Book Review: Strong Medicine by Chris Hardy and Marty Gallagher
In this post I review Strong Medicine, which is a book about how to combat chronic illness through diet and resistance training. The book focuses on the causes of the chronic illnesses that plague modern society such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The authors make the argument that many of these diseases can be prevented by following the diet and exercise protocol they recommend in the book. I randomly found this book on Amazon and thought it looked interesting. It had a lot of good Amazon reviews, so I decided to check it out.
The authors have backgrounds in the medical field and strength and conditioning. Chris Hardy is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, which is a doctor who specializes in preventive care, and former Naval Medical Officer. Marty Gallagher is a national champion powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, and national champion coach. The genesis of the book came from a collection of notes about diet and exercise that Chris Hardy would hand out to his patients. He decided that the information should be consolidated and collaborated with Marty Gallagher to write the book. The book has a military theme throughout as if the reader is reading a battle plan against chronic disease. The authors make great use of graphics, illustrations, and pictures to help the reader comprehend what are sometimes complex topics.
I have to admit the authors do a fantastic job of taking what would otherwise be pretty dry material, and somehow make it entertaining to read about. Also, and maybe more importantly, they make some complex concepts about human physiology easy to understand. They describe in detail the effects an unhealthy diet has on the body, and how a sedentary lifestyle combined with a diet of processed food is causing a health epidemic. The book is also very well referenced. Each chapter ends with a huge list of references of scholastic journal articles. These guys are not just shooting from the hip, they really did their homework. Having a big list of references really goes a long way with me, particularly in today's environment of phoney internet health gurus and snake oil salesmen.
To be honest I may have some bias when it comes to this book because I strongly agree with their hypothesis regarding the causes of the current epidemic of chronic diseases in the United States. I also agree with their solution of how to fix the health crisis, or at least improve it, with prevention through diet and resistance training. One observation I had in reading this book is that you get a really good sense of how bad processed foods are for the human body. It’s simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. You may even find yourself feeling a little guilty or freaked out about that fast food burger you ate earlier in the week. I know I did, and I eat a pretty clean diet. Overall, you get a really good sense of how and why processed foods, fast food, and a sedentary lifestyle are really really bad for your body. And, how regularly consuming those foods does not come without serious consequences to your health in the form of increased risk of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc…
If I had a criticism of Strong Medicine it's that the authors spend most of the book explaining the "how" and the "why" with respect to how the body's systems work and why processed foods and the like are so bad for you. Personally, I like this style of book because I want to know the "how" and "why". However, I realize that some people just want to be told what to do, or what not to do. "Tell me what I can and can't eat." "Tell me which exercises to do." If you are one of these people then this is not the book for you, although I would disagree with your approach to diet and exercise. However, if you want to know how and why reducing sugar in your diet can be effective in reducing your chances of getting cancer, or why dietary cholesterol is not necessarily bad, then this is the book for you. The authors also did a pretty decent job explaining how to perform the exercises they recommend, which surprisingly is usually not the case in most fitness books. Although, if you're buying the book for that reason, or you already know your way around a weight room, be warned that most of the book is focused on the effects of an unhealthy diet on the body. The training portion is a little light, and doesn't show up until about 350 pages into the book. Having said that they do provide a basic strength training program and cardio regimin to compliment it as well. Although the program is pretty simple it is very good. The simple programs usually are. They also do a great job explaining the logic and science behind the program recommendations. I found the burst cardio portion of the program very interesting and honestly quite novel and very well thought out. In addition, they also provide some cooking recipes that adhere to the diet suggestions in the earlier portions in the book. I tried a couple of the recipes and they are easy to make and pretty good as well.
Overall, Strong Medicine is a great book. I just thought the information was universal and the authors did such a good job of explaining how all these chronic illnesses work, and how to prevent them while not making the book boring to read. In fact, I found the book highly entertaining. To be honest I think this should be a book used by high school and college health classes instead of the typical text book. The students would probably learn more since the authors make the material so relatable and easy to read. In conclusion Strong Medicine is well written, informative, and a surprisingly entertaining book. I very highly recommend it. Buy it!
