The Jungle Effect

The Jungle Effect is what Dr. Miller noticed when her San Francisco practice patients went on a "native diet". Unlike typical Western diets, which caused her patients health problems, when they switched to native diets - traditional foods from native cultures - their health improved, often dramatically. To learn more about native diets, Dr. Miller visited places such as Iceland, Nigeria, Crete, the Amazon, Okinawa to discover what they are doing right. Thousands of years of human trial and error, according to Dr. Miller, have selected for the best diets for human health and longevity.

Dr. Miller is not new in this approach. Dr. Weston A. Price in the 1930s saw the same thing and today there is a large and active community of native show more nutritionists surrounding Price and his legacy (see Sally Fallon's classic Nourishing Traditions). However Miller's book does offer some new and interesting perspectives. She actually traveled to native regions and sampled the foods and diets, and this makes for fascinating reading in an up to date journalistic human-interest story style. She dispels the notion that genetics plays a significant role, suggesting that anyone of an ethnic background can adopt any native diet (eg. a European can benefit from an Okinawa diet). Finally, she suggests food is more than its parts, each dish is symbiotic, so it is important to eat the entire food way, not just its elements. For example olive oil is good, but best in combination with the entire Mediterranean diet. Oddly enough, she also recommends mixing and matching various native diets (she personally cooks from different regions each night).

Dr. Miller's book is an excellent primer for anyone not already familiar with native nutrition. Her research supports and adds to the work done by the Weston A. Price Foundation, with a slightly different approach. Her field-trips make for excellent reading and reveal specific regional food-ways. The Jungle Effect is a valuable contribution to the growing literature, and an easy and fun to read introduction to native nutrition.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less

Interesting look at how our environment effects our diet. We learn what to eat from our parents and our friends. Want to lose weight, eat natural, local foods. A great way to look at what you put in your mouth and the easy ways to change from junk to healthy.

Miller looks at the traditional diets in areas of the world where there are low rates of particular diseases. Although the details of the diets change from place to place the same general principles apply - eat local minimally processed food including whole grains, lots of fruit/vegetables and fish. Comes complete with recipes for items in the traditional diets.

Enjoyable to read and useful to keep near the kitchen, I found this book extremely useful, such that I bought a copy of my own.