Food can prevent and treat illness. Food plays a vital role in maintaining our health. Instead of living to eat, we should actually be eating well to live well. The foods are shown in full-color pictures and each has it's own page. The key nutritional values, therapeutic properties, how much to eat, choosing and storing, cooking & eating and recipe page information is provided for each food.

The strength of this book is in the health information that demystifies the scientific evidence as to what will promote health. Yes, there are some recipes and I tried the "Polish Carrot Cake." The taste was more "healthy," and tasted more like a Cliff Bar in many ways. If you like health bars, this could be a less expensive way to go!

The ingredients included honey, yogurt and whole-wheat flour instead of sugar and all-purpose flour. The result is that you feel full eating only a small piece for breakfast. The cake also freezes well. I would say it tastes more like a carrot bread. You could take slices of this cake on a hike! I've been eating this for breakfast each day and already noticed that I don't feel as hungry before lunch.

If you are looking to avoid fats and sugars, this book will show you the way to a healthier lifestyle.

The Contents Include:

The Balance of Health: Interesting discussions on Food as Medicine, The Basics of a Healthy Diet, What's in Food, Digestion and Absorption and Special Dietary Needs.

Food Profiles: Twenty foods that have outstanding health benefits and details of their therapeutic properties.

Good Foods: Thirty delicious foods with health-enhancing powers.

Improving Your Health: Foods that help to relieve particular problems: respiratory system, eyes & mouth, digestive system, bones & joints, circulation & heart health, women's health, skin, the body's defenses, diabetic health, kidneys & urinary system and emotional health.

The recipes are a collection featuring the 20 bonus and 30 good foods for better health. After a discussion on kitchen essentials for a healthy kitchen, you will find recipes for soups, appetizers, salads, main courses, side dishes, desserts, quick breads & cakes and salsas & dressings.

Foods that are not featured in the Food Profiles section are mentioned in the "Directory of Other Valuable Foods" section. A chart with Vitamins & Minerals that are essential to life also shows the importance, effects of a shortage and the major source. The index is wonderful for finding information on foods you already love or ones you are considering adding to your diet.

Recipes that looked tempting: Hot & Sour Soup, Asparagus with Parmesan and Nutmeg, Artichoke Heart Salad, Greek Fish Stew, Broccoli Stir-Fry, Dhal, Baked Ginger Bananas, Oat Bran Muffins and Pineapple Salsa.

A guide to Optimum Nutrition.

"The quest is not so much for extra years in our life, but for extra life in our years." -Miriam Polunin

This is not a collection of recipes, but rather an indepth analysis of what we eat and what effect our food has on our health. That's not to say there aren't any recipes in the book, because there are, but they're not 'spectacular'. This is the type of book you buy when you want to eat genuinely healthy food while knowing exactly what vitamins, minerals, fibers, etc you are getting into your body. It's divided into chapters, beginning with a detailed explanation of a number of 'bonus foods', telling us what they are good for, how they improve our health, their vitamin and mineral content, and a few recipes in which they could be used. The next chapter focuses on a lot more foods, explaining in less detail their benefit to our health. There is also a section in which you could identify any health problems you might have, then follow their suggestions through a customized diet plan. Brilliant color photography makes this book as enjoyable to look at as it is to read.

I'm a high school librarian and had gotten the first edition from a display merchant. I know from doing health research that everything in this book is right on. The color photographs are fantastic. I have purchased 5 copies of the new book as a gift for family members. I think new research would include other foods which may not be in the book. For instance, chocolate and coffee have been found to have some health benefits if taken in moderation because of their caffein content. I was most disappointed that she hardly mentions olives and olive oil. Jean Calment, the former oldest woman from France lived to 122 and she stated that she attributed her longevity to olive oil. She said similar things about chocolate and port wine (non-alcohol drinkers should use purple grape juice). As a non-drinker I would put purple grape juice in moderation because of its high sugar content. Respectfully I would rave review this book at five stars so deserved because it's the best book on the subject that I've seen.

This is an outstanding Spanish program! The book alone is wonderful( beautiful illustrations, activities and explanations) but combined with the CD you have an unbeatable approach to learning Spanish. The music is upbeat and very easy to understand.The songs are to tunes that are easy to memorize. My 2 year old loves to sing "Buenos Dias"! Our family is learning Spanish together ( ages 2-11) and loving it!

I wasn't sure how I could add one more thing to my busy schedule. I have five children. When I told my oldest two boys that part of their home school curriculum this year would be learning Spanish, the oldest said "I don't like it!". After his very first lesson, he announced "I love Spanish, it's the best!"
Learn Spanish With Grace is beautifully designed to create a desire to learn Spanish in the children. The instructor on the CD is very positive, the activities the children do are fun, and the songs are an excellent way to reinforce the vocabulary! Even my four and two year old are "singing" Spanish.
One last comment: The four oldest children are boys. I wasn't sure if they would sit for lessons. My seven year old sat over two hours by himself one day because he wanted to keep practicing and doing the activites. This is definitely a child friendly program!

This book is wonderful! Our whole family has learned Spanish in the easy, fun lessons.

Editorial Review. Miriam Ott has done nonfiction authors a huge favor with this authoritative book. Long known as an effective vehicle for marketing books, speeches and seminars are now easy to prepare and deliver. Most nonfiction authors are experts in their fields of study, but not all nonfiction authors are educated to give presentations. Miriam Ott gives authors the tools they need to become self-educated and add an excellent profit center to their information sales. Highly recommended, especially for authors self-help and how-to titles. The National Association of Independent Publishers endorses Marketing with Speeches and Seminars, and Betsy Lampe highly recommends it. -- Betsy Lampe, Publisher's Report (NAIP)

Miriam reaches a hand out and offers direction, helpful advice, and best of all, very specific details on how to get the job done well. I would recommend this book to any small business owner. by the author of Honey, I Want to Start My Own Business: A Planning Guide for Couples

Marketing with Speeches and Seminars is a comprehensive, clearly written, easy-to-follow manual for anyone who wants to sell their products/services through this medium. Everything you need to know is in the book. I plan to keep my copy on a nearby bookshelf for ready reference. by the author of The Perfect Business

I bought this book for my mother on Mother's Day. She loved it and bought it to give as a bride's gift. The family fill-in pages make it great for a new family to record important names and dates. I enjoyed looking at it because it contained a lot of basic information about homemaking that I didn't know/(wasn't taught.) Funny quotes too!

I love this book! It's charming. Witty, and filled with practical information. Plus, it is like reading your grandmother's journal!

Every home needs this book. Every reader with any love of history, will want this book!

Great!

I loved this book!! I initially picked it up and just skimmed throught it, which is very rewarding and fun anyway because the tidbits of info and the wonderful Victorian pictures are just incredible! BUt one quiet afternoon, i finally sat down with the book and began reading it from page one!! And when I was finished, not only did I have such a healthy respect for the way our forebears lived, it also inspired me to create a much more wholesome and warm home for my own family. and thank GOd, I don't need to use lye to wash my husband's smelly socks in, but believe it or not, many of the old household hints are relevant today. IN fact, with all the health concerns about the chemicals we use to clean with everyday and how harmful they are not only to ourselves but the environment, I actually bought a six pack of Baking Soda at the discount store to use for the myriad of ways Mrs. Dunwoody recommends. A timeless book of timeless treasures and timeless wisdom!! Makes you wish for simplier times!! I recommend it to anyone wishing to make their house more of a HOME!!

Miriam's mother is dying of cancer, and she turns to a journal to try to express her feelings about her mother through writings and poems. This recounts her journey in accepting her mother's condition, her struggles before, during and after acceptance of the inevitable, and the daily search for meaning in life. A warm, personal journal of meeting life's end - and going beyond.

After reading this book, I found myself at the end of words. I was amazed and speechless. If Stone never does another thing to memorialize her mother, this beautiful work will continue to do so down the ages! I can only hope she won't stop here.

This book of poems is simply the best collection I've read in quite some time. Ms Stone's poems seem to distill the essence of her life's experiences into images that combine power and beauty.

A must for anyone interested in poetry, life, and beauty.

I have had a slight breakout (3 or 4 noticable eruptions) since my teens. I am now 40, so this was a long time to constantly look in the mirror and see zits. About 4 years ago I checked your Blue Eyeshadow book out of the library. In reading the chapter about breakouts I "pulled" advice from different areas and changed some of my daily routines.

I started washing towels and sheets in perfume and dye free detergent. I stopped using dryer sheets on towels and sheets. I started using a gentle cleanser (I use Alpha Hydrox Foaming Face Wash). And I started using a moisturizer with Beta Hydroxy (I useOlay - age defying protective renewel lotion).

The change in my skin was unbelieveable. Within two weeks, it cleared up completely. A breakout is rare now, and I finally have the skin I wanted in my teens. My skin feels smoother and I have even noticed that a few lines here and there seem lighter. I have told this regimen to any friends that ask and they have tried it. Everyone who has tried it has commented on the change in their skin. I have been using it for 4 years now and am still as happy as when I started using it.

This last Winter, my skin felt drier than usual, so I tried the new Kinetin moisurizer by Almay. I really like it a lot and was wondering your take on it. I am still using the Olay at night. I cannot thank you enough. If not for you, I would someday be ordering Oxy 10 from my bed in the nursing home. Thank You for caring.

This book is the best-- no girl should be allowed to enter adolescence without it, and no woman should be allowed to leave home without reading it. Years ago I modeled and I was hooked on anything that sounded French. As assignments got more lucerative, I found little business secrets that worked and had nothing to do with chemicals in purse cases, and they are printed in this book!

A great book--filled with information that will save you money. An honest evaluation of the products out there--what works, what doesn't. I've saved so much money since reading this book.

Everyone has losses. Everyone has wounds. This is not the end of joy but the beginning, if only we can learn to live with and find ourselves in our feelings, and embrace the life that waits for us on the other side of our pain. Miriam Greenspan's wise book is a warm and helpful guide to dealing with the dark emotions we all experience. As a writer and therapist myself I know how needed her book is and how valuable what she has to offer is. This is a must read for everyone.

From Phyllis Chesler, author of eleven titles, including "Women and Madness" and "Woman's Inhumanity to Woman":

Greenspan is the gentlest and therefore the wisest of healers. Her book is a poem, a prayer, a guide, a ritual. She herself models what can be done. She is vulnerable, grief-stricken, mindful, supple, connecting, and joyful. She describes enormous grief and terror--her own, that of the world's--and explains what it means to surrender to fear, to face straight into it, to "let it be" as the royal road to sanity, rightful action and rightful non-action, and to exuberance and freedom.

This book is very easy to read--but not simplistic; political but not rhetorical; spiritual but not dogmatic; literary but also practical. It beholds that which is tragic about the human condition but embraces it in a therapeutic and consoling way. It is both Jewish and Buddhist, feminist and humanist, grave but sometimes funny. Greenspan provides an excellent discussion of the "alchemy of fear," and of the Buddhist concept of "tonglen": non-action, action, surrender. She is excellent on violence, trauma, numbing, and the consequences of omnipresent media in our lives. Her discussion of the world post 9/11 is compelling. The tone is grave, measured, supple, vital, enchanting.

Greenspan is a trustworthy guide for us in these times.

This is a book of remarkable depth. It is also engaging and wonderfully readable. The author is a brilliant thinker and a natural storyteller. Best of all, I loved the stories from her own life. As a psychologist and writer myself, I've read countless books about the difficult emotions. None is as interesting, helpful, and riveting as this one--or offer as much hope for our personal suffering and turbulent times.

I am an amateur photographer. 90% of good photography is in finding the right subject. These photos are stirring.

This is a powerful book. In its pages we find starkly beautiful black and white photographs of children laughing, crying, playing, studying, working, in the course of their daily life... unaware of the horrific nightmare that will overtake them soon and destroy their world.

The children's eyes look at you with all the innocent curiousity and wonder of eternal, universal childhood. You look again and apprehension grips you: in a few short years after being photographed, the future of many of these children will be brutally terminated in an unmarked mass grave or a crematorium. The poignancy of this harsh reality is driven home when you read editor Mara Vishniac Kohn's dramatic description of her father's desperate, futile efforts to use his photographs as a means of arousing the conscience of the world and inspiring action to save these children and their families. We learn that Roman Vishniac sent these photos to the White House, only to recieve a perfunctory note thanking him for "the excellent pictures you sent the President."

I must express my heartfelt compliments and appreciation to the editors, Mara Vishniac Kohn and Miriam Hartman Flacks, for the way in which they have presented these precious images-- accompanying them with the lyrics of appropriate Yiddish children's songs, in the original Yiddish and English transliteration and translation, rather than the standard dry caption text. I am especially grateful to the editors for including the music and annotation for these wonderful songs.

This book belongs in every home and library.

This book moved me a great deal. The black and white images convey such innocence in the children. The simplicity of the beautifully produced photographs juxtaposed with children's songs and rhymes (in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English) gives the impression of viewing the images in a gallery. The photographs, the narrative, and the publication itself are of very fine quality. And the message is unforgettable.

The best thing about this book is the huge number of cases of varying kinds that are showcased. The reader just does never get bored of it and the excitement, intrigue and interest in the subject itself its enhanced by a thousandfold.

The book moves along the lines of a number of cases given in no particular order. The reader has the ability to read the case and come up with his own dignosis and then finally comparing it with the discussion presented after. The no particular order of presentation is greatly helpful in that the reader does not know what to expect and has to think and formulate his own differential. Most of the cases are well presented and though not classic like those showcased in books, they have the spice of being real cases. In other words, these are the same features you will be seeing in your everyday practice or psychiatry clerkship. If you wanted a specific case to read about, the index in the back clearly highlights where to find it in more than one different classification.

The biggest letdown of this book is that it fails to point out patient management. It is understandable that this is more of a case presentation book, but knowing how to tailor therapy for each individulaized patients is a great plus. This, however, is not implemented greatly in this book. The authors would mention the use of antidepressants or neuroleptics, but not mention exactly which type or kind of those does the patient respond to. Brief therapeutics and a follow-up discussion is presented most of the time, but that still fails to point out how management of the patient has progressed.

All in all, this book is excellent for learning in a more clinical type setting. Required reading before this book is a well established Psychiatry textbook to identify the diseases in general and after that, you're set to go. This aids the reader to independently identify the problem accordingly and to form an well established differential and final diagnosis. All in all, I strongly recommend this book as an adjunct to a Psychiatry textbook, if not the DSM-IV per se.

I bought a copy of this in my abnormal psych class. I will probably use it again when I study for my boards. It's a great book of vignettes, followed by a discussion of the case. Great practice for making DSM diagnoses. Indices allow studying material by disorder type, or the book can be worked through from the beginning. The cases are randomly ordered.

This all begs the question of the validity of the DSM or the usefulness of labeling people, but if you have to work within that system, this book will help get you up to speed.

The casebook is an excellent companion to the DSM IV. The casebook provides real examples of the disorders presented in the DSM IV and splits them into child/adolescent and adult categories. In addition, each case is discussed in terms of DSM IV diagnosis. As a graduate student in clinical psychology I found this book essential in the study of the DSM IV and abnormal psychology.

In the last decade of the 16th and first decades of the 17th centuries, Spanish and Portuguese Conversos leave their homelands and come to Amsterdam seeking what author Miriam Bodian calls rejudaization, or what we, today, call conversion as a requirement for full participation in community life and benefits derived by being part of rabbinic Judaism. Affluent, educated, and willing to learn rabbinic Judaism, these Conversos are seeking to learn and to establish Jewish rituals and worship. For example, ex-Conversos seek religious aid from Uri Halevi, an Ashkenazi rabbi from Emden who establishs what is probably the first synagogue in Amsterdam in 1595. When Halevi starts circumcising Conversos, the Dutch authorities arrest him and charge him with circumcising adults who are presumably Conversos. However, Halevi is released and allowed to continue working with the Iberian ex-Conversos and with his help they are able to establish their own rituals by 1603. One of the early Conversos who arrives in Holland is Isaac Pinto. He is overjoyed at having been given the opportunity to practice Judaism, the religion of his Iberian ancestors. Pinto not only learns Judaism, he studies Hebrew and established a synagogue, which he finances in its entirety during his lifetime. Although few of the ex-Conversos have the financial means that Pinto had, they actively participate in the Jewish community life of Amsterdam. However, as the 17th century starts passing, a new type of Converso who views Judaism as a practical necessity begin arriving in Amsterdam. Often times, this group of Conversos wanted to participate in the life of the synagogue and receive the benefits derived from being part of the Jewish community, but had no desire to undergo circumcision. There are examples of uncircumcised Conversos who died in Amsterdam and their families wanted to bury them in the Jewish cemetery of Ouderkerk. The Mahamad (see definition) ruled that the dead Conversos had to be circumcised before they could be buried in Ouderkerk. "Denial of the right of burial [in the Jewish cemetery] was used by the Mahamad in Amsterdam, if not to encourage circumcision, to pressure a few of the émigrés to undergo formal conversion to Judaism. These were persons who unquestionably belonged to the 'Nation' but, because of known female old Christian ancestors on their mother's side, were not Jewish according to rabbinical law, which held that Jewishness was transmitted through the mother". The Amsterdam Jewish community was very careful not to upset Spain or Portugal by actively promoting Judaism or openly protecting crypto-Jews on Spanish or Portuguese soil. This was because Amsterdam's ex-Conversos were heavily engaged in commerce as ship owners, diamond and spice traders, and many other activities related to commerce with the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Although the Amsterdam Jewish community probably did not openly help Crypto-Jews in Iberia, there is evidence that some of the many prayer books that were printed in Spanish and Portuguese in Amsterdam were sent to Spain and Portugal or their overseas possessions (Bodian page 199). The Amsterdam ex-Conversos strongly encouraged their friends and relatives in the Iberian Peninsula to leave before the Inquisition find them. The following exerts from letters written by the ex-Converso Abraham Idaña (Gaspar Mendez del Arroyo) to Conversos in Iberia illustrate the feelings of Amsterdam Jews in 1686: "The notion of serving God in one's heart, it is not enough. The law of Moses was given in order to be observed. It is a particularly grave sin to remain uncircumcised. One must flee to lands of freedom and be circumcised without delay. Nor should one delude oneself that good deeds can compensate for failure to observe the Law". The ex-Converso community in Amsterdam was always ready to help newly arrived Conversos who needed help to return to Judaism. If the community could not help the newly arrived Conversos in Amsterdam, the community would aid the new comers to find passage to the Ottoman empire, Italy, or even to the New World where more freedom could be found than in the Iberian Peninsula. Once the ex-Converso community established rabbinic Judaism they began observing Jewish precepts and prohibitions, developed over many centuries, which regulated and restricted relations between Jews and Gentiles. Regardless of this, there is evidence that some ex-Conversos men took lower-class gentile women, often maidservants, as mistresses. From 1600-1623, notarial records reveal instances of sexual relations between Portuguese Jews and gentile women (most of them were Dutch or Scandinavian). Even though it was illegal to have sexual relations between Jews and gentiles under Jewish and Dutch law, few of the ex-Conversos or their mistresses were prosecuted. Bodian tells us that to a degree the fathers of the illegitimate children provided for their support and that a group of fifteen Amsterdam Jewish merchants established a society called Dotar for the purpose of providing a dowry to orphans and poor girls descendants of the Portuguese Nation or Castilian Conversos. It is conceivable that many of the illegitimate daughters of ex-Conversos were eligible and obtained dowry to marry Jews. Eligibility to obtain a dowry was not only for Amsterdam's girls, but it was extended to girls who lived in the Iberian Peninsula, or other parts of Europe, the Ottoman empire, and the New World. Candidates had to prove eligibility by demonstrating that they were descendants of Conversos through either their paternal or maternal line. In order to find suitable candidates for dowries, the Amsterdam ex-Converso community established an elaborated network in many countries. It is possible that the dowry network extended its activity beyond determining eligibility for dowry. The Amsterdam ex-Converso community gained knowledge of rabbinic Judaism rapidly and by the 1630s they had produced their own rabbis and scholars, such as Menasseh ben Israel and Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. The community not only produced brilliant Jewish scholars but as a whole was very active in religious activity and its knowledge of Jewish traditions was adequate, if not brilliant (Bodian page 110). The ex-Converso community learned because of its perseverance to acieve rejudaization.

A Missing Link Discovered

Certainly, any true history such as that written by Miriam Bodian is worthy of much more than five stars. . Professor Bodian chooses not the former when she describes and clearly illustrates the fact that the Ashkenazim (German “Jewry”) were not accepted by The Nation…the “Hebrew Nation”…Iberian Jewry. .... This book is highly recommended for all those of the Hebrew Nation, and for the Ashkenazim, or for anyone interested in Jewry. I also highly recommend it for Christians who would like to establish a sound base insofar as understanding what REALLY went on just before and during the periods when “Jews” started coming to the Americas. Few understand that the first synagogue in New Amsterdam (NYC) was of the Iberian peoples’, the Ashkenazim not arriving till wayyyy late in the game. Professor Bodian’s book, within my Hebrew National Community is about the best thing since apple pie…or shall I say, “empanadas de manzana.” It’s highly recommended for ALL.

Sincerely,

Daniel Enriquez David

This is a highly academic work of Miriam Bodian, Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University. With in-depth research, the author analyses a unique chapter in the history of Judaism: the return of Iberian "conversos" to rabbinical religion and the establishment of the Jewish community in Amsterdam. A remarkable account of the strength and perseverance of a "nation" which clings to its roots despite all adversities. This is cultural "Darwinism..."