I was quite surprised at hearing this because some of the substitute examples are usually labeled as very bad. This includes butter, beef tallow, ghee, and a few others. It is the fact that these are more natural ingredients compared to the other processed oils that makes these oils much better.

When Catherine talks to the audience, she talks as though they are definitely interested in nutrition. Her words get very difficult at times because she talks about a lot of biological chemistry. She does attempt to break it down to be easier to understand, but her use of words would definitely be much better understood by a medical student or someone who studies nutrition.

Catherine does support organic eating, but she also says that a lot of foods that have an organic label on them still are not the most natural or organic. When talking about the combination of biochemistry and processed foods, there are many kinds of ways that what is in processed foods can harm the body. Vegetable oil and sugar-containing foods, including starchy carbohydrate foods, are the biggest culprits. I really didn’t like to hear her take against carbohydrates. She is not necessarily promoting the keto or Atkins diet as the main diet, but she does explain how much carbs break down into sugar and that they still have the potential to have harmful effects. Unless a person is an athlete or at the gym often, people should limit their carb intake.

Besides her quite lengthy explanation of the harm that vegetable oil has, she offers guidance about the things that we should be eating. She even includes a good handful of recipes. She does include a chapter or two about exercising, and that it still plays a major role.

Overall, I found Deep Nutrition a very interesting read. The history that she mentioned and the way the body works with chemicals were very attention-getting. I wasn’t always happy to hear about some things, and it reminded me of the times when people hate going to the doctor and having to listen to what they have to say. It really wasn’t all that bad. I have goals of living a healthy lifestyle. It is good to listen to what other people have to say about topics, because we obviously are not a know it all about everything. We need affirmations or sharper directions sometimes. This is a book that offers that to people who care for their health and want to live a healthy lifestyle.