The more information you can arm yourself with the greater your insights become and when it comes to nutrition, the smarter and more informed decisions you can make.
When it comes to your health there is a lot of conflicting information out there in regards to what approaches are best? Is there a certain diet you should follow? What are macronutrients and how do you know what foods to avoid and not avoid?
Here now, in my opinion, are the 7 best nutrition books that will give you an amazing foundation for the key issues and give you a great jump start in how to feed you body and how it responds to the choices you make.
I refer to these all the time and consider them my go-to choices and I’m sure you will too. I’ll even throw in my rating out of ten using my patented system..
Remember, Knowledge is power..
Ok, here we go in no particular order..
Best Nutrition And Macronutrient Books
1. Protein Power By Michael R. Eades
As the title states, this book focuses on protein and why it is the ideal substance for the body in that it keeps blood sugar under control in that it does not create a hormonal response.
Dr Eades points out how the over-consumption of sugar and refined carbohydrates are leading us to the “deadly diseases of civilization” such as heart disease and diabetes. Sticking to protein and vegetables will not cause hormonal changes in the body that can lead to these diseases.
It encourages you not to be scared about consuming things like beef, eggs, and butter etc and how the common knowledge of the dangers of saturated fat are incorrect. Ultimately fat does Not make you fat.
There is a real focus and education on insulin and how keeping it under control with a primarily protein based diet will have a great impact on your health and body composition.
The book has great charts for getting an idea of where you are at body fat wise and includes some sample menus and a ton of awesome recipes.
On a scale of 1-10 slices of bacon I give it an 8
2. Death By Food Pyramid By Denise Minger
This is the book that needed to be written years ago but thankfully it has been.
Denise Minger runs rawfoodsos.com and conducts meticulous research into everything she writes about. She is famous for dismantling the China Study that claimed a nonvegan lifestyle led to cancer and death.
In Death By Food Pyramid Denise sheds light on how a lot of incorrect and shoddy science led us to current mindsets regarding saturated fat and heart disease.
She shows how the recommendations and food pyramids are more in the interests of big business and have pretty much nothing to do with your health.
This is an amazing book that is so thoroughly researched your head might spin. Denise also shows how to read and interpret a scientific study and she also breaks down popular diets.
The book hasn’t even been out that long but as of right now has 138 five star reviews on amazon.
On a scale of 1-10 shady FDA officials, I give it a 9.5
3. Wheat Belly By William Davis MD
Wheat Belly is like The Great Gatsby of nutrition books. Not in that it’s about an unfulfilled rich guy but that it should be required reading in schools and the general public in my opinion.
Dr. Davis sheds light on something that makes up pretty much every single persons diet; wheat.
He shares information on what we are eating today is vastly different from the wheat of the Bible or even of your great grandparent’s era. Wheat started out as a simple plant form that naturally evolved over the years but through the introduction of genetic modification and modern technology has become something different altogether and can explain the explosion in the rates of celiac disease and gluten sensitivity in the last 50-60 years.
You will learn how your body treats wheat like a drug and the effects of things like gliadine and amylopectin-a that cause problems like weight gain, brain fog, and joint pain.
This book is insightful and funny and I find myself picking up new information every time I read it.
On a scale of 1-10 gluten-free cupcakes, I give it a 9
4. Why We Get Fat By Gary Taubes
Ok, this is kind of two-parter as Gary Taubes also wrote Good Calories, Bad Calories which was a New York Times bestseller. It is highly recommended but the thing is MASSIVE. Be prepared to invest a lot of time but also to take away a ton of information.
Why We Get Fat is a more of a condensed version that looks at things such as the fact calories are not what we think they are. They are almost impossible to measure and the focus should be on avoiding calories that are causing a hormonal response in a person.
Those calories would be carbohydrates, specifically refined and process carbohydrates. Along with those, even a dependence on carbs in the form of fruit can be a problem for someone suffering from obesity or diabetes.
The way I would sum up the book is the complete incorrect focus on the calories in-calories out mindset that is so often preached. You will learn how our body is not a calculator and how it actually deals and processes calories.
On a scale of 1-10 kilojoules, I give it a 9
5. Goodnight Moon By Margaret Wise Brown
Sorry, I don’t know how this slipped through. But whatever, it’s still my fave…
6. Primal Body, Primal Mind By Nora Gedgaudas
The official title of this book is Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and a Longer Life.
Nora Gedgaudas is straight-up brilliant and if you are familiar with her work you know how insightful and knowledgeable she is. In this book Nora takes a look at our ancestral diet and how as it changed we as a species started to decline.
She reveals the dangers of a modern diet and how rapidly our health began to deteriorate when modern foods were introduced.
The book stresses how we are programmed for a higher fat diet and in turning away from this we have developed the “diseases of civilization” such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis etc.
After reading this you will be quick to ditch any soy, dairy, grains, gluten and starchy vegetables that are nearby.
One of my favorites.
On a scale of 1-10 brontosaurus burgers, I give it a 10
7. Nutrition And Physical Degeneration By Weston A. Price
Consider this the War and Peace of nutrition books.
Actually, it’s more of the Origin of the Species of nutrition books as Weston A. Price could be considered the Charles Darwin of nutrition.
If you are unfamiliar with Weston Price he was a dentist that lived in the 1930s. After noticing the children of his patients developing teeth and gum issues that their parents had never experienced he begins to investigate how diet might have affected this.
This lead Price on a 10 year, 100,000-mile journey to some of the most remote regions on the planet as he looked to primitive societies to see what a true diet looked like. He studied the teeth and physical makeup of the people and found that with the introduction of modern foods they were starting to experience the diseases of modern society.
Thousands of years of a set diet were being undone in one generation.
This is an amazing insight into an incredible voyage in the early days of air transportation to areas that are still difficult to get to today.
To me this is required reading if you are looking to take back your health.
On a scale of 1-10 impacted molars, I give it a 10
8. The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight And Get Healthy By Eating The Foods You Were Designed To Eat, By Loren Cordain
If you’re reading this it’s safe to say you have an interest in nutrition. Because of that, there is very little doubt that you have not heard of the paleo diet.
There are a ton of books on paleo now as far down as ‘Paleo for your hamster’. Well, not yet but I’m sure it’s not far off…
Loren Cordain wasn’t the first to write about paleo but he really got the ball rolling with interest in the movement.
Cordain has a Ph.D in exercise physiology and similar to the last few books is focused on how we need to revert back to a primitive way of eating. The foods we have access to today are complete unknowns to our body and our focus must return to a real food diet with emphasis on protein and fat.
This book is a very strong reminder again about the diet being the root of modern diseases such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, acne and hyperinsulinemic diseases.
Easy to read and straight forward it is one of the classics.
On a scale of 1-10 Captain Cavemans I give it an 8
9. Taking Back Your Health By Me
Hey, I have to support my own cause here! And my book is not too bad if I don’t say so myself. It hit #1 on Amazon in two different health categories and stayed in the top 10 for all nutrition books for a few days. It has a bunch of 5-star reviews that aren’t even by my mother. What I do in this book is break down all the relevant health information I think is vital for people to take control of their own health.
I cover some of the big issues such as:
- Why you drastically need to reduce sugar
- If the paleo diet is all it’s cracked up to be
- What the real issue with gluten is
- Why sleep may be the most important factor in your health goals
- How much water you need a day and why
- + a whole lot more
I have it available in 3 different packages including one with a short term nutrition guide and audiobook. You can check it all out HERE
Wrapping It Up
If you noticed a theme through some of these nutrition books it is the importance of getting back to real food. The sooner you do that the sooner you are able to take back control of your health.
This is a great list of books to arm you with as much information of possible that I’m confident will motivate and inspire you to start making healthy decisions.
So start adding these into your summer reading list and get on that knowledge is power bandwagon.
If you liked this list do me a solid and send it off to anyone you think could benefit from a great reading list as well.
