Week 6: Recommend reading on diet and nutrition, March 21, 2010

Cathy and I just got back from a relaxing 4 days on vacation from spring break. In addition to sleeping in, walks and exercise, watching movies and basketball, going out to eat and shopping, we each brought a project or two that we want to do but have trouble doing at home. My project was some reading on diet and nutrition.

I last researched this topic of nutrition over 5 years ago. At the time, the best book I could find on the topic was Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (EDBH) by Harvard professor of epidemiology and nutrition Walter Willett. I also benefited by a book called Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman.  These are still books I would recommend as good reading on the topic.

But, noting that EDBH was published almost 10 years ago, I recently decided to take a bit of time to again briefly survey what is available on the topic to make sure I am getting the best advice today. Additionally, this time around I wanted more help implementing change, rather than focusing on increased understanding.

My search was not exhaustive; I am sure there are other good books out there. I went to see if Willett had done anything more recent than EDBH, I checked out recommendations of my nutritionist friend, I looked at some of Amazon’s recommendations, and I make a trip to the public library to see the books for myself. After looking them over during spring break, below is a very brief summary of those I am purchasing. You will hear more from these books and resources later.

I was encouraged to find there is a significant consensus on what a good diet is (of course I stayed away from fad diets). I was even more encouraged that there are increasingly a number of well written books to help us implement what the science is saying and that the diets include great and satisfying foods.

What I am purchasing (links to Amazon):

• Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less: A Flexible and Delicious Way to Shrink Your Waist Without Going Hungry by Mollie Katzen and Walter Willett – The book includes a very readable summary of what science is saying in nine “turning points” for good nutrition (you will get this list on a subsequent post), a way to track your “body score” to encourage you to improve your diet habits, and 3 weeks worth of meal plans to lose weight with enjoyable and doable recipes. There is also 1 week worth of menu plans that are easier to do, help eating out, etc. Highly recommended.
• The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan by Barbara Rolls and Robert Barnett. Recommended by my nutritionist friend and the American Dietetic Association. It is another good book on basics of good nutrition and helping you to implement those ideas. What is new here, that I have not seen elsewhere, is a focus on being satisfied with the quantity of food you are getting. They do this by helping you to make good choices and modifying recipes to reduce calorie density. By doing so, you can eat more, are more satisfied, and yet can control or lose weight. The results are surprisingly satisfying and doable.  More later.
• The EatingWell Diet: The University-Tested VTrim Weight-Loss Program by Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino – This book again includes very good nutritional information and a solid plan for implementing it. We do not plan to follow  their plan per se but will use some of the recipes. They are very attractively laid out in the book. In doing a bit more research, I found that the recipes are taken from Eating Well Magazine. So I am subscribing to it as well. You might check out their web site!

Recommended web sites:

• American Dietetic Association – http://www.eatright.org/
• Eating Well Magazine – http://www.eatingwell.com/
• WedMD’s healthy eating and diet
• Mayo’s healthy lifestyle