HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY

370 pages; $22.95

Reviewed by Gwen O’Neill

Not just another approach to losing weight or advice on control of diabetes and other health concerns, this book is an adventure story from a San Francisco physician. Filled with inspiring stories from patients, travel adventures, and interviews with world-renowned food experts, I confess that this is the first book of its kind I have ever read cover-to-cover.

Miller’s worldwide quest to find healthy diets that are delicious and easy to create took her to “cold spots” around the world. She defines a hot spot as a community “where there is an unusually high number of people suffering from a particular disease.” Conversely, a cold spot is “a place or community where there are an unusually low number of people suffering from a particular disease.”

Miller visited Crete, Greece, a cold spot for heart disease, and she went to Iceland, which has an antidepression diet with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. She also visited Copper Canyon, Mexico, a cold spot for diabetes; Cameroon, West Africa, a cold spot for bowel trouble; and Okinawa, Japan, a cold spot for breast and prostate cancers.

In the second part of the book Miller features cold spot diets for modern chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression, colon cancers and other bowel problems, and breast and prostate cancer.

Dr. Andrew Weil of the University of Arizona writes in the foreword: “Whether in Iceland, Okinawa, West Africa, or the remote canyon country of northwest Mexico, the rules are clear: avoid refined, processed, and manufactured foods; eat good fats and avoid bad fats; eat slow-digesting as opposed to quick-digesting carbohydrates; eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables; enjoy a variety of health-protective spices, condiments, and beverages; and get lots of regular physical activity. This is native dietary wisdom in a nutshell, and we can easily adapt it to our own tables … This is a groundbreaking book, based on original research, that describes novel dietary strategies  for reversing the progression of chronic diseases and maintaining optimum health.”

The introduction to the book begins with a story of one of Miller’s patients, Angela, who was born in Rio de Janeiro. Her mother grew up in Italy and cooked a lot of pasta and cheese-filled dishes. Angela remembers always being overweight and hearing nicknames like porquinho, or piglet. She eventually joined her father who lived in a small village on the banks of the Amazon. After a few years of a diet that consisted of fruits for dessert and fish soups, taro and beans for breakfast, she realized she had a lot more energy and had shed quite a few pounds.

After elementary school, she rejoined her mother in the city and very shortly had gained back the weight and feelings of lethargy. She eventually went to college in New York City; after trying various nutritional therapies, countless diets and several doctors with no successful weight loss, she became a patient of Dr. Miller. She writes: “After hearing Angela’s story, I drew the obvious conclusions. In the rainforest, she must have been eating fewer calories or burning more. If nothing else, she was  happier and therefore not using food to treat her stress. I tried to help her recreate some of the foods that she had eaten in Brazil, but this proved to be challenging. Angela was not much of a cook and had trouble recalling many of the ingredients. In the end, I gave her a generic list of low calorie foods that she might want to consider, and we talked about adding more exercise.”

Miller continues, “Honestly, I probably would never have given this exchange a second thought if not for my own experience in the Amazon rainforest six months later.” Miller’s family spent a month in a small Peruvian  village; her husband and children  volunteered in an after-school reading program and she spent her mornings working in the clinic. 

While working in the clinic, Miller saw the usual snake bites, malaria and infant diarrhea, which could have been prevented by modern plumbing and vaccines. “However, I did not encounter a single person (other than the tourists) who was struggling with the diseases that I see on a daily basis in San Francisco: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Even amongst the weathered elderly, the main ailments seemed to be infection and injury.”

She also observed the transformation that took place in the Peruvian tour guides and the North American volunteers. The native tour guides, now living in the big cities, returned to their villages with potbellies. The volunteers from the north saw the opposite changes. When they got to the Amazon, they were out of shape and overweight. Simply by adopting the local lifestyle of eating food that is raised and prepared locally, they experienced increased energy and lost weight. “Despite the high humidity and the blazing heat, the volunteers told me that they felt more energized than they had in a long time … I decided that the magic I was seeing must be in the food. Angela had commented that she felt like she ate more in the jungle, and I had exactly the same feeling. Therefore, the answer did not seem to have anything to do with food quantity. I began to look more closely at the quality of our jungle diet.”

One of Miller’s subheads is “Cold Spot Cooking in Your Own Kitchen: Small Effort, Big Payoff.” There is a wealth of material including recipes from each area she researched, cold spot shopping lists to assist in stocking your pantry, a section on how to cook indigenous grains and beans, another appendix about fats and cooking oils, and an organic priority list.

Miller finds that in addition to the health payoffs, there are other benefits to taking a little more time to prepare your food. Cooking can be a relaxing way to decompress after a busy day and is also a good way to spend time together with your family — assigning chores and getting them involved. “Certainly more calories are burned there than from behind the wheel of my car tooling up to the fast-food drive-through window.”

From advice on finding authentic cuisine from other countries — she found a tub of Skippy peanut butter in the kitchen of a local Thai restaurant — to the reasons why animals that have eaten fresh, local ingredients are better for us, this book is fascinating.

If you want to experience the account of Miller’s quest for a healthier diet, and read her advice that combines the wisdom of our ancestors with her nutrition research, pick up The Jungle Effect and reward yourself with an enjoyable weekend curled up with an entertaining read.

A Perfect Slow-Release Snack

Chop jicama into french-fry-size pieces. 

Marinate in lime and serve them topped with chili powder. Or marinate in orange juice with a squeeze of lemon.

Use them as a dip with guacamole or salsa. 

Decadent Figs

This succulent dessert is easy and attractive. You need a sharp knife to cut the figs without squashing them. When selecting, try to choose figs that are not overly ripe. When figs are not in season, use these same toppings with other fruits, including melons, apples, oranges and pears. For a change, you can serve these figs on top of greens as a salad course.

16 fresh figs

1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt, goat cheese, or ricotta cheese

1/3 cup chopped walnuts (preferably toasted)

1/3 cup honey (optional)

Make 4 even lengthwise cuts around each fig. Place four figs on each plate, and spoon in about a teaspoon of yogurt or cheese into each cut.

Sprinkle with walnuts and drizzle with honey just before serving.

Foraging Tips

Shop at a farmers market if there is one nearby.

Consider starting your own backyard or community garden.

Buy whole ingredients rather than things that have been pre-made. Avoid the packaged food sections of the stores.

Try not to cut corners by buying low-quality meat products; these tend to be the worst for you.

Whenever possible, buy foods that are local and in season. Ask the produce manager to help direct you.

Stock up on the in-season foods and learn to can, dry or freeze them for winter.

Avoid foods that have ingredients you don’t understand or cannot pronounce. If the ingredients say “enriched,” it is likely that they are not whole foods.

When in doubt, try to select foods with simpler packaging. These tend to be more local and have fewer additives.