Books! what are some nutrition books that helped you?

Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina (IMO, the best resource for vegan nutrition)

The Endurance Diet by Matt Fitzgerald

kae612 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.

dewd2 wrote: »

brendanwhite84 wrote: »

dewd2 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.

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).

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.

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.

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?

kae612 wrote: »

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?

At this point I thought I might have something to contribute to the conversation.

• 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

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 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'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!

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.

ETA: and could you explain a little bit about why it's helped you/been so useful to you?

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.

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!

OldHobo wrote: »

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.

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.

megpie41 wrote: »

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.

I think it's on American Netflix right now.

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 Aragon