Books that include diet and lifestyle changes to address specific health conditions.
Broad
Inflammation
The Inflammation Free Diet Plan by Monica Reinagel with Consulting Editor Julius Torelli, M.D. Explanation of the Inflammation Factor (IF) system for selecting what to eat. Includes recipes and tables of IT ratings for a wide array of food items. (More IF ratings are available on www.nutritiondata.com.)
Specific
Acid Reflux / GERD
The Acid Reflux Solution by Jorge E. Rodriguez, MD with Susan Wyler, MPH, RD. Dr. Rodriguez has personally applied the Acid Reflux Solution (a combination of changing how, what, and when you eat along with exercise) to address the causes as well as symptoms of chronic acid reflux with no or very little medication. Though most of the book is devoted to recipes, the insights are in the first five chapters (Part I) and the Appendix – which provide context, the Acid Reflux Solution, and medical solutions (for the exceptional cases).
Arthritis
Seamus Mullen’s Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better by Seamus Mullen. “After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, Manhattan restaurateur Mullen modified his diet to improve his well-being. His debut cookbook, which pairs traditional Spanish cuisine with rustic farm-to-table fare, highlights 18 ingredients (“Hero Foods”) that help him manage his symptoms. Mullen’s personal success lends clout to this study in holistic, inclusive eating.”
Cancer
Anticancer – A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD. The key chapters address diet, mental state, and exercise (foods, mind, and body). No recipes.
Diabetes
Conquering Diabetes by Anne Peters, MD. While there are chapters focused on making lifestyle changes to stave off or deal with diabetes, the ultimate message of this book is “rely on [Western] medications” (i.e. take drugs). The short vignettes offer more useful tips than the surrounding text. For example, the chapter titled “Creating Healthy Habits” gives a lot of generic high-level advice such as “read labels” and “exercise more” but the vignette in the voice of Peters’s husband offers the advice “substitute bad-for-you with good-for-you foods that you like” and the concrete example of substituting beer for wine. Peters’s menu advice is lacking; for example she suggests brown rice (presumably replacing white rice or pasta) when oat groats are a much tastier and more nutritious direct substitute and a quinoa and lentil mix is a somewhat less direct but far superior replacement. I also object to her repeated advice to “not leave a clean plate”; when eating out I leave a clean plate – but that’s because I bring containers for the leftovers and I consciously decide upfront how much I’ll eat in the restaurant. If chatting with your dining companions causes you to lose track of how much you’ve eaten, partition your plate before eating. At home, serve a moderate amount – you can always get seconds if you are really still hungry.
Heart Disease
Everyday Cooking with Dr. Dean Ornish by Dean Ornish, M.D. Cooking and meal planning for a very low fat diet to reverse heart disease and other inflammatory conditions. Companion to The Spectrum.
The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health by Dean Ornish, M.D. Whys and wherefores of Ornish’s very low fat diet.
Sleep Disorders
Say Good Night to Insomnia by Gregg D. Jacobs, Ph.D., 2009 edition. Background on the causes of insomnia and the inappropriate reliance on medications to address chronic insomnia followed by a six-week program of environmental and behavioral modifications (including eliciting a relaxation response through techniques such as biofeedback) to reduce or completely eliminate reliance on medications while in parallel getting more restful sleep.