In our fast-paced world, it's crucial to find calm moments and prioritize our well-being. Whether you’re craving time to yourself with a good book or searching for an inspiring gift for a loved one, the Tiny Health team has collected nine health book recommendations for you. These exceptional titles cover nourishing recipes, mindful parenting, and the intriguing world of the microbiome and gut health. Delve in for inspiration on your journey to a better life with these healthy living books.
The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health
By Justin and Erica Sonnenburg
“The Good Gut is a groundbreaking work that offers a new plan for health that focuses on how to nourish your microbiota, including recipes and a menu plan. The Sonnenburgs show how we can keep our microbiota off the endangered species list and strengthen the community that inhabits our gut and thereby improve our own health.
In this important and timely investigation, they look at safe alternatives to antibiotics; dietary and lifestyle choices to encourage microbial health; the management of the aging microbiota; and the nourishment of your own individual microbiome.
Caring for our gut microbes may be the most important health choice we can make."
Brain Food for Your Baby: An Organic Baby Food Cookbook and Nutrition Guide for Gut Health
By Leah Bodenbach, RN, BSN
"Boost your baby’s brain health and microbiome with healthy, delicious, homemade first foods! Complete nutrition guide and organic baby food cookbook made explicitly for baby’s gut health.
More than just a cookbook, this book has parents covered with:
- 125 yummy, nutrient-dense recipes: Easy and tasty recipes, from bone broth and single-ingredient purées to toddler snacks and family meals everyone can enjoy
- Foods for each age and stage: Nutritional and developmental guidance that follows your baby’s growing needs, including which foods to introduce and when
- Gut-friendly food prep for baby: How to safely prepare fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as grains, beans, legumes, and nuts for easy digestion and nutrient absorption
- Intro to an infant’s microbiome: Learn how to maintain your baby’s microbiome to help their brain development as well as reduce their risk for allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases
- Food allergies and intolerances: Information on which foods to avoid during the first year as well as advice on introducing new foods and common allergens
- Organic food 101: How to shop organic on a budget, decipher the labels, and other low-toxin living tips
- Hybrid feeding approach: Includes baby-led weaning recipes to develop baby’s motor skills, regulate their appetite, and encourage self-feeding
- Tips to expand your baby’s palate: Advice for introducing superfoods as well as new flavors to help your baby develop an adventurous palate and a healthy relationship with food"
The Blue Zones, Second Edition: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest
By Dan Buettner
"Bestselling author, longevity expert, and National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner reports on health, fitness, diet, and aging, drawing on his research from extraordinarily long-lived communities--Blue Zones--around the globe. Buettner has launched a major public health initiative to transform cities based on principles from this book, an updated and expanded edition of his bestselling classic on longevity. His prescriptions for lifestyle, nutrition, outlook, and stress-coping practices will add years to your life and life to your years.”
The Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues
By Dr. Martin J Blaser
"Renowned microbiologist Dr. Martin J. Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human microbiome, where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the equilibrium and health of our bodies. Now this invisible Eden is under assault from our overreliance on medical advances including antibiotics and cesarean sections, threatening the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes and leading to severe health consequences.
Taking us into the lab to recount his groundbreaking studies, Blaser not only provides elegant support for his theory, he guides us to what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future."
52 Small Changes for the Family: Sharpen Minds, Build Confidence, Boost Health, Deepen Connections
By Brett Blumenthal and Danielle Shea Tan
"Studies show that when we make small changes over time, we are more likely to be successful than if we try to make large changes all at once. The idea is simple: make one small change a week for 52 weeks and at the end of the year, you and your children will enjoy a happier, healthier lifestyle.
Backed by research from leading experts and full of helpful charts and worksheets.
With practical strategies to minimize clutter while organizing your space, have meaningful conversations, use technology socially and safely, promote curiosity and encourage a love of learning, and many more.
With the outlined changes, you can achieve stronger family connections, greater self-esteem, improved outlook, and raised awareness.”
The Dirt Cure: Healthy Food, Healthy Gut, Happy Child
By Maya Shetreat-Klein
"In this ‘carefully researched, compellingly written game-changer for children’s health’ (Mark Hyman, MD), Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD, reveals the shocking contents of children’s food, how it’s seriously harming their bodies and brains, and what you can do about it. And she presents a nutritional plan for getting and keeping children healthy—that any family can follow.
Chronic diseases in children are rising dramatically—from allergies and ADHD to mental illnesses and obesity. A traditionally trained pediatric neurologist and a parent herself, Dr. Maya encountered the limits of conventional medicine when her son suffered a severe episode of asthma on his first birthday and hit a developmental plateau. Treatments failed to reverse his condition, so Dr. Maya embarked on a scientific investigation, discovering that food was at the root of her son’s illness, affecting his digestive system, immune system, and brain. The solution was shockingly simple: Heal the food, heal the gut, heal the brain…and heal the child.”
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
By Ed Yong
"Every animal, whether human, squid, or wasp, is home to millions of bacteria and other microbes. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ed Yong, whose humor is as evident as his erudition, prompts us to look at ourselves and our animal companions in a new light—less as individuals and more as the interconnected, interdependent multitudes we assuredly are.
Many people think of microbes as germs to be eradicated, but those that live with us—the microbiome—build our bodies, protect our health, shape our identities, and grant us incredible abilities. In this astonishing book, Ed Yong takes us on a grand tour through our microbial partners and introduces us to the scientists on the front lines of discovery. It will change both our view of nature and our sense of where we belong in it.”
Real Food for Pregnancy: The science and wisdom of optimal prenatal nutrition
By Lily Nichols
“Prenatal nutrition can be confusing. A lot of the advice you have been given about what to eat (or what not to eat) is well-meaning, but frankly, outdated or not evidence-based. In Real Food for Pregnancy, you will get clear answers on what to eat and why, with research to back up every recommendation.
Author and specialist in prenatal nutrition, Lily Nichols, RDN, CDE, has taken a long and hard look at the science and discovered a wide gap between current prenatal nutrition recommendations and what foods are required for optimal health in pregnancy and for your baby's development. There has never been a more comprehensive and well-referenced resource on prenatal nutrition.
With Real Food for Pregnancy as your guide, you can be confident that your food and lifestyle choices support a smooth, healthy pregnancy.”
The Baby and the Biome: How the Tiny World Inside Your Child Holds the Secret to Their Health
By Meenal Lele
"A revolutionary parenting book that draws on cutting-edge research to reveal that the key to raising happy and healthy babies lies in carefully protecting and caring for their microbiomes.
A baby’s immune system develops rapidly in the first 1,000 days of life, with the first six months and year being the most important. In The Baby and the Biome, Meenal Lele, medical researcher and founder of Lil Mixins, the #1 pediatrician-recommended allergy-prevention product, explains how diet, environmental toxins, antibiotics, and even common parenting practices can damage the delicate balance of our children’s microbiomes, thereby increasing the risk for a host of immune diseases, including eczema, asthma, food allergies, IBS, and more.
Lele discovered firsthand how critical our microbiomes are to our overall health when she sought to understand the root causes for her son’s food allergies. Drawing on her medical background and through extensive research and interviews with scientists and doctors, Lele discovered the simple, practical steps that all parents and pregnant moms can take to help foster a healthy and protective microbiome in their baby. The Baby and the Biome will empower parents to protect and safeguard their children’s health for years to come."
