Hi all! Just got back from an amazing IDEA conference week in Los Angeles. I attended the full day behavioral change summit with about 500 attendees on Saturday with a panel of experts IDEA gathered from academia and clinical medicine. The bottom line is there was unanimous agreement that moving towards a plant strong diet is the best medicine for longevity, weight loss, and overall good health. Imagine that! I must say, I felt somewhat vindicated while listening to these health and behavioral change icons espoused recommendations using unbiased clinical and scientific data. Kudos to IDEA for this full day seminar.
Shannon Colavecchio, one of our awesome Savvier Fitness Master Trainers suggested I do a blog on books I recommend to learn more about plant based nutritional science. I thought, great idea! There are so many great books and articles available both in hard copy and on-line it’s hard for me to pick just a few but that’s what I am going to do. Here is my short list of great reads (no science background required) related to the TRUTH about nutrition:
6 years ago I was a happy, ignorant, and somewhat overweight omnivore on a cross country flight. Jessica H. Maurer, another one of our top shelf Savvier Fitness Master Trainers, and the person behind the bruceandmindy.com web site gave Mindy and I a copy of “The China Study” by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, PhD. I read it cover to cover on the trip and got off of that plane a plant based eater and have never turned back! As a data driven person, I was completely blown away and I must say, ANGRY, that I was not aware of the book, the science, and all of the information about plant based nutrition as a vehicle to long term health. This is a seminal book that I highly recommend to anyone seeking to understand the history and solid science behind the plant based movement. It is also a testament to Dr. Campbell’s struggle with the status quo of industry influenced thinking about nutrition and his life long mission to disseminate the real unbiased science of nutrition. This book was my first seed of behavioral change on nutrition and that seed has only grown and flourished since I first read it. Behavior change is a life long process, but this book pushed me immediately into a new life.
My next recommendation has to be “Super Immunity” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, MD. Dr. Fuhrman does a wonderful job of summarizing in simple laymen’s language the science behind the benefits of a plant strong diet. Additionally, the book has an extensive recipe library that is very user friendly. A quick read as well.
I could not do a recommended reading list without including Dr. Michael Greger’s new book, “How Not To Die” (wish I had come up with that title). From beginning to end, Dr. G uses his great sense of humor and incredible knowledge of every research study ever done related to nutrition to provides us the tools we all need to prevent or battle the chronic diseases that plague our modern society. There is also an extensive section on the best plant based foods including herbs and spices. Stay tuned to my blog for the next in the 5 part exclusive interview I had with Dr. Greger.
My final recommendation is one of the reference books used in the Holistic Nutritionist Certification from AFPA I recently completed (I would also highly recommend this 6 month intensive cert for any fitness professional that wants to become a well informed nutritionist).
The book is “Keep It Simple, Keep It Whole” by Alona Pulde, MD and Matthew Lederman, MD. You can read this book in less than a few hours and I believe is the best “how to” manual on successfully transitioning to a whole food plant based diet without creating a feeling of deprivation which will ultimately lead to failure. The strategies used in this book are integrated into Mindy’s and my One Day To Wellness seminars. They are simple and they are proven to work!
There are so many more but these are my top picks for anyone who wants to change their eating habits for the long term.
To your health!
great job Bruce!