Books! what are some nutrition books that helped you?
kiela64
Posts: 1,447 Member
Whether it's a specific diet manual, a book about nutrition, a cookbook, or a biography, is there a book that you found motivating, inspiring, informative, or that helped you understand more about nutrition?
I've found lots of links, but something about holding a book seems to make my academic brain go "oh this is important now" haha
I'm fully still experimenting myself, so if there's a book about vegan/vegetarian/low-carb/keto/whatever that you found absolutely amazing I'd totally be interested to hear about it!
ETA: and could you explain a little bit about why it's helped you/been so useful to you?
I've found lots of links, but something about holding a book seems to make my academic brain go "oh this is important now" haha
I'm fully still experimenting myself, so if there's a book about vegan/vegetarian/low-carb/keto/whatever that you found absolutely amazing I'd totally be interested to hear about it!
ETA: and could you explain a little bit about why it's helped you/been so useful to you?
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Replies
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Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (IMO, the best resource for vegan nutrition)
The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald1 -
Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald. No BS. Just good information.
Cook This, Not That - I make 10-15 recipes from this little book.3 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (IMO, the best resource for vegan nutrition)
The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald
Awesome! What do you like about them? I swear I've actually heard of the first author name mentioned in passing, too!0 -
Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald. No BS. Just good information.
Cook This, Not That - I make 10-15 recipes from this little book.
My only disagreement with Diet Cults is that the author overestimates (in my opinion) the importance of exercise in weight loss - and I say that as a serious exercise nut. Broadly speaking though I think it's a great book.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (IMO, the best resource for vegan nutrition)
The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald
Awesome! What do you like about them? I swear I've actually heard of the first author name mentioned in passing, too!
I love the first book because Norris and Messina are evidence-based RDs, so they really focus on what research shows about how to meet your nutritional needs as a vegan. It also includes sample diets for different types of lifestyles/stages (different ages, more athletic, etc). They avoid a lot of the less supported or inflated claims you sometimes see in other vegan books/websites. I drew most of my knowledge about supplementation from their work (in addition to the book, Norris maintains an amazingly helpful website -- veganhealth.org). Messina has a follow-up book, Vegan for Her, that focuses on the specific nutritional needs women have, I like that one as well. They're really practical in their approach to nutrition and I think they make really good points about how unnecessary restrictions (very low fat diets, avoiding white flour/sugar, etc) can make it harder to be vegan and even sometimes compromise meeting nutritional needs.
I like Matt Fitzgerald's book for similar reasons (although he isn't vegan). His approach is a really common-sense one that focuses on performance while avoiding unnecessary restrictions or "purity" in how one eats. This book draws on his observation of elite athletes to draw out the commonalities in how they eat around the world and offers tips on how non-elite athletes can implement their diet principles into their own lives.1 -
brendanwhite84 wrote: »Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald. No BS. Just good information.
Cook This, Not That - I make 10-15 recipes from this little book.
My only disagreement with Diet Cults is that the author overestimates (in my opinion) the importance of exercise in weight loss - and I say that as a serious exercise nut. Broadly speaking though I think it's a great book.
I didn't really get that from the book but it has been a while since I read it. It does make sense though since he is a running coach and that's what led me to find the book in the first place. So it is possible I glossed over that part.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (IMO, the best resource for vegan nutrition)
The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald
Awesome! What do you like about them? I swear I've actually heard of the first author name mentioned in passing, too!
I love the first book because Norris and Messina are evidence-based RDs, so they really focus on what research shows about how to meet your nutritional needs as a vegan. It also includes sample diets for different types of lifestyles/stages (different ages, more athletic, etc). They avoid a lot of the less supported or inflated claims you sometimes see in other vegan books/websites. I drew most of my knowledge about supplementation from their work (in addition to the book, Norris maintains an amazingly helpful website -- veganhealth.org). Messina has a follow-up book, Vegan for Her, that focuses on the specific nutritional needs women have, I like that one as well. They're really practical in their approach to nutrition and I think they make really good points about how unnecessary restrictions (very low fat diets, avoiding white flour/sugar, etc) can make it harder to be vegan and even sometimes compromise meeting nutritional needs.
I like Matt Fitzgerald's book for similar reasons (although he isn't vegan). His approach is a really common-sense one that focuses on performance while avoiding unnecessary restrictions or "purity" in how one eats. This book draws on his observation of elite athletes to draw out the commonalities in how they eat around the world and offers tips on how non-elite athletes can implement their diet principles into their own lives.
Ah thank you! I think I'm absolutely going to look into those two with Norris and Messina, evidence-based RDs with practical approaches sounds useful. I don't know if I'll ever manage to become vegan, but knowing how to make vegan food/meals/days/etc that is nutritionally sound is absolutely of interest to me.
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I like books on wine.2
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brendanwhite84 wrote: »Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald. No BS. Just good information.
Cook This, Not That - I make 10-15 recipes from this little book.
My only disagreement with Diet Cults is that the author overestimates (in my opinion) the importance of exercise in weight loss - and I say that as a serious exercise nut. Broadly speaking though I think it's a great book.
I didn't really get that from the book but it has been a while since I read it. It does make sense though since he is a running coach and that's what led me to find the book in the first place. So it is possible I glossed over that part.
It's not a major component of his writing; there's just a part in one of the latter chapters where he states in general terms that exercise is the key to maintaining a healthy weight. I realize there's a bit of 'fuzz factor' there - in that most people aren't willing to count calories with a high degree of accuracy, and that exercise might very well be a key factor in helping non-counters maintain.
I find that's a frequent and subtle clash within this topic and associated ones: the friction between what is physically, objectively correct in the science of weight management, and what is accessible to the layman. I realize most authors have to pitch more to the layman for the sake of efficacy, even if it's not the most technically correct analysis.2 -
Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald. No BS. Just good information.
Cook This, Not That - I make 10-15 recipes from this little book.
Thanks! For the second one, which one did you find helpful? I searched it and found like...5 different ones lol. Maybe they're all equal I don't know I know very little about cooking, so this looks like a good one. 0 -
This is the one I have - https://www.amazon.com/Cook-This-Awesome-350-Calorie-Meals/dp/1605291471. I found it a discount store. I flipped though it and thought it looked interesting.
I recommend the first one as well. I understand it may rub you the wrong way based on existing bias but if you really want to be open minded, it is worth the read. FWIW, I also have low carb, atkins, keto, paleo, and who knows what else books. I don't care at all about the nonsense in them. I only get them for the recipes (at the same discount store).1 -
This is the one I have - https://www.amazon.com/Cook-This-Awesome-350-Calorie-Meals/dp/1605291471. I found it a discount store. I flipped though it and thought it looked interesting.
I recommend the first one as well. I understand it may rub you the wrong way based on existing bias but if you really want to be open minded, it is worth the read. FWIW, I also have low carb, atkins, keto, paleo, and who knows what else books. I don't care at all about the nonsense in them. I only get them for the recipes (at the same discount store).
Thank you!! Sounds like a great resource for sure.0 -
https://muscleandstrengthpyramids.com/ - Both books are awesome, but you can buy them separately if you want. Been meaning to get https://renaissanceperiodization.com/shop/understanding-healthy-eating/ , but I've been too busy to have the time to read it.0
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Good books for a general reader:
Walter Willett's Eat Drink and Be Healthy -- I don't agree with absolutely everything in it, but it was an important read for me, years ago
Marion Nestle's books -- What to Eat is a good one (Food Politics is also interesting)
I strongly agree with the recommendation of Diet Cults
A diet book I actually think is really useful and speaks sense about how to think about food choice is Fat Loss Happens on Mondays
Laura Fraser's analysis of the dieting culture also talks generally about nutritional common sense: Losing It
Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is a basic cookbook that I think is a great resource for anyone wanting to learn to cook sensible balanced dinners and to feel comfortable in the kitchen
I love Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka and Greene on Greens as good basic vegetable cookbooks that are motivating for someone wanting to expand the vegetables they eat. Any farm/seasonal cookbook with lots of photos works the same way (Tender by Nigel Slater, for example)0 -
My all time favorite isn't a nutrition book per se: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Very helpful for me in my learning.
Two that I sometimes refer to folks who are total newbies at learning how to eat in more a healthful manner:
The Dash Diet and the Dash Diet Weight Loss Program. General information, really.
And then I re-read Michael Pollan. 3 -
My favorite book on nutrition is:
"You are what you eat" by Dr. Gillian Mckeith- got it off amazon and it is really excellent- whole foods , healthy and nutrition and she answers the question of which foods and healthy and how they help you-
Let Food be your medicine" by Dr. Don Colbert is also excellent
Both have helped me tremendously in learning about healthy eating as a whole.0 -
I too like Michael Pollen.
Most of my favourites support a lower carb diet:
Taube's Good Calories Bad Calories.
Big Fat Surprise
Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living
Ketogenic Bible
Cholesterol Clarity or Cholesterol Con or Great Cholesterol Myth
Wahl's Protocol
Atkin's Diet
Pure, White and Deadly
Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution
Alzheimers: What if There Was a Cure?2 -
The Blue Zones : 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest - Dan Buettner
Not purely nutrition but that comes into it a lot. Very interesting book.1 -
At this point I thought I might have something to contribute to the conversation.Whether it's a specific diet manual, a book about nutrition, a cookbook, or a biography, is there a book that you found motivating, inspiring, informative, or that helped you understand more about nutrition?- How to Cook Anything, or anything else by Mark Bittman
- Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook among others of that ilk
- Joy of Cooking any edition really
But then I wondered if I had the academic or intellectual capacity to keep up; But perhaps Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise or Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking would be useful suggestions.I've found lots of links, but something about holding a book seems to make my academic brain go "oh this is important now" haha
But after reading that and all the subsequent replies, I see I was wrong to start with. I don't have anything useful to contribute to this conversation.I'm fully still experimenting myself, so if there's a book about vegan/vegetarian/low-carb/keto/whatever that you found absolutely amazing I'd totally be interested to hear about it!
Missing the "arrival times" point here. What I found useful about all the examples listed above is they provide enough fundamental knowledge to let the latest money-making diet fad and gimmick roll off my shoulders like rain off a duck's back.ETA: and could you explain a little bit about why it's helped you/been so useful to you?"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants" Michael Pollen1 -
Geneen Roth as an author has several books on evaluating your relationship with food. Not nutrition, but certainly beneficial if you find yourself frequently struggling with food issues.2
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How Food Works - DK
Visually explains nutritional basics - what's in the food we eat and how your body processes it. I picked it up to get a better understanding of the science of food, and I'm glad that I did!0 -
Graelwyn75 wrote: »The Blue Zones : 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest - Dan Buettner
Not purely nutrition but that comes into it a lot. Very interesting book.
Yeah, good one.
I like Michael Pollan too, but my preferred books by him weren't so nutrition focused: Omnivore's Dilemma (which I guess is, but I thought of it as more about other things), The Botany of Desire, and Second Nature). I wasn't so interested in his "what to eat" books since I've read the essays that I think say basically the same thing and had read a bunch of similar stuff by then. I am interested in Cooked, which I have not read yet. (I also like his broad approach to food.)3 -
But perhaps Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise or Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking would be useful suggestions.
These are great choices and useful books. I've always found books that help me understand how cooking works more helpful than following recipes (which is why I tend to read cookbooks for pretty pictures, inspiration, or just ideas about ingredients I might not yet have experimented with, or for ideas of what to do with seasonal produce, more than recipes -- also for interesting information about different cuisines).
Bittman's Fish book was a specific one that I found extremely useful when teaching myself to cook better.0 -
The China Study.
Dr. Esselstyn - Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
The Engine 2 diet6 -
I too really like "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. Lots of great information. There was a PBS documentary on his book that you can watch if you don't want to read it...very interesting.1
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I use Skinnytaste cookbooks (she has quite a few vegetarian options and she makes comfort foods into healthier versions). I would also suggest the blog Sweet Peas and Saffron who also makes really good vegetarian/vegan recipes along with the meat recipes. And Oh She Glows....she has great smoothie recipes but I do find I need to add a lot more spice than she uses. For Skinnytaste and Oh She Glows I have all 4 cookbooks and use their recipes a lot.1
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I love Mark Bittman's "how to cook Everything Vegetarian"
The lack of photos is the only drawback. But the amount of lists, variations on a basic recipe, cooking instructions and substitutes are amazing. It's a huge book and he has at least another 6 books with similar titles. My library has them and I just love the different ideas.
His VB6 book explores being a vegan til 6pm and then eating meat or fish for dinner (he had some health issues and that way of eating worked for him) along with reasonable portions.
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Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink
A Guide to Flexible Dieting by Lyle McDonald
The Fat Loss Bible by Anthony Colpo
The Lean Muscle Diet by Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon0 -
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