Two Diet & Nutrition Books You Need in Your Library

The UBBT lists as one requirement living by the Body For Life diet. I've tried that diet and didn't like what it did to my energy levels. To be clear now, there's nothing wrong with that diet. It's well reasoned, well constructed and has a sizable body of success behind it.

Trouble for me was it's a weight-loss diet. Weight has never been my problem. So I set about doing the research to put together a diet just as structured, but focused more on energy, immunity and longevity.

I won't bore you with the details of my particular diet, but - seriously - if you're at all interested in diet and nutrition, you need to pick up and read at least one of these two books.

The must-read is Superfood Rx by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews. It focuses on 14 foods with clinically proven health benefits ranging from immunity boost to significant reduction in cancer. Using those foods, it puts together a recommended weekly quota of each. From there, it's not hard at all to cobble together a weekly diet plan.

The second book, Eat Drink & Be Healthy by Walter Willett & PJ Skerritt, fills in the only hole I found in Superfoods. Superfoods does a great job of telling you what foods to eat, and what benefits you can expect to derive from those foods. Eat, Drink looks harder at the science behind why.

Seriously, these books have changed how I look at what I eat. I went through several books on diet and nutrition, some good, many bad. These two are consistent with one another, with what I understand of modern nutrition science and with what experts I've spoken with have to say.

And best of all...the last half of both books is full of recipes. Good recipes, even. My son's eyes light up at the mere mention of Mexican Lasagne from Eat, Drink.

Thanks for listening.