Additional Nutrition Resources

Want to learn more about how to be healthier in general?  A healthy diet low in processed foods and chemicals can be very helpful for those of us with IBS (and for everyone else).  You don't even necessarily need to follow a strict organic diet or a specific diet, although there are several diet plans that are sometimes recommended for IBS sufferers.  Here are some resources that will help you learn more about nutrition, the food that is available to you at the supermarket, organic foods, etc. and help you make more informed, better decisions about what you are putting into your body.

Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss has convinced me to remove a lot of processed foods from my diet -- things like Hot Pockets, frozen dinners and even pretzels -- because of the high amounts of salt, sugar and fat that are hidden in the ingredients under dozens of different names.  A lot of food manufacturers have food science engineers working on making those processed snacks and meals as tasty as possible -- to hit the "bliss point" for each person's greatest snacking satisfaction.  But because of all the chemicals and the unbelievable amounts of salt, sugar and fat that it takes to achieve that bliss, the cost to our health is extremely high.  This book is extremely well-written and fascinating in a watching-a-train-wreck kind of way.  You don't necessarily need to give up all your favorite foods, but take the time to learn about food science and how different processed foods are engineered so that you can make responsible, informed decisions regarding what you choose to throw into your cart at the grocery store.

Learn more and purchase Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss on Amazon.

Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan also provides an education on what is done to our food before it ends up on our plates.  Instead of focusing on food science and the chemical engineering of so much of our convenience foods like Moss's book Salt, Sugar, Fat, Pollan explores the practices of industrial farming and "organic" farming, as well as the philosophy behind the different ways of raising crops and animals for slaughter.  This might not sounds like a very exciting read to many of you, but I found myself surprisingly interested in Pollan's narrative about Joel Salatin, a local farmer dedicated to a rather complicated philosophy and practice of farming that mimics the natural ecosystem.  The symbiotic relationships that exist in nature and actually make farm's like Joel's more productive (for its size) than an industrial farm are truly amazing.  This book is really about "getting back in touch" with the food that we eat and realizing that we are connected to everything in our refrigerator and on our plate, not just because our food has a huge impact on our health, but because everything (even the synthetic compounds in our processed foods) come from the earth and play a role in helping our environment to either thrive or wither.  Take the time to learn how all those synthetic compounds are engineered from two main sources -- corn and soy -- and how that can impact your health.

Learn more and purchase Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan on Amazon.


On my reading list: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, Pandora's Lunchbox by Melanie Warner, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by Dr. David A. Kessler, and Inflammation Nation by Floyd H. Chilton and Laura Tucker.