Whether you’re considering a plant-based diet for your health, the environment, the animals, or all three, you may be feeling confused or overwhelmed by all the conflicting information you discover.
Here are our favourite books about plant-based nutrition to set the record straight and support you during your transition. They are also pretty good to lend to a concerned family member or friend.
- How Not to Die by Dr Michael Greger
- The Plant Power Doctor by Dr Gemma Newman
- Proteinaholic by Dr Garth Davis
- The China Study by T. Colin Campbell & Thomas M. Campbell
- Undo It! by Dean Ornish, M.D. & Anne Ornish
- Fiber Fueled by Will Bulsiewicz, M.D. MSCI
- Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
- The Vegan Starter Kit by Dr Neal Barnard
How Not to Die
“The best way to minimize your exposure to industrial toxins may be to eat as low as possible on the food chain, a plant-based diet.”
Endorsed by the Dalai Lama, How Not to Die by Dr Michael Greger and writer Gene Stone works through the leading causes of premature death in America and sets out the authors’ argument for the role nutrition and lifestyle play in each.
Greger organises his advice around the research he cites, explaining which foods he recommends and which lifestyle changes he argues for. The book includes Dr Greger's Daily Dozen, a checklist of twelve foods he suggests eating every day.
Each chapter takes one condition at a time and works through the evidence the authors have gathered on it, which makes the book easy to dip into rather than read cover to cover.
Even if none of that applies to you, it is a readable introduction to nutrition research and how to interpret it. A good read whether or not you plan to follow a plant-based diet strictly.
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The Plant Power Doctor
“Just imagine if what you put on your plate could not only improve your health right now but also make you healthier in the future... how to make enjoyable, sustainable choices to futureproof your body and mind.”
In The Plant Power Doctor, British GP Dr Gemma Newman offers an accessible, actionable plan to help you make changes to your diet and lifestyle.
Newman writes that plant-powered eating has had a transformative effect on her, her family and her patients. In her first book she shares what she has learned from over 17 years of practice, combining the medical literature with straightforward eating advice.
She describes her husband switching to a plant-based diet after a running injury, and her own decision to look into the research behind it. Her family has a history of heart trouble, and she writes about the changes she saw in her own blood results afterwards.
Newman writes about working with patients on diet as part of their care, across a range of long-term conditions, and what she has seen in her own practice.
The book includes over 60 meal ideas and meal plans to fill in, so it works as a practical starting point as well as a read.
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Proteinaholic
Subtitled “How our obsession with meat is killing us and what we can do about it”, Dr Garth Davis and author Howard Jacobson’s book takes on the protein myths they argue have been perpetuated by doctors, weight loss experts and the media.
Among the ideas the book sets out to challenge:
- That protein is the key to weight loss.
- That animal protein is the healthiest food we can eat.
- That carbs are the enemy. The authors point out they are a staple in the diets of some of the longest-living populations in the world.
Davis draws on published research to make his case, and distils it into a plant-based approach that combines human biology, the diets of the world’s longest-lived populations, and an insider’s view of how health stories get reported.
The book includes a two-week meal plan built around whole fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and grains, alongside guidance on how to read nutrition research for yourself.
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The China Study
“It’s never too late to start eating well.”
In the early 1980s, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, working with researchers at Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, completed one of the most comprehensive nutritional studies ever undertaken, known as the China Project.
Their own description of the study: “The Chinese population tended to live in the same area all their lives and to consume the same diets unique to each region. Their diets (low in fat and high in dietary fibre and plant material) also were in stark contrast to the rich diets of the Western countries. The truly plant-based nature of the rural Chinese diet gave researchers a chance to compare plant-based diets with animal-based diets.”
The book, written by that biochemist, T. Colin Campbell, and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II, sets out what they concluded from the data and why they argue diet deserves more weight than it usually gets.
It is dense with detail, but it is also a genuinely interesting read on how nutrition research gets done and how findings make their way into public advice.
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Undo It!
Dean Ornish, M.D., and his wife Anne set out a four-part lifestyle programme and the reasoning behind it. Their argument is that the same set of changes underpins a lot of different advice, so you only really have to learn one approach.
The four parts are:
- Eating a whole-food, plant-based diet naturally low in fat and sugar and high in flavour
- Moving more, including moderate exercise such as walking
- Stressing less, through meditation and gentle yoga practices
- Loving more, and how connection and intimacy fit into wellbeing
With seventy recipes, easy-to-follow meal plans, tips for stocking your kitchen and eating out, recommended exercises, stress-reduction advice and patient stories, it is one of the more practical books on this list.
Rated "#1 for Heart Health" by U.S. News & World Report every year from 2011 to 2017.
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Fiber Fueled
“We’ve made health too complicated with our extensive lists of foods to avoid, complex percentages of fats-to-protein-to-carb ratios, elimination diets, calorie counting, even weighing our food... It just doesn’t need to be this complicated. Diversity of plants. That’s it.”
Will Bulsiewicz, M.D. MSCI (a.k.a. Dr B) is a board-certified gastroenterologist and gut health specialist. Fiber Fueled is his case for one simple rule, eat a wide diversity of plants, and the gut microbiome research he builds it on.
Written for people who stay up late Googling health questions and turn up more questions than answers, the book covers:
- A plant-based approach to gut health, explained from first principles
- Where the popular arguments about gluten, lectins, low carb and high carb actually stand
- How to reintroduce foods you have been avoiding
- Over 600 references, so you can follow the trail yourself
- Over 70 plant-based recipes and detailed shopping lists
The 28-day programme, with menus and recipes, gives you somewhere concrete to start.
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Super Immunity
Joel Fuhrman, M.D. is a board-certified family physician, seven-time New York Times best-selling author and a well-known voice on nutrition. Super Immunity is his nutritional plan and the argument behind it.
Fuhrman's starting question is why some people seem to get ill more often than others, and how much of that comes down to what they eat. The book includes:
- The big picture, covering how he thinks about healthy eating
- A two-week meal plan, with breakfast, lunch and dinner mapped out
- 85 plant-based recipes
Whether you’re going fully plant-based or just want a structured nutritional plan to work from, Super Immunity is worth a look.
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The Vegan Starter Kit
“Going vegan is easy. It’s easier than going low-carb or gluten-free. And it’s much easier than quitting smoking or breaking other habits. Because you can eat as much as you want.”
If you’ve decided to change how you eat, you may be overwhelmed by the questions: How do I plan a vegan meal? Is protein an issue? How do I make it work if I don't cook? What are the best choices at restaurants?
In The Vegan Starter Kit, Dr Neal Barnard answers those questions. The book covers complete nutrition, quick-reference charts, tips for adapting recipes, and examples of quick and easy meals.
It also covers eating well in childhood, pregnancy and other stages of life, plus a set of basic meals, holiday menus and snacks.
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Supplements are a useful way to cover the nutrients a plant-based diet tends to run short on. If you’re looking to start, have a look at Omvits, a 100% plant-based, ocean-friendly and sustainable vitamin and mineral producer.
