Review by Chrissie Whitfield, New Zealand, Facebook group member
READERS NOTE – some of the original emphasis and intent from the author may be lost with the brevity of this review in MY words.
CURE AMD – Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent & Reverse Macular Degeneration by Chris A.Knobbe, MD (University Professor of Ophthalmology) – 2016
Last week I offered to review this book and to be honest I expected to glide through a lightweight opinion piece and write up a couple of sentences to cover it. Not so.
Bear with me, my own diagnosis is still relatively new (in the previous couple of weeks), and many of you that have been here a while may already know and be familiar with similar / same nutritional research, on that basis this review is written from the perspective of the newly diagnosed.
Let me start by saying that despite the title, the author is NOT proposing that if you change your diet today you will be able to reverse any pre-existing damage and / or restore sight that has been lost.
What he IS saying (and quotes an extraordinary amount of global research from the 1800’s through to present day to support his claim), is that AMD can be prevented and early stage AMD reversed through the adoption of an ancestral dietary strategy and the used of what he terms ‘sacred foods’. In fact he goes further to state (in brief) that:
– AMD is not ‘age related’ but diet related
– The incidence of AMD and other diseases were either extremely rare or did not exist over 100 years ago
– There is a demonstrably clear relationship between the introduction of nutritionally deficient man made and / or processed food and the incidence and prevalence of AMD (and other disease). Additionally, the author proposes that the use of vitamins /mineral supplements and synthetically derived nutrients CAN in some cases POSSIBLY assist some AMD patients but in other cases it MAY be detrimental, whereas replacing your diet with naturally produced foods in an enriched diet (natural vitamins, fatty acids, minerals etc. is the key to good health and a natural immunity to a great number of diseases including AMD. So, essentially he claims that macular degeneration should not be considered in isolation and by changing your diet and ‘eating right to save your sight’ you would also be reducing your risk of a multitude of other diseases (for example: heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, auto immune disorders).
He further states that not much has changed in the theories and hypothesis put forward in the early 1900’s through to today and there have been many studies assessing age, genetics, ethnicity and their role is AMD but little around the parallel between the introduction of trans fats (for example) and the prevalence of AMD.
Without boring you all, there are a number of really interesting research facts and figures (including the fact that as of 2010, AMD had replaced cataracts as the most common cause of blindness in high income regions) – not just in the USA, but inclusive of all regions around the world (including little ole New Zealand, I was pleased to see!).
So in a nutshell in the 1800’s (when instances of AMD were very rare), nutritionally it was a much simpler world as foods were mostly whole and unprocessed and largely organic – there were no such thing as edible vegetable oils, refined sugars and flours, high fructose corn syrups, highly refined wheat flours, genetically modified corn and soy for example.
Tracking the main changes to the (American) diet from the 1800’s the author demonstrates the relationship between the increase of the use of sugar from circa 1850 and the introduction of harmful vegetable oils in late 1800’s with the increase in disease generally and the prevalence of AMD.
In the final stages of the book, the author discusses the use of synthetic vitamins, what he means by ‘whole unprocessed foods’, the grains to eat (and how to prepare them), an outline of the ‘sacred foods’ and a list of foods (and food types) to avoid as a plan to prevent and reverse early stage AMD.
IN MY PERSONAL OPINION – knowledge is power and at the very least, this book is worth a read if you are like me and seeking a wider understanding of both historical research (in both nutrition and AMD) as well as identification of options available to you in early stage AMD.
**Note: we receive no money from the sale of this or any other book that we mention on our website or Facebook group not do we recommend a book unless we say that explicitly.
Like this:
Like Loading...
