The most recommended books about vegetarianism

I’ve been a fan of the Minimalist Baker’s website for some time, and I have made many of the recipes again and again, including Golden Milk Macaroons, 5-Ingredient Granola Bars, and Sweet Potato Enchiladas. While I’m not a vegan (and neither is the author), I do like expanding my list of go-to plant-based recipes. I love that this cookbook has simple ingredient lists and beautiful photos throughout.

Michael Pollan says, “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” In just seven words, he provides the best dietary advice I’ve come across, whether you care about your own health or more about that of our planet.

In Defense of Food explores our bizarre and changing relationship with Food. We are obsessed with nutrition, diets, and supplements, yet simultaneously consume a grossly unhealthy diet that is driving an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. 

Food in History is a pioneer work on the deceptively simple theme. Its purpose is to examine the forces which have shaped the nature of man’s diet throughout the course of thirty thousand years and to show, without special pleading, something of the way in which the pursuit of more and better food has helped to direct – sometimes decisively, more often subtly – the movement of history itself. To demonstrate, in effect, that in some senses, at least food is history.

This book literally walks the reader through the history of food, how we evolved from foraging to an agrarian community, and how supermarkets evolved from farmers markets. Weaving food into politics, religion, and economics Food in History is an expose on humanity's complex relationship with food and our reliance on both produce and meat as the basis of the human omnivore diet.   

I found this to be a hard list to put together because there are so many excellent books on animal history--on any given day I could have presented a completely different list. However, this was the one book that absolutely had to be on my list. Hilda Kean’s Animal Rights was the book that started me on this journey. I first encountered this book when I was a grad student, and it has shaped my thinking on animal history in many important ways over the years. Animals and concerns for their welfare have always been important to me in my personal life, but I hadn’t thought about incorporating human-animal histories into my scholarship until I read this book. It was a real game-changer for me. This is a very good introduction to some of the shifts in thinking that took place regarding relationships between humans and nonhuman animals in Britain… show more.

Dr. Ballantine leads the reader through the transition process and nutritional elements of becoming a vegetarian. In his thoughtful approach, he addresses macro nutrition (protein, carbohydrates, and fatty acids) and the biological impact of consuming meat. I found it interesting how he addresses it, starting with red meat and proceeding on to poultry and finally fish as protein elimination phases to becoming a vegetarian. Radical changes to one’s diet may create biological abnormalities.

Dr.Ballentine’s dietary preference is primarily plant-based, with vegetarianism as the foundational principle. The Greeks, who initiated a vegetarian diet, ate eggs and drank milk. Their objection was the unnecessary killing of animals. Meat and dairy are very acidic (butter is an exception) and can contribute to respiratory congestion which compelled me to become a vegetarian and eventually a plant-based vegetarian..

It’s laugh-out-loud funny, and despite the fact that he flunked out as a police dog, Rex is a great detective who usually knows more than his human counterparts.

Higgs has also done a great job of combining culinary details throughout the series. In this one, you’ll learn all about pork pies. But even vegetarians will love these books.

The Vegetarian brilliantly captures how the mind and the body can launch a spirited revolt against unwanted surveillance. The novel examines the intricate ways in which people can become each other’s enemies when they meddle in matters that don't concern them.

Hetty McKinnon’s recipes just have a wonderful, well-worn feeling, and indeed, my copy of this book is riddled with grease splatters and dog-eared pages. This is the stuff that’s real-life approved – meaning that it’s truly manageable for busy weeknights, it’s broadly appealing family fare, and every single recipe is a keeper. But thankfully it isn’t organized around shortcuts or hacks. Instead, as the title suggests, this is a very personal, very moving love letter to the food of her youth, to her mother, and to her heritage, and I enjoy reading it just as much as I enjoy cooking from it. 

They had me at “bowl” and “one-dish meal”… I love the variety of foods from all over the world, from ramen bowls to burrito bowls. Nothing hits the spot on a cold and rainy night like a delicious broth or warm curry. This cookbook focuses on fresh and seasonal ingredients, combined in satisfying one-dish meals. Recipes like Spring Pho and Sesame Beet Dumplings are creative and flavorful, yet relatively simple.

The importance of this book is less about human diets, and more about the food system itself. Keith explains in great detail that agriculture — the growing of annual monocrops — is the single most destructive activity humans have ever undertaken. Much of the planet’s surface, formerly teeming with wildlife, has now been cleared, drained, plowed, fertilized, and dedicated to one species: humans.

This doesn’t mean all food production is destructive; Keith distinguishes between agriculture and other methods of growing food, like horticulture, wild-tending, and pastoralism. But the conclusion is simple. We’re in overshoot, and agriculture is a big part of the problem.