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Travel Insurance » Blog » Health » Top 5 Health Books in 2020 According to Goodreads

Top 5 Health Books in 2020 According to Goodreads

Written by: Russell Wallace | Travel Insurance Expert
Last updated: 25 March 2021 | Created: 6 April 2020
Top 5 Health Books According to Goodreads

As we get older, our health becomes increasingly more important to us.

Using Goodreads’ list of over 57,000 health books, we’re sharing a list of the top 5 most popular health books in 2020. Enjoy!

1. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

In Defence of Food

In Defense of Food shows us how to change our eating habits, one meal at a time.

Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The author acknowledges that for some people, eating healthy has become more difficult. Therefore, he goes into detail but using layman terms to help us all learn more.

He talks about how our ancestors evolved to eat. What makes eating a culturally significant part of our lives, and why it’s not just all about stuffing calories into our faces.

Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. [1]

2. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

What should we have for dinner? For omnivore’s like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life.

Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, we’re suffering from what can only be described as a global eating disorder.

The omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. [2]

3. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell

The China Study

More than thirty years ago, nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell and his team at Cornell, in partnership with groups in China and England, embarked upon the China Study. The most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease.

What they found when combined with findings in Colin’s laboratory, opened their eyes to the dangers of a diet high in animal protein and the unparalleled health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet.

In 2005, Colin and his son Tom, now a physician, shared those findings with the world in The China Study, hailed as one of the most important books about diet and health ever written. [3]

4. How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger

How Not to Die

From the physician behind the wildly popular website NutritionFacts.org, How Not to Die reveals the groundbreaking scientific evidence behind the only diet that can prevent and reverse many of the causes of disease-related death.

The vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle.

In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org examines the fifteen top causes of premature death – heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, and more – and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives. [4]

5. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Why We Sleep

This book is the first sleep book by a leading scientific expert. Professor Matthew Walker is the Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab. He reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better.

Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity.

Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don’t sleep. [5]

 

[1] Source: Goodreads – In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

[2] Source: Goodreads – The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

[3] Source: Goodreads – The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health

[4] Source: Goodreads – How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

[5] Source: Goodreads – Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams