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Ask HN: Which is the best book on nutrition?

70 points by pheonikai ↗ HN
I wanted to read a book on nutrition which is backed by extensive research and is easily readable by a common person so that he/she can make changes in his/her lifestyle (especially vegetarian). Most of times, they are contradictory views related to diet and food we consume even in the top 10 results of google. I understand that diet is something which is dependent on person to person, but some universal truths like don't mix sour foods with dairy always work. This would help a lot, rather than me reading every other blog on which food combinations do not go well together, or is dairy good, is keto diet healthy, is plant-based diet better than others etc.

40 comments

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pheonikai
It would also help to just have a short booklet which lists down even 20 things which are well established to improve your nutrition like:- Don't eat any form of refined sugar. Drink more water.

This thread is a lot of help - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3282998, however reasoning behind them is not super clear.

tjr
I like Joel Fuhrman's books. Not sure if the science included is as deep as you (a Hacker News reader) would want or not, but I found it adequate. I'm not trying to become a nutritional scientist myself, just understand things better.
coolswan
Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes is a good start. It explains the high-level science of fat regulation well and can deep dive further with references. Gives a good history of bad nutrition advice. There's a bias towards low carb, high fat diet (popular variant is keto).
runjake
I’ve read most of them. There be dragons. There’s an entire landscape of conflicting information backed by conflicting scientific studies. You’ll go mad trying to find an objective answer.

But I’d recommend Food Rules by Michael Pollan. Honestly, you can get the summary in the first paragraph below: “Eat [real, unprocessed] food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

https://michaelpollan.com/reviews/how-to-eat/

I’d also recommend anything by Dr. Rhonda Patrick. I feel like she does not have an agenda and is putting out best-effort evidence.

diehunde
That's the problem. You read something and then a year later someone says the opposite and backed up by some university paper.
latentpot
Most people tend to forget the most important thing in nutrition:

If you are chasing an objective, remember to listen to your body. If you don't, it will be often cause a substantial issue while you course correct.

Also, don't experiment too much, the digestive system isn't bullet proof.

solarengineer
The perfect ten diet - by Dr Michael Aziz I lost about seventeen kilos in ten months following the advice in this book

The Leangains method - by Martin Berkhan

Science and development of muscle hypertrophy - Brad Schoenfeld

HiroshiSan
I'm going to second the leangains method just for introducing me to the thermogenic effect of food.

What I got out of that book was to increase the thermogenic effect of food as much as you can, while doing intermittent fasting to control your behavior.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

solarengineer
I finished re-reading the lean gains method book last week. Like you, I too had the take away of DIT ( Diet Induced Thermogenesis) and of intermittent fasting. I’ve been following these by happy coincidence anyway. In my specific case, though, poor sleep schedules and excessive stress add quickly to my body fat percentage.
audition
I'd start with a movie, not a book. The movie is "Game Changers", directed by James Cameron, and released last month on Netflix and Amazon Video. If you're skeptical about the science behind the movie, read the critique published in Men's Health magazine along with the rebuttal from one of the MD's interviewed in the film.

Next I'd read "The Engine 2 seven-day rescue diet" by Rip Esselstyn. If you a more in-depth treatment, try "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger, MD. If you want scientific journal articles, I recommend the work of Caldwell Esselstyn. MD and Dean Ornish, MD. Dean Ornish's TED talk is also a good reference.

jjeaff
I really liked game changers, but a few things stuck out to me, the first was the visual they used where they compared blood after a meal with meat vs a meal without meat. They put all this emphasis on how cloudy the blood plasma was in the blood taken after a meaty meal. They didn't explain why that was bad and I couldn't find any information elsewhere on why or even if that is a bad thing. Perhaps cloudy plasma is better?

Second, I found it very dishonest that great pains were taken to show that many advocates and studies of Paleo and other meat based diets were merely the product of bias because "big meat" was influencing them financially. I then discovered that James Cameron and his wife own a pea protein company. Which is one of the main ingredients in meat free "meat". Hmm, they wouldn't stand to gain financially from people going vegan, would they?

Normally, I wouldn't think that would matter too much. But they didn't disclose that and sounds a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.

I think science is pretty settled that we should all have a higher ratio of vegetables in our diet. But humans are unquestionably omnivores so I think Game Changers advocating for a totally animal product free diet is worried more about their ideology and possibly pocketbooks than they are the health of those who watch.

raspasov
It is not directed by James Cameron, he's just one of the people who gave money for it (aka producers). And I'm sorry for the strong language, but the movie is absolute garbage as far as science is concerned. One-sided, one-liner "summaries" of studies, very heavy on examples that have nothing to do with science or proper research (aka vegetarian fighter beats meat-eating one, vegetarian strongman sets records, etc etc).

You can watch the debate on Joe Rogan and draw your own conclusions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0zgNY_kqlI . The only thing I can equate the director of that movie is Donald Trump, a total demagogue.

audition
Fun fact - the most popular subject for debates in the original Coursera course "How to Reason and Argue" was diet. We've got a lively debate going here in the comments below - bravo!

I myself am most interested in what medical doctors (MD's) have to say about the question of plant-based diets, with reference to peer reviewed scientific journal articles. On the one hand, we've got high-profile MD's such as Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, Michael Greger, Neal Barnard, Joel Fuhrman, James Lomis and Matthew Lederman arguing for the benefits of a plant-based diet. Can someone provide links to MD's who take an opposing view?

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tcbasche
Skeptical about the science? You mean the lack thereof?

They do a once off 'experiment' with a sample size of 3 and claim that it's conclusive evidence that eating meat "is bad". Yikes.

muzani
I saw Game Changers too. I liked the message, and as someone who built a business on keto, it was an interesting perspective.

But quick research on Google Scholar points out that it's probably hiding some facts. Like vegans may be healthier but get obese too. It helps with diabetes and insulin resistance, but not completely. Gladiators may have been a little fat, as a form of armor.

What's interesting is a quick search turns out that lacto ovo vegetarians do a little better than vegans. So "animal products" might not be entirely bad.

Ewigkeit
One thing that might be a good thing to focus on over all would be nutrient density and secondly bioavailability and its relation to your genetics ie. how well your body can convert/make use of said nutrients. I'm a fan of Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Joel Fuhrman and his book Eat to Live. Deep Nutrition is another good book that covers the things modern diets often miss out on. Cronometer is a good place to check nutrient density of foods. If you've done 23andMe or other genetic testing you may want to run your data through Promethease or just check individual SNPs relevant to vegetarians like DHA/EPA conversion.
marzetti
"How not to die" by Michael Greger .. nearly half the book is the list of references...
gardenfelder
"How not to diet" goes into far more depth; the references are so large, he put them online instead of making the book far larger than the 800 pages it already is. People sometimes read Dr. Greger through a lens which suggests he spends too much time talking "plant-based" when they, those readers, have digestive or other problems with strictly vegan diets. My take is that he does, at the very least, point out what the effects of non-plant-based sources can have. I do not read in his books (I have both, and watch all his videos) specific dietary advice; rather, I simply find in them the kinds of information I seek to make my own choices.
lake99
> especially vegetarian

Given that you have already made that choice, I'd recommend "How Not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger. One of my biggest criticisms of Greger is that he is ignores any study that shows benefits of eating animals, even for specific conditions. People who would like to continue eating animals would find it easy to dismiss Greger for being so one-sided in what kinds of studies he cites. However, if you've already made the choice to prefer vegetarian, Greger's book (and videos) are an easy recommendation.

evolve2k
Here’s Greger interviewed. He literally takes the approach you are wanting. Going all out on just reading tonnes and tonnes of research infact there’s a whole team of them doing it and summarising every few years.

I’m sure there are better podcasts but this is the one my partner got me to listen to where he’s interviewed.

https://pca.st/episode/1b64f09b-02bc-4fa7-92cd-8d1f23f7e6ea

Slimbo
I enjoyed the Obesity Code which focuses on fasting and insulin resistance, would work well with other books on diet composition.
open-source-ux
The best book I've read on this topic is by a British Botanist and TV presenter called James Wong. His book 'How to eat better' lists commonly available fruit and vegetables at your local supermarket and tells you which are the best varieties to pick and why (no surprise that the greener or redder the fruit or vegetable, the more nutrionally rich it is).

You won't find obscure ingredients, or advice on micromanaging your diet (which takes out all the pleasure of eating), but you will find simple advice you can put immediately into practice.

ekr
Perfect Health Diet is the best I've read, but the authors seem to be overemphasizing a bit the effect of their diet plans. Diet alone won't cure all your illnesses completely. The sentiment reflected in the book is the opposite.
deanebarker
"The Economists' Diet: The Surprising Formula for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off"

https://www.amazon.com/Economists-Diet-Surprising-Formula-Ke...

The subtitle is a lie. There's nothing "surprising" here at all. It's complete common sense.

Also:

"Fitness Confidential: Adventures in the Weight-Loss Game"

https://www.amazon.com/FITNESS-CONFIDENTIAL-Adventures-Weigh...

Taubes is good too:

"Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It"

https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/

eb0la
Honorable mention: "The Hacker's diet (how to loose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition" ( https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ )

Written by one Autodesk cofounders. Good read, btw.

Japhy_Ryder
"The End of Dieting", Joel Fuhrman, MD.

"How Not to Die", Michael Greger, MD.

"The Obesity Code", Jason Fung, MD.

chrisa
Multiple mentions of "How not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger which is great and extensively researched - and he just came out with a new book "How not to Diet" which looks like the same quality.

Also, if you like videos better, there is a huge collection by him on https://nutritionfacts.org/ - searchable by condition (like "cholesterol"), or on his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NutritionFactsOrg

Spoiler alert: all of his conclusions boil down to just a few things:

- don't drink calories

- eat less processed food

- eat less meat and dairy

- eat more fiber (beans, greens, fruits, veggies)

jonahbenton
Notable that the recommendations here skew to two diametrically opposed poles:

a) low/no meat/dairy, high fiber, beans, plants

b) high meat/dairy (and fiber), low carbs

This is not a single consistent universe.

My personal experience is my body is usually in a mode where it likes b) but sometimes transitions to wanting time in a).

mkdin
Any book that excludes the microbiome is like seeing monochromatically.

At least include, Follow Your Gut by Rob Knight.

Imo, chasing the Avalon of single books is a flawed strategy, arguably silly.

gmiller123456
Not a book, but a video course, "Nutrition Made Clear" at TheGreatCourses.com. Unlike a lot of the other books I see recommended here, this is not a dieting advice book, it's a course on nutrition. The professor specializes in sports nutrition, so a lot of the anecdotes are along those lines. It's 36 lectures, about 30 min each, plus the guide book.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/nutrition-made-clear...

porterrudolf
It is better to consult a nutritionist. He advises books, and how to introduce a diet.
hackermailman
You can see an actual nutritionist/doctor and get blood tests. It's probably impossible to determine what is good nutrition from any book besides 'dont eat processed food' because of individual needs/genes.
muzani
I've seen a few. It's sort of like hiring programmers when you are not one. I feel like 80% of nutritionists that are 'on the market' are not competent, but I'm not qualified to judge. It's just that they say things that contradict each other, and instead of falling back to some study, they get defensive.
mbrodersen
"How not to Die" by Dr. Michael Greger is all you need.