Films can have a strong and immediate impact — Super Size Me certainly did, despite the rather large helping of bologna it served up — but they’re no substitute for reading. Read, people, read!
Here are some excellent books that may help convince you much of what you’ve been told about diets, calories, weight loss, heart disease, and saturated fat is a load of bologna. (If you’re wondering what happened to the old book widget, it apparently is stripped out by modern browsers.)
Another great book to add to the reading list is “Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats” by Sally Fallon. It’s an excellent read with countless recipes based on various cultures’ primal diets.
I would also add to this list “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan. It suggests that rather than living on increasingly nutrient-deficient “food-like substances” that we eat real foods, enjoyed and prepared in traditional ways.
Thanks for the list Tom, but I don’t see Mary Enig’s book “Know Your Fats.” I find it to be an excellent book and one that everyone should read.
What about the Four Hour Body? I guess it covers a lot of the same ground as the others but I really like it.
It’s a good book, just not as useful (in my opinion) as the ones I listed.
“French Women Don’t Get Fat” by Mireille Guiliano describes how the French don’t have an obesity epedimic like we do in the US, yet they enjoy bread and pastry, wine and a regular 3 course meal everyday. Most of what she discusses is eating everything in moderation and treating food as an art rather than something you quickly stuff in your mouth to stop your stomach from grumbling. I enjoyed reading it and although I dont believe we should eat pastry and drink wine all the time, I believe our (Americans) demise is that we stuff ourselves on empty carbs and suck down soda all day, which creates a vicious cycle of a sugar addiction. I just watched Fathead for the first time last week and I am enjoying reading through your website. Thank you for changing my mind about becoming a soy eating vegetarian.
Thank you for watching.
Having now read both of Gary Taubes books, I think I would highly recommend “Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It” to any serious reader interested in the subject of weight loss. If you are a science reader, then “Good Calories, Bad Calories” will appeal to you too. It’s not that the former doesn’t have a good discussion of science, it’s just that the latter is cover to cover science and theory. It was great for me because I’m a research scientist and one of my favorite things is reading technical tomes outside of my field.
All that being said, they are not really major and minor versions of the same thing. “Good Calories, Bad Calories” is an indictment of the bad science that has led us into a four decade divergence from an appropriate course of action. In “Why We Get Fat” the emphasis in on practical remediation of the bad advice, though the house of cards upon which that advice was built is discussed.
As someone who has sufffered from excess weigth all my life, I am angry that such a fundamental misunderstanding of how the body works became enshrined as public policy – after the contradictory science was established! Never trust a scientist who says the final answer has been established. A consensus is really the best model (guess) from the data available. Truth is not established by ballot.
You should do recommended documentaries toooo! Just watched yours last weekend and I was THOROUGHLY entertained… I even got my husband to watch 1/2 of it. It’s quite possible he actually learned something.
Not a bad idea.
Thank you for the recommendations! I know you’ve already had many additional suggestions above but here’s just two more which I think are brilliant and cut to the chase: “Fat Revolution” and “Great Health is a Piece of Cake” both by Christine Cronau. She plugs Fat Head at her talks.
The grain brain is a must read.
Thank you for including “Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution”. The book has helped me with my diabetes tremendously. Only problem is that I keep lending out my copy of the book to people, so I can’t re-read it myself! This is definitely the “Bible” of diabetes care, if you want normal blood sugars and few, mild, or no complications.
Thank you too, for making the documentary. It was a big help in convincing my husband that it’s the sugar- not the fat- that is unhealthy for him! Thanks again!
You need two copies of the book…. a keeper and a “loaner.”
I have type 2 Diabetes and see this is addressed with the comments above. Will definitely check this out! Thanks!!!
Where is the list? I don’t see it.
Ahhh, something’s gone wrong with the widget. I’ll have to look into it.
Please repost reading list
I have to figure out what’s wrong with the widget.
In the meantime, can you remind me of the name of that book with the picture of the broccoli on the front?
Thanks SO much for the Fat Head movie and this fantastic blog – I’ve been reading the archived posts and learning so much. I watched Fat Head the day after I first heard of the LCHF WoL, and it’s changed my life so much that if the local professional homeless guy standing on the freeway off ramp didn’t have such a creepy Children of the Corn look about him, I’d chase him off and be there handing out copies of your movie to everyone during rush hour. As it is, I’m letting everyone know they need to watch it. I’m hoping to have the money to buy a bunch of copies for friends and relatives soon. Thanks again.
I appreciate that, although the homeless guy probably isn’t carrying a DVD player.
The book with broccoli on the front … maybe it was Brain Maker?
Yes. Brain Maker! That’s it. Thanks for your help.
I think the homeless guy might be beyond help – he definitely seems to be part of the “better living through chemistry” crowd, if you catch my drift. I just want his spot at the off-ramp so I can tell everyone they need to watch FatHead. Seriously, what a life changer! Back to reading the archived posts. 🙂
I knew I should have gone into business making Widgets. It was all they talked about in business school.
i don’t seem to be seeing the reading list. would you please repost it or send it via email 🙂
I guess it needs fixing. It was an Amazon widget.
For now, just search the blog for “book review” to find all the books that were written about. They are all worth reading.
Hi. Another great read id ” the Obesity code” by Jason Fung
Reviewed it recently.
Why do you recommend “The New Adkins” book when it useses whole wheat a and canola oil in it’s recipes?
It’s a good overall guide, but yes, I’d discourage people from canola or wheat.
After “The Big Fat Surprise” my next favourite book is “The Real Meal Revolution: the radical, sustainable approach to healthy eating” by Professor Tim Noakes, Jonno Proudfoot and Sally-Ann Creed (South Africans). Primarily an incredible recipe book, as a bonus it has an essay “Scientific Justification for a Banting (low carb) Diet”, which is well worth reading also.
Just read Taubes’ new book, “The Case Against Sugar.” Very good book. Loved your documentary. I watched it on the front end of my paradigm shift. Listened to you on The Keto Dudes podcast today. Can’t wait to make your nephew Eric’s pizza! Thanks for spreading the gospel!
Tom suggested searching the site for “Book Review” to find the missing list that the widget is failing to present. I did that. It was fun, I recommend reading all the reviews. Not sure I found all of them, but here is are many of them result:
Dr. Davis
–Wheat Belly
–Wheat Belly Total Health
–Undoctored
Dr. Fung and/or Jimmy Moore:
–Cholesterol Clarity
–Keto Clarity
–The Complete Guide To Fasting
–The Obesity Code
(Dr. Fung also wrote The Diabetes Code)
Brad Sission
–The Primal Connection
–Primal Endurance
Statin’s Toxic Side Effects
Brain Maker
The Calorie Myth
Fast Fat Cookbook
Low Cholesterol Leads to an Early Death
Cholesterol and Saturated Fat Prevent Heart Disease – Evidence from 101 Scientific Papers
Don’t Die Early
The Meat Fix
Free the Animal
Doctoring Data
The Big Fat Surprise
Death by Food Pyramid
The poor, misunderstood calorie
Fat Head Kids Book
500 Paleo Recipes
Rich Foods Poor Foods
The Smarter Science of Slim
Conquer Diabetes & Prediabetes
Why We Get Fat … And What To Do About It
Ignore the Awkward!
The Cholesterol Myths
The Perfect Health Diet
Thanks for good lists and interesting comments. You might also look at “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease” by Robert Lustig.