As great as the internet can be, sitting down with an actual, physical book has its merits. It's cozier. It reduces distractions. It's more portable. You can give a book as a present (somehow a pdf just isn't quite the same). But which one to choose?
Instead of 5 or 10 books that might not be up your particular alley, here's a giant list books on Paleo and related nutritional topics, organized by category. Each one comes with links to reviews (both positive and negative!) that highlight something useful about the book, and a little bit of basic information to help you decide if it sounds good to you.
These aren't necessarily books that you'll completely agree with, or even that you should. They're books that you may find interesting and worthwhile to read. A book can be interesting and worthwhile even if you disagree with part or all of it. It's also OK to call out sloppy science, poor fact-checking, or just plain dumb arguments even if they happen to be coming from someone on your side.
Intro to Paleo-type books
These are books that give a broad overview of what Paleo (or a very closely related diet, like Primal) is. Some of them are higher-carb; some are lower-carb, but all of them fall roughly under the Paleo umbrella. If you want to buy someone a book about Paleo to start them off, one of these books will probably be it. Most people probably don't need to read more than one or two.
Books are listed in alphabetical order.
Eat the Yolks, by Liz Wolfe
Main argument: low-fat nutrition is bogus and we need to go back to whole foods (including but not limited to the titular yolks).
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.16 with 704 ratings)
- Positive: a brief overview of what you’ll get in the book, from Breaking Muscle
- Negative: critical review on Amazon, mostly from people who didn't appreciate the familiarity of the tone, or who didn't like how hard it was to look up references for the claims in the book.
Diet recommendations: Very whole foods-centric: think Michael Pollan, if Michael Pollan were Paleo.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: very casual tone that not everyone responds to.
History/culture or pure science? A little bit of both.
Meal plans and recipes? No.
It Starts With Food, by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig
Main argument: A lot of our modern health problems start with food. We need to eat foods that support healthy hormonal and psychological responses, gut health, and immune health.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.06 with 12,320 ratings)
- Positive: a complementary review from Chris Kresser, another complementary review from Stefani Ruper at Paleo for Women, and yet another positive review from J. Stanton at gnolls.org
- Negative: An interesting, well-reasoned critique questioning the scientific claims in the book (Nutrition as I Know It)
Diet recommendations: start with an ultra-strict version of Paleo for 30 days, and then reintroduce foods one at a time to see what you can tolerate.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: tough-love/motivational.
History/culture or pure science? Almost all science, with some motivational psychology.
Meal plans and recipes? Yes.
The Paleo Cure (previously Your Personal Paleo Code), by Chris Kresser
Main argument: it’s important to find a version of Paleo that works for you specifically, regardless of what the “rules” are.
Here's an excerpt published in Time magazine.
Reviews:
Diet recommendations: start with a basic moderate-carb Paleo diet, and personalize it from there to meet your specific needs.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: approachable and readable, but not super informal.
History/culture or pure science? Mostly science.
Meal plans and recipes? Yes.
The Paleo Diet, by Loren Cordain
Main argument: for better health, we should eat like our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Reviews:
Diet recommendations: high-protein, moderate-carb, moderate-fat Paleo with a lower-fat angle compared to some other Paleo books. This book has two editions and the nutritional recommendations change from the first to the second. The first addition is lower in fat, negative about saturated fat, and accepting of canola oil. The second, updated edition, is much closer to the Paleo mainstream.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: authoritative, but not dry.
History/culture or pure science? Some evolutionary history, but mostly science.
Meal plans and recipes? Example menus, but no recipes.
The Paleo Manifesto, by John Durant
Main argument: we can improve our lives by getting back to our evolutionary roots.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.01 with 872 ratings)
- Positive: J. Stanton at gnolls.org liked it; so did Chris Kresser. Here's some more praise from Michael D. Eades and another glowing review from The Paleo Mom
- Negative: This negative review on Amazon is pretty caustic but raises some interesting points (you do have to look past the tone a little).
Diet recommendations: generally high-fat, dairy-free Paleo, although the book isn't focused so much on specific diet recommendations.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: accessible, but not extremely informal.
History/culture or pure science? A little bit of both, with a big emphasis on the evolutionary backstory of Paleo.
Meal plans and recipes? No.
The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf
Main argument: low-carb Paleo and a Paleo approach to sleep, stress, and exercise have helped a lot of people; you should try it, too.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (3.96 with 6,818 ratings)
- Positive: a positive review from Modern Paleo, and more compliments from Balanced Bites
- Negative: a surprisingly critical (but well-thought-out!) review from the WAPF.
Diet recommendations: very low-carb Paleo. Since writing the book, Robb Wolf has eased up on carb restriction, but the book is very centered on it.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: very casual tone that not everyone responds to. Some people find it obnoxious; other people love it.
History/culture or pure science? Mostly science.
Meal plans and recipes? Yes.
Perfect Health Diet, by Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet
Main argument: to achieve optimal health, we should find the ideal range for each nutrient.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.19 with 1,037 ratings)
- Positive: Chris Masterjohn with review that praises the book overall but has some questions about macronutrient ratios and particular micronutrients. J. Stanton at gnolls.org has a review full of praise, and Chris Kresser also likes it.
- Negative: Critical reviews on Amazon
Diet recommendations: moderate-carb Paleo with a focus on highly nutritious foods and nutrient-density.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: not chatty, but approachable. This book would be good for people who find the informal tone of other intro books cutesy and irritating.
History/culture or pure science? Almost all science.
Meal plans and recipes? Very basic meal plan, but no recipes.
Practical Paleo, by Diane Sanfilippo
Main argument: you should eat Paleo, and here's how.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.17 with 5,296 ratings)
- Positive: praise from Breaking Muscle
- Negative: critical reviews on Amazon (mostly focused on recipes as hard-to-cook or time-consuming)
Diet recommendations: basic moderate-carb Paleo approach; no dairy.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: chatty.
History/culture or pure science? Science (low on the evolutionary backstory)
Meal plans and recipes? Yes, including meal plans for various different conditions.
The Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson
Main argument: to regain our health, we need to learn from the diet and lifestyle habits of our pre-agricultural ancestors. The book covers diet, exercise, and other lifestyle factors like sleep and stress.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.06 with 6,176 ratings)
- Positive: Tim Boyd for the Weston A. Price Foundation praises the book
- Negative: Stephan Guyenet at Whole Health Source is predictably (but intelligently!) critical about the carbohydrate restriction in the book
- Mixed: Anthony Dream Johnson at The Dream Lounge has an interesting review that praises the diet recommendations but disagrees with the exercise recommendations, another mostly-complementary review with some intelligent critique.
Diet recommendations: mostly low-carb/high-fat Paleo; no grains or legumes; dairy as a less-bad option. Exercise recommendations focus on walking, lifting, and sprinting, not cardio.
Ease of reading: easy.
Tone: very casual; some people might find it too jokey.
History/culture or pure science? mix of both.
Meal plans and recipes? yes.
Primal Body, Primal Mind, by Nora Gedgaudas
Main argument: evolutionary health requires a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.02 with 1,436 ratings)
- Positive: a positive review from the Weston A. Price Foundation
- Negative: negative reviews on Amazon mostly criticize it for being disorganized and hard to follow, or taking a scattershot approach instead of laying out one clear argument.
Diet recommendations: low-carb/ketogenic Paleo.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: accessible but not extremely causal.
History/culture or pure science? Mostly science, with some evolutionary history
Meal plans and recipes? No.
Other Books on Diet
These books are either about specific aspects of Paleo (e.g. the autoimmune protocol) or about particular aspects of diet but not Paleo per se (e.g. vindication of dietary fat).
Books are listed in alphabetical order.
Deep Nutrition, by Cate Shanahan
Main argument: The food you eat affects your gene expression, which affects your health. For good health, we need to eat the traditional foods that support healthy gene expression.
Reviews:
- Goodreads(4.26 with 1,002 ratings)
- Positive: A detailed positive review from The Nutrition Debate
- Negative: a thoughtful critical review from the Weston A. Price Foundation
- Mixed: a review from Melissa McEwan pointing out where she agrees and disagrees with the book.
Diet recommendations: Eat the 4 "pillars of health:" meat on the bone (for cartilage and other important proteins), organ meats, raw foods, and fermented vegetables.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: slightly more literary and sometimes almost lyrical.
History/culture or pure science? Mostly science with some nutrition history
Meal plans and recipes? No.
Good Calories, Bad Calories, by Gary Taubes
Main argument: Dietary fat doesn’t cause heart disease; excess carbohydrates cause modern chronic disease, especially obesity.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.16 with 6,046 ratings)
- Positive: Katharine Czapp for the Weston A. Price Foundation and another complimentary review from Summer Tomato.
- Negative: G. A. Bray (published in Obesity Reviews) gives a very respectful and well-researched critical review. A shorter but also interesting critical review from The New York Times
- Mixed: here's another ongoing (but interesting) detailed review at The Science of Nutrition
Diet recommendations: low-carb, but not Paleo specifically.
Ease of reading: medium (it's also really long!)
Tone: accessible but not super casual.
History/culture or pure science? Mostly science.
Meal plans and recipes? No.
The Paleo Approach, by Sarah Ballantyne
Main argument: following the autoimmune protocol described in the book will help you heal from autoimmune disorders.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.36 with 929 ratings) –
- Positive: A detailed review from Phoenix Helix
- Negative: An honest and frustrated review pointing out that the book itself might be too much for the people who need it most (namely, very sick people with autoimmune diseases)
- Mixed: a review from Breaking Muscle that gives full marks for everything but the lack of recipes
Diet recommendations: Recommends her autoimmune protocol (Paleo without eggs, dairy, nightshades, nuts, or seeds) for people with autoimmune disorders.
Ease of reading: medium-hard. It's very science-heavy.
Tone: accessible, but not extremely informal.
History/culture or pure science? Almost entirely science.
Meal plans and recipes? No, although in defense of the book, there's an accompanying cookbook.
The Wahls Protocol, by Terry Wahls and Eve Adamson
Main argument: following the diet described in the book will help you heal from autoimmune disorders.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.26 with 712 ratings)
- Positive: a detailed review from The Paleo Mom and another detailed and positive review from The Paleo Drummer. This review from Phoenix Helix has a nice breakdown of what the book actually contains.
- Negative: a critical review on Amazon praising the personal story of the book, but questioning the support for some of the scientific claims.
Diet recommendations: Outlines 3 levels of her diet protocol for people with autoimmune disorders. A key element of the diet is 9 cups of vegetables every day, plus elimination of gluten, dairy, and eggs.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: accessible, but not extremely informal.
History/culture or pure science? Almost entirely science.
Meal plans and recipes? Meal plans, but no recipes.
Wheat Belly, by William Davis
Main argument: Modern wheat and processed carbohydrates in general cause most of our modern health problems.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (3.72 with 21,526 ratings)
- Positive: A positive review from Dr. Eades
- Negative: This is a fascinating, if biased review analyzing the scientific claims in the book, and before you dismiss it, consider what it has to say. Here’s a critique of the science from Melissa McEwan and another from Dr. Emily Deans
- Mixed: Summer Tomato points out that the book is very fuzzy about the distinction between wheat and carbohydrates, and this review from Dr. Yoni Freedhoff also points out that the actual diet is more Atkins-with-a-scare-story than wheat-elimination. Both are cautiously positive about the diet recommendations, but not for the reasons the author wants them to be.
Diet recommendations: Gluten-free low-carb diet, with very low-carb/keto for diabetics.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: pretty informal, with some idiosyncratic names that might make some people cringe.
History/culture or pure science? A mix of both (history of wheat modification + science about wheat and carbohydrates in general)
Meal plans and recipes? Some recipes.
Food History and Politics
Most of these books touch on nutrition at least a little bit, but they're really focused on politics, history, and culture.
Books are listed in alphabetical order.
The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz
Main argument: saturated fat and fat in general have been unfairly demonized and are actually important to good health.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.22 with 1,544 ratings)
- Positive: Praise from Dr. Michael Eades
- Negative: An intelligent and well-researched critical review from The Science of Nutrition
Diet recommendations: Low-carb/high-fat. If you've read Good Calories, Bad Calories (or anything else by Gary Taubes), this book will be very familiar.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: accessible but not overly familiar.
History/culture or pure science? A mix of both (it's the history of one particular strain of bad science).
Meal plans and recipes? No.
Death by Food Pyramid, by Denise Minger
Main argument: the Food Pyramid was based on bad science and industry lobbying to start with, and it's not doing our health any favors.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (4.18 with 876 ratings)
- Positive: a very detailed glowing review from The Paleo Mom and another detailed review from Dr. Eades
- Negative: here is a detailed and thoughtful critical review.
Diet recommendations: none in particular, other than "not the food pyramid."
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: casual.
History/culture or pure science? A little of both: she's explaining the history of the science behind the Food Pyramid, so it's all mixed together.
Meal plans and recipes? No.
Salt Sugar Fat, by Michael Moss
Main argument: food corporations deliberately design foods to overwhelm our ability to tell when we're full and make us crave more even when we don't need it.
Reviews
- Goodreads (3.96 with 16,948 ratings)
- Positive: Weighty Matters, the New York Times, and even more details from The Boston Globe.
- Negative: This review on Amazon criticizes the book for accepting too much Dietary Guidelines-style dogma about saturated fat, and for being too wordy in general.
Diet recommendations: avoid processed food.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: accessible but not really informal.
History/culture or pure science? A little of both: there's a lot of history of food processing and development, but also some neurological/behavioral science about the brain.
Meal plans and recipes? No.
The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith
Main argument: agriculture (not just factory farms or industrial monoculture, but agriculture) is unsustainable.
Reviews:
- Goodreads (3.74 with 1,623 ratings).
- Positive: Dr. Eades has a glowing report, as does Mark Sisson, and the WAPF. Here’s a summary from Zoe Harcombe.
- Negative: The Vegan RD,
- Mixed: Here’s an interesting review that avoids both extremes of "love it" and "hate it."
Diet recommendations: None in particular, other than not-vegetarian.
Ease of reading: medium.
Tone: slightly literary and less down-to-earth than some other books about nutrition.
History/culture or pure science? A mix of both (history/culture of veganism and vegetarianism, plus science about meat and health)
Meal plans and recipes? No.
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