I mentioned a few times that there have been many great books written on the subjects we covered. I’m going to back up those claims in this chapter, which is dedicated to the books and websites that I used to gather information and inspiration for this book. I’ll divide it into sections organized by topic.
Ketosis
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable
by Stephen Phinney, MD, and Jeff Volek, RD, PhD
Written by a medical doctor and a dietitian with a PhD in kinesiology (the study of the mechanics of body movement), this book is probably the best on the market for someone interested in understanding the physiological rationale behind the ketogenic diet. It covers mechanisms and provides a large body of evidence in support of carbohydrate restriction. In fact, Drs. Volek and Phinney have published more than 200 research papers on ketosis and its practical applications.
The Ketogenic Diet: The Scientifically Proven Approach to Fast, Healthy Weight Loss
by Kristen Mancinelli, MS, RD
If you are looking for a ketogenic book geared toward weight loss, this is it. Mancinelli gives a great step-by-step explanation for how to get into ketosis and use it as a weight-loss tool. She writes in a very easy-to-understand, informative manner that makes approaching what can be an intimidating diet much less daunting. She even throws in some really tasty recipes.
Good Calories, Bad Calories: : Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
by Gary Taubes
Taubes was a science journalist most of his career before he became particularly obsessed with the poor quality of nutrition science. This book is an exhaustively researched exploration of the science and politics behind our nation’s collective philosophy about healthy eating. It is a very convincing indictment of the “fat is bad” dogma we have been force fed for the past 40 years.
This is the personal blog of Peter Attia, MD. I do not know how else to describe him other than brilliant and relentlessly obsessed with pushing the limits of human understanding and performance. He is an endless self-experimenter and writes very long, very detailed, and very informative blog posts about many topics pertinent to the fat debate and to human nutrition. His series on cholesterol is particularly interesting.
Mostly full of fantastic recipes, this website can also be a good place to find a thriving community of keto fans, many of whom are teeming with success stories.
Reddit is a very popular aggregation website where almost all of the content is user submitted and, for the most part, user regulated. It has thousands of “subreddits,” which are niche communities on the site. Just add /r/whatever after www.reddit.com and you’ll be taken to the front page of that subreddit. Below are all of the various ketogenic subreddits worth exploring.
/r/keto
General keto stuff, mostly weight-loss related.
/r/ketogains
This one is geared toward building muscle.
/r/ketosceince
Just like it sounds! Primary research studies abound.
/r/ketorecipies
Again, self explanatory.
/r/vegetarianketo
Worth a look, but not as active as the others.
/r/xxketo
Specifically for women.
Mediterranean Resources
This website provides an amazing wealth of information about traditional diets and lifestyles. Oldways is a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization promoting, well, the old ways. Their website holds study-derived information relating to the Mediterranean diet, as well as a multitude of recipes.
The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook: A Delicious Alternative for Lifelong Health
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins
In this book, Jenkins means “diet” in the basic sense of the word: what we eat, what we should eat, and what we used to eat, at least if you lived along the shores of the Mediterranean. Spanning the Mediterranean from Spain to France, Italy, and Greece, with side trips to Lebanon, Cyprus, and North Africa, this book offers 92 mouthwatering new dishes plus the latest information about the nutritional benefits of one of the world’s healthiest cuisines.
Jerusalem: A Cookbook
by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
Indispensable for the burgeoning Mediterranean cook, this stunning cookbook offers 120 recipes from the unique cross-cultural perspective of the authors, from inventive vegetable dishes to sweet, rich desserts.
A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs, with More than 500 Recipes
by Clifford A. Wright
This is a beautiful beast of a book that can only be described as a masterwork. Wright covers over one thousand years of history and paints a cohesive picture of how the Mediterranean region has developed in terms of geography, culture, and culinary tradition. The book includes maps of both the contemporary and historical Mediterranean regions, a detailed explanation of the foods one would find in a Mediterranean pantry, and over 500 recipes. It even has a phonetic pronunciation key.
Diet-Tracking Applications
It is possible to keep a running tally of your net carbohydrate intake in your head, but in this day and age there is really no reason to do that. The easiest way to track your carbohydrate intake is through the use of a smartphone application. There are many of them on the market that function in very similar ways. Most of them draw their core data from the same USDA database that I have been referencing, but many also allow the addition of information from their user base. This means that sometimes you will find errors and inaccuracies with these apps, so be careful. All of the apps I recommend to you will be Android and iOS compatible. If you use a Blackberry or Windows phone or tablet these apps may not be available on your platform, but something similar will exist.
The premise of all of these apps is the same: You enter your food item either by searching for it in their database or by scanning the food item’s barcode, and then you enter the amount you’ve eaten either by weight or by volume. Then, the app will record calories, fat, protein, and other pertinent information in your daily log. You can set limits you’d like to stay under or goals you’d like to meet. Many of these applications also have premium versions that will track net carbohydrates, and they are usually not very expensive.
Here are the ones that I have personally used and can endorse:
MyFitnessPal
MyNetDiary
Atkins Carb Tracker
All three of those programs are very usable and will make tracking your carbohydrate intake much easier. If you find one that I haven’t encountered and it works for you, by all means you should use it. I also recommend investing in a simple kitchen scale to make your tracking more exact. Kitchen scales are also very useful for more precise cooking, and more precision means fewer surprises.
Now armed with the knowledge I’ve given you in this book plus the wealth of information you can find in these resources, go forth and discover just how delicious healthy and sustainable eating can be!