How to Find Food and Nutrition Books

Food and nutrition books are all the rage these days. Although recently spotlighted, the question of what to eat has been a controversial subject for decades. But if you find yourself growing interested in spite of yourself, where do you begin? From old to new books, here's a range of basic texts for all tastes.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Library or bookstore access

1. Begin with John Robbins, one of the pioneers. Son of a Baskin Robbins co-founder, Robbins, after witnessing his uncle's heart disease, soon rejected all dairy products and went vegan. In the 1970s he wrote the revolutionary Diet For a New Planet. Since then, he has written The Food Revolution. His original book is mind-blowing, even now, for its relentless investigation of nutrition issues and where our food comes from.
2. Turn to Michael Pollan, contemporary food writer guru. His books, Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, are required reading for any Western consumer of the past decade and address again the question of what we should eat. Along the way, they sweep through economics and politics, agriculture and even hunter-gatherer issues. Pollan's training as a journalist is evident in his seemingly neutral, clear and straightforward style, and he ends with the plainspoken dictum, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
3. Pick up a few other recent titles such as Nina Planck's Real Foods: What to Eat and Why and George Mateljan's The World's Healthiest Foods. Each provides enlightening,and scientific, if less political, information (especially Mateljan).

Tips & Warnings

• As with any food or nutritional change, first consult your physician to make sure that the program is right for your health.