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| | Description | This book describes techniques for improving mental abilities. Some of the things
it can help you to achieve include the following:
- Depending on circumstances, use different lifestyles that improve one or
another mental function. - Experience euphoria without drugs and come up with new ideas, when
needed. - Slow down and prevent yourself from making rash, impulsive decisions,
when necessary. - Sharpen your wit, become more talkative, and entertain people.
- When necessary, lower your mood and increase emotional tension, which
can reduce procrastination. - Increase your score on intelligence or general aptitude tests.
- Concentrate on reading and writing for many hours daily.
- Increase your grade point average if you are a student or improve your job
productivity if you are a knowledge worker. - Get along with people and live without arguments and conflicts.
The proposed methods are brief cooling or heating of the body (water thera-
py) and three different "smart diets," each suitable for a different type of task.
The text also describes a "depressant diet," which is not a smart diet but can im-
prove self-control and sleep. Readers don't need to use the strict diets on a per-
manent basis and the book recommends the conventional food pyramid most of
the time. The text also discusses several useful social skills and studying/writing
techniques as well as the role of luck in personal achievement.
Most authors in this field will tell you that you should read more books, solve
mental puzzles, buy their nutritional supplements, sleep well, and exercise in or-
der to get smarter. In contrast, this book is proposing moderately cold hydrother-
apy and a smart diet (which involves avoiding all dietary supplements). To give
another example, most books on anger management say that you should try to
change your thinking in order to overcome anger, while this book suggests hot
hydrotherapy and the exclusion of certain foods from your diet. The main focus of
discussion in this text is on changing the biological workings of the brain, not on
pop psychology. In particular, the book describes various combinations of diets
and hydrotherapy that have the following effects: sedative/sleep-promoting,
stimulant/wakefulness-promoting, attention-enhancing, antianxiety, antidepres-
sant, mood-stabilizing (mood-lowering), and euphoriant. In addition, the book
presents existing scientific evidence of pain-reducing, fever-reducing, anti-
fatigue, immunostimulatory, antinausea, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory
effects of hydrotherapy. The text also discusses the possible side effects of the
diets and hydrotherapy.
Despite its technical content, the book is written in an accessible language and
has an informative summary for each chapter and a list of key points at the end
of each section. The book supports most of the claims in the bulleted list above
with a theory and the author's personal experience (a healthy subject). Previously
published scientific studies directly support about a half of these claims, including
the claim about intelligence tests. The author's academic transcripts and test
scores have been documented and can be verified independently. | |
| | Product Details | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 18 reviews |
| |
| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 18 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 61 found the following review helpful:
 Title is misleading but GREAT information on the effects of food on mental clarity and mood! May 03, 2010
By Vicki Landes
Russian-born microbiologist Nikolai Shevchuk takes his years of self-tested theories about food and delivers this knowledge in an easy to read format called, "How To Become Smarter". Although I found the title misleading when considering the direction of the content, Shevchuk's book is crammed full of all kinds of information you won't find in other food resource books.
"How To Become Smarter" is Shevchuk's comprehensive and in-depth study of foods, food additives, and elimination diets and their affect on mental clarity and mood. While well documented and interesting, he also responsibly notes several times in the book that these experiments are self tests and not clinically proven. His tests do have limitations, though as his results are subjective and based on opinion, there are no experimental or control groups utilizing various ages or ethnicities, nor could there be any blind or double blind set ups for validity. He does point this out several times throughout the text to avoid misleading his readers. Shevchuk tackles such subjects as natural versus unnatural foods (ie. additives, flavor enhancers, coloring, etc), raw versus cooked foods and the chemical changes which occur as heat is added, and the effects of these foods on mood, concentration and such disorders as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivitiy Disorder (ADD/ADHD), testing, reading, and writing abilities, and a wide range of emotions and social tendencies. He offers elimination diet ideas for all types of intellectual, emotional, and social goals while pointing out that these diets are a temporary fix and not permanent solutions. The book ends rather abruptly after his chapter on social intelligence; Shevchuk offers no wrap up or conclusion for the reader.
I did find Shevchuk's "How To Become Smarter" title to be quite misleading; I was definitely not expecting a `food book'. Something like, "Mood Food", "Feed Your Mind", or "Anything and Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Food" would better suit the text while appealing to a wider audience (such as those interested in alternative, natural, and holistic health and wellness). With over 400 pages of details, observations, comparisons, research, suggested foods to eat or eliminate which relate to specific goals, the title "How To Become Smarter" didn't seem to do the book justice.
Nikolai Shevchuk writes an intelligent, organized book on the mental and physical effects of food on the human body. Meant to serve as informational versus clinically proven fact, "How To Become Smarter" is a great resource!
31 of 33 found the following review helpful:
Title isn't exactly accurate but some interesting information nonetheless Mar 28, 2012
By Michael Matthews
"Author, Bigger Leaner Stronger"
In this book, the author shares the findings of his research on the effects that food have on the brain and our cognitive abilities.
Although I'm not sure that you can become "smarter" by eating better, you certainly can become more alert, focused, aware, and emotionally balanced, and thus you will be able to study better, communicate better, and think clearer. For all intents and purposes, you will feel smarter.
The meat of this book is a full explanation and breakdown of the author's extensive study of foods, food additives, and diets, and how they affected him. He makes this clear: these are not peer-reviewed, clinically proven tests--they are his own experiments with his body. This doesn't mean they're irrelevant, though.
Mr. Shevchuk dives into many areas of nutrition that are very relevant today, such as chemical additives used to enhance flavor, shelf life, presentation, and more; raw versus cooked foods and what happens when you heat food up; natural foods versus heavily processed counterparts; and more. I found the research on food's relationship to "disorders" like ADD and ADHD particularly interesting, because there have been quite a few news stories of schools that simply switched their cafeteria food to healthy grains, proteins, and vegetables, and found that the cases of ADD/ADHD dropped dramatically, grades improved considerably, the children were better behaved, and more. This only makes sense, of course, as a small body that's pumped full of sugar and toxins is not going to behave in a calm, composed manner.
This book offers some dietary tips for eliminating foods that can impair intelligence, mood, and comfort, but these are more along the lines of "quick fixes." If something in your life is causing you a ton of stress and dampening your mood, you're not going to feel like a million bucks by eliminating some chemicals and toxins from your diet.
The writing was a bit rough, but I didn't mind it because I found the information interesting. For 99 cents, you're getting over 400 pages of anecdotal research on food and its effects on your body, mind, and mood. The author clearly put a lot of work into this and is not just trying to make a quick buck.
P.S. If you're looking for something a bit more on-topic for "getting smarter"--that is, getting better grades, improving data comprehension and retention, etc.--then I recommend The Power of Words: Unlock Your Ability to Learn and Do Anything. It taught me a really simple, practical study system that's so common sense and helpful that I'm actually kind of shocked that it's not taught in every school.
20 of 21 found the following review helpful:
You Think how you Eat! Jan 20, 2011
By K. Albertson
"reader1"
This author brings a very interesting and unique view of the brain, and the correlation between what improves thinking and the foods we eat.
He has a Master's in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Oncology. I enjoyed how he has personally tried several types of diets in an effort to find those that assist mental acuity as well as those foods that suppress our moods and thinking ability. What would you eat to improve your SAT or GRE scores? Want ways to improve your fluid intelligence--raw foods!
What foods suppress, or antagonize your mood and behavior? Want to learn a language? What is the fastest way?
He outlines critical elements for your success. The book has great appendices which outline various types of diets. For example, the anti depressant diet, and the anger management diet. He explains how they alter your body's chemistry. There are interesting sections on ADHD, autism and ADD.
This book outlined what an IQ test consists of and how to improve scores. It explains crystallized social intelligence (measures vocabulary, general knowledge) vs. fluid socialized intelligence (the ability to understand and solve novel problems) which I found very interesting. The author explains "mental clarity", "social intelligence," and how they are measured. He explains ways to improve the brain and how to think better. I learned a lot and will use many of his ideas.
The book reviews control vs. placebo studies, standard deviation, significance and insignificance in a statistical study and how to interpret evidence from a study.
Breast fed vs. formula? Animal products significantly affect our thinking and our health. Eskimos for example eat raw foods without artificial ingredients. However, in industrial societies, today's animal products have changed and have pathogens which our immune systems can't handle.
Our brain can't adapt to processed foods, chemicals, refined sugars, and artificial ingredients. Food additives, sweeteners, thickeners vegetable gums, table salt, MSG, and nitrates impair learning and affect alertness. This book covers an enormous amount of facts and allows you to look at being smarter in a new light. Be prepared- you will want to take notes. I learned a lot and will go through it again to digest all of this information.
I received a complimentary review copy.
22 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Eat right and you can be smarter than a fifth grader Apr 12, 2010
By Cindy Vine
"Author of Not Telling"
When I picked up How to become Smarter by Nikolai Shevchuk, I wondered if I was smart enough to read this book. I was pleasantly surprised. Either I am very smart, or Nikolai's book is easy to read. I tend to go for the latter in this case, I was never a high academic achiever at school. Earlier this year I had my son tested by an educational psychologist. He appears to be quite smart with many things, but when it comes to exam situations, something happens and he might end up writing the same sentences over and over again. The educational psychologist found that he was above average intelligence and there was no reason why he could not perform academically when under pressure. That is, he had no apparent learning difficulties. Nikolai Shevchuk's book seems to be the answer to my problems with my son and academic performance. He explains how he too was a classic under-achiever at school, until he started trying some of the strategies in the book. I read the twelve things How to become Smarter can do for you and I was hooked. It was almost as if this book was written especially for my son and me.
This book mostly discusses ways of improving functioning of the brain. Preservatives affect your intelligence in a negative way. Feed your kids natural foods, but avoid giving them raw food because raw food often comes with diseases. Although, raw foods are the best at increasing your mental abilities. Something interesting I read in this book, is that cooked grains can act as a mild sedative. I guess that explains why I feel tired after a bowl of hot porridge and lazy after a sandwich. Shevchuk gives diets to try to increase intelligence. He reckons, that we need to go back to our ancestral diets. He propagates mixing meat and milk which is against the Jewish religion. However, he does say that diets are not the only way we can improve our mental faculties.
Although he confesses to not being a chef, Shevchuk does give recipes that one can use to create a diet that increases your mental ability. After reading this book I know what I have to do. I have to drastically change my diet.
There is quite a bit of technical jargon and evidence of a lot of research in the book. I definitely felt smarter after I finished it, as I ate my dinner of boiled meat, vegetable and grains.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Fascinating read on human intelligence and how to become smarter Jan 28, 2010
By J. Giordano
Although the material can be dense, each chapter includes a summary as well as key points at the end of each section helping the reader to easily digest the important points.
The topics discussed in the book are quite interesting and are ones that most people can relate to such as: tips on learning a foreign language and how to overcome the fear of solitude. If you are seeking a greater understanding of the factors influencing human intelligence and how to become smarter, you won't be disappointed!
See all 18 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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