Top 10 Books for Nutrition and Diet

These books will help increase your nutrition IQ while giving you the tools to lose fat and keep it off.

1. The Body Fat Solution by Tom Venuto 

Best for repeat dieters and diet saboteurs 

I wrote a full story on why I think this is the only nutrition book you will ever have to read. Tom doesn’t preach a certain “way” of eating and instead bases his principles on years of practical experience in the fitness and nutrition game. You’ll notice that these are time-tested “bodybuilding” principles that consistently work for the leanest people in the world. A few of the most important ideas are changing your attitude around nutrition, debunking bodyfat myths, and adopting a macro approach to eating in which the contents and nutrients of your food serve as guideposts.

Link to story: The Only Book on Nutrition You Will Ever Have to Read

2. Beck Diet for Life by Judith Beck, Ph.D.

Dr. Beck’s approach is similar to Tom’s, and since he references this book in his, I believe many of his ideas have come directly from it. The Beck Diet is also based on behavioral change and process and less on what to eat or eliminate. She talks about things that influence our behaviors around food, such as eating patterns, attitudes, and mealtime environments. These seem like they don’t matter regarding nutrition and diet, but thinking about these as “triggers” matter in the overall scheme of total calories consumed. I am a big fan of self-talk around food and have it as one of the core skills in my 28-Day Nutrition Skills Challenge, Dr. Beck suggests much of the same to motivate yourself while coping with hunger and cravings every day. 

“You will learn a powerful set of psychological tools that will enable you to stick to your healthy eating plan, no matter what. You will learn how to talk back to your inner saboteur, that voice that says: It’s ok to [stray from my diet] because…I’m stressed…I’m celebrating…I’m tired…I’m busy…I really want it…everyone else is eating it…it’s free…it’s only a little piece…I deserve it…it’s a special occasion…it won’t matter…I hardly ever get to have it…I’ll make up for it later.” — Dr. Beck

3. Food: What The Heck Should I Eat by Mark Hyman, MD 

Best for vegetarians and natural food enthusiasts 

This book by Dr. Mark Hyman is great for addressing food quality. While food quality is important, it falls below attitudes, habits, and environments, in my opinion. The reason is knowing what to eat (food quality) is less important if you don’t address the behavioral change and mental component of becoming lean and eating healthier. There is still immense value in learning about the physiological response to certain types of foods, mostly modern and highly processed, covered in great detail by Dr. Hyman.

“The science of nutrition is confusing. But it shouldn’t be. There’s nothing more natural, or fundamental, in our lives. The miracle we humans have always known is this: Food exists specifically to energize, heal, repair, and uplift us. Every bite you take is a powerful opportunity to create health or promote disease.” — Dr. Mark Hyman

4. The Happiness Diet by Tyler Graham and Drew Ramsey

Best for non-fitness enthusiasts

The happiness diet is another spin on the effects of food quality. Moving away from the Modern American Diet (MAD) towards an unprocessed and highly-nutrient dense diet can increase your mood, thinking, and overall happiness. Put another way, eating a MAD diet will make you moody, foggy-brained, and unhappy. What’s interesting about the happiness diet and why it's worth a read is the emphasis on cognitive function and how various types of foods directly impact the brain. The connection between food and high cognitive function helps to connect nutrition to emotional regulation, critical thinking, and high performance. 

5. Flexible Dieting by Alan Aragon 

Best for nutrition nerds and deep divers

Aragon is a well-respected researcher in the diet and nutrition field and one of the few “experts” I trust. His approach is very similar to Tom’s in basing a diet strategy around macronutrient totals, with the total caloric load as the driver behind what and how much we eat. Aragon has included several quote-worthy insights spread throughout and an overall emphasis on explaining the scientific foundations and programming components. This is a great companion text to The Body Fat Solution, and I would even consider it an updated version, having been more recently published. 

“Bottom line: it’s just food. Give the power to yourself, not the food.” — Alan Aragon

6. The Lean Muscle Diet by Lou Schuler and Alan Aragon

Best for meat heads and gym junkies

Get this one on Kindle and quickly learn how to transform your body using a nutrition and exercise program that is intentionally “metabolically expensive.” This means that everything you do is geared towards burning fat and building muscle, all in alignment with the sound nutrition practices that Aragon preaches. This is a great nutrition starter book and suits those looking for a plan to make quick and efficient changes to their diet and exercise regimen. 

7. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price

Best for indigenous tribesmen (or modern-day hunter-gatherers)

A seminal piece on human nutrition, this book continues to inspire fitness influencers today (i.e., Liver King). First published in 1938, the fundamental idea is that a natural, local diet is all that is needed for a healthy body. It worked for the indigenous tribes studied in the book, and it will work for modern humans. Ah, the problem with the book: we are modern humans living in a modern world. That is why I don’t tout this book as highly as others because pointing out that an extremely natural diet full of animal organs is practically irrelevant to all that read it.

“That modern man is declining in physical fitness has been emphasized by many eminent sociologists and other scientists. That the rate of degeneration is progressively accelerating constitutes a cause for great alarm, particularly since this is taking place in spite of the advance that is being made in modern science along many lines of investigation.” — Dr. Weston Price

8. Fat Land: How Americans Became The Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser 

Best for fans of nutrition narratives and exposes’

I thoroughly enjoyed this book in the way a fat kid loves cake. It was a delicious read, highly engaging, and thought-provoking. It is much less a nutrition book and more an expose of the obesity crisis in America. As a fitness & nutrition coach, it reaffirms the potential size of the marketplace with a ton of jaw-dropping facts. For example, about 61% of Americans are overweight — enough to begin experiencing health problems due to that weight. About 25% of all Americans under 19 are overweight or obese, a figure that has doubled in 30 years. And it’s not slowing down. What’s changing is our expectations and societal influence, our redefining of competitive sports (eSports), and the general hardiness of our people. 

“I ask myself daily, what can I do to help change this narrative? Then I get to work pounding the rock.” 

9. Food Fix by Dr. Mark Hyman

Best for those interested in public health

A much more global approach to food than other books by Dr. Hyman. In Food Fix, he addresses the system of food and investigates societal issues through personal choices. The number one tip he provides is to stop drinking sugar. He says it is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your health. Not only is this a great tip for nutrition, but it also helps to address some of the global issues around the prevalence of sugar in our diets. 

10. It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig

Best for food experimenters or those with diet-related issues

The Hartwigs are the creators of the Whole30 program that really shifted my thoughts on the power of food a decade ago. For some people, this paleo-in-nature approach is powerful because it introduces the notion of experimenting through the elimination of certain food types to get a feel for how they may be harming you. For most people, eating sensible amounts of grains, dairy, nightshades, etc., won’t make that much of a difference in how they look, feel, and perform. However, for others, there may be drastic changes across these three measures, thus, making stricter diet periods aimed at experimentation a valuable tool for self-discovery and nutritional deep dives. 

Check out my 28-Day Nutrition Skills Challenge to learn more about building the skill of nutrition and getting better at eating. For more articles on living a High-Performance Lifestyle, you can view my Medium publication at medium.com/hpxl.

For all other blog posts and articles, you can view the my Medium blog at outworkchief.medium.com.