Recommended Books for Healthier Living

Gardening and green living

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew makes gardening simple, fun and fruitful!

Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden by Sally Cunningham is not only beautifully illustrated, but full of tips and ideas on how to make your organic garden flourish.

Clean House, Clean Planet: Clean Your House For Pennies A Day, The Safe, Nontoxic Way by Karen Logan contains recipes for chemical-free homemade household cleaners are simple to put make and effective.

Fitness and nutrition

Fitness After 40: How to Stay Strong at Any Age by Vonda Wright, M.D. This book is great for anyone of any age needing specific information about fitness routines and strength exercises.

The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss by Natalia Rose is a great primer for anyone wishing to incorporate more raw foods into their diet. Although I disagree with her theory about what kind of person should be consuming a 100% raw food diet – and the hows and times said diet should be consumed – her philosophy of eating is much more inclusive than most raw food experts. The book also contains an array of delicious recipes.

Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Wayby Carol Alt saved me. This book taught me that you can be an omnivore and still eat an 100% raw food diet.

Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples by John Robbins is a must-read for anyone who cares about living healthy and long. The one thing that annoys me about his theory of eating is that he ignores the fact that peoples who consume saturated fat in its raw form are as heart-healthy as anybody. But everything else is so marvelously laid out in a factual, well-written way that this one glitch in his thinking detracts nothing from the book as a whole.

Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It by Raymond Francis fills in the few blanks that John Robbins leaves in his book.

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon is a health-conscious person’s delight. Personally, I believe she doesn’t emphasize the importance of raw foods enough, and that her emphasis on meat is too strong. But she does pack a lot of information that most diet and nutrition books miss, such as the need for saturated fat int he diet, the correct way to prepare grains, and the benefits of eating lacto-fermented food.

Natural health

Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective? by Neil Miller answers the question in an objective manner filled with undeniable scientific facts.

Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., is a humorous but eye-opening perspective on the dangers of Western medicine.

Natural parenting

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, also by Dr. Mendelsohn, is worth a read to any parents who have a healthy skepticism of modern-day medicine.

Natural Baby and Childcare: Practical Medical Advice and Holistic Wisdom for Raising Healthy Children by Lauren Feder, M.D., teaches everything from breastfeeding basics to under what circumstances you should have your child seen by a pediatrician. Although I wish she would give essential oils as fair a shot as she does homeopathy – in my experience unadulterated oils are more effective – I can only commend a Western-medicine trained pediatrician who doesn’t vaccinate her own children.

Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Ourselves tells the story of one family’s journey into relaxed homeschooling.

Biblical Parenting by Crystal Lutton provides a unique perspective on what the Bible teaches about disciplining children.