I was a bit blown away when I came across this book. I didn’t understand how in all of my research this was the first time I had been exposed to nutrition as an element of scoliosis treatment. I ordered Your Scoliosis Treatment Cookbook: Eating your way to a healthier spine! immediately and was pleasantly surprised by the information. It’s a lot more than a cookbook. Dr. Kevin Lau walks through an entire approach to understanding your individual digestive needs based on your metabolic type and includes an extensive questionnaire (65 questions!) to help you identify which foods and which proportions of food groups work best for you. He takes this approach of paleo typing, which I wasn’t crazy about, but this is the second time I’ve come across the recommendation of paleo as a healing diet for scoliosis treatment, so I figure it may be worth looking into.

My thoughts on paleo are less than enthused. The concept based on our hunter / gatherer ancestors just doesn’t do it for me. If anything, it has pushed me away from paleo because the logic just seemed a bit… out of touch. We don’t have to go back that far to know what contributes to a nutritious diet. Go back to before food was mass manufactured, or literally any other cuisine outside of America. I love American food. My favorite college late night snack was “The Clinton”, a grilled cheese sandwich with a slice of pizza in the middle (I don’t know why it’s called The Clinton, but trust me, it’s delicious). The thing about the Standard American Diet is I love it and it doesn’t love me back. I am currently working with a nutritionist to find a healthier relationship with food. I’m currently in the very beginning stages of this and am awaiting my test results. The reason I wanted to share this book is that it opened my eyes to look at food in a new way, especially as it pertains to the specific nutritional needs of a person with scoliosis. I wish I had this book 19 years ago when I was diagnosed!!

scoliosis treatment cookbook

While I am super excited and supportive of this book, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows while reading. So I’ve put together a pro / con list to summarize my thoughts.

Pros:

  • It educates you on the different metabolic types and includes an extensive questionnaire to help you identify your specific type.
  • It lists the foods that are good for your specific metabolic type in a nice reference table.
  • The recipes themselves are broken down my metabolic type to help you modify each for your unique needs.

Cons:

  • There are typos. This may be because the author is from Singapore and things fell through the cracks in translation. This is just my guess.
  • The recipes are broken down by metabolic type (which is also a pro) and it can be a bit hard to follow. According to this book, bacon is a food that does not agree with my type, yet there was a recipe for my metabolic type that included bacon; confusing.
  • It alienates anyone who might not be on board with the paleo diet (like me). I wish we could call it clean eating or something that is not so trendy. No buzz words, please. Yes, paleo will likely stick around, but there’s comfort in knowing something is tried and true.
  • It’s a little pricey. $30 is expensive for a book in my opinion, but I am really glad I got it, so it was worth the money to me.

All-in-all I strongly recommend this book for anyone who has been diagnosed with scoliosis. It’s a great starting point to a nutritional reset that is eye opening and enlightening as a scoliosis treatment that takes a full-body approach. This book does promote a paleo diet which I don’t love, but after talking to a nutritionist, she encouraged me to think of paleo as a baseline and to modify it to the foods that agree with me.

What are your thoughts on paleo as a scoliosis treatment approach?

Also, here’s my referral link to purchase the book here:

Enjoy!