At the bookstore,听you鈥檒l find diet and nutrition books lumped together. I get why鈥攖hey鈥檙e all focused on health and eating鈥攂ut there鈥檚 an important distinction between them.
There are so many dimensions to consider when you think about how eating influences听our health. Food nourishes our bodies, but it also plays a role in our social lives, our emotional health, and our overall happiness. Nutrition books explore these things and help us better understand how food affects us, without giving one-size-fits-all advice.
Diet books, on the other hand, tend to ignore the complexities of food. They typically follow the trope of identifying a problem and prescribing the reader a clearly defined solution. There鈥檚 no shortage of these books out there, and more just keep on coming; ironically, most of them claim to be the last one you鈥檒l ever need. (The last diet book you read probably is the last one you need, but not for the reasons the听author may think.)
Nutrition books may seem less appealing than diet books听at face value鈥攖hey don鈥檛 promise to solve all your problems鈥攂ut they鈥檙e far more worthwhile. Read a few听and you鈥檒l never want to read a diet book again, you鈥檒l be able to poke so many holes in their听empty promises. Nutrition books will give you a听better grasp听of how food affects your physical, mental, and emotional health. From that understanding, you can then听determine what the best way of eating might be for you.
The following听five books are a great place to start. They don鈥檛 try to sell you on the supposed virtues or evils of certain foods or nutrients, nor do they suggest that you overhaul your own lifestyle to mimic one from another culture, time, or circumstance. (They also don鈥檛 distill complex and systemic food issues down to oversimplified advice like听鈥渆at food, not too much, mostly plants.鈥) Instead听they鈥檒l teach you why we eat the way we do and how food affects our bodies. Many of them do give some form of how-to-eat advice, but they also talk about policy, history, and the culture of dieting.
1. 鈥楾he Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition,鈥櫶齜y Anita Bean
There are countless sports-nutrition books out there, but none of them go both as broad and as deep as . This isn鈥檛 some flashy release听chronicling an听elite athlete鈥檚 very particular diet (ahem, TB12)听or a manifesto on how (insert fad diet here)听is actually the best way to fuel. Instead, it presents the evidence-based concepts of sports nutrition in a way that鈥檚 easy to understand but not oversimplified. You鈥檒l come away with a good idea of how to eat for performance and why different foods affect you the way they do, but you won鈥檛 feel compelled to redesign your diet or live and die by a set of rules. Author 听is a renowned sports nutritionist and former competitive bodybuilder听who has worked with the British Olympic Association and many professional teams across various sports, and her book is relevant to athletes of all levels.
2. 鈥楾he Great Starvation Experiment,鈥櫶齜y Todd Tucker
If you鈥檝e heard that 鈥渄iets don鈥檛 work鈥 but you鈥檙e not clear on why, start by learning about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. The 13-month clinical study, conducted in the 1940s, followed听36 healthy, young听white men through a period of 鈥渟emi-starvation鈥 and then rehabilitation, documenting not only how their bodies changed but how their mental health deteriorated. The experiment is rightly considered inhumane by today鈥檚 standards, although the men鈥檚听diets were higher calorie than those recommended by many trendy听diets. (They ate 听over two meals.) In , historian Todd Tucker digs into the study and how it affected participants during and afterward.
3. 鈥業ntuitive Eating,鈥櫶齜y Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
The intuitive-eating approach is extremely popular among nutrition experts today, but it鈥檚 not a new framework. Dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch first published in 1995 after seeing their clients repeatedly try and fail to lose weight and improve their health with traditional diets. Their book encourages reconsidering听your own thoughts and feelings about听food, diets, and weight. It draws on relatable anecdotes, as well as a to back up the idea that eating without food rules and abandoning the pursuit of weight loss can听improve your health. Even if you鈥檙e convinced that intuitive eating isn鈥檛 for you, the book offers a new听way of thinking about nutrition that might resonate. You鈥檒l gain insight into how and why food restriction often backfires, and learn how to tune into your own hunger cues and cravings.
4. 鈥楪entle Nutrition,鈥 by Rachael Hartley
Most of the messages we see around intuitive eating focus on breaking free from food rules and making peace with our weight and our bodies. One aspect that鈥檚 central to intuitive eating but isn鈥檛 often discussed听is what the original Intuitive Eating听authors call 鈥済entle nutrition.鈥澨鼸ssentially, it鈥檚 about leveraging evidence-based healthy eating principles in a way that鈥檚 flexible and individualized. Dietitian Rachael Hartley borrows the phrase and expands on the concept in her book of the same name. In Gentle Nutrition, she guides readers through the basics of nutrition without painting any way of eating as right听or wrong.听Hartley鈥檚 approach is rooted in the framework, which is all about encouraging healthy behaviors and providing quality health care to people of all body sizes, without suggesting weight loss or assuming that a person鈥檚 health is determined by their weight. The book is a helpful and empathetic guide to nutrition, and it鈥檚 a great alternative to conventional nutrition books for anyone who feels triggered by mentions of weight and weight loss.
5. 鈥楿nsavory Truth,鈥听by Marion Nestle
My recommendation of Marion Nestle鈥檚 comes with a couple disclaimers. Although it鈥檚 an eye-opening look at how the food industry influences policy and nutrition research, I warn you not to panic as much about this as the book might encourage you to. It鈥檚 unreasonable to think that food companies shouldn鈥檛 have a hand in shaping the policies that so directly affect them, and not all industry-funded research is inherently wrong or bad. (Sometimes听the only viable way to fund a study is to take industry money.) Plus, the modern food industry isn鈥檛 the pure-evil behemoth that it鈥檚 often made out to be; it鈥檚 because of this food industry that you鈥檙e able to conveniently buy all the food you need.
That said, major food companies and lobbyists regularly overstep their bounds. Unsavory Truth will teach听you to think more critically about any nutrition information you come across, and it lends some insight into how often evidence is听misrepresented or taken out of context. For me, an indirect takeaway of the book was that it鈥檚 really up to you to choose how to eat. Many headlines about 鈥superfoods鈥澨齩r very rigid diets are, in fact, sponsored by companies who have a vested interest in getting you to buy these things. It鈥檚 best to ignore them and stick to eating a flexible and varied diet filled with plenty of nutritious foods.