Favorite Food Books!

My favorite books in the last few years have all been about food. This is because I love to eat, I love to garden, and I wholeheartedly believe food is one of the top six most important determinants of our overall health (food, exercise, sleep, relationships, purpose, safety). The food we put into our bodies is our primary medicine.

I thought I would share two of my favorite books about food and why I love them so much. I have nothing financial to gain by recommending these great books to you.

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

I wish there was a simple list of rules to help me decide whether something was good or bad for me to eat or drink!That list of rules is exactly what Michael Pollan put together in this book. Definitely the shortest read of the three here. I am a slow reader, and I got through the whole thing in a 2 hour plane ride. My wife could have read it in 15 minutes. The rules are common-sense and there are a bunch of them to choose from. He instructs the reader, “Just pick three or four of these rules that make sense to you and that are easy to remember. Then when you are in the grocery store use those rules to decide whether the food in your hands is good for you or not.” An example of one of my favorite rules, “Don’t eat anything with ingredients you can’t pronounce!” In general, this is going to steer you away from highly processed foods and towards foods that are more real and close to Nature. 

Food Fixby Mark Hyman, MD

Dr. Hyman (one of the most prominent functional medicine doctors in the country, a prolific author, and host of one of my favorite podcasts “The Doctor’s Farmacy”)  dives into the connections between our food and the health of our bodies, communities, country and planet. He does it in an easy-to-understand way. My favorite part of all: each chapter ends with several feasible action steps any one of us could take in our daily lives to be part of the change we need in this world!

I hope you enjoy reading these! They have both had a profound impact on me as a doctor and most importantly as an eater. 

Citations:

Pollan, Michael. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. New York: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.

Hyman, Mark. Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet – One Bite at a Time.2020. Print.