My favorite books on healthy cooking, eating, and lifestyle

Why am I passionate about this?

Heart disease ravaged both sides of my family. When I was a teenager, my mother developed heart disease and her two brothers died of heart attacks. In response, at the age of seventeen, I gave up meat. Now, after a career writing comedy for the stage and television, I write books on health, and all my extensive research on nutrition has vindicated my instincts from the age of seventeen but taught me that there is far more to a healthy diet than just avoiding flesh foods. I have authored or co-authored eleven books that, in different ways, make the case for the health benefits of plants. 


I wrote...

Own Your Health: How to Live Long & Avoid Chronic Illness

By Glen Merzer,

Book cover of Own Your Health: How to Live Long & Avoid Chronic Illness

What is my book about?

Own Your Health is a funny and personal study of nutrition and health. By telling the stories of how the author’s parents saved each other’s lives and how his wife overcame lupus, by revealing how the science of nutrition is more settled than you think, and by explaining nutrition as it’s never been explained before, the book gives us an action plan to reverse the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, while obliterating demand for the kind of food-raising that risks future pandemics.

“I found myself laughing out loud on nearly every page. This book is for you if you want to be healthy for the rest of your life — and if you don’t mind laughing a lot.” –John Robbins, Author, Diet For A New America

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure

Glen Merzer Why did I love this book?

Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., is a soft-spoken giant of modern medicine who has revolutionized the treatment of heart disease. The studies he has conducted on the role of diet in reversing heart disease, reported on within the book, are the most significant heart studies of our time. Esselstyn writes simply and clearly; when you finish reading his book, you understand everything you need to know in order to nurture and protect, through diet, a healthy heart. 

By Caldwell B. Esselstyn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Reading books is a kind of enjoyment. Reading books is a good habit. We bring you a different kinds of books. You can carry this book where ever you want. It is easy to carry. It can be an ideal gift to yourself and to your loved ones. Care instruction keep away from fire.


Book cover of How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

Glen Merzer Why did I love this book?

How Not to Die is a veritable encyclopedia of useful information on how to avoid dying of the fifteen leading causes of death in America—including death brought on by medical care! Greger’s expertise on nutritional studies makes for enlightening reading. There’s revelatory information on almost every page, and you will learn how to eat for optimal health.   

By Michael Greger, Gene Stone,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How Not to Die as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'This book may help those who are susceptible to illnesses that can be prevented with proper nutrition' - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

The international bestseller, Dr Michael Greger's How Not To Die gives effective, scientifically-proven nutritional advice to prevent our biggest killers - including heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, high blood pressure and diabetes - and reveals the astounding health benefits that simple dietary choices can provide.

Why rely on drugs and surgery to cure you of life-threatening disease when the right decisions can prevent you from falling ill to begin with?

Based on the latest scientific research,…


Book cover of Mastering Diabetes: The Revolutionary Method to Reverse Insulin Resistance Permanently in Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2, Prediabetes, and Gestational Diabetes

Glen Merzer Why did I love this book?

Mastering Diabetes explains the nature of the disease, and why the standard treatment of Type 2 Diabetes in particular is counterproductive. The authors draw from their own personal experience and the experiences of those they have counseled, but they provide evidence from a raft of scientific studies. They have had striking success, which they report with energy and enthusiasm. With confidence born of that success, they stand conventional diabetes wisdom on its head.

By Cyrus Khambatta, Robby Barbaro,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mastering Diabetes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The instant New York Times bestseller.

A groundbreaking method to master all types of diabetes by reversing insulin resistance.

Current medical wisdom advises that anyone suffering from diabetes or prediabetes should eat a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. But in this revolutionary book, Cyrus Khambatta, PhD, and Robby Barbaro, MPH, rely on a century of research to show that advice is misguided. While it may improve short-term blood glucose control, such a diet also increases the long-term risk for chronic diseases like cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic kidney disease, and fatty liver disease.

The revolutionary solution is to eat a…


Book cover of Diet for a New America: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness and the Future of Life on Earth

Glen Merzer Why did I love this book?

This is a truly spiritual look at health. It is bolstered by a ton of science, but what stays with you is the instinctive decency of the author, appealing to the instinctive decency of the reader to embrace what it means to be human, and apply that lesson to diet. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could read this book and not be moved and changed by it. This book has undoubtedly improved the lives and health of millions.

By John Robbins,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Diet for a New America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From John Robbins, a new edition of the classic that awakened the conscience of a nation. Since the 1987 publication of Diet for a New America, beef consumption in the United States has fallen a remarkable 19%. While many forces are contributing to this dramatic shift in our habits, Diet for a New America is considered to be one of the most important. Diet for a New America is a startling examination of the food we currently buy and eat in the United States, and the astounding moral, economic, and emotional price we pay for it.
In Section I, John…


Book cover of The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!

Glen Merzer Why did I love this book?

Let Dr. John McDougall open your eyes about how badly most of us have been misled on the subject of nutrition, and how simple, powerful, and effective the truth can be. You have to love how the book provides plenty of stories of individuals transformed and restored to health on the starch-based diet, and how it provides recipes (by Mary McDougall) and eating plans to get the reader started on a path to optimal health.

By John McDougall, Mary McDougall,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Starch Solution as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pick up that bread! This doctor-approved method lets you keep the carbs and lose the pounds!

"The Starch Solution is one of the most important books ever written on healthy eating."-John P. Mackey, co-CEO and director of Whole Foods Market, Inc.

Fear of the almighty carb has taken over the diet industry for the past few decades-from Atkins to Dukan-even the mere mention of a starch-heavy food is enough to trigger an avalanche of shame and longing. But the truth is, carbs are not the enemy!

Bestselling author John A. McDougall and his kitchen-savvy wife, Mary, prove that a starch-rich…


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Rewriting Illness

By Elizabeth Benedict,

Book cover of Rewriting Illness

Elizabeth Benedict

New book alert!

What is my book about?

What happens when a novelist with a “razor-sharp wit” (Newsday), a “singular sensibility” (Huff Post), and a lifetime of fear about getting sick finds a lump where no lump should be? Months of medical mishaps, coded language, and Doctors who don't get it.

With wisdom, self-effacing wit, and the story-telling artistry of an acclaimed novelist, Elizabeth Benedict recollects her cancer diagnosis after discovering multiplying lumps in her armpit. In compact, explosive chapters, interspersed with moments of self-mocking levity, she chronicles her illness from muddled diagnosis to “natural remedies,” to debilitating treatments, as she gathers sustenance from family, an assortment of urbane friends, and a fearless “cancer guru.”

Rewriting Illness is suffused with suspense, secrets, and the unexpected solace of silence.

Rewriting Illness

By Elizabeth Benedict,

What is this book about?

By turns somber and funny but above all provocative, Elizabeth Benedict's Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own is a most unconventional memoir. With wisdom, self-effacing wit, and the story-telling skills of a seasoned novelist, she brings to life her cancer diagnosis and committed hypochondria. As she discovers multiplying lumps in her armpit, she describes her initial terror, interspersed with moments of self-mocking levity as she indulges in "natural remedies," among them chanting Tibetan mantras, drinking shots of wheat grass, and finding medicinal properties in chocolate babka. She tracks the progression of her illness from muddled diagnosis to debilitating treatment…


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