My favorite books for when you’re confused about what to eat

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been interested in diets ever since I watched my mom diet while I was growing up. For decades, I enthusiastically jumped on the diet roller coaster myself, and thus began my quest to find the “perfect” way to eat. Not one of these “diets” ever worked for me for long-term weight loss, however, and I became more and more confused about what I “should” be eating. Finally, I was able to lose over 80 pounds thanks to intermittent fasting, but I was still confused about what I should be eating. Once I figured out the when (intermittent fasting), the what followed, thanks to the work of these authors.


I wrote...

Clean(ish): Eat (Mostly) Clean, Live (Mainly) Clean, and Unlock Your Body's Natural Ability to Self-Clean

By Gin Stephens,

Book cover of Clean(ish): Eat (Mostly) Clean, Live (Mainly) Clean, and Unlock Your Body's Natural Ability to Self-Clean

What is my book about?

In Gin Stephens's New York Times bestseller Fast. Feast. Repeat., she showed you how to fast (completely) clean as part of an intermittent fasting lifestyle. Now, whether you’re an intermittent faster or not, Gin shows you how to become clean(ish) where it counts: you’ll learn how to shift your choices so you’re not burdening your body with a bucket of chemicals, additives, and obesogens it wasn’t designed to handle. 

Instead of aiming for perfection (which is impossible) or changing everything at once (which is hard, and rarely leads to lasting results), you’ll cut through the confusion, lose the fear, and embrace the freedom that comes from becoming clean(ish). As you learn how to lower your toxic load through small changes, smart swaps, and simple solutions, you’ll evolve simply and naturally toward a clean(ish) lifestyle that works for your body and your life!

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Spoon-Fed: Why Almost Everything We've Been Told about Food Is Wrong

Gin Stephens Why did I love this book?

Tim Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and one of my favorite health researchers. In Spoon-Fed, Dr. Spector examines top myths about health, such as “nutritional guidelines and diet plans apply to everyone,” “calories accurately measure how fattening a food is,” and “gluten is dangerous.”

By Tim Spector,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Spoon-Fed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

Everything we've been told about our diets is wrong

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?
Is there any point in counting calories?
Is there any evidence that coffee is bad for you?

Through his pioneering scientific research, Tim Spector busts these myths and combats food fake news. Spoon-Fed explores the scandalous lack of good science behind many medical and government diet recommendations, and how the food industry holds sway over these policies and our choices.

Spoon-Fed is a groundbreaking book that forces us to question every diet plan, official recommendation, miracle cure…


Book cover of Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, and Optimizing Your Microbiome

Gin Stephens Why did I love this book?

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz is a board-certified gastroenterologist and gut health expert. In his book, he will teach you how to optimize your gut microbiome by choosing foods that encourage the gut-bug species you want to thrive. If you’ve struggled with gut health, this book can help you heal. If you’ve spent time removing food after food from your diet, thinking avoidance is the key to better gut health, he can teach you how to safely reintroduce foods rather than eliminate more and more “problematic” foods.

By Will Bulsiewicz,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Fiber Fueled as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fix your health with fibre not fads - the instant New York Times bestseller

The benefits of restrictive diets like paleo and keto have been touted for more than a decade, but as award-winning gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz, or 'Dr B', illuminates in this groundbreaking book, the explosion of studies on the microbiome show that elimination diets are in fact hazardous to our health. What research clearly indicates is that gut health is the key to boosting our metabolism, balancing our hormones and taming the inflammation that causes a host of diseases. And the scientifically proven way to fuel our…


Book cover of The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People

Gin Stephens Why did I love this book?

Author Dan Buettner shares what he has learned by studying the diets, eating habits, and lifestyle practices of the communities known as “Blue Zones”—Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California. What do these longevity hot spots have in common? It’s not just what you eat; it’s also how you live.

By Dan Buettner,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

With the audacious belief that the lifestyles of the world's Blue Zones could be adapted and replicated in towns across North America, Buettner launched the largest preventive healthcare project in the United States--The Blue Zones City Makeovers. In these pages, readers can be inspired by the specific stories of the people, foods, and routines of our healthy elders; understand the role community, family, and naturally healthy habits can play to improve our diet and health; and learn the exact foods--including the 50 superfoods of longevity and dozens of recipes adapted for Western tastes and markets--that offer delicious ways to eat…


Book cover of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

Gin Stephens Why did I love this book?

This classic first came out in 2001, but it’s a classic for a reason. In it, Sally Fallon and Mary Enig share principles related to the work of Dr. Weston Price: eat real foods, modeled after traditional diets from around the world.  Not only do they explain why certain foods are important nutritionally, you’ll find a collection of recipes because this book is at its heart a cookbook.

By Sally Fallon,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Nourishing Traditions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods contains a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Sally Fallon dispels the myths of the current low-fat fad in this practical, entertaining guide to a can-do diet that is both nutritious and delicious.
Nourishing Traditions will tell you: *Why your body needs old fashioned animal fats *Why butter is a health food *How high-cholesterol diets promote good health *How saturated fats protect the heart *How…


Book cover of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Gin Stephens Why did I love this book?

Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food is also a classic, coming out in 2008. This book takes you deeper into the world of ultra-processed foods vs. whole foods—though the term “ultra-processed” wasn’t yet being used when he wrote this book. His famous “eater’s manifesto”—Eat food.  Not too much. Mostly plants. – is the tl/dr version, but if you want to learn more about how he came up with this manifesto, you’ll find it all within these pages. 

By Michael Pollan,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked In Defense of Food as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules

Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?

Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see…


You might also like...

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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