Book Review: Body by Eats

By Mike Howard on Dec 9, 2009

One of my favourite movies of all time is a lesser-known film from early this decade called Donnie Darko. Richard Kelly's underground hit was shunned by big studios largely due to its myriad of genres, and henceforth lack of identity.

Leigh Peele's Body by Eats reminds me of this movie in many ways. Let's take a look...

In the promotional stages of the Body by Eats release, I was expecting a cookbook. And, while the recipes make up a significant part of the guide, it's much more than that.

It's a frank, well-referenced and educational journey from the history of food to hot-button topics such as organics, vegetarianism, and paleo eating patterns.

• The first few chapters are real eye-openers and serve to dissect and discredit a lot of the nonsense and confusion that exists in the world of nutrition.
• Peele has a nice section on breaking down and interpreting studies. She gives an example of how studies can be misinterpreted, misused and misquoted.
• To quote Leigh, "We're fascinated with what we don't know, but we're lazy about figuring it out. Instead of investigating things for ourselves, we rely on figureheads to pass down the truth to us."
• Essentially, Peele feels there is a lot of unwarranted fear levied at conventional farming methods - including pesticides and issues of hormones in meats.
• Leigh also debunks some misconceptions about artificial sweeteners and xenoestrogens.
• Never one to shy away from unpopular opinion, Leigh takes aim on the zeal of veganism and paleo patterns of eating too.
• "Shock Nutrition" is a big part of our pop-culture right now, with a big market for fear.
• Peele breaks down some specifics in terms of your energy requirements, and has some targeted questionnaires to best cater to individual needs. This section is quite detailed, and really helps readers hone in on their specific needs based on their weight, goals, habits and activity levels.

The Recipes

• Before delving into the recipes, there are some well-thought out tips on how to make your culinary experience optimal.
• All recipes are measured in grams/oz, as well as cups and spoons.
• Recipes are categorized according to prep/cook times with "sprints" (5-10 min), "jogs" (15-25 min) and "marathons" (30+).
• The recipes themselves are very well thought out in terms of their caloric yield, macronutrient composition, but more importantly they look deliciously creative and not terribly complex.
• The recipe highlight for me though had to be the desserts, with some mouth-watering offerings that are lower on calories (if you pay attention to the portion sizes).
• There is also a recipe section for those who are bulking, as well as vegetarians.

Overall Impression

Peele has an excellent way of presenting information that in a candid and often humorous way.

She seems to have an good handle on the science and can explain things well to the uninitiated. Leigh doesn't stop at the peer review literature though, rather she experiments herself and uses some striking examples to make a point.

The e-book is a terrific reference for those who are looking for minor to major body composition change, as well as for those looking to improve their health.

The few areas of disagreement are minor. For example, our opinions on the movie "Food Inc" (Leigh thinks it's "shock nutrition," I see it differently). The nerd in me also likes to see references (sources are cited and in her defence, she does teach the reader how to do the research).

So, like Donnie Darko, I don't know quite how to describe or categorize "Body by Eats" other than to say that it's many dimensions form an excellent product. And, like its film counterpart, it doesn't follow the formulaic script that other diet books fall victim to.

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