A book I mentioned in my previous post about melatonin,  “Stopping the Clock” by Klatz and Goldman, provides a list of supplements recommended by the top anti-aging scientists in the world. Another book I loved is “Lights Out,” bu TS Wiley which extensively references hundreds of studies that correlate every disease to the advent of electricity and lights which really is a twentieth century phenomena that wasnt even completely adopted across the US until after the depression in the thirties. If you follow the premise of that book every modern disease is the result of unrelenting light vs natural circadium rhythms. And the book was written before ipads and our now total dependence on light based products late into the night.

If you are too lazy to read and or take care of yourself you can spend $25,000 to see celebrity nutritionist Oz Garcia or read his books like “The Healthy High Tech Body” or “Redesigning 50,” I had the opportunity to observe him devouring five feet of literature in a single weekend. I even asked him random questions about what he had read. Clearly, he possesses a remarkable ability to assimilate health-related literature from the best research in the world. By the way, his current favorite is cryotherapy, an experience I recently shared with him.

Before authoring his own book, Garcia used to recommend “Your Body Knows Best.” In a nutshell, the book recounts the author’s journey multiple times from vegetarianism back to a non-vegetarian diet. Each time she attempted vegetarianism, she experienced illness, including significant hair loss, which explains the book’s title. By the way, if you believe in biochemical individuality, you might appreciate Dr. Dean Adamo’s books on blood types. You don’t have to buy and read all of them, but Adamo suggests different foods for different body types. In two sentences, here’s the gist: Human beings have been around for millions of years, while agriculture has only existed for the past 10,000 years. Adamo postulates that if you carry the ancient blood type O, you may have low tolerance for grains (for more information, refer to the book “Against the Grain,” but I digress). Furthermore, he suggests that blood types A or B might be more tolerant of grains. A quick Google search for “diet for blood type A” yields immediate results. At the very least, pay attention to your blood type and observe how certain foods agree or disagree with you.

Regarding the book “Against the Grain,” the title is self-explanatory.  In the 80s, I personally saw Dr. Atkins and was on his diet. I consumed more eggs and meat in a month than I had in the previous ten years, and my cholesterol levels dropped (I was also taking fish oil). As another anecdote, my mother’s cholesterol remained consistently high at 300 throughout her life because she refused to see doctors and never took cholesterol-lowering medication. I’m not necessarily advocating anything here, but it’s worth noting that she lived to be 95 and was playing tennis until her early 80s. Although there is an overwhelming amount of conflicting information, the real disagreement centers around vegetarianism versus eating meat or fish. In my opinion, your body knows best. Consider exploring your blood type and pay attention to how certain foods make you feel. In fact, when I attended the Integrated School of Nutrition, they recommended a breakfast experiment for clients. Each day, try a different breakfast option like oatmeal, eggs, a shake, cold cereal, or even a muffin, and observe how you feel. Something as simple as this can help you understand how quickly your body processes simple carbohydrates, making you hungry again in a few hours, compared to eggs, which provide protein and a complete range of amino acids. However, keep in mind that everyone’s body is unique.

By the way, the books shown in the picture are not ones I’m recommending. I simply felt like throwing in a photo :).