New Stuff from BEA
I’m home from BEA (and from a quickie follow up to Harvard graduation – my smarty nieces & nephews all graduated the same year – 4 of them!).
While traveling to NYC can be stressful, if you’re braced for it, there’s just no other place to get a great overview of trends in the world of books and publishing. It’s a big circus of the latest & greatest, and a marketing extravaganza.
One trend that I was delighted to see was that there is a growing collection of authors excavating the topic of mind-body eating with a nod to yogic and spiritual principles, the laws of attraction, and the gut brain-head brain relationship. If you’ve read my book, you know that’s my approach, so I felt that I found some dietary family members there.
One discovery was Pierre Pallardy, who has a book out from Rodale has called Gut Instinct. He is a French osteopath/dietitian who has been working the two-brain theory (that we have a second brain center in the abdomen, and through relaxation and other techniques we can improve digestion) for decades. His method entails belly breathing, abdominal massage (it reminded me of Japanese Do-in massage), abdominal meditations, mindful eating (eating slowing and in a relaxed way, enjoying your food– in essence the way you’d envision they eat in France!). Nutritionally, I like his approach too – he abhors reducing diets, fasting, or other manipulations to the diet, and just goes for balanced normal eating. He’s not into a vegan diet, which is one area that I disagree – I think vegans can be very healthy if they take their diet in wholesome, hearty way.
If you are dietitian exploring how the recent science on the gut brain may impact daily lifestyle, this is a great book for you – you won’t agree with every nutritional guideline, but Pallardy gives us lots to think about, and has a truly innovative approach that has merit.
If you are a yoga teacher, this book illustrates how desperately those who struggle with weight and eating (in essence the entire US population) need yoga. And it will give you some new tools for your therapeutic yoga toolbox.
Enjoy!