I confess I have TOO many books. Started as a young kid, both parents and brother loved to read, thus the family tradition carries on. I’m the type who has a couple books going at the same time, those on the health frontier and just for fun pleasure on the other side.
In the health realm here’s the past year’s selection of hits. I also did a fair amount of re-reading some older books as well, a couple highlights being Protein Power by Dr. Michael Eades & MaryEades, MD, The Case for Keto by Gary Taubes and Death by Food Pyramid by Denise Minger.
From the ground up, Ketogenic: The science of therapeutic carbohydrate restriction in human health.The textbook produced by the Nutrition Network should be required reading for anyone working in the dietary and nutrition field. Incredible documentation, research, scientific resources provided for each chapter make it the most up to date textbook on the science of carbohydrate restriction and human health. The vast list of contributors who shared their knowledge and expertise, both at the research as well as patient level, provides unprecedented value to the field of nutrition science. Kudos to Professor Noakes and his team.
Carnivore Diet by Shawn Baker, MD offers a good no-nonsense overview of the carnivore lifestyle. Dr. Baker explores a lot of the misconceptions and myths on a meat-centric diet and brings the human side to the forefront. Whether you follow Shawn or others on social media the stories of people reversing auto-immune diseases, IBS, Crohn’s, depression, inflammatory ailments and on and on is quite something. He gives practical advice about how to approach eating this way and what to be mindful of. Appreciate Shawn’s bold approach to think different!
On a personal note, I consider the carnivore diet a valuable type of elimination diet that for many individuals can be a boon to their ailments. I also think whatever variation of a low-carb, ketogenic, carnivore lifestyle works for you is the one to do. See my post on What Do You Eat?
The world of mental health has been set on fire recently first with more research as well as the book from Christopher Palmer, MD, Brain Energy.As a firm believer in the power of good metabolic health for aging well, this was a fascinating read. Dr. Palmer explores the evolution of how mental health is and was treated and provides his insight on using nutrition specifically the ketogenic diet as an “option” for improving the mental health of his patients.
Those of us who work in nutrition have long known the benefits of the ketogenic diet in treating epilepsy (since the early 1900’s) but Dr. Palmer takes us deeper into treating patients with a host of mental disorders. He looks at bipolar, disorder depression, autism and beyond, it’s ground-breaking work and we can expect to see more in this field going forward.
And on that note as a student of Dr. Georgia Ede’s course on Ketogenic Diet and Mental Health, I look forward to her recently published book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind, to be released in January 2024.
Stay Off My Operating Table, without a doubt that is a goal we should all have. Dr. Philip Ovadia pulls no punches in how he would like to NOT see you in his operating room and how to prevent heart disease. Very refreshing to hear someone in the “medical field” talking (plus he walks the walk too) about efforts to improve your metabolic health, create a ‘system’ to guide you in making lifestyle choices to improve not only heart health but enhance longevity. He is on a mission to save 1M lives, come join the movement.
Unless you’ve been living under a health rock you’ve probably heard a lot about Dr. Peter Attia’s book Outlive.For those of you who don’t listen to his podcasts he is a quite prominent figure in the health community. I have followed him from his early days in partnership with Gary Taubes and NuSi.
As a mature individual I’m fascinated by the longevity topic. Don’t we all want to increase our healthspan to match our lifespan? Attia’s book explores his 5 tactics of longevity and much more. For example, his approach to exercise for centenarians is quite extensive (not sure us working mortals can devote that amount of time) it includes strength training, mobility, stability training, VO2 Max and Zone 2 workouts to name a few components. Lots to explore and if you follow his work a good summary of his podcasts and blogs over the years. Personally, I found the last chapter the most insightful and revealing about the fragility and intricacy of physical and mental health.
One word on longevity to close out this book piece. There has been over the last year a host of individuals and organizations highlighting “their” specific prescription for longevity. Many have a special “hack” like rapamycin, certain aging biomarkers to monitor, hormone or supplement solutions to ingest. My ‘ole school’ take is these prescriptions might work or they might not. The latest innovation might make us live longer BUT we just don’t know. It resembles an economic predication or modeling, just an educated guess.
Here’s a few things we know at a gut level can support the aging process.
- Exercise & Daily Movement
- Getting Regular Sunshine & Spending Time Outdoors
- Resistance Training is A MUST!
- Maintaining Social Connections
- Having A Community
- Know Your Why
No one has a magic ball so keep to your routines, read more books, and find your tribe.
Happy New Year and thanks for reading!
