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Book Club
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Welcome to the NutriMirror Book Club

By popular request, NutriMirror has created these pages for our members to discover and discuss books that might help us all to better manage our lifetime journeys to health and fitness. We are especially interested in what you have learned from any of these books that could be of practical help for other users of NutriMirror. How do these books relate to the process of being green?

If you haven't read the book and simply want to make comments or ask questions of the reviewers, please do. We want the book club to be a rich, interactive experience. Everyone has something of value that can be taught ... or learned.

We've made it easy for you to purchase any listed title through Amazon.com. When you use our NutriMirror Book Club link to Amazon to buy books (or anything else), NutriMirror gets a small percentage of the purchase price. This support helps us maintain a free website and does not affect the prices you pay at Amazon.

If you know of a book you'd like us to add to the list, use the contact form at the bottom of the page to let us know. Give us the title of the book and the name of the author, and in a few words tell us why you think the book should be listed here.

Happy reading!



The China Study

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 and Thomas M Campbell

Recommended by peacelovezumba
So, I'm about 3 chapters into the book and it's very eye opening and interesting. I had a really hard time putting it down last night. Who else has read it? It's very anti-dieting industry as I've seen so far. Like I said, I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I can see that it's a worth while read for anyone who has an interest in nutrition and health. Oh, it's also some points about the US government, our health care system, and the nutrition research that's been done over the years. I can't wait to go read some more! It really is much more interesting than I make it sound :)

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.



Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's

Written by Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati


Love Trader Joe's? This new independent cookbook features recipes that use ingredients all from Trader Joe's. By combining Trader Joe's unique products with fresh ingredients, Deana and Wona create clever shortcuts to quick and easy gourmet meals that are delicious and exciting. The recipes in this book treat Trader Joe's like a "prep kitchen"--using the great selection of unique sauces, mixtures, and prepped items to make flavorful, natural, homemade food in a snap.
Many of the recipes are vegetarian or can easily be made vegetarian. Ethnic dishes like Saag Paneer Lasagna are scattered throughout, as well as classic comfort foods like Comfy Chicken Pot Pie. Crowd-pleasing recipes include Peanutty Sesame Noodles, Black Bean Soup, Macho Nacho, Seafood Paella, Curried Chicken Pitas, Wilted Spinach with Attitude, Honey I Ate the Chocolate Bread Pudding, and All Mixed Up Margaritas.

People who don't know how to cook or don't want to cook will appreciate the Bachelor Quickies section, featuring frozen and ready-to-heat selections that are matched to create complete and impressive menus.

With full-color photographs for every recipe, wine suggestions, humorous personal stories, and cooking tips sprinkled throughout, this collection is a must for any Trader Joe's fan.

Join author Deana Gunn as she leads NutriMirror members on a discussion of "Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's" beginning April 1, 2010.

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.




The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why

by Jonny Bowden Ph.D. C.N.S.
Recommended and reviewed by simps117

So, my boyfriend and I love going to the bookstore and getting a coffee and reading. It's one of the things we do at least once a week. Well, this weekend, I picked up the book "150 Healthiest Foods on Earth" by Jonny Bowden. Seriously, what an eye-opening book. It's absolutely amazing. I usually don't buy the books I just pick up, but I had to buy this one, as it's such a great reference, and I love his narration. I'm obsessed with food, I love cooking and finding new healthy recipes, and while we all know what "healthy" food is, this book takes it to a new level. For example, I knew wild salmon was different nutritionally from farm raised salmon, but the way it's described, they're basically two completely different foods. Wild Salmon have more than double the amount of Omega-3's than the farm raised ones, and the only reason the farm raised ones have any at all is because it's injected. Also, did you know avocados grown in California have a completely different nutritional makeup than those grown in Florida? Crazy! Anyways, I found this book incredibly interesting and informative and a completely new way to look at food as both fuel and "medicine" for your body. I highly recommend it! simps117

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.


Diet for a Small Planet

By Frances Moore Lappe
Recommended and reviewd by cascadelady


Here again is the extraordinary bestselling book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating-- one that remains a complete guide for eating well in the 90s. Featuring: simple rules for a healthy diet; a streamlined, easy-to-use format; delicious food combinations of protein-rich meals without meat; hundreds of wonderful recipes, and much more.

This 20th anniverary edition offers an all-new, even more fascinating philosophy on changing ourselves--and our world--by changing the way we eat.


Join Cascadelady in a discussion of this book January 18, 2010 through February 28, 2010.

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.







Becoming Vegetarian

By Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis
Recommended by DinoShark84

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.













In Defense of Food

by Michael Pollan
Recommended and reviewed by mrsmeghall

I'm halfway through a fantastic new book by Michael Pollen, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma." The title is "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" and his motto is "Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants."

In the book he's tracking the progression of nutrition science (nutritionism) and what science has done to the food industry, eating, and eaters. It's really fascinating! Much of the first half of the book has been a look at the tenets of nutrition science and their reductionist belief that each nutrient of a food can be isolated and studied in and of itself. The below excerpt does a fairly good job of summing up his argument against this type of thinking:

"We eat foods in combinations and in orders that can affect how they're metabolized. The carbohydrates in a bagel will be absorbed more slowly if the bagel is spread with peanut butter; the fiber, fat and protein in the peanut butter cushion the insulin response, thereby blunting the impact of the carbohydrates. (This is why eating dessert at the end of the meal rather than the beginning is probably a good idea.) Drink coffee with your steak, and your body won't be able to fully absorb the iron in the meat. The olive oil with which I eat tomatoes makes the lycopene they contain more available to my body. Some of those compounds in the sprig of thyme may affect my digestion of the dish I add it to, helping to break down one compound of stimulate production of an enzyme needed to detoxify another. We have barely begun to understand the relationships among foods in a cuisine."

He also has a very NM sentiment about an eater's approach to nutrients vs. food:

"The good news is that, to the carrot eater, it doesn't matter. That's the great thing about eating foods as compared with nutrients: You don't need to fathom a carrot's complexity in order to reap its benefits."

Finally, what I enjoy the most about this book so far is the validation is gives me in regards to my decision to eat the NM way. Pollen argues that isolating important parts of our diet and either increasing them or reducing them drastically (Atkins, South Beach, Low-Fat, etc.) is doing us no good. All things in balance, people!

Click here for details and to discuss this book with NutriMirror members.






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