Review: Good Energy

Review: Good Energy

Good Energy
Categories: ,
Author:
Published: 2024
Page Count: 400

Did you know that a steady diet of KFC is not good for you? Who knew!?!

Entering your 40’s is like entering a walk-in freezer in shorts and a t-shirt. At first it’s a bit of a shock. And then quickly your body notices how uncomfortable it is. So I’ve felt the need to better educate myself in order to make good decisions to keep my body healthy.

This book had some mixed reviews about it, so I thought I’d give it a start, and if I didn’t like it I would just stop. The intro resonated with me enough to persist. Am I glad I did? Probably. I’m not sure.

Who wrote it

Among other things, Casey Means is a lecturer at Stanform University on metabolic health and health technology.

Why I read it

There’s a few things that came together to this journey into the metabolic health space. The more I’ve read on mental health, and navigated my own journey through it, the more I’ve become convinced that diet and metabolic health are an important factor in a system of great complexity.

Should I eat healthy? Sure, we all know we should. But that’s rarely enough to move someone to make significant life changes. For that, I needed to dive further into understanding just how this all played out in the body. I needed a deeper sense of how the food you eat has a direct impact on how your body feels (and thinks, acts, etc…)

What I liked

The first part of the book was reasonably interesting. Setting up the various problems faced by people today was a helpful ‘in’ to a complex subject.

think I appreciated the level of detail that the book went into, even though I really didn’t understand a fair chunk of it. It at least felt like it gave some credibility to what was being discussed.

What I didn’t

There is some good stuff here. Unfortunately, it’s surrounded by much that is less helpful. Mostly, the unhelpful stuff is either too much detail, or too much pseudo-science. The early part of the book was quite good, the middle hit and miss, and the last part of little value.

There are extensive lists of various health markers that Means encourages you to measure and test regularly. There was so much detail here at points that it is quite overwhelming – especially to someone without a medical background. It really felt like it made everything unnecessarily complicated.

At points, she also comes across as rather extreme in her views, and well beyond what could be considered a reasonable way forward for the average person. For example, at one point she laments various entities that are found in ordinary tap water. It would be one thing to suggest only drinking purified water. But she goes on to say that you should avoid showering in such water. That’s a much tougher pill to accept or swallow. And very impractical.

Major Takeaway

There was enough here to encourage me to read further on the subject, albeit something less controversial and easier to read. For that, I am grateful.

Who should read it

Not sure I’d recommend this one to anyone. There are better and easier reads out there. I’m surprised how well regarded this book is by many reviewers.

3.5Overall Score

Good Energy

Did you know that a steady diet of KFC is not good for you? Who knew!?! Entering your 40's is like entering a walk-in freezer in shorts and a t-shirt. At first it's a bit of a shock. And then ...

  • Difficulty to read
    4.5
    There's large slabs of information dumping. Lots of technical words, acronyms, and concepts that the book flies through. Difficult to follow for the most part..
  • Overall Rating
    2.5
    There's some useful stuff here, but there's a lot presented in a way that becomes overwhelming. And there's some pretty raw pseudo-science parts (mostly at the back) which make it hard to recommend.

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