Eat to Live

It's hard to actually place this book in terms of overall quality. The author is certainly on the right track and largely eschews dogma though the scent of the dogmatic is in the air. (The smell of wet dogma?) Moreover, my extensive reading with admittedly popular nutrition convinces me that he's operating from a limited perspective. This is an earlier book and if memory serves Fuhrman eventually begins strongly advocating for intermittent fasting, so I think his thinking becomes broader and to my mind better aligned with truth, which for nutritional science, is a very hard nut to crack indeed. Our bodies are a miracle of infinite complexities and any declaration of how they behave needs to be tempered with a healthy portion of humility. Lastly, the facts have changed somewhat since the writing of this book. (Which is to say that either the situation has changed or our understanding has changed — facts, of course, don't actually themselves change.) Specifically the prevalence of trans fats in the food supply has significantly diminished due to federal regulation. Mark one small win in a sea of losses for the American eater.

Every writer has their own vernacular, which at times can be preachy or hard to read (the health scare tactics bother my slightly, but I get why they're there) but don't you dare let it detract from the central purpose of the book: you will not be completely healthy unless you eat lots and lots and lots of plants!
This is really just an entire book dedicated to driving home (painfully at times) a very common sense point.
If there is just one book to get started on a whole foods plant based diet this is a fantastic place to start! It's ridiculously simple in principle which makes the extremely difficult - for most people - change much less intimidating. (bonus that his recipes -especially the helpful healthy salad dressings- are super ridiculously tasty.)
If you're seriously looking to fully completely 120% no comprimises get healthy, like really truly life-changingly healthy and happy. Make sure you have a copy of this book in your whole foods library.