Diet and Health Book List

Here's a short chronological list of some of the latest health books we recommend:

2000 - Life Without Bread (Allan and Lutz)
2001 - Lights Out (Wiley and Formby)
2005 - The Fiber Menace (Monastyrsky)
2008 - Good Calories, Bad Calories (Taubes)
2009 - The Vegetarian Myth (Keith)
2010 - The New Atkins for a New You (Westman, Phinney, and Volek)
2010 - Why We Get Fat (Taubes)
2011 - The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living (Volek and Phinney)
2011 - Primal Body, Primal Mind (Gedgaudas) [also here]

And some others I've come across that might make good additions:

1999 - Protein Power (Eades and Eades)
2000 - Know Your Fats (Enig)
2002 - Dangerous Grains (Braly, Hoggan, and Wright)
2003 - The Mood Cure (Ross)
2004 - Against the Grain (Manning)
2006 - Eat Fat, Lose Fat (Enig)
2007 - Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution (Bernstein)

Thank you so much! This is very helpful!! :)

This is really great, thanks for this compilation! Time to get hard copies of the ones I don't have already so I can lend them to others.

Is the Ultra Mind Solution still a relevant and good read for those transitioning off their "typical" Western diet, or should we get straight to the carb-cutting and fat-eatin' with the above books?

D Rusak said:

...Is the Ultra Mind Solution still a relevant and good read for those transitioning off their "typical" Western diet, or should we get straight to the carb-cutting and fat-eatin' with the above books?

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Personally, I don't think so. I still read what he has to say and make use of some of his material, but I think he's on the wrong track. Not that he has changed course, but that is the problem. Here's a sample from his latest mailing (_http://drhyman.com/new-research-finds-diabetes-can-be-reversed-6187):

And here’s the program I use for my patients to reverse diabetes:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Eat a low glycemic load, high fiber, plant-based diet of vegetables, beans, nuts, limited whole grains, fruit and lean animal protein
[*]Vigorous exercise (fast walking, running, biking, etc.) 30 minutes 4-5 times a week and strength training 20 minutes 3 times a week
[*]Take a good multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D and blood sugar and insulin balancing nutrients (including chromium and alpha lipoic acid)
[/list]

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It might work for some people, but his dietary recommendation hardly seems optimal in light of what we have been learning here. It's not totally wrong but it has some rather significant issues, and I think that people trying to integrate his materials with what we are discussing here are going to encounter a bit of cognitive dissonance. I can say that his version of reality differs substantially from mine.

I agree that it's not in line with what we've currently concluded, but wanted to know as a transitional material for those who are on the SAD (standard American diet), would it be useful? I often have a hard time getting people to understand the diet I'm doing now, my thought is that baby steps may be needed for those who aren't ready to jump into the meat of it, as it were

D Rusak said:

I agree that it's not in line with what we've currently concluded, but wanted to know as a transitional material for those who are on the SAD (standard American diet), would it be useful? I often have a hard time getting people to understand the diet I'm doing now, my thought is that baby steps may be needed for those who aren't ready to jump into the meat of it, as it were

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I think that diet & health issues are so critical that we should steer people as directly as we know how. I feel now as though the time I spent with UMS (which I never actually acted upon) and USD (which I did) were a detour. The New Atkins approach is decent in itself, and can remain intact while being adapted for what we know about food choices. It's not a safe choice for everybody, though.

But then there are choices within low-carb. You don't have to go right into nutritional ketosis. I started, essentially, with a month of the Life Without Bread approach, at ~72 grams per day, and I experienced few reactions. It was when I dropped down to 20 g/d that I got to have fun like everybody else and more.

I don't know. Veggie-based elimination diets like USD are not necessarily any safer. I had a bad time with it at first, and I never was successful in using it to identify food sensitivities. I had to go to a very-low-veggy diet to do that.

But let's see what other have to say.

I think the reality of the situation is that people on the standard american diet do need a stepping stone approach. I could not have transitioned to the diet I am currently on directly from the diet I was eating. I know myself well enough to know that I simply would not have ever done it - too addicted to the crap. Removing dairy first, then gluten provided me with enough proof that diet really affects my physical state and mood that it was motivating to make the other changes. So, I do think that an elimination diet of some sort for the first month is a good way to transition people, eliminating all gluten and dairy. Then, they can eliminate sugar and carbs - but each person is different - and it would be great to figure out an optimum way to transition people.

Most people simply will not change a lifetime of habits and false diet information right away without a little dramatic proof that it makes a difference and I think removing gluten and dairy can provide that proof for most people. Then they can tackle removing sugar which is REALLY hard for most people, considering they're all running on sugar fuel. Just my thoughts though...

Thanks for this. It seems recently there has been a lot of focus on the diet and a lot of books being mentioned. I've only read The Vegetarian Myth, I'm guessing I will go to Primal Body, Primal Mind next since it's bolded.

anart said:

Most people simply will not change a lifetime of habits and false diet information right away without a little dramatic proof that it makes a difference and I think removing gluten and dairy can provide that proof for most people. Then they can tackle removing sugar which is REALLY hard for most people, considering they're all running on sugar fuel. Just my thoughts though...

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Fwiw, I agree with this as well. I think you have to try and put yourself in the shoes of somebody transitioning from the SAD. It really is a process, and in the beginning just eliminating dairy and gluten, along with boosting one's vitamins supplements can be a great help without going low-carb. I know I couldn't have given up sugar and carbs in one fell swoop, maybe others are different, but I think the diet books, more than anything else perhaps, should be read as a sequence of steps where there is some guidance on what parts to take seriously and what parts to ignore. So there should be some caavat that not everything in each book is going to be 'solid gold' in terms of advise one should follow.

That said, I think another book for the transitioning individual would be Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. One can start to get the hint from this book that vegetables and fruits themselves may not be the best thing due to her emphasis on soaking and fermenting away the "anti-nutrients." She also has a lot of good things to say about fats as well. That was my impression anyways.

RyanX said:

That said, I think another book for the transitioning individual would be Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. One can start to get the hint from this book that vegetables and fruits themselves may not be the best thing due to her emphasis on soaking and fermenting away the "anti-nutrients." She also has a lot of good things to say about fats as well. That was my impression anyways.

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Yes, that's a good one too.

People who don't have any overt issues that they are aware of may find dramatic improvement just by eliminating gluten and dairy. Everybody will benefit from that since probably everyone has leaky gut due to zonulin triggered by gluten. Just getting that out of your diet and concentrating on increasing fats and reducing carbs while supplementing to heal the gut is probably the best step-by step approach. There is a lot you can eat in this type of diet that you may ultimately give up to achieve even further benefits.

The people that worry me are the ones with very serious conditions brought on by bad nutrition. I'm certainly one of those and I've been on this path of researching and trying diets/programs for years. This particular path I've been on for three years now. I didn't just drop everything at once and go cold turkey! I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had!

I know of a couple of people who are around my age, and one who is older than me, who just aren't able to do it. I suspect that they are not really serious about being vigilant. They don't understand, for some reason, the meaning of "zero tolerance for gluten and dairy". They think that "just a little now and then" won't hurt. It DOES hurt. As Gedgaudas says, you can't be "mostly gluten free" and expect it to work just like you can't be "just a little bit pregnant." You either are or you aren't - there's no in-between. And the same goes for getting rid of all the substances that are inflaming or poisoning a person. You either do it, or you don't. And see-sawing only makes things worse.

FWIW, maybe it would be an idea to link from here to the topics where the books are discussed too? At least with some it should be possible.

Gawan said:

FWIW, maybe it would be an idea to link from here to the topics where the books are discussed too? At least with some it should be possible.

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Found most.

Concerning the current mentions of diet/health books in the Comprehensive Guide for the Serious Reader, posted here and here - given the importance of the new books and things learned, I think that list might now be outdated.

Psalehesost said:

Concerning the current mentions of diet/health books in the Comprehensive Guide for the Serious Reader, posted here and here - given the importance of the new books and things learned, I think that list might now be outdated.

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Thanks Psalehesost.

A note has been added to the two links.

Yes. Immediately jumping to very low carb would be too much for most people to handle. Plus one has to remember your audience. Most people have little to no knowledge about true nutrition and their brains aren't working optimally from years of bad diet. Top it off with years of bad information from so called health pros and you're in for quite a struggle. I dont think I couldve made the jump directly to where I am no. It's only after reading book after book that keeps me from spending too much time wistfully thinking of the days when I could at leadt eat a sweet potato.