The best books on healthy cooking, eating, and lifestyle

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. 

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.   

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.

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.

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.