78 books like Paradox of Plenty

The Rituals of Dinner opened my eyes to the power and complexity of eating with other people – something we all do throughout our lives – and the profound ways in which this affects our relationships with friends and strangers alike.

The book delves into the history of the shared meal, dissecting various rituals which, despite regional differences, nevertheless have common threads across the world, for example in the deep, often hidden power that lies in the relationship between host and guest (words that both derive from the same root, ghostis) and the strong, even life-changing implications of knowing how to behave at dinner.

This is a fascinating and beautifully written book that will have you thinking about the way we eat long after you have finished it. 

This was the first book I read when I started researching my first book, and it turned out to be a very lucky choice, since it opened my eyes more than any other book to the power of food to shape our cultures and customs and ways of seeing the world.

It describes in fascinating detail how European food cultures developed according to landscape and climate, and how various differences – such as the Mediterranean propensity to eat lots of vegetables and drink wine in moderation, compared with the northern tendency to eat lots of meat and get drunk on beer or spirits – not only endure today, but continue to shape the way we live, behave and see ourselves and others. 

Nature’s Metropolis is a rare work that transforms scholarship, yet whose easy flow and engaging tone make it approachable for non-specialists.

Its main arguments —how humans and cities are embedded in nature, the interwoven, strained ties between rural and urban, and how technologies transformed our connection to nature— are guiding themes of my own work. 

Reading the passage in this book about a sack’s journey, on how grain moved from farm to market before and after the appearance of the train in the West, was the spark that lit my imagination on how packaging transformed modern foodways.

Occasionally you come across a book that is so informative and insightful that it transforms the way you see the world.

The Hidden Half of Nature is one such book. Co-authored by soil expert David R Montgomery and his biologist wife Anne Biklé, the book explains the intricate microbial worlds of living soil and human health – and how the two are vitally connected. With admirable clarity and amusing examples (such as what actually happens in your gut when you eat Thanksgiving Dinner), the authors bring the complex microbial world to vivid life.

I felt very fortunate to come across this book before I wrote my own, since I could not have wished for better teachers in this vital and rapidly evolving topic.    

This is a must-read by anti-sugar advocate Robert Lustig. He is a paediatric endocrinologist who became famous with the viral YouTube video: Sugar the Bitter Truth.

This book covers the science of sugar and its detrimental effects on the body. This is a staple its the food addiction field. For a scientific book, it is readable and mind-boggling.

Dr. Carlton Fredericks was a nutrition expert ahead of his time. When I was living in New York City in my 20s, I became very sick after living in Tahiti and Guadeloupe, working for Club Med. I pounded the pavement going from doctor to doctor looking for answers. Ultimately, it turned out that I had a systemic infection that caused my heart to almost stop beating.

Still, after a three-week stay in the cardiac care unit of Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital and a pacemaker implanted in my heart that was keeping me alive, I wanted to know how to thrive. I didn’t want to live as a “sick person” which is what I had become.

I went to see Dr. Fredericks who worked in Dr. Robert Atkins's office, at the time, on the upper east side of Manhattan. He showed me how to eat to balance my blood sugar and get… show more.

This book unfolds a long and brilliant argument drawn from Provenza's decades of academic research and experience with domesticated ruminants—cows, sheep, and goats. Turns out these animals are not dumb. 

In healthy pastures and rangelands Provenza illustrates their ability to select a diet of plants that provide sufficient calories, balanced nutrients, and perhaps most important, a mix of plant-made compounds that underpin normal immunity. Provenza calls this "body wisdom." 

Like ruminants, we too have body wisdom. But, the steady infiltration of ultra-processed foods into the human diet challenges body wisdom with mixed messages. While our brains get high, our cells remain malnourished. This book is a rich and extensive immersion that will transform your thinking. It's eye-opening and mind-expanding in all the best ways.  

I recommend this award-winning book written by a woman who fought cancer successfully 3 times. In this book, she demonstrates bravery and expertise in this subject. This book is exceptionally written with a lot of research within and outside the medical field. Despite her own challenges, her compassion shines through. From reading this book, I found it very healing to understand cancer and how following certain protocols can help the disease to remission.  I love how this book helped my friend affected by cancer and many other people, and I sense the author has saved many lives

The value I got from the book was an understanding of how cancer works and whether affected by cancer or not, how making changes in our everyday life can help aid remission and aid healing of the body.

The topic of diet and cancer is a veritable minefield; it can be overwhelming to know where to start after a cancer diagnosis. The Metabolic Approach to Cancer cuts through the rubbish and provides the clinical basis for a healthy and healing diet that minimizes exposure to dietary carcinogens while maximizing nutrient density and diversity. Diet doesn’t have to be a taboo topic, and the whole family (cancer patients and caregivers) will benefit from being well nourished along the healing journey.

As I did in my book, this book uses evolutionary biology to explain how our diets and lifestyle impact our health. Ultimately it is not about the latest fad food or fancy diet, but understanding that the secret to becoming healthy, happy, and content is re‑learning how to eat like a human. Life has existed on Earth for 3.5 billion years, but modern human beings only migrated out of Africa 100,000 years ago, and yet our lifestyles bear no resemblance to that of our forebears. Here an archaeologist and chef explains how to follow our ancestors' leads when it comes to dietary choices and cooking techniques to achieve wellness.