[Book]
Feel-Good Food:
A Guide To Intuitive Eating
By Susie Miller and Karen Knowler
*Signed copies available on request.
“At last - an easy-to-read and fascinating beginner's guide to raw foodism - the intuitive way."
The ideal book to get you started
Bringing together over 20 years of combined raw eating experience and wisdom, Feel-Good Food condenses information brought from a wide variety of scientific, practical and experiential sources, and results in an easy to read invaluable reference book which you will refer to time and again.
Covering a wide range of topics - everything from physiology to parenting to “living in the real world”, Feel-Good Food provides an invaluable source of information which is suitable for all stages of transitioning to a raw vegan diet.
From back cover
There is no better food expert than yourself. Feel-Good Food shows how to tap into this knowledge to achieve optimum health.
We are surrounded by differing opinions on which foods are best for us, from diet and health books, the media, friends and family; and then there are our own desires and cravings. But which should we follow? Feel-Good Food shows us that deep down we are our own ultimate experts and that by learning to listen to our intuition, we can effortlessly enjoy eating a life-enhancing diet.
This book offers a revolutionary cure for food confusion with a simple step-by-step approach on how to awaken the intuition, detailing which foods to use and why. Once in operation, using your own intuition means you do not need to follow anyone else’s – not even the authors’ – ideas of what is delicious, satisfying or healthy, but instead you can follow your own wisdom and thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of vibrant eating.
Contents
1: What is Intuitive Eating? - What is it? Why don't we use it? What stops us? What can help us? What can it lead to?
2: The Inside Story - How to take the best of science and put it to good use.
3: Contacting Our Own Inner Wisdom - Learning how to listen to your inner messages is vital.
4: Making Changes and What to Expect - How does a body regenerate, and how can you tell when it's happening?
5: Living in the Real World - How to be healthy, happy and sociable in an unhealthy world.
6: Intuitive Children - How to gently and gradually encourage your child to become and intuitive eater.
7: A Taste of Living Foods - The how's, why's and where's of raw foods and creating a living foods kitchen, plus easy delicious recipes.
Appendices: Food combining chart; Recommended reading list; Useful contacts.
From Karen
"Feel-Good Food was written by myself and The Fresh Network’s founder Susie Miller way back in 1999 and was published a few months later in May 2000; what I wrote then I still stand by today – a good thing! Susie and I chose to write about Intuitive Eating rather than simply raw food eating as we were both passionate about people tapping into their natural ability to choose healthy food free of any “shoulds” or “musts”, both us having suffered with unhealthy attitudes towards food and eating throughout our formative years.
"As we both discovered (and if you buy this book you will too!), the beauty about learning how to eat intuitively is that not only does it feel good and naturally “right”, it also empowers you – unlike other dietary approaches which are usually purely cerebrally-orientated and pay very little attention to what an individual’s body or taste buds are actually enjoying and responding well to!
"For me, learning to eat intuitively has been a journey of awe, wonder, surprise and ultimately relief. After years of feeling frustrated with my eating habits and having struggled with the traditional dieting mentality in a bid to lose weight and stay an “acceptable” size, to find a way of eating that not only tastes delicious but also make a lot of sense AND sets me free in all departments, well, that can only be a good thing!
"Although this book is now 6 years old, it’s as relevant today as it was back in 2000. It’s also a very quick and easy light read. Giving yourself the gift of learning to eat intuitively (or rather, unearthing the ability to do so) is one of the best things you can do for yourself on your journey to healing and wholeness around food and eating. It’s a journey that quite literally changed my body and my life, and although I naturally highly recommend this book I’ve included a fair few reviews here so that you can see that I’m not alone!"
Reader reviews
"Feel-Good Food is by far the best book on raw food eating I have seen, and in my mind, the model for raw food eating. I am really passionate about teaching this information in a proper manner, and this book is not just good, it is brilliant and necessary. Teaching people to tune into their senses and follow their intuition is the way. Feel-Good Food deserves to get into every aspiring and struggling raw fooder's hands."
- David Klein, Publisher/Editor Living Nutrition Magazine, USA
"I have read many books about introducing the raw food diet and lifestyle to people, but none as good as Feel-Good Food by Susie Miller & Karen Knowler. This book reminded me of an updated version of Fit for Life, one of the best-selling health food books ever written. It is not long before Feel-Good Food will surpass this book and become an all time bestseller. Feel-Good Food is the best book I have ever read that introduces how to live a healthy lifestyle and I am going to highly recommend it to all my clients and at all my lectures. If you get any one book about health, it should be this book."
- Paul Nison, Author of The Raw Life, USA
"A big thank you for sending me your lovely new book. As someone who suffered from eating problems in my late teens, I think there is such a need for helping women (in particular) to listen to their bodies and live in harmony with their physical selves. Also, at this time of rapid growth in consciousness, our bodies are in danger of being 'left behind' - and urgently need good nutrition.”
- Gill Edwards, author of Living Magically and Wild Love, UK
"I loved this book very much. I refer this book to my clients all the time."
- Fumi Sasa, USA
"I recently read your book and it is great! It is one of the best raw books ever."
- Tracy Fay by email
"We loaned Feel-Good Food to a friend down the road and she said she loved it. She is 50 and has serious arthritis - her doctor advises replacement of both hips but she wants to try other avenues first. Your book helped her to choose the raw path, and she's having a great time in the kitchen at the moment trying out all sorts of recipes. She even got her son (25 years old) to join her."
- Inga, Netherlands
"I just finished reading Feel-Good Food. It was wonderful, just what I was needing. It is unlike any other book on raw foods that I have read so far, and covered much of the psychological work that is necessary during transition and further."
- Ana, USA
"I read Feel-Good Food and absolutely loved it... What I liked about your book was the way it both addressed problems people might have transitioning to a high-raw diet and offered suggestions for dealing with the practicalities of transition. The book is easy to read, practical for those wanting to take the plunge but nervous about it and reassuring in that it advises people to take things very much at their own pace and to listen to their own bodies and minds."
- Rhoda-Mary Bowell, EIRE
"An excellent book! Both informative and fun to read, Feel-Good Food provides a path to get in touch with your body and find out what works for you irrespective of the conflicting advice from the many people who make a living from telling us what to eat."
- Dave Snowdon, France
"I read your book last week and really enjoyed it and wished that I had started with this book rather than the many others which I have read. There are so many books which tell you what you should eat and what you should not. This book is refreshing in that it allows YOU the eater to determine what is right for you. Eating raw is a journey but you can decide where to go and at what speed. This books gently helps you to try raw food path and shows you that your intuition will lead you along it. This book is a good friend that you will want to take with you."
- Carol Ann Mason, UK
"Evidence strongly suggests that appropriate food for humans is largely plant-based and raw... Feel-Good Food confirms my long-held views and clinical experiences."
- Dr David Ryde, UK
"Thank you for my signed copy of Feel-Good Food, which I am greatly enjoying reading. I love the way its written and the way the ideas are presented... it is an inspiration. I'm only on my second raw day…and I feel great."
- Fiona Lohrbächer, Germany
"I have just read the book Feel-Good Food by Susie Miller and Karen Knowler, and it was the most inspiring read ever...and I have certainly read some books in my life. I have started to change my diet already, incorporating as much raw food as possible, and I am already feeling the difference."
- Sandi Gowan, UK
“If you want the low down on natural diet and its benefits WITHOUT all the pushy hype that many authors feel is necessary, then this is the book for you. It is down to earth, practical, useful and genuine. There is no "you should do this", but only, "here are some ideas, this worked for me, that for her, and the other for him." It tells you how to discover your own path and put together your own ideal diet at a commitment level YOU feel comfortable with and not the authors' level. Even though it has to be shipped from Britain, it is well worth it.”
– Elisabeth, Leeds, UK
“As a living foodist who's read practically every raw foods book over the past 30 years, I loved "Feel-Good Food" where the authors' passion is human potential and making this diet workable for everyone, no matter where they're starting from. The book's focus is on Intuitive Eating--What is it? Why is it so powerful? It shows you how to overcome internal blocks which prevent you from moving forward into all-raw. It's the perfect introduction to the raw food diet and will answer most, if not all, of your early questions on how to transition to raw foods. Karen reports on her web site: "When you're living this way you really do feel as if you can achieve anything you set your mind to, and sometimes the enormity of what I feel bowls me over! Let it be known that I am not privileged or different or anything 'special.' I am just an everyday woman who wanted excellent health and went after it. It's honestly as simple as that, and it can be YOURS just as easily." Karen Knowler went slowly from an extreme junk food diet through to all-raw vegan. Karen's history is interesting - including healing herself of borderline cervical cancer at age 22.”
– Val Archer, South Africa
Magazine Reviews
Wave Magazine, 2000:
Such a simple concept, this really is one of the few health orientated (as opposed to size orientated) diet guides on the market. It advocates a raw food diet as offering the level of food purity that we need to function to maximum potential. OK, for most of us this would entail a significant change in our approaches to food and eating, but this book is utterly convincing. Is the food we eat what we need or is it a knee-jerk response to what we crave? Do we have the capacity to eat intuitively? Fascinating stuff that deserves attention.
Article inspired by Feel-Good Food:
New Insights magazine, May 2001
The Raw Truth
Elizabeth Holmes detoxes and finds you’ve nothing to lose but your stuff.
I have just been on a raw food detox diet. I have no idea why I started it when I did and little understanding of what I hoped to achieve. I was also unbelievably naïve about the extent to which my life would be impacted by such relatively simple dietary changes.
The inspiration came from Susie Miller’s and Karen Knowler’s Feel-Good Food: A Guide to Intuitive Eating (Women’s Press, 2000). In it, the authors argue that many of our ills, attitudes and dependencies on food result from our inability to intuit what we really need to eat. So much of what many of us consume is based on habits, cravings or, in some cases, perceived sights that we are far removed from making skilful choices when it comes to food. Perhaps we’re just so clogged up with debris it eludes us.
As a non-drinking, non-smoking, caffeine-free vegetarian, I had misplaced confidence about the extent to which I needed to detox. The book suggests that ‘feel good food’ is raw food and also the key to intuitive eating. It explains how to introduce increasing levels of raw food into your diet so that your detoxification is gentle and suggests tackling your diet in this way at a relatively quiet time work-wise. Great idea, but not my style; if I can drag myself through the path of greatest resistance at a time when demands on me are high, I will.
On Day One I ate nothing but fruit and felt good for it – good enough to continue on fruit for another two days, by which time I was waking at 5am and storming through a day’s work by lunchtime. On Day Four, when I introduced nuts and seeds to my fruit diet, I crashed. The aches were I imagine, although I’ve never succumbed, like 'flu, and my eyes and nose had started to stream. This is not unusual, the book reassures, as cleansing reactions are simply the result of the body ridding itself of the crap that has been undermining it. Detoxing was never meant to be an ecstatic experience! And such reactions would only last a few days anyway; I ought to be able to cope with that.
The advice in the book is corroborated by Lewes-based nutritionist and founder of the Food and Mood Project, Amanda Geary. She says: “When you change what you eat and completely cut out foods that you were having regularly, your body will initially go through a withdrawal phase; you will fell worse before you feel better, but this could only last a few days.”
Well, try a week, by which time I was still eating strictly only raw fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, fresh juices, water and the occasional matzo. When I emerged from the physical ‘stuff’ to the intent that I could refocus fully on life, rather than just the essential the mental symptoms emerged, safe in the knowledge that my commitment to raw, healthy food would prevent a search for distraction and enforce a head-on showdown.
I now know that Greta Garbo must actually have been doing a detox when she uttered her timeless words. Although I could sense positive changes in my physical body such as increased energy, thicker hair if that’s possible, stronger nails, no hypoglycaemic attacks and so on, mentally, the ‘melancholy fit’ had fallen and I was undertaking ruthless scrutiny of every aspect of my life. Worse, I found that apparently little pleased me.
Surprisingly, this too is food related. As Amanda Geary explained: “Fasting and detoxification can also bring out emotional and mental symptoms that you have not had for a while. This is probably due to stored food substances and toxins which are re-released into circulation as your body starts to break down its stores of fat.”
I find this frightening. I knew that much of what I was feeling was related to a decision I had made five years ago but the thought that I has harboured those emotions in my physical body and not just in some dusty corner of my mind that I could forget about was unnerving. Besides, I’d always thought that self-obsessed narcissistic whingeing wasn’t me. Not so.
In weeks three and four I introduced limited cooked food but more out of social commitments than need, although I was craving pasta and pesto. While I was physically stronger, fitter and clearly healthier and even my eyesight has improved significantly to the surprise of my optician, it was crunch time for the emotion symptoms.
I now wonder what came first – the desire to follow the diet or the subconscious need to give myself the chance to be free of those times. Whatever it was, the diet gave me far more than I bargained for but I would do it again if I needed to, although perhaps next time with the support of a nutritionist.
It is true that you get over whatever your body throws out in days or even weeks, but key issues rise to the surface and you know with a certainty that only a detox can offer exactly what no longer serves you. And there’s not always a quick fix for the resulting implications.
By cutting down your food intake to a mostly clean minimum you do begin to feel what your body needs to eat, even by the smell of food and drinks. Whether this is intuitive eating I’m not sure, but I have realised that if I’m going to listen to my body that closely I’ll have to move into Infinity Foods - that is until I can develop a more reliable body-to-brain advance warning system.
Oh, and you lose weight too. There’s no way I’m saying just how much (Bridget, where’s your pride girl?), but put it this way – I can now get my favourite jeans off without undoing the button. Guess they’re not my favourites anymore.
Health Matters
Issue 44, Spring 2001
Susie Miller and Karen Knowler have produced a very informative and accessible self-help book, which left me quite convinced that I could change all my bad eating habits and alter my life.
The authors do not pretend this is an academic book, or a substitute for professional advice. As with all such volumes, it is important to allow ourselves to be inspired – and then to get on with the harder work of turning the inspiration into a reality that works for us.
There is much in this book that I feel I can learn from, or adapt to my own life. The basic premise is flexibility and adaptation: we are encouraged but the authors to ‘listen to our bodies’ (and, indeed, find ways past those times when our bodies are simply telling us we crave chocolate).
Personally, they have convinced me that I can, in some small way, alter my eating habits and lifestyle for the better – and that can be no bad thing.
