Are you looking for reading recommendations to help you eat more healthfully?

On the last day of the month, I post a list of happiness-themed recommended reading.

I think I’m going to have trouble posting on Friday, so here’s the list, one day early.

One of the most common goals that people express – in fact, it’s THE all-time most popular goal, according to the fabulous goal-recording site, 43 Things -- is the goal of losing weight. (The goal to “be happy” is number five! But I imagine that most people want to lose weight because they think it will make them happy.)

And even people who don’t want to lose weight often want to eat more healthfully.

I think these three books are outstanding – fascinating, full of useful information and advice, and well-written.

After I read these books, I started eating more appropriate portions, feeling fuller because I was eating MORE filling food (but less of the unsatisfying food, e.g., pretzels), and eating mindfully. Without “dieting” (which I refuse to do), I cut calories.

Zoikes, I sound like an advertisement.

I don’t always follow this advice (my downfall is “fake food”), but it has made a difference. So, for inspiration, and in this order, I recommend:

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think – Brian Wansink. How various factors lead us to eat without noticing -- light in a restaurant, portion size, whether we're pouring from a big box of cereal or a little box, convenience etc. Tons of fascinating information about human behavior.

Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories – Barbara Rolls and Robert Barnett. How to make food choices that mean that you eat a lot and feel full and satisfied, instead of choices for the same calories that leave you feeling hungry and like you haven't eaten much. E.g., eat a big bunch of grapes instead of a few raisins. Surprisingly obvious and sensible, when you think about it.

The Portion Teller: Smartsize Your Way to Permanent Weight Loss – Lisa Young. How to think about portion size to get control of what you're eating without realizing it.

These books sound like “diet” books, but they’re really about making healthier choices, on a permanent basis, whether or not you care about watching your calories. But it turns out that when you eat more healthfully, you tend to consume fewer calories.

Folks with a Buddhist outlook will like these books, because they focus on eating mindfully -- choosing food mindfully, eating mindfully, eating in a way that allows you not to obsess about food.

I also recommend Michael Pollan’s terrific New York Times Magazine article, Unhappy Meals, where he wrote memorably, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

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Comments

[Mrs. Micah]

I've started my own little happiness project, working through each step of Richard Carlson's "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." If you're interested, here's the url: http://notsweatingthesmallstuff.blogspot.com/

[TasterSpoon]

Enjoyed the Pollan article. That's totally not what I thought "beri beri" was! And funny his observation that food that makes health claims is precisely the food to avoid. Though I'm a total sucker for antioxidant related come-ons.

It sounds like your books are less about what you're supposed to eat and more about increasing your awareness of what you are in fact eating...which is a pretty crucial step, and maybe it does take a book sometimes for that to sink in.

Me, I like handy rules of thumb. I had a roommate who was gifted with all those little refrigerator magnet-type sayings that are great little mantras if skinniness is the goal.

"Nothing tastes as good as it feels to be thin!"

"If I don't watch my figure, no one else will, either!"

But in terms of food choices, I try to stick with another friend's one-sentence dietary guideline to "eat close to the earth."

[tasterspoon]

I had to laugh just now as I was pouring myself a dish of Cheese Goldfish, and remembered that I had consciously selected this particular package because it shouted, "WHOLE GRAINS!" and the fish was riding a bicycle.

[Mrs. Micah]

Was just looking at these books again. I think I read the Portion Teller maybe last year? It makes so much more sense than a lot of books on diet. The dishes we got for the wedding are lovely, but they do fit the whole "big" thing. The bowls aren't bad, but the plates are gargantuan. Mr. Micah and I have learned not to fill our bowls either.

Your advice about not going for seconds and thirds seems consonant with this. It would be much harder to figure out portions.

-MM