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When friends ask about the Paleo diet I often point them towards a book to learn more. I can talk about food all day but sometimes I suspect that people would rather hear it from an MD, a Ph.D., or someone who has officially made it in the Paleo world by publishing a book. I’ll get there someday. Since I chat these books up to friends I thought I’d share them with my followers along with the reasons that I recommend each paleo book. This list isn’t created in any particular order because I feel that I’d often be comparing apples and oranges.
The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease
This is the book I recommend to people who are Paleo skeptical. When people are skeptical I think they often discount ideas before they have enough knowledge to make an educated decision. Daniel Lieberman is a Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology and the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences at Harvard. What’s better than a detailed history of human evolution and development to make a scientific case for the Paleo diet and lifestyle? Daniel’s book begins with apes and humans, transitions to farming and the industrial revolution, and finishes with a look at the future. At the end of the book, there are 61 pages of sources to give credit to what he is saying. Plus the science nerd in me simply loved his book.
The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles
Have you ever heard of Terry Wahls? If there was ever a story to validate the power of food over our health it is hers. Terry is an MD with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Her Ted Talk begins with the story of her tilt-recline wheelchair. She received the best treatments and yet her condition still declined. Fearing for the loss of her job she began researching multiple sclerosis and began focusing on feeding her mitochondria. Initially, she began with supplements but she didn’t achieve the results she desired so she went looking for nutrients in food. When she did that she found herself out of a wheelchair and on a mountain bike. As she says, there are likely compounds in food that we have yet to discover that contribute to our overall health. I love her protocol because the focus is nutrient density and the girl got out of a wheelchair. Need I say more?
The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram Your Genes for Effortless Weight Loss, Vibrant Health and Boundless Energy
When I learned the power the food had over my rheumatoid arthritis symptoms I knew I had to become a health coach. Mark Sisson was the first, (I think?), to create a paleo health coaching certification that anyone can enroll in. After reading The Primal Blueprint I knew his certification course was for me because the book is well-rounded. It isn’t just about food or exercise; it encompasses the food, exercise, and lifestyle habits of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. When shopping for food or evaluating your exercise routine ask yourself: What would Grok do? By definition, Grok is a Greek word meaning: to understand something thoroughly and intuitively. (Grok is the name Mark uses to refer to a hunter-gatherer individual.) As you read the 10 Primal Blueprint Laws you will likely have a moment of clarity, an aha moment, where you’ll feel like you are once again connected to living intuitively. This book is what led me to the Primal Health Coaching certification, recognized by NASM.
Mark is a former marathoner and Ironman and he was a liaison to the International Olympic Committee representing the sport of triathlon. However, Mark doesn’t advocate hardcore exercise every day; he’s written many articles on the dangers of chronic cardio on his website Mark’s Daily Apple. If hunter-gatherers had to run 60 minutes every day followed by heavy lifting to maintain their physique, we wouldn’t have survived as a species. It’s things like that that will have you looking at things differently.
Good Calories, Bad Calories
Confession. I haven’t made it all the way through this book because reading it pisses me off and I have to keep putting it down. Gary Taubes is an investigative journalist and he documents to the Nth degree the history of our food system and the origins of conventional wisdom. Why do I have to keep putting this book down? Because they know, they’ve known for decades that there isn’t any science to validate the recommendation to eat a low-fat diet rich in grains. Just look around. The government, which no one trusts, made a blanket dietary recommendation for everyone and now we have the worst health ever. If you want to know how it all went down. If you want to know how Ancel Keys was able to throw out 2/3 of his data and have his low-fat hypothesis become the golden rule; this is the book for you. The bibliography is over 100 pages long so for every claim that Taubes makes he has a source to support it. It’s infuriating because we all know someone who has either died or who is currently struggling with a chronic health condition.
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Primal Fat Burner: Live Longer, Slow Aging, Super-Power Your Brain, and Save Your Life with a High-Fat, Low-Carb Paleo Diet
Primal Fat Burner is my most recent read. I’d heard great things about it but I wondered if there would be anything I didn’t already know. As it turns out I did learn some things from this book. Did you know that 75% of vegans and vegetarians give up their lifestyle within a decade due to the development of chronic illness? I’m a Wahls fan and I aim for the 9 cups of vegetables a day she recommends but as Terry and Nora will both tell you; a plant-based diet is incomplete. The nutrients simply aren’t there.
Nora talks about the benefits of fat in our diets and goes into great detail about how fats and fat-soluble vitamins rely on each other in the body. Like most people, when you mentioned Vitamin A I immediately thought of carrots. Did you know that the Vitamin A in carrots is beta-carotene (a carotenoid) and the body poorly converts beta-carotene to retinol? Only 3% of plant carotenoids are absorbed by the body whereas 80% of Vitamin A (retinol) found in animal fat is absorbed. Here is an excerpt from Primal Fat Burner about Vitamin A:
Critical fat-soluble nutrients, particularly true vitamins A (found only in animal sources) and D, were especially high in primitive and traditional diets—often ten times higher than in modern diets (Price). Beta-carotene, a fat-soluble nutrient, is not, contrary to popular press, the equivalent of vitamin A—nor is its conversion to vitamin A a simple matter. Children under the age of five and individuals with liver or thyroid impairment cannot make this conversion at all.
The conversion also requires the presence of dietary fat. Furthermore, it takes no less than six units of beta-carotene to biochemically form a single unit of vitamin A (Basic Medical Biochemistry). One should never rely solely on vegetable sources for this incredibly vital nutrient. Remember, vitamin A (retinol) is not the same thing as beta-carotene. Cod liver oil can be an excellent supplemental source of true vitamins A and D (mostly A), as well as some omega-3, and may be additionally helpful in the reversal of mineral deficiencies.
Vitamin A is only one of the things I learned from reading this book. Did you know there is more than 1 type of Vitamin K? Vitamin K1 is found in green leafy vegetables but K2 is found in animal fats. What does Vitamin K2 do? It helps your body store calcium in your bones. This book is for anyone who is fatphobic or fears eating saturated fat regularly due to the low-fat conventional wisdom we’ve been fed for decades.
It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways
Whenever someone is Paleo-Curious this is the book I recommend first. It’s easy to read and understand and the Hartwigs give real-life scenarios that show how your “healthy” food according to conventional wisdom isn’t healthy after all. What I love most about this book is that after explaining Paleo -vs- Non-Paleo foods they flat-out say “It’s Not Your Fault”. For all of your diet fails, struggles, self-deprivation, and hours on a treadmill that haven’t given you lasting results: It’s Not Your Fault.
There is 1 basic rule in Paleo that is the central theme of this book: If it’s healthy, Eat It. If it’s not healthy, Don’t Eat It. Paleo principles and health are based on the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. What would you eat if you lived in the wilderness? You’d eat what you could forage, hunt, and fish. You’d eat whole foods provided by nature, not chemicals disguised as food with artificial health claims written on the package. Still not convinced? Here is an A-Z list of diseases that have been reversed by eating this way.
The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick – And What We Can Do About It
Robyn has been called the Erin Brockovich of food. A mother of 4 and a former food industry analyst her life took a turn when her daughter had an allergic reaction in her high chair. After that moment she began researching food and food politics. She was spot on when she says that kids shouldn’t get sick from eating food. They’re eating the same food we ate as kids so why do so many have autism, allergies, asthma, and ADHD? Why is cancer now the leading cause of death by disease in children? When you read Robyn’s book you’ll see that new proteins have been introduced into our food supply via GMOs. These proteins have never been safety tested, they are everywhere, and our kids are getting hit the hardest. GMOs are anything but substantially equivalent. (Substantially equivalent is the wording our government used to allow these crops into our food supply.) For a quick summary of her story and some of her research check out her Ted Talk.
The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat
The Paleo Diet is the first Paleo book I read and it’s considered the Paleo Bible in most circles. Loren was the first to write about the Paleo lifestyle so typically anyone you meet in the Paleosphere has read this book. I’d just graduated with an environmental science degree before I read this book so the concept of living in harmony with nature while enjoying the comforts of the modern world will have you questioning why everyone is so sick? We have more technology than ever before yet we’re the sickest we’ve ever been. I read this book about 20 years ago and it simply made sense. Eat as if you were still living in nature because that is how we are all genetically designed to eat. Dr. Cordain is a Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. His research emphasis has focused upon the evolutionary and anthropological basis for diet, health, and well-being of modern humans. The Paleo Diet demonstrates how, by eating your fill of satisfying and delicious lean meats and fish, fresh fruits, snacks, and non-starchy vegetables, you can lose weight and prevent and treat heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, and many other illnesses.
The Keto Reset Diet: Reboot Your Metabolism In 21 Days And Burn Fat Forever
I love this book because there is a lot of Keto Nonsense out there. This book separates fact from fiction and it gives you a quiz in the middle of the book that you have to pass before you have permission to go keto.
It seems that keto is all the craze these days and while most people will lose weight quickly I must stress that keto isn’t for everyone. There is an art to doing keto so that you don’t damage your metabolism and hormonal processes. This book explains all of that.
Dirty Genes: A Breakthrough Program to Treat the Root Cause of Illness and Optimize Your Health
I bought this book after seeing Dr. Ben Lynch give a thought-provoking presentation at Paleo f(x) 2018. If you’ve been in any autoimmunity groups online you’ve surely heard MTHFR pop up a time or two. If you don’t know what it is it’s a gene snippet that some people have. Dr. Lynch’s presentation explained MTHFR, the methylation cycle, and how folic acid (which is added to most things) hinders the methylation cycle. Folic acid is the reason Dr. Lynch said he wouldn’t feed infant formula to a cat. It’s that bad.
In his book Dirty Genes he goes on to explain the other genes that can affect MTHFR and genes that are affected by poor methylation. Like most things, there isn’t one simple solution because we have to look at the whole picture and the whole person as an individual. Suspecting that I have MTHFR and a histamine issue his book has been invaluable. I’d love to carry Dr. Lynch in my pocket so I can learn more about what he knows.
Paleo Principles: The Science Behind the Paleo Template, Step-by-Step Guides, Meal Plans, and 200+ Healthy & Delicious Recipes for Real Life
Santa brought this book to me this past Christmas. Ever since I read The Paleo Approach (mentioned above) I’m convinced that Sarah Ballantyne is typically the smartest person in most rooms. Her autoimmune protocol is what I use to control my rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. If you’ve ever wished for a Paleo Textbook that looks like something you’d get for a college course then this is the book you want. Typical of Sarah, she didn’t leave anything out and she thoroughly explains the science behind the paleo principles.
Healthy Gut, Healthy You
If you’ve been paying attention to the latest research you already know that they’re linking most health conditions to gut health. it’s more than just digestive issues, autoimmunity, anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, Coronary Artery Disease, Diabetes, and Kidney Disease to name a few.
The Standard American Diet (SAD) makes people sick; we know this. When we export our fast food to other countries they see their health decline. Foreigners who move here see their health decline.
Whatever health condition you are facing odds are that Dr. Ruscio’s book will help. He gives you clear instructions, a road map, of tasks to do to improve your gut health. It’s not a simple eat this and don’t eat that kind of book. Dr. Ruscio has you try different approaches until you find the one that works for you.
No Grain, No Pain: A 30-Day Diet for Eliminating the Root Cause of Chronic Pain
Reading this book I learned that there is no such thing as “gluten-free. ” It seems that when it comes to gluten proteins in grains (lectins), some gluten proteins have received more attention that others. If you’ve gone gluten-free and didn’t notice much of a difference that may be why. You didn’t eliminate all grains, i.e. all lectin proteins found in all grains.
For me personally, all grains give me joint pain. Plus I wake up with a puffy face and eyes if I eat grains. I’m fatigued, grumpy, and my head isn’t clear.
Most people who aren’t paleo get a deer in the headlights look about them when I mention that I don’t eat grains. Our culture typically serves food on, in, wrapped, or with a side of grains. I had the same panic too but do you know what? I enjoy food more now without grains; food has more flavor when it isn’t served on a starchy canvas. Plus, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel better without grains in their life. Dr. Osborne covers in geat detail why we really shouldn’t be eating grains.
Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food
If you’re pregnant or looking to get pregnant this is my #1 paleo book recommendation. Dr. Cate Shanahan goes through each nutrient and explains what happens to our offspring what that nutrient is missing from our diets. Did you know that your grandmother’s diet is affecting your health today? It’s fascinating stuff. Originally I purchased this book on Audible but the information is so good that I have a used hard copy of the book on its way through the mail as I type this.
Originally posted on June 24, 2017 @ 06:00
