Resources for Further Reading

I have the found the resources below to be of great value in learning about the traditional and scientific evidence which supports a healthy diet. I've read all of the books several times over, bought them for loved ones and friends, and I recommend all of these books and websites without reservation.

Book and Movie Resources

• New Atkins for a New You: The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great. by Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Jeff Volek, and Dr. Stephen Phinney. This book should finally torpedo any doubts about the safety of a low carb diet for good health. The authors have a whole chapter on the proven science behind the efficacy of low carb diets in normalizing blood sugar and cardiovascular lipids.

• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage) by Gary Taubes. Mr. Taubes has written a book that should awaken even the most ardent low fat supporter to the truth: low fat diets are useless for losing weight or improving your health. He dismantles the low fat dogma and the current "eat less, exercise more" weight loss dogma with exquisite logic and sound documentation. Read this book, and buy your physician a copy too.

• Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A Price. In the early 1930s, Dr. Price, a dentist, began to investigate the causes of the disease conditions he saw in his patients. For over ten years, he traveled to isolated parts of the world to study the health of people who ate traditional foods instead of processed foods. In every population he studied, the people who ate a traditional whole food diet were free of disease conditions. In contrast, he found that the individuals in these populations who switched to eating the refined foods of the West easily succumbed to disease. This book documents his work. The pictures are especially compelling.

• The Great Cholesterol Con by Anthony Colpo. This book provides excellent and concise information and documentation on the subject of cholesterol. He lays out the case against the Lipid Hypothesis machine, and destroys it bit by bit. Highly recommended if you are being nagged about your cholesterol level.

• The Protein Power Lifeplan by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades. This was the first book I read about the benefits of a low carb diet. It is jammed packed with useful information, and it makes the science supporting the effectiveness of low carb diets understandable and hard to refute. And, it was fun to read! This is one my most favorite books, and I refer to it constantly.

• The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease by Uffe Ravnskov. Dr. Ravnskov presents hard scientific evidence to demolish the diet-heart hypothesis.

• Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck. I loved this book. Ms. Planck is a "real food" enthusiast and explains in great detail why traditional, nutrient dense, delicious foods are the best choices for a healthy diet.

• Lipitor Thief of Memory by Dr. Duane Graveline, MD. Dr. Graveline tells his story and the stories of others who experienced horrible side effects after taking the statin drug Lipitor. This is extremely compelling reading.

• The Statin Damage Crisis by Duane Graveline, MD. Dr. Graveline presents more evidence on what he has learned more recently of the truly dark side of statins. He writes "Now I have found that the ultimate effect of statins on CoQ10 and dolichols is to damage the DNA of the mitochondrial life-force within our cells - mitochondrial mutation masquerading as premature old age."

• Statin Drugs Side Effects and the Misguided War on Cholesterol by Duane Graveline, MD. More from Dr. Graveline on the dangers of cholesterol lowering drugs.

• The Fourfold Path to Healing: Working with the Laws of Nutrition, Therapeutics, Movement and Meditation in the Art of Medicine by Thomas Cowan, M.D. Dr. Cowan had written a book which merges the wisdom of our ancestors with modern medicine and spiritual concepts. I found it an exhilarating read, and devoured every page. His description of the role and design of our heart and circulatory system was fascinating.

• Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine: Improving Health and Longevity with Native Nutrition by Ron Schmid, N.D. This book is packed with useful information about the correlation between food and how it affects your health.

• Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon. Ms. Fallon is the director of the Weston A Price Foundation, which provides information about Dr. Weston Price's work and the benefits of a clean, whole foods diet. Her cookbook is a treasure of advice on how to eat in the way of our ancestors.

• Malignant Medical Myths: Why MEdical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year, and How to Protect Yourself by Joel M Kauffman PhD. A well researched book filled with information you can use to make informed health decisions.

• Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) by John Abramson, M.D. This book will really open your eyes to the influence that pharmaceutical companies have over our health care system today.

• Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels. Another eye opener about how the pharmaceutical companies systematically use powerful advertising to scare people into asking doctors to prescribe their drugs.

• The Rosedale Diet by Ron Rosedale. This is a great book to read to understand the effects of high blood sugar and high insulin levels on your health.

• The Schwarzbein Principle: The Truth About Losing Weight, Being Healthy, and Feeling Younger by Diana Schwarzbein. Dr. Schwarzbein includes some wonderful personal stories in this book, and she talks about how she came to a realization that the diet the American Diabetes Association recommends was making her patients sicker. A great book about food, health and diabetes.

• Life Without Bread by Christian Allan and Wolfgang Lutz, M.D. A well researched, fully footnoted, excellent book for understanding the scientific evidence for the benefits of a low carb diet.

• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Read this if you are interested in knowing where the food you eat comes from.

• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. Mr. Pollan's follow up to the Omnivore's Dilemma.

• The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick. Another great book that exposes the lie that cholesterol consumption causes heart disease.

• Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating by Jeffrey Smith. An eloquent, compelling book about the dangers of genetically modified foods. The first chapter is jaw dropping.

• Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol by Mary Enig, PhD. This has a great section on the dangers of transfats.

• Alzheimer's Solved: Condensed Edition by Henry Lorin, DDS. Dr. Lorin presents a very coherent, very convincing theory about the causes of Alzheimers and how to address them.

• 21 Life Lessons From Livin' La Vida Low-Carb: How The Healthy Low-Carb Lifestyle Changed Everything I Thought I Knew Jimmy Moore is undeniably one of the strongest proponents of the healthy benefits of a low carb diet. After shedding 180 pounds in 2004, he quickly realized that low-carb was not only about losing weight, but about living healthy as well.

• Food, Inc. a movie which examines the costs of putting value and convenience over nutrition and environmental impact. Director Robert Kenner explores the subject from all angles, talking to authors, advocates, farmers, and CEOs, like co-producer Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma), Gary Hirschberg (Stonyfield Farms), and Barbara Kowalcyk, who's been lobbying for more rigorous standards since E. coli claimed the life of her two-year-old son.

• Fresh a movie calling for action. It's about growing fresh food, new ideas about sustainable farming, and becoming an active participant in the movement toward whole, real, clean food.

• Fat Head by Tom Naughton. This movie is a perfect source of information about how bad health advice from the Federal government has impacted America's collective health. And surprise, obesity doesn't happen because McDonald's offers super-sized meals. Get this and watch it. It's hilarious AND informative! Check out the movie blog too!

• Cereal Killer by Alan Watson. Cereal Killer documents the unintended consequences of the low fat diet, and describes how food pyramid schemes and sugary cereals are directly associated with insulin resistance, high blood sugar, and widespread diabetes. You can also visit Mr. Watson's Diet Heart Publishing website.

• Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, MD. Dr. Davis has written a solid research based book on the dangers of modern wheat consumption, and it's also fun to read. He must be on to the truth, because the Grain Foundation is in total snit and attacking him with all kinds of personal insults. :)

Website Resources

• The War on Insulin Dr. Peter Attia's blog on nutrition's relationship with weight loss, optimal health, and peak athletic performance.

• Fresh Healthy Cooking: Visit this website to get lots of delicious, traditional recipes for healthy meals.

• Dollars for Docs: A database published by ProPublica detailing what drug companies are paying doctors to promote their products. List top earners and other interesting information.

• Local Harvest website.
  A source for local organic food.

• Eat Wild website.
  A great source for grass fed animal products.

• The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund This organization is leading the fight to protect our rights to choose the foods we want to consume, and protect the family farmer from harassment at the hands of the federal government.

• THINCS: The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics
  I have great admiration for all the people who contribute to this site. It takes courage to take a stand and stand out from the herd. They have a great links page with many more resources to peruse.

• Mark Sisson's Daily Apple
  Mark Sisson offers some great information here about eating the paleo way, which translates into a clean, whole foods way of eating. Lots of good information on this site. His book, The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy is a must read.

• The Weston A. Price Foundation website
  I also subscribe to the WAP Foundation journal, which, in addition to the latest resources and articles on health and nutrition, includes wonderful stories of people who have healed themselves using Dr. Price's principles.

• Duane Graveline M.D.
  Dr. Graveline is a former astronaut and physician and his voice is raising the red flag on the subject of statin drugs. In my eyes, he is a true hero.

• The Meatrix
  Learn more about factory farming and the problems it causes on this fun, interactive website.

• The Sustainable Table
  You'll find great resources here for switching to sustainable foods and getting involved in the sustainable food movement.

• The Organic Consumers Union
  The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability.

• Food and Water Watch
  Food & Water Watch is dedicated to working on behalf of the public to assert and regain our rights to clean food and water.

• Mercy for Animals video on factory chicken farms.
  Caution: it's graphic and disturbing.

• Center for Medical Consumers
  The Center for Medical Consumers is committed to broadening public awareness about the safety and quality problems that pervade America’s health care system.

• Weight of the Evidence
  This blog by Regina Wilshire discusses the evidence for the efficacy of a lower carb diet in providing optimal nutrition and controlling insulin and blood sugar response.

• Myogenic Theory of Heart Disease
  This an alternative theory of heart related mortality which proposes that the major cause and effect factor in an heart attack is a destructive chemical process; specifically, in times of stress, the heart tissue gets insufficient oxygen and nutrients which leads to destructive lactic acidosis in the tissue. This process is largely unrelated to coronary artery disease. Dr. Tom Cowan has written about this extensively.

• The Cornucopia Institute This organization supports farmers who use the ecological principles and economic wisdom underlying sustainable and organic agriculture. Check out the chart of what companies own the "Organic" labeled products you see in the grocery store.

• Spark of Reason Blog Some very well reasoned, informative and just fun to read blog posts on the Diet-Heart Hypothesis, Weston Price and related subjects.

• Whole Health Source blog series on the evidence (or lack thereof) that saturated fat causes heart disease.

• My Squidoo Lens on the Benefits of Elevated Cholesterol

• Jimmy Moore has put together a A list of physicians who recommend a low carb way of eating.

• The Institute for Responsible Technology Jeffrey Smith and his team are working to ban genetically modified foods from our food supply.

• The companion Seeds of Deception website for the book Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey Smith.

• The Pesticide Action Network. The Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN North America, or PANNA) works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.

• SourceWatch: a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda. A primary purpose of SourceWatch is documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy.

• Institute of Science in Society: The Institute of Science in society is a not for profit organization dedicated to providing critical and accessible scientific information to the public and to promoting social accountability and ecological sustainability in science.

• Sayer Ji's GreenMedInfo website. An excellent compilation on topics in alternative health and medicine. He also has another more personal blog here.

• The Nutrition and Metabolism Society The Nutrition and Metabolism Society is the premier source for cutting edge research on the efficacy of low carbohydrate diets in improving everyone's health. I highly recommend that everyone support them by joining their organization.

• The Healthy Skeptic Blog Chris Kresser researches and writes about lots of different topics here, and challenges the mainstream understanding of many health issues. Lots of good information here.

• Dr K News - Dr. Datis Kharrazian's website Dr. Kharrazian is an expert on thyroid function and has a great resource here. Also, check out his book Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? When My Lab Tests Are Normal: A Revolutionary Breakthrough In Understanding Hashimoto's Disease and Hypothyroidism.

• Controlled Carb Nutrition is committed to providing accurate and concise information regarding the benefits and uses of a controlled carbohydrate lifestyle based on the Atkins Nutritional Approach.

• Slow Burn Fitness Fred Hahn's Slow Burn program is excellent for stabilizing blood sugar, reducing insulin resistance and losing weight.

• US Wellness Meats sells quality grassland meat products, which they will deliver directly to your door. They also offer grassfed poultry, pork and clean, nitrate free specialty meats like franks, liverwurst and braunschwieger.

• Why Low Carb Diets Work: This is a great website from my friend Adam Kosloff. He explains why low carbohydrate diets work, and why they work better than low calorie diets. Adam also has a blog called Caloriegate with some interesting information about why calorie counting is not all it's cracked up to be.

• Healing Our Children: This website has some good information on healthy pregnancy diet plans, safe birthing and home births, and parenting guides. The advice is based on the Weston A Price principles of traditional diets.

• Healthy Cosmetics: Here's an interesting and informative page on choosing healthy cosmetics from the website Healthy Life Toolkit.

Healthy Eating Politics is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Done with Resources, take me Home