5 of My Favorite Books on Holistic Whole-Body Health
Those who know me well, know I’m almost always reading two books: one fiction and one non-fiction. Over the past 5 years or so I’ve read MANY health-related books. While it’s almost impossible for me to pick favorite books and I’ve yet to find a book that I agree with 100% of the information presented, these 5 books were formative in my views on holistic and whole-body health. The word holistic is sometimes associated with “woo-woo” unscientific practices. In this context I mean holistic in the sense that it refers to the whole person, including mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. Whether you’ve done a lot of independent health research or none at all, I appreciated and learned from the perspectives of these authors and absolutely recommend reading these books.
Books order does not indicate book rank.
1. The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well
By Indigenous wellness teachers Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins
This book is at the top of my list for a reason, I finished it in about 3 days and it is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read (and that’s saying something!). In an age where everyone wants to boil down healthy living to one facet of wellbeing I love the truly interconnected, whole-person, and environmentally focused perspective of this book. Luger and Collins present a model for well-being based in Indigenous practices that includes movement, land, community, ceremony, sacred space, sleep, and food. This book honors the wisdom of indigenous people and invites those of us who are not indigenous to learn from them while being respectful and avoiding cultural appropriation.
Luger and Collins do a fantastic job of explaining how wellness can be integrated into our lives, instead of something we set aside time for. The Seven Circles is filled not only with suggestions for practical applications, it also makes you ponder spiritual and philosophy questions. Rather than continuing to try to summarize Luger and Collins’ knowledge, I’ll share some of my favorite quotes from the book.
Movement: “Movement is a celebration of life and a way of honoring and giving thanks to our bodies. It is something we get to do, not something we have to do” (pg. 36).
Land: “The health of the land is a direct reflection of the health of the people” (pg. 74).
Community: “What is the point of our personal wellness if not for the betterment of others? Healthy people make healthy families, healthy families make healthy communities, and healthy communities make a stronger, safer, cleaner, more balanced world (pg. 101).
Ceremony: “Learning how to transform or elevate one or more aspects of your everyday routine into ritual is perhaps the best way to bring ceremony into your life. In this way, events that would be otherwise mundane become significant, symbolic, and meaningful (pg. 132).
Sacred Space: “the objects and environment that surround you as you cook in the kitchen or do stretches in the living room are not separate from the rest of your wellness journey but are an integral part of the practice that deeply impacts how you think, feel, and move (pg. 160).
2. Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing
By physician Victoria Sweet
Inspired by the slow food movement, Sweet proposes a slow medicine movement in healthcare. Unlike many of the other books on this list, this book doesn’t give lifestyle advice. Instead, it reads almost like a memoir as Sweet recounts her and others’ experiences of how the “healthcare” industry prioritizes profit and efficiency over true healing. According to Sweet, our bodies are wise, they know how to heal but they often need time, truly personalized care, and a healing environment, all of which are usually absent in conventional medicine. As a nurse who worked at a level 1 trauma center emergency department, I know that “fast medicine” certainly has its place. However, true healing takes time and patience. It means treating our bodies as unique humans, not machines.
Sweet explains that slow medicine can mean different things to different people. For some, it means not rushing to try interventions if they’re not truly necessary. For others it means taking more time to review the evidence. Whether you work in healthcare or not, this book reminds us that we need both the science of medicine and the art of caring for an individual to heal. Through masterful storytelling Sweet’s writing makes you think about what it means to be human.
If you like this book, Victoria Sweet also wrote “God’s Hotel” which I thoroughly enjoyed. It touches on similar themes and discusses slow medicine.
By molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn and health psychologist Eliisa Epel
In case you need a refresher from high school biology, telomeres are the aglets of our chromosomes, they protect our DNA as it replicates and divides. Shortened telomeres can lead to aging and disease. A special enzyme called telomerase can actually increase our telomere length. What I love about this book is how empowered over your own health Blackburn and Epel make you feel. Throughout the book, they explain the science behind what can shorten and lengthen our telomeres. Not only do they address factors that we would expect such as food, exercise, and sleep, they also discuss resilient thinking, mental health, stress, and early childhood experiences. This was one of the first books I read that got me interested in holistic and integrative health. It made me excited to learn the science of how emotional, mental, and physical well being connect and to learn how much is in my power to change and improve.
Side note: I made my sister listen to this book on a CD during a 12 hour drive to Colorado. Conveniently for Grace, the first CD (from the library oops) got stuck in my car’s CD player so we weren’t able to finish it on the drive. It’s still stuck in my car haha.
By journalist Michael Pollan
In an era when it seems like everyone is promoting a new fad diet complete with the latest superfood and entire category of foods to avoid, Pollan’s food philosophy is refreshingly simple: eat real food. And by that, he clarifies that most food found in supermarkets today is NOT real food, it is food-like substances. Whether your diet was fish, meat, or veggie heavy depending on your geography, real food was the only option for most of human history. Through the industrialization of our food supply nutrition, food has been reduced to its individual nutrients. As long as it has x grams of fat or y mg of vitamins it’s considered “healthy” no matter the source of those nutrients. But humans didn’t evolve in a food laboratory, we evolved to have a relationship with our food sources, whether they are plant or animal based.
In an easy-to-ready style Pollan explains how humans went from eating food to food-like substances and examines nutrition literature. Instead of a list of foods to eat or avoid, his advice is to eat whole, unprocessed foods* as much as possible. I appreciate that he touches on how eating this way is also healthier for the environment. The book was originally published in 2008 so while there is newer nutrition research not discussed, his overall philsophy is still very relevant. While I personally feel better when I eat a little more high-quality meat than Pollan recommends, please work with your healthcare provider to figure out what is best for you. I firmly believe there is no one-diet-fits all.
*Technically cooking, fermenting, pickling, sprouting, etc. are forms of processing food that increase nutrient absorption. In this context, Pollan is referring to industrial processing, not the type of processing you could do in your own kitchen.
By biomechanist Katy Bowman
I was first introduced to Bowman’s philosophy on movement when I heard her comparison of healthy movement and food. My interpretation of an analogy Bowman makes is that just like we wouldn’t consider eating junk food 3 meals a day and 1 healthy snack to be a healthy diet, we shouldn’t consider sitting 15 hours a day and exercising for 1 hour to be an active lifestyle. While this example is extreme, it highlights the importance of adding movement to our day instead of exercise. While a hard gym workout can be extremely satisfying, it is not and should not be the only way we incorporate movement in our lives. Bowman discusses how movement was a fundamental way of life for our hunter-gatherer ancestors. They didn’t have to put in any effort to incorporate movement, their lifestyle provided it for them. Bowman explains the different loads our modern lifestyles puts on our bodies and how to fix movement problems. I appreciate this book’s focus on practical and functional ways to move our bodies more.
If you read (or have already read) any of these books I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you’ve read any similar books please share them!
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