I love Dr. Gillian McKeith’s show You Are What You Eat (on BBC America and on BBC as well- I just don’t know which station). I also love her book by the same name.

Look, I’m the type of person who has to know the why of anything before I get it. So sure, I knew eating natural foods is healthier than packaged. I know that you absorb nutrients better from food and drink than you do from pills. What I didn’t get is the why.

Even after watching her show, I couldn’t always grasp how she was diagnosing people, and how to apply it to myself. The show was interesting, and I felt like I learned a lot, but because it all happens so fast, gets edited down, and the “how does this apply to me” feature was lacking… well, I just didn’t make any changes.

But then, I got the book. I read it straight through, and then went back and took notes.

Let me give you an example of what I found particularly useful in the book. In the diagnostic section, she says that if you sigh or yawn a lot that you’re not getting the oxygen that you need. Well, I sigh and yawn a lot. And she’s right. I know that my breathing isn’t optimal, and I have sinus issues that really affect the level of sleep I get as I don’t breathe properly. In her book, she suggested spirulina.

So the following week, I bought a bottle- just one bottle, mind- of Kombucha tea that had spirulina and wild blue green algae in it. I drank about 8 oz of the 20 in the course of two days (you’re supposed to drink the whole bottle every day, but it really was disgusting). I also added two servings of raw vegetables FOR THE WEEK, not per day. Would you believe that my energy shot up from just those two, nearly infinitesimal changes? Because it did.

Another example of what I learned from her book, is that it’s not so much that most of the nutrients are destroyed in cooking that’s the issue. It’s that all of the enzymes are destroyed. Enzymes- the things we buy supplements for to help us digest and utilize our food properly.

You Are What You Eat has so many tips, so much advice, and so much information that it’s hard to absorb. In fact, it’s a little overwhelming at first, which is why I did the read through before taking notes. But it’s wonderful, because she gives you just enough information to start making the changes, and then you can look up the rest if you want to or need to know. In fact, all of the research that I’ve done out of mere curiosity after studying Dr. McKeith’s book is why I started this blog in the first place. There’s just not enough room out there for all of this information!

And if you’ve read her book and checked out the recipes included, she has an entire cookbook devoted to the subject. So, there’s You Are What You Eat, and You Are What You Eat The Cookbook.

I need to get that cookbook.