Don't Eat This If You're Taking That: The Hidden Risks of Mixing Food and Medicine

NBC Today Show nutrition and health guru Madelyn Fernstrom presents the ultimate guide to food and medicine interaction.

While no one wants to take medication to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or other ailments, for millions of people, this is a daily reality. Seven out of ten Americans take prescription drugs. But when it comes to food and medicine interactions, what you don’t know can harm your health.

Don’t Eat This If You’re Taking That takes the mystery out of food and medications, providing an easy-to-use guide for anyone taking a medication—short term or long term—that indicates foods to avoid that can interfere with the action of the medication. Readers can easily find a medication, see what foods to avoid, and make some smart swaps. Small diet changes learned from this book can have big health payoffs!

An added bonus in each chapter is a Dietary Supplements Alert box, providing the most up-to-date information on interactions with vitamins, minerals, and other dietary supplements. We all believe a diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and low-fat dairy products is the path to healthy eating, right? Not always. Consumers can easily personalize their healthiest eating plan to work with not against their medications.

Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, CNS, is a national health expert, neuroscientist, and nutritionist. She is the on-air NBC News and Today Show health and nutrition editor. She is also a contributor to Today.com. An award-winning clinician, she has published more than one hundred research papers and several books, including The Real You Diet and The Runner’s Diet.

John Fernstrom, PhD, is a nationally renowned and award-winning neuroscientist and pharmacologist. He is a world expert on the effects of foods and drugs on brain function. He is professor of psychiatry, pharmacology, and chemical biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is the author of more than two hundred scientific papers and the editor of several books.