Better health often starts in the bookstore.
While the Internet is ideal for quick answers to basic health questions, some of the highest-quality health advice is still found in the pages of a book. But the best health books, in my opinion, usually aren’t on the bestseller lists and rarely promise a "cure" for what ails you.
Instead, a good health book will challenge and change your thinking about medicine and empower the reader to take charge of his or her health. While many health books offer tailored advice on a specific health issue — like sex after prostate cancer or exercise after heart attack — I look for books that offer insight and perspective into a variety of health issues and those that give me guidance for everyday living.
Here’s a look at my picks this year for some of the best health books you’ve never heard of.
Whether I’m writing a story about nutrition or trying to convince my 4-year-old to try a new food, I find myself returning to the teachings of this book.
It’s filled with practical advice for getting young kids to eat well (introduce new foods at least 15 times before giving up), and explores the concept of "metabolic programming," noting that foods eaten in early childhood can directly affect cell function and lifelong health. For instance, bone strength is determined in childhood, so whether children get enough calcium can have lasting implications on their risk for osteoporosis.
Gawande is a Harvard-educated surgeon and regular contributor to New Yorker magazine. His book details the daily challenges faced by surgeons and serves as a stark reminder of the fallibility of all who practice medicine.
The book gave me a new appreciation for the art of medicine as well as the science, and affirms the notion that patients should follow their own gut instincts about their health and the doctors they choose to treat them.
The power of this book is its potential to motivate men to start thinking about their health.
Simon, founding editor of the Harvard Men’s Health Watch, notes that men are at higher risk than women for virtually every serious health problem, and women outlive men by more than five years. This book highlights the medical problems about which men should be the most concerned — and informed.
Much of the problem with overeating and obesity stems from the fact that we just don’t think about the food we put into our mouths, and this book offers startling perspective on just how many calories you end up consuming when you go out to eat.
Although Jacobsen leads the Center for Science and Public Interest, a vocal critic of the fast-food industry, the book goes beyond McDonald’s and tackles Chinese eateries and sandwich shops, among others. Among its revelations: A serving of General Tso’s chicken is a 1,600-calorie meal, and a tuna salad sandwich has twice the saturated fat of a roast beef sandwich.
I first came across this book amid the hysteria about SARS, the flulike epidemic that was a significant public health concern in Asia last year but nonetheless posed virtually no risk to people in the U.S.
"Risk" is a useful guide for telling us what we should worry about and what we shouldn’t — and the answers often are far out of whack with public perceptions. The authors have included a helpful "risk meter" that shows the likelihood that an individual will be exposed to a risk along with just how serious the consequences might be.
High-profile health scares such as mad-cow disease or worries about childhood vaccinations are exceedingly low-risk concerns, while other issues, such as car safety and weight gain, are the worries we should spend time on.
Rolls, a Pennsylvania State University researcher, explains how much of the nation’s weight problem has to do with our consumption of "energy-dense" foods, those foods that pack a high number of calories relative to their weight.
The goal is to limit energy-dense foods and choose foods bulked up by fiber and water so they satisfy your hunger with far fewer calories.
This book is packed with useful charts and listings, making the point that simple changes — such as eating beef stew instead of a hot dog, or choosing two waffles instead of a donut, can drastically cut your daily calories.
While a book about cadavers might seem an odd choice for a list of favorite health books, this quirky, funny read offers perspective and insight about life, death and the medical profession.
It tells stories of bodies donated to science; shows how plastic surgeons practice face lifts and nose jobs on severed heads; explains how dead bodies have saved lives by their use in crash tests; and takes you to a funeral service where medical students pay tribute to the cadavers that helped them hone their skills.
Some of the details are grisly, but you close this book with an appreciation of the miracle that the human body really is.
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