Books on nutrition & midlife health that will expand your perspective

October 20, 2025

I am often asked for my suggestions of books to read on nutrition and midlife health. I read most nights before bed, and have an audio book subscription to help me plow through as many books as possible.

In this post, I list some books on nutrition and midlife health-related topics that I have read and felt offered insight into the diverse topics I see in my practice focusing on nutrition in midlife and mental health, so that my clients can have healthy bodies and healthy minds.

These books focus on nutrition for healthy aging, mindful eating, books that will (likely) challenge your perspectives and beliefs about weight and health, habit change and midlife health. Nutrition “bleeds’ into most areas of our lives, including sleep, stress and trauma.

Please note that information needs to wisely consumed and digested before it is applied to you (if at all). You are the expert of yourself. Be open-minded to new ideas and perspectives, but not so much that your brain falls out. 🤓

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I have organized my list of nutrition and midlife health books into the categories below:

Healthy Aging & Healthy Eating
Books that will likely challenge your perspectives and beliefs on weight and health
Body Image
Mindful eating and holistic approaches to eating and health
Habit change
Mindset and Perspective from which to create goals
Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
Gut Health & Irritable Bowel
Family Nutrition
Books on Stress, Trauma & Mental Health
Miscellaneous

Image by Lubos Houska from Pixabay

Books on Nutrition and Midlife Health

This list of books on nutrition and midlife health is based on my personal reading. I expect to add to this list over time.

** Please note that these books are not a substitute for medical or psychological care, they should not be taken as endorsement, nor should they replace seeking care from a regulated health professional. If you have questions or concerns about your nutrition or health, contact your physician or regulated health professional.

Many of these books are available by audio book, digitally as well as hard copy.

Books focusing on Healthy Aging & Healthy Eating

The Telomere Effect: A revolutionary approach to living younger, healthier, longer – Elizabeth Blackburn, Ellsa Epel
Food & Fitness after 50 – Christine Rosenbloom and Bob Murray
Eat, drink and be healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. Walter Willet, Patrick J Skerrett
How Not to Die: Discover the foods scientifically proven to prevent and reverse disease – Michael Greger
The Healthy Aging Diet Tufts University
Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-based Diet. Brenda Davis & Vesanto Melina
The Blue Zones, 2^nd Ed: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. Dan Buettner.
Younger Next Year: Live strong, fit and sexy – until you’re 80 and beyond – Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge
Next Level: Your Guide to Kicking Ass, Feeling Great and Crushing Goals Through Menopause and Beyond, Stacy Sims, Selene Yeager.

Books that will likely challenge your beliefs on weight and health

Health at Every Size – Lindo Bacon (formerly Linda Bacon)
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body – Roxanne Gay
Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program that Works – Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
Body Kindness®: Transform your Health from the Inside Out – and Never Say Diet Again – Rebecca Scritchfield
Anti-diet: Reclaim your time, money, well-being and happiness through intuitive eating – Christy Harrison
The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook – Judith Matz, Amy Pershing, Christy Harrison.
How the Other Half Eats: The untold story of food and inequality in America, Priya Fiuelding-Singh

Books on Body Image

Body image your body is an instrument not an ornament – Lindsay Kite and Lexie Kite
Mother’s Daughters and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We are – Hillary McBride
The Wisdom of your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness and Connection through Embodied Living – Hillary McBride
The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook – Judith Matz, Amy Pershing, Christy Harrison.

Books on Mindful Eating and holistic approaches to eating and health

Well Nourished: Mindful practices to Heal your Relationship with Food, feed your whole self and end over-eating. Andrea Libertstein
The Mindful Eating Workbook – Vincci Tsui
The Joy of Half a Cookie: Using Mindfulness to Lose Weight and End the Struggle with Food – Jean Kristeller, Alisa Bowman
Hunger Habit – Judson Brewer
Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food, Jan Chozen Bays.
The Mindfulness-based Eating Solution: proven strategies to end overeating, satisfy your hunger and savor your life, Lynn Rossy.
The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why we Get hooked and How we Can Break Bad Habits, Judson Brewer.

** It is unfortunate that the title of this book (The Joy of Half a Cookie) includes weight loss. I believe mindfulness can definitely help us end our struggle with food. It is the very pursuit of intentional weight loss that creates our struggle with food. I believe that eating mindfully can help reduce interactions with food that override our body’s signals and can help us get our true needs met.

This book is based on the published research using Mindfulness-based Eating Awareness Training, an approach I have been trained in. However, mindfulness-based approaches should not be used with a covert expectation that weight loss will ensue. Rather, mindfulness-based approach can help people learn the skills to tend to internal signals, cues and needs, and to reduce automaticity of trigger-response relationships.

Books on Habit change:

Tiny habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything – BJ Fogg
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – James Clear
High Power Habits: How Extraordinary People become That Way – Brendan Bouchard
The Power of Habit: Why We do what we do in Life and Business– Charles Duhigg
Better than Before: What I Learned about Making and Breaking Habits —to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less and Generally Build a Happier Life – Gretchen Rubin
The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles that Reveal How to Make your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, too) – Gretchen Rubin
Switch – Dan Heath & Chip Heath
The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When We’re Not Hungry and How to Stop, Judson Brewer.

Books on Mindset and Perspective from which to create goals:

Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way we Live, Love, Parent and Lead – Brene Brown
Gifts of Imperfection, The: Let Go of Who you Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who you Are – Brene Brown
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Whole Hearts – Brene Brown
Gratitude Project: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time – Nancy Davis-Kho
Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message – Tara Mohr
Mindsight: the new science of personal transformation – Daniel J Siegel
What happy people know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better – Dan Baker
The Happiness Project: Why I spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have More Fun – Gretchen Rubin
Think Like a Monk – Jay Shetty
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead, Brene Brown.
Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Pathy to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace), Chade-Meng Tan, Daniel Goleman.

Books focusing on Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating

** If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder, seek help from your physician and regulated health professional. A book is absolutely no substitute for the care that people struggling with eating disorders need.