Inspirational Books for Achieving Healthfulness Through Diet

My friends think I'm weird. They are vegan, vegetarian, flextarian, organic foodies and typically-American-processed-food eaters. I would expect to see my herbivorous friends question the pepperoni-pizza munchers on their food choices -- and for that matter, why aren't my organic foodie friends on their cases? -- yet, I'm the one whose eating habits are under constant scrutiny. The reasons are simple: I believe that saturated fats are good for us, and lowfat products are undermining our health. While whole soy is beneficial in moderation, I believe that processed soy products are harmful. And I believe that corn syrup is slowly poisoning generations of people.

Like most of us, I'm particular about the foods I eat: whole, as organically produced as possible, cooked at home or processed with little or no additives. Eating delicious foods without added chemicals is perfectly natural to me, as well as to almost everyone I know. Yet my beliefs as stated above are contrary to popular opinion, and in many cases, federal dietary recommendations. Nevertheless, I've arrived at my conclusions after years of research. For years I unknowningly suffered from gluten intolerance. My constant issues with excess weight, irritable bowel, acne, lack of evergy and other symptoms drove me to book after book exploring the relationship between diet and health. I earnestly tried every diet I found, and each brought me closer to a breakthrough in my physical wellbeing. All of the best plans I followed emphasized two particular concepts: limiting processed foods, and embracing whole natural (saturated) fats. Below are four of the best books that have lead me to these conclusions.

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D

This book literally changed my life. Fully titled Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, the book is considered by many a seminal work on whole food cooking and offers factual evidence as to why we should be eating as few processed foods as possible. It is simultaneously a diet book, cookbook and textbook, containing in-depth essays on proteins, carbohydrates and fats, food allergies, nutrition, kitchen equipment, and a primer on traditional cooking methods. All "whole foods" refers to is to use the freshest food possible without additives, which means that your kitchen might end up looking more like your great-grandmother's than your best friend's. Included are arguments in favor of a recipes for using raw milk and cheeses, making your own yogurt, baking real whole-grain homemade breads, and cooking the scariest of all foods to modern man: sweet breads and organ meats. (Even I haven't ventured there yet, but it's a challenge I intend to face.)

The book trumpets the work of Weston A. Price, a 20th C. dentist who traveled the world doing research on indigenous peoples to discover why their teeth were healthy and straight... and ours are crooked and falling out. His work points to sugar, white flour, and other processed foods as culprit. Also surprising to me was Ms. Fallon's take on the lowfat craze of the last 30 years. She points to study after study proving the value and benefits of saturated fats, and the holes in the research of studies advocating a lowfat diet. Most impressive upon me was the revelation that the doctor who popularized the lowfat diet determined that longterm adherence to such a diet oftens leads to depression, and later committed suicide himself.

Eat, Cheat, and Melt the Fat Away by Suzanne Somers

This is the book that introduced me to the concept of whole foods, although not using those words. I saw Suzanne on a talk show promoting the book at its release and was immediately inspired to go out and purchase it. It's a quick read, and I finished it by that day.

The premise of this diet is to limit processed foods, restrict foods with a high glycemic index, and separate your carbs from your proteins and fats. Being unwilling at the time to forsake my cheapie carb-loaded meals, I did not start the Somersize diet right away - But when I did, I saw instant results. I lost over 40 pounds in five months.

Because of my gluten intolerance, ultimately this diet failed and I was left baffled. This experience caused me to begin questioning nutrition in this country - I knew the diet should have worked permanently but instead blamed myself and the difficulties I had in maintaining the separation of the carbs. Time and fund limitations made the diet very limiting for me, although I was cooking more than I ever had in my life. The next time I went searching for answers, I found Nourishing Traditions. My Somerizing days readied me for the new information I was to learn, and the challenging cooking methods I was to eventually espouse.

The French Don't Diet Planby Dr. Will Clover

By the time I picked up this book, I was already an organic-chicken-stocking convert. My focus was on finding evidence from other experts in the field that had arrived at similar conclusions - that, and getting my hands on some more great recipes. Dr. Clover's book fit the bill.

Dr. Clover writes eloquently about his own path to whole foods, which carved its route through the American and French hospital cafeteria systems. Having gone to work in a French hospital after practicing in America, Dr. Clover was astonished to find non-fried, freshly prepared foods and (gasp!) free wine, but no greasy hamburgers. His fellow doctors were even partaking of the wine, in healthy moderation. In fact, the French people in general seemed a lot healthier than they were back home. Dr. Clower pens another notable anecdote wherein he wonders in a French grocery store, "Where are all the low-fat products?" His French friends didn't seem to have a clue about how "bad" saturated fats supposedly are, and they were fit as fiddles. How could this be? (Suzanne Somers makes similar reflections on France in her book.)

The lessons of The French Don't Diet Plan are straightforward: each fresh, unprocessed foods, and consume everything in moderation. In fact, the most important parts of Dr. Clover's book cover our consumption habits as opposed to the actual foodstuffs. He heralds a lifestyle of leisure and temperance, asking us to take longer lunches, savor our meals, and enjoy the company of others. He offers a much different approach than the nonfat yogurt-eating, tasteless celery-munching, treadmill-obsessing,100-calorie-cookie-stashing tactics on this side of the pond.

You Are What You Eat by Dr. Gillian McKeith

My mother first told me about this popular show on BBC America. After watching a few episodes, this was yet another book I knew I had to have. You Are What You Eat takes a holistic approach to healthy eating, courtesy of Dr. McKeith's Ph.D. in holistic nutrition from the American Holistic College of Nutrition. She offers yet another remarkable perspective on the problems with the Western diet that, once again, comes to so many of the same conclusions: Avoid refined and processed foods. Look out for chemicals. Prepare your food yourself.

The new information that Dr. McKeith's book provided to me were the lists of physical malnutrition symptoms directly tied to specific eating behaviors. It's truly amazing how much your tongue can tell you! Does it have a big crack down the middle? I bet your digestion is painfully bad. Is it covered with yellow stuff? Your busy lifestyle may have gunked up the works in your gut! McKeith methodically describes symptom after symptom, providing probable causes and a list of solutions to try to relieve them. The wonderful news is, her methods work! At least, they have proven fruitful in my case.

Billions of People, Billions of Healthy Diets

Out of all of my readings, research, trial and error, I have come to one ultimate conclusion: There is no one-size-fits-all dietary solution for everyone. Your body and lifestyle are unique; Therefore, your nutritional needs are also different. I would be extremely unwell on a grain-heavy vegetarian diet, but several of my friends would not flourish so well without one. The best course of action anyone can take is to start listening to your body, and linking how you feel with the foods you eat. In America, so often we are taught that it does not matter what you eat! Don't bother to chew properly, your tummy will digest it. The package says you'll get 100% of your federal daily requirements of two vitamins, so eat the whole thing but don't bother to eat anything else. It sounds silly, but many of us have these thoughts about our food without even realizing it. It is time we took responsibility for what we put into our bodies, and stopped relying on TV commercials and the government to tell us what is acceptable and what is not.

My personal quest for knowledge about health and diet continues. I am regularly trying new recipes, following diet-related headlines, and seeking out new books to read. In the near future I hope to begin a program that will enable me to help others learn the foods that are healthiest for them, and teach them how to select and prepare these foods. I hope that by writing this, I have inspired you to seek out answers to your questions about your health and the foods you eat, whether you agree with me and the authors of the books I've reviewed, or not.