Confused on nutrition. Any recommended reading/books?

haniipop

Hello everyone! Ever since coming on MFP, I've became a lot more self aware of what I eat--in the good way (hopefully). I now read the labels of what I buy for one thing, and aim to eat more vegetables to get my fiber.
But this have also been a pretty confusing experience as well. Going through forums, I see contrasting and varying statements on nutrition regarding what to eat and what not to eat. For example, one side is saying this about genetically modified food, while the other side is saying something else entirely. Or one side could say something about sugar from fruits being different than sugar in processed sweets, while another say they're processed in the same way. Outside of MFP isn't too much better. I still read many contradictory voices on eating and I just don't know what is true anymore.

If any of you can point me out to some certifiable books on eating well or any condemnable sources so I can educate myself properly then it'll be much appreciated. There are just so many myths that people say are true; it's awfully confusing.


In case it helps, my goal is to lose weight. If you can find any book that tackles that as well would be certainly welcomed!



Thank you all very much for your help.

GymPoet

I like the Center for Science in the Public Interest http://www.cspinet.org/.
They charge a small fee for their Nutrition Action Letter, but it is a great read--summary of research on all the food topics that folks ate debating , and their opinion. Tufts' nutrition school also puts out a newsletter that is good.

EllenPerrin

I like Patrick Holford - he's about looking after your health more than dieting. I followed his 'Low GL Plan' last year & lost 2 stone. His 'Optimum Nutrition Bible' is probably the best all-rounder

anemoneprose

Forgive my bluntness, but why would you expect any response to this thread to be less biased or confusing than what you've already seen?

I appreciate wanting to get the score, but there's no cheat sheet, unfortunately. You just have to apply as much critical thinking and time as you're willing to invest, and settle on a conclusion.

But if your goal is simply to lose weight, and you're not prepared to make a radical change in lifestyle, you really can't go wrong by following consensus MFP wisdom, which is:

- get enough fibre (veg, beans, fruit) - 20-25 grams
- get a good amount of protein - .7-1 gram/lb bodyweight
- get some fat (I'm lazy and have fat and the other two set to percentages: 40 carb, 30 protein, 30 fat; I don't always meet them)
- count calories. To set levels, I would strongly recommend the TDEE - 15 or 20% method over something more drastic, and lots of people would agree.

Re GMOs etc: this gets into food politics, and I again think in your reading you should just follow your interest, instincts and logic.

If you do find you want to take a position, even people who feel strongly about it, if they can't afford 100% local/organic/what have you and aren't ready to homestead, often make compromises. (I get some organic things, some local, some grocery store, depending on my wallet and mood.)

Best of luck

BigGuy47

It sounds like you are jumping into the deep end of the pool and struggling to swim.

What is your base knowledge of nutrition ? Do you understand Macros? Do you understand micro-nutrients?

Get a firm grip on the basics. Armed with that knowledge you can move on to the more complex questions about GMO's, artificial sweeteners, etc.

junoja

Hannah - Since you asked for some recommended reading - I will give you the names of a few that have helped me decide how I need to eat. Again - I have some specific health issues that I am trying to combat thru nutrition. I tend to follow a paleo/primal type diet - which is grain free, added sugar free (natural sugar in fruit is ok; high fructose corn syrup- not ok), and mostly dairy free. This isn't for everyone - but that is okay.
Some of the books I found helpful -
It Starts with Food
Wheat Belly
Fit for Life
Green for Life
Free the Animal
Also read different books on the Zone diet, Atkins, South beach diet etc.

iechick

Every book out there is going to have some sort of spin/bias. Best thing is to read everything you can get your hands on (library is awesome for this), and sort through it all, one book at a time. I've literally spent hundreds of hours reading different books on nutrition/weight loss/healthy eating in the last year, from one end of the spectrum, to the other (primal to vegan and everything in between lol). As I've done this, I've formed my own ideas on what is a healthy way of eating for me and my lifestyle, and have implemented those into my diet/life. There is no one book out there that's 100% correct. If you want some suggestions I can give you a bunch, but I'm not going to say they're the books/plan to follow-you need to make that call as you read through them

haniipop

That's a wonderful idea. You certainly have a strong point. My library's selection isn't too sparse on nutrition, but I remember passing several books on it that could be useful.

And hundreds of hours, wow. That's impressive. I'm glad to see that the work paid off and you were able to find your own direction in eating. Congratulations!

haniipop

Forgive my bluntness, but why would you expect any response to this thread to be less biased or confusing than what you've already seen?

I appreciate wanting to get the score, but there's no cheat sheet, unfortunately. You just have to apply as much critical thinking and time as you're willing to invest, and settle on a conclusion.

But if your goal is simply to lose weight, and you're not prepared to make a radical change in lifestyle, you really can't go wrong by following consensus MFP wisdom, which is:

- get enough fibre (veg, beans, fruit) - 20-25 grams
- get a good amount of protein - .7-1 gram/lb bodyweight
- get some fat (I'm lazy and have fat and the other two set to percentages: 40 carb, 30 protein, 30 fat; I don't always meet them)
- count calories. To set levels, I would strongly recommend the TDEE - 15 or 20% method over something more drastic, and lots of people would agree.

Re GMOs etc: this gets into food politics, and I again think in your reading you should just follow your interest, instincts and logic.

If you do find you want to take a position, even people who feel strongly about it, if they can't afford 100% local/organic/what have you and aren't ready to homestead, often make compromises. (I get some organic things, some local, some grocery store, depending on my wallet and mood.)

Best of luck

Haha, very true. I guess this was more of a thread asking for multiple resources, instead. Sorry about that.
While my side goal is to lose weight, I'm also interested in learning how to maintain a well rounded diet throughout my life. I'm not really looking for an easy way out; just a healthy way that would hopefully lead to a healthy change. I thought that educating myself on the basis of eating well would be the first step.

And starting on the basics first? gotcha. I can stick with that advice. And thank you so much for your reply.

Mr_Knight

Here's the thing to keep in mind - humans are omnivores. We have evolved to thrive on a huge variety of foods and diets. There is no "one answer" - there are many answers.

For instance, you mentioned fiber. Why? Many believe that fiber is completely unnecessary - if you look at it from an evolutionary perspective, it makes little sense to intentionally ingest food that inhibits our ability to extract nutrients from other foods we've eaten.

But opinions differ - all we know for sure is that humans can live long, healthy lives eating everything from no fiber to tons of fiber and all points in between.

anemoneprose

Just saw you are on the young side -- are you currently studying? Your unfortunate confusion actually presents a great opportunity to develop critical thinking and scientific literacy skills. That way, you will feel more confident about evaluating and making judgements about whatever you read

I can't think of a single resource for that either, tbh (maybe someone else can?) but found this quickly:

http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/sci/

anemoneprose

Forgive my bluntness, but why would you expect any response to this thread to be less biased or confusing than what you've already seen?

I appreciate wanting to get the score, but there's no cheat sheet, unfortunately. You just have to apply as much critical thinking and time as you're willing to invest, and settle on a conclusion.

But if your goal is simply to lose weight, and you're not prepared to make a radical change in lifestyle, you really can't go wrong by following consensus MFP wisdom, which is:

- get enough fibre (veg, beans, fruit) - 20-25 grams
- get a good amount of protein - .7-1 gram/lb bodyweight
- get some fat (I'm lazy and have fat and the other two set to percentages: 40 carb, 30 protein, 30 fat; I don't always meet them)
- count calories. To set levels, I would strongly recommend the TDEE - 15 or 20% method over something more drastic, and lots of people would agree.

Re GMOs etc: this gets into food politics, and I again think in your reading you should just follow your interest, instincts and logic.

If you do find you want to take a position, even people who feel strongly about it, if they can't afford 100% local/organic/what have you and aren't ready to homestead, often make compromises. (I get some organic things, some local, some grocery store, depending on my wallet and mood.)

Best of luck

Haha, very true. I guess this was more of a thread asking for multiple resources, instead. Sorry about that.
While my side goal is to lose weight, I'm also interested in learning how to maintain a well rounded diet throughout my life. I'm not really looking for an easy way out; just a healthy way that would hopefully lead to a healthy change. I thought that educating myself on the basis of eating well would be the first step.

And starting on the basics first? gotcha. I can stick with that advice. And thank you so much for your reply.

No worries! Sorry if I was a bit heavy handed!

iechick

That's a wonderful idea. You certainly have a strong point. My library's selection isn't too sparse on nutrition, but I remember passing several books on it that could be useful.

And hundreds of hours, wow. That's impressive. I'm glad to see that the work paid off and you were able to find your own direction in eating. Congratulations!

Does your library participate in a inter-borrowing system with other libraries in your area/state? Lots of them do now and in my area I can request books from like 50 libraries, and they're delivered to my local branch for free Definitely worth looking into!

Ok, here's a few of the books that I've read in the past year-I am NOT saying I agree with all of them. In fact, there's several I really disagree with but I still found value in them, if only to strengthen my ideas in the opposite direction. I'm also not going to tell you which ones I agreed/disagreed with-again, taking the time to read through them yourself will be very valuable, as you can start to form your own opinion/ideas on what's the best way for you to eat for weight loss/long term health will be.

There is ONE exception to this-I highly recommend the book Rethinking Thin, by Gina Kolata and think everyone should read this one. It's not a book with a weight loss plan, but instead is about the history of the dieting industry, the studies that have been done/are ongoing about weight loss and obesity, and is a very sobering look at the long term success rate of weight loss and maintenance. A great place to start, to get an idea of the battle we're all actually fighting in our weight loss journey.

Ok, in no particular order:

-The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
-Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
-Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, by John Robbins
-Thin for Life: 10 Keys to Success from People Who Have Lost Weight and Kept It Off, by Anne M. Fletcher
-Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works, by Evelyn Tribole, Elyse Resch
-Vegan for Her: The Woman's Guide to Being Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet, by Gina Messina
-The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good! by John A. McDougall, Mary McDougall
-12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food, by Virginia Boutenko
-The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life, by Dawn Jackson Blatner

-The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds, by Rip Esselstyn
-Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure, by Caldwell Esselstyn, T. Colin Campbell
-The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell II
-The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone
-Skinny *****: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous! by Rory Freedman, Kim Barnouin
-Main Street Vegan, by Victoria Moran, Adair Moran
-Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
-Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease, by Dean Ornish
-Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health, by William Davis
-The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, by by Robb Wolf

-Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life, by Nora T. Gedgaudas
-The Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson
-The Fast Diet: The Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer, by Michael Mosley
-The 8 Hour Diet, by David Zinczenko
-The Alternate-Day Diet, by Dr. James Johnson
-Sos (Stop Only Sugar) Diet: You Won't Even Know You're On A Diet! by James A. Surrell
-Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, by Sally Fallon
- Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health, by Gene Stone, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn

ivormorgan

Hi. Read this:
http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2013/09/27/nutrition-101-recap-top-5-tips-to-eat-more-nutritiously-infographic/#sthash.Q7HaicS0.dpbs
Follow the links to the previous articles.
Do not read the comments. They are left by people who like to make simple things complicated.
And as someone else said, every book is pushing an angle. You need to ask how qualified the authors are. Most ain't.

chris2267

I think a lot depends on what you believe. What do you believe about the food industry, the exercise industry, etc. For myself, I tried to play by the rules of the standard American diet (SAD) and got no where. I don't agree with the common opinion on food, exercise, or medicine. I found the Paleo diet and adopted it. There are many podcasts,books out there about why the SAD diet isn't the way we should be eating and how it contributes to body inflammation which leads to many auto immune diseases.

iTunes has many of the paleo podcasts, my favorite is "Latest in Paleo". They don't just talk about the paleo diet but also about topics of health. A diet/lifestyle is sooo individual, what works for one will not work for another.

Good luck in your research.

tfitness78

Create a free log in on eatthismuch.com and play with the preset diet settings if you want to get a basic idea what all theses things are about. Some you'll look at a menu for that day and have definite opinions about that might work for you or not.
The ones that most appealed to you - go research them from a variety of sources and decide from there what might be best for you.
Just might give you a starting point.