While your little ones are donning their Dr. Seuss hats and listening to “One Fish, Two Fish” for Read Across America Week (March 2-6th), settle into your favorite chair and crack a book or two of your own. We’ve put together a list of buzz-worthy texts that are sure to educate and inspire you, or at least give you something to chat about at the coffee shop. These health and wellness-centered reads have been curated from local librarians, the New York Times best-seller list and recommendations from popular health and medical gurus. Happy reading!
The Telomere Effect, Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD and Elissa Epel, PhD
Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel’s research shows that the length and health of one’s telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free).
The Little Book of Hygge, Meik Wiking
Why are Danes the happiest people in the world? The answer, says Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, is Hygge. Loosely translated, Hygge―pronounced Hoo-ga―is a sense of comfort, togetherness, and well-being. “Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience,” Wiking explains. “It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe.”
Get Out of Your Own Way, Mark Goulston, M.D. and Phillip Goldberg
Practical, proven self-help steps show how to transform 40 common self-defeating behaviors, including procrastination, envy, obsession, anger, self-pity, compulsion, neediness, guilt, rebellion, inaction and more.
Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging, Ben Greenfield
What if the ability to look, feel, and perform at peak capacity wasn’t the stuff of lore but instead was within easy reach? In a perfect world, you would be able to have it all: complete optimization of mind, body, and spirit. In Boundless, the New York Times bestselling author of Beyond Training and health and fitness leader Ben Greenfield offers a first-of-its-kind blueprint for total human optimization.
The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee
In this biography, Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.
The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100, Dan Buettner
Building on decades of research, longevity expert Dan Buettner has gathered 100 recipes inspired by the Blue Zones, home to the healthiest and happiest communities in the world. Each dish–for example, Sardinian Herbed Lentil Minestrone; Costa Rican Hearts of Palm Ceviche; Cornmeal Waffles from Loma Linda, California; and Okinawan Sweet Potatoes–uses ingredients and cooking methods proven to increase longevity, wellness, and mental health. Complemented by mouthwatering photography, the recipes also include lifestyle tips (including the best times to eat dinner and proper portion sizes), all gleaned from countries as far away as Japan and as near as Blue Zones project cities in Texas.
