I’m a bit of a bookworm. At any given time, my Amazon shopping cart will have multiple books waiting to be ordered (waiting for an impulse purchase). Sometimes I don’t even read the books I order until months later. Most of the books I look for are about nutrition and health-related topics. I’ll be honest, I tend to nerd out over a really science-filled nutrition book!

Skinny Liver by Ibrahim Hanouneh and Kristin Kirkpatrick – So far, this book has been a very basic read. It’s not as in-depth science as I prefer, though it is about a very important topic: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its prevalence. Liver disease is often associated with people with drinking problems, but that is not the case. Along with the growing obesity epidemic, increased rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus, and increased rates of heart disease, liver disease is on the rise and can be directly linked to the aforementioned chronic diseases. The liver is an extremely important organ, but since it isn’t called a “vital organ” it is often overlooked. Skinny Liver really helps to understand how diet and lifestyle can affect the entire body and goes to show there really isn’t a way to “cheat” a healthy diet!

Some liver nourishing tips from the book:

1. Cut back on alcohol consumption. Limiting the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed on a regular basis can decrease risk for liver disease.
2. Get plenty of sleep regularly. It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that lack of sleep causes our bodies to go into stressed-out mode. Lack of sleep can also alter appetite and even promote weight gain (which also may harm your liver!)
3. Reduce stress. Chronic stress promotes higher stress hormones (cortisol) which can drive inflammation throughout the body, including in the liver!
4. Follow a Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet can help decrease chronic inflammation levels by providing high intakes of anti-inflammatory foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, healthy fats (OLIVE OIL), fish and seafood, and moderate amounts of wine and dairy products.

Give Skinny Liver a read to get all of the details!

Additionally, I (finally) purchased The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This book should hopefully work to be an important reference for my Master’s Project at KSU this fall.

Years ago, after attempting numerous diets, I found myself obsessed with what the true human diet is meant to be. The paleo diet seems close.. but not quite perfect for a few reasons. One of my greatest obsessions as a nutrition student is where we are meant to be getting our calcium from. Obviously pre-agriculture, hunter-gatherers did not have a dairy cow to harvest milk from. Though I have a few hunches about this matter, we may never know the true answer. And I personally don’t buy that we were reaching adequate calcium levels from plant consumption alone.. Which is why I will delve deep into entomophagy, or the consumption of insects. Did you know that 80% of the world eats insects?! And the US is not one of them! Insects are a great source of protein (and possibly calcium…) and may be the most sustainable protein source for humans! Forget cow farms, we need more cricket farms! But I can’t help but wonder if insect consumption may be the missing piece for the true human diet.

More to come as I continue my research through the fall semester (or longer?).. My advisor said I might want to write a whole book on this stuff!!