While I may have come off a little harsh on the nutritional aspects of Spark, I want to emphasize that I think it's a great and informative read. Furthermore, his belief in the efficacy of exercise in treating common ailments such as depression, anxiety, and addiction was congruent to some of my principles.
I'm not a big fan of pharmaceutical medicine. That might be due to me being a foolish teenager, but I don't like the method that most medicines use: treating the symptoms, but not curing the problem at the source. Take cold medicines. They do nothing the get rid of the cold itself, but mask the symptoms and can have unpleasant side effects. I know some people claim that cold medicines are designed to prolong symptoms in order to generate profits, but I certainly cannot say its true. Antibiotics are prescribed for certain illnesses because they kill bacteria. However, it can kill the good bacteria in the gut that supports the immune system. Could this increase the chances of getting sick in the future? I'd say yes.
And this all comes back to exercise in a roundabout way: exercise helps cure these problems in a more dynamic way than Zoloft or other drugs. I can't explain the hard science behind it, but Ratey does a good job of explaining how exercise impacts "things" compared to just drugs. Ratey doesn't say to eliminate the use of drugs--he supports them in many cases.
The missing piece of his equation is nutrition. I can't say that proper exercise and nutrition will cure everything, but Ratey has shown that just exercise can have a profound impact. Add nutrition to a program that features exercise and, surprise, I imagine that the efficacy would be even better.
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