Need an intermittent fasting book recommendation? Here are some of our favorites!

In the early 1900s there were a number of book published on fasting, but then there were very few new books on fasting or intermittent fasting until 2002 when Ori Hofmekler came out with The Warrior Diet. Then and starting in 2016 Intermittent Fasting books started popping up everywhere. Now, at the time of this writing, if you search, “Intermittent Fasting” in books on Amazon, you get over 10,000 results. Clearly, not all results are created equal.

We want to ensure that seekers get QUALITY and ACCURATE information on intermittent fasting. So each of the books recommended below come from a trusted source and are written by MDs, researchers, or experts.

Below you’ll find each book with a publisher’s description, some of our favorite quotes, and where you can find it.

And, since there are so many options. We’ll try to help you find exactly what you are looking for now. So, what type of fasting book are you looking for? Here are some options to choose from (click  to jump to that section):

• New to intermittent fasting and looking for a good and easy introduction
• Interested in taking a deep-dive into the science
• Looking for more classical/historical
• Interested in religion and fasting
• Have a specific fasting benefit you are interested in learning more about (ex. autophagy)
• Or have a particular medical condition or chronic disease (ex. diabetes, cancer)
• Interested in a fasting-related topic (Ex. keto)
• Or sold on fasting and interested more in behavior change books to help you succeed

New to intermittent fasting and looking for a good and easy introduction? Try these.

Intermittent fasting books for those looking for a good primer.

Here are some of our favorite intermittent fasting introductory reads that do a great job covering the basics of intermittent fasting in easy to read language so that you can see if it is a good fit for you and know how to get started right away.

Life in the Fasting Lane (2020) 

By: Jason Fung, Megan Ramos, Eve Mayer

Publisher’s Description: In recent years, intermittent fasting—restricting calorie intake for a set number of hours or days—has become an increasingly popular diet strategy. While some in the medical community initially dismissed the idea as a dangerous fad, recent research not only validates the safety of fasting for weight loss but also offers compelling evidence of wide-ranging health benefits, from reversal of diabetes and other metabolic disorders to enhanced cognitive function and increased longevity. But for many who are eager to try out fasting, the regimen can feel a bit intimidating. After all, abstaining from food doesn’t sound like much fun. People rightly wonder: How often can I eat? Will I be able to focus at work? Will I have enough energy to exercise? And perhaps the most concerning question of all: Won’t I be hungry all the time?!

Enter Dr. Jason Fung—world-renowned fasting expert—his colleague, Megan Ramos, and Eve Mayer, who has experienced the life-changing benefits of fasting through Dr. Fung’s program. Together, they’ve teamed up to write a one-of-a-kind guide that answers the most common questions people have about fasting—and offers a customizable program that provides real results. In Life in the Fasting Lane, Dr. Fung, Ramos, and Mayer take the reader by the hand and walk them through the basics of a fasting lifestyle—from the science behind fasting as a health and weight loss strategy to the real-life choices and dilemmas people commonly encounter. While Dr. Fung and Ramos explain the fundamentals of fasting and offer a customizable approach, Mayer shares her in-the-trenches perspective and hard-won knowledge as a success story who turned her life around with fasting. With chapters that address everything from meal planning to mental strategies; exercise to socializing, Life in the Fasting Lane is a unique and accessible guide to developing a sustainable and beneficial fasting routine that offers dramatic, lifelong results.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“Fasting gets more manageable over time as your body adapts to fueling itself with body fat rather than food.”

“HGH secretions go way up during fasting. In fact, according to a 1988 study, a two-day fast can help you produce five times as much HGH! This is greatly beneficial for men and women because strong, lean, sturdy bodies are better for health than leaner, weaker muscles and skeletal frames.”

The Fast Diet (Revised and Updated) (2013) 

By: Michael Mosley & Mimi Spencer

Is it possible to eat normally, five days a week, and become slimmer and healthier as a result? Simple answer: yes. You just limit your calorie intake for two nonconsecutive days each week—500 calories for women, 600 for men. You’ll lose weight quickly and effortlessly with the FastDiet. Scientific trials of intermittent fasters have shown that it will not only help the pounds fly off, but also reduce your risk of a range of diseases from diabetes to cardiovascular disease and even cancer. “The scientific evidence is strong that intermittent fasting can improve health,” says Dr. Mark Mattson, Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, and Professor of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University. This book brings together the results of new, groundbreaking research to create a dietary program that can be incorporated into your busy daily life, featuring:

• Forty 500- and 600-calorie meals that are quick and easy to make

• 8 pages of photos that show you what a typical “fasting meal” looks like

• The cutting-edge science behind the program

• A calorie counter that makes dieting easy

• And much more.

Far from being just another fad, the FastDiet is a radical new way of thinking about food, a lifestyle choice that could transform your health. This is your indispensable guide to simple and effective weight loss, without fuss or the need to endlessly deprive yourself.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

Delay Don’t Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle (2016) 

By: Gin Stephens

Tired of counting calories, eliminating foods from your diet, or obsessing about food all day? If so, an intermittent fasting lifestyle might be for you! In this book, you will learn the science behind intermittent fasting, and also understand how to adjust the various intermittent fasting plans to work for your unique lifestyle. The best part about intermittent fasting is that it doesn’t require you to give up your favorite foods! You’ll learn how to change WHEN to eat, so you don’t have to change WHAT you eat. Are you ready to take control of your health, and finally step off of the diet roller coaster? All you have to do is learn how to “Delay, Don’t Deny!” 

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“I’ve read the theory that our bodies don’t recognize these artificially grown and developed items as “food.”  (Doritos, though delicious, are not picked from a Dorito bush.)  Because of that, our bodies are always in search of nutrients, which makes us hungrier.”

“Our hunger hormones are on overdrive because we have tried (unsuccessfully) to restrict what we are eating and we are eating processed junk.”

Books Going Deep on Fasting Science:

Intermittent fasting books for those looking to get into the hard-core science and understand HOW and WHY fasting is so effective.

These are the best books for those looking to go beyond the basics. If you are interested in going deeper on the science, hormones, human biology, etc., there are some great reads here:

The Intermittent Fasting Revolution: The Science of Optimizing Health and Enhancing Performance (2022)

Mark P. Mattson

How intermittent fasting can enhance resilience, improve mental and physical performance, and protect against aging and disease. Most of us eat three meals a day with a smattering of snacks because we think that’s the normal, healthy way to eat. This book shows why that’s not the case. The human body and brain evolved to function well in environments where food could be obtained only intermittently. When we look at the eating patterns of our distant ancestors, we can see that an intermittent fasting eating pattern is normal—and eating three meals a day is not. In The Intermittent Fasting Revolution, prominent neuroscientist Mark Mattson shows that intermittent fasting is not only normal but also good for us; it can enhance our ability to cope with stress by making cells more resilient. It also improves mental and physical performance and protects against aging and disease. Intermittent fasting is not the latest fad diet; it doesn’t dictate food choice or quantity. It doesn’t make money for the pharmaceutical, processed food, or health care industries. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that includes frequent periods of time with little or negligible amounts of food. It is often accompanied by weight loss, but, Mattson says, studies show that its remarkable beneficial effects cannot be accounted for by weight loss alone. Mattson—whose pioneering research uncovered the ways that the brain responds to fasting and exercise—explains how thriving while fasting became an evolutionary adaptation. He describes the specific ways that intermittent fasting slows aging; reduces the risk of diseases, including obesity, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes; and improves both brain and body performance. He also offers practical advice on adopting an intermittent fasting eating pattern as well as information for parents and physicians.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“Intermittent fasting slows aging, reduces inflammation, improves glucose regulation, lowers blood pressure, facilitates fat loss, and may reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancers.”

“A lifestyle characterized by three meals plus snacks every day and negligible exercise results in suboptimal brain function and increases the risk of major neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.”

“Subsequent studies have shown that intermittent fasting inhibits the growth of tumors in animal models of breast, prostate, colon, liver, colon, and brain cancers.”

“Bodybuilders discovered many years ago that if they forego breakfast, work out in the fasted state midday, and eat during the ensuing 6-8 hours, they lose body fat while still building muscle, thus achieving better muscle definition.”

“One day after the myocardial infarction, the amount of heart tissue damage was 50 percent less in the rats in the intermittent fasting group compared to the damage in the rats in the control group.”

The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting (2016)

By: Jason Fung with Jimmy Moore

Fasting is not about starving oneself. When done right, it’s an incredibly effective therapeutic approach that produces amazing results regardless of diet plan. In fact, Toronto-based nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung has used a variety of fasting protocols with more than 1,000 patients, with fantastic success. In The Complete Guide to Fasting, he has teamed up with international bestselling author and veteran health podcaster Jimmy Moore to explain what fasting is really about, why it’s so important, and how to fast in a way that improves health. Together, they make fasting as a therapeutic approach both practical and easy to understand. The Complete Guide to Fasting explains:

• why fasting is actually good for health

• who can benefit from fasting (and who won’t) • the history of fasting

• the various ways to fast: intermittent, alternate-day, and extended fasting

• what to expect when starting to fast

• how to track progress while fasting

• the weight loss effects of fasting

• how to ward off potential negative effects from fasting

The book also provides tools to help readers get started and get through their fasts, including a 7-Day Kick-Start Fasting Plan and healing liquid recipes.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“We are wired for feast and famine, not feast, feast, feast.”

“Hunger is a state of mind, not a state of stomach.”

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (2010) 

By: Gary Taubes

What’s making us fat? And how can we change? Building upon his critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, bestselling author Gary Taubes revisits these urgent questions. Featuring a new afterword with answers to frequently asked questions. Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century—none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat—and the good science that has been ignored. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid? Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat is an essential guide to nutrition and weight management. Complete with an easy-to-follow diet. Featuring a new afterword with answers to frequently asked questions.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“We don’t get fat because we overeat; we overeat because we’re getting fat”

“The simplest way to look at all these associations, between obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, and Alzheimer’s (not to mention the other the conditions that also associate with obesity and diabetes, such as gout, asthma, and fatty liver disease), is that what makes us fat – the quality and quantity of carbohydrates we consume – also makes us sick.”

Classic/ Historical Books on Fasting and Intermittent Fasting:

Intermittent fasting books for those looking for a historical viewpoint.

Fasting likely goes back in history as far as humankind itself. These are some of the earliest books published in English on fasting (intermittent, extended, or otherwise) that are enjoyable reads in this century.

It is wild to read that Upton Sinclair wrote over 100 years ago in The Fasting Cure, “Surely it cannot be that medical men and scientists will continue for much longer to close their eyes to facts of such vital significance as this.” 

These classics have interesting stories and insights into the power of fasting to share with us today.

The Fasting Cure: Reset Your Body (1911) 

By: Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair was an prolific American writer who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943. Sinclair was obsessed with health and nutrition and often experimented with various diets, and with Fasting. In this book he talks about how fasting cured many ailments and had the added benefit of high fat loss. He wrote ‘The Fasting Cure’ in 1911 and it went on to be a best selling book.

Our Favorite Quote(s):

“Surely it cannot be that medical men and scientists will continue for much longer to close their eyes to facts of such vital significance as this.”

“I have not only found good health, but perfect health; I have found a new state of being, a potentiality of life; a sense of lightness and cleanness and joyfulness, such as I did not know could exist in the human body.”

Vitality, Fasting, and Nutrition (1908)  

By: Hereward Carrington

A physiological study of the curative power of fasting, together with a new theory of the relation of food to human vitality.

The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting (2022)

By: Steve Hendricks

When should we eat, and when shouldn’t we? The answers to these simple questions are not what you might expect. As Steve Hendricks shows in The Oldest Cure in the World, stop eating long enough, and you’ll set in motion cellular repairs that can slow aging and prevent and reverse diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Fasting has improved the lives of people with epilepsy, asthma, and arthritis, and has even protected patients from the worst of chemotherapy’s side effects.

But for such an elegant and effective treatment, fasting has had a surprisingly long and fraught history. From the earliest days of humanity and the Greek fathers of medicine through Christianity’s “fasting saints” and a nineteenth-century doctor whose stupendous forty-day fast on a New York City stage inaugurated the modern era of therapeutic fasting, Hendricks takes readers on a rich and comprehensive tour.

Threaded throughout are Hendricks’s own adventures in fasting, including a stay at a luxurious fasting clinic in Germany and in a more spartan one closer to home in Northern California. This is a playful, insightful, and persuasive exploration of our bodies and when we should—and should not—feed them.

Hunger: An Unnatural History (2005)

By: Sharman Apt Russel

Every day, we wake up hungry. Every day, we break our fast. Hunger explores the range of this primal experience. Sharman Apt Russell, the highly acclaimed author of Anatomy of a Rose and An Obsession with Butterflies, here takes us on a tour of hunger, from eighteen hours without food to thirty-six hours to seven days and beyond. What Russell finds-both in our bodies and in cultures around the world-is extraordinary. It is a biological process that transcends nature to shape the very of fabric of societies. In a fascinating survey of centuries of thought on hunger’s unique power, she discovers an ability to adapt to it that is nothing short of miraculous. From the fasting saints of the early Christian church to activists like Mahatma Gandhi, generations have used hunger to make spiritual and political statements. Russell highlights these remarkable cases where hunger can inspire and even heal, but she also addresses the devastating impact of starvation on cultures around the world today. Written with consummate skill, a compassionate heart, and stocked with facts, figures, and fascinating lore, Hunger is an inspiring window on history and the human spirit.

Books Exploring the Religious-side and Fasting:

Fasting books for those looking to learn more about how intermittent fasting and fasting were practiced in different world religions.

In every major world religion, we see faithful people partake in fasting. Curious about the fasting traditions within your faith? Check out one or more of the books below!

Eat Fast Feast: Heal Your Body While Feeding Your Soul – A Christian Guide to Fasting (2020)

By: Jay Richards

The New York Times bestselling author and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute blends science and religion in this thoughtful guide that teaches modern believers how to use the leading wellness trend today—intermittent fasting—as a means of spiritual awakening, adopting the traditions our Christians ancestors practiced for centuries into daily life. Wellness minded people today are increasingly turning to intermittent fasting to bolster their health. But we aren’t the first people to abstain from eating for a purpose. This routine was a common part of our spiritual ancestors’ lives for 1,500 years.

Jay Richards argues that Christians should recover the fasting lifestyle, not only to improve our bodies, but to bolster our spiritual health as well. In Eat, Fast, Feast, he combines forgotten spiritual wisdom on fasting and feasting with the burgeoning literature on ketogenic diets and fasting for improved physical and mental health.

Based on his popular series “Fasting, Body and Soul” in The Stream, Eat, Fast, Feast explores what it means to substitute our hunger for God for our hunger for food, and what both modern science and the ancient monastics can teach us about this practice. Richards argues that our modern diet—heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates—locks us into a metabolic trap that makes fasting unfruitful and our feasts devoid of meaning.

The good news, he reveals, is that we are beginning to resist the tyranny of processed foods, with millions of people pursuing low carb, ketogenic, paleo, and primal diets. This growing body of experts argue that eating natural fat and fasting is not only safe, but far better than how we eat today. Richards provides a 40-day plan which combines a long-term “nutritional ketosis” with spiritual disciplines. The plan can be used any time of the year or be adapted to a penitential season on the Christian calendar, such as Advent or Lent. Synthesizing recent science with ancient wisdom, Eat, Fast, Feast brings together the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of intermittent fasting to help Christians improve their lives and their health, and bring them closer to God.

Buddhist Fasting Practice: The Nyungne Method of Thousand-Armed Chenrezig (2009)

By: Wangchen Rinpoche

The Tibetan Buddhist practice of Nyungne (“nyoong-nay”) has been gaining increased attention in Buddhist centers across North America. Participants say the practice purifies them both physically and spiritually. This volume is the only comprehensive treatment in English of these powerful teachings. Nyungne is a profound, two-and-a-half-day practice, a length of time especially helpful for people whose schedules cannot accommodate long-term retreat. It involves the keeping of strict vows; the second day is devoted to complete silence and fasting. The meditation centers on the recitations, mantras, and guided visualizations of the Thousand-Armed Chenrezig, the embodiment of all the buddhas’ loving-kindness and compassion. Translated as “abiding in the fast,” Nyungne is said to be effective in the healing of illness, the nurturing of compassion, and the purification of negative karma.

A Comprehensive Guide Fasting in Islam & the Month of Ramadan (2006)

By: Ali Budak

This book seeks to eplore the divine institution of fasting in Islam by providing comprehensive information on its place in the Islamic doctrine and on the month of Ramadan in which fasting is observed. Major topics include fasting in Islam and other faiths; merits and benefits of fasting; types of fasts; charity in ramadan; fasting and health. Fasting in Islam is a well-written introduction book that lays down the basics of fasting as practiced by Muslims.

Feasting and Fasting : the History and Ethics of Jewish food (2020)

By: Aaron S. Gross, Jody E. Myers, Jordan D. Rosenblum

Judaism is a religion that is enthusiastic about food. Jewish holidays are inevitably celebrated through eating particular foods, or around fasting and then eating particular foods. Through fasting, feasting, dining, and noshing, food infuses the rich traditions of Judaism into daily life. What do the complicated laws of kosher food mean to Jews? How does food in Jewish bellies shape the hearts and minds of Jews? What does the Jewish relationship with food teach us about Christianity, Islam, and religion itself? Can food shape the future of Judaism?

Feasting and Fasting explores questions like these to offer an expansive look at how Judaism and food have been intertwined, both historically and today. It also grapples with the charged ethical debates about how food choices reflect competing Jewish values about community, animals, the natural world and the very meaning of being human. Encompassing historical, ethnographic, and theoretical viewpoints, and including contributions dedicated to the religious dimensions of foods including garlic, Crisco, peanut oil, and wine, the volume advances the state of both Jewish studies and religious studies scholarship on food. Bookended with a foreword by the Jewish historian Hasia Diner and an epilogue by the novelist and food activist Jonathan Safran Foer, Feasting and Fasting provides a resource for anyone who hungers to understand how food and religion intersect.

Books on Specific Benefits of Fasting:

Intermittent fasting books for those looking for a specific benefit.

Do you have a goal that you would like to achieve through fasting? Here are some books delving into areas that may be of specific interest to you while on your intermittent fasting journey.

Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To (2019)

By: David Sinclair

It’s a seemingly undeniable truth that aging is inevitable. But what if everything we’ve been taught to believe about aging is wrong? What if we could choose our lifespan? In this groundbreaking book, Dr. David Sinclair, leading world authority on genetics and longevity, reveals a bold new theory for why we age. As he writes: “Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable.” This book takes us to the frontlines of research many from Dr. David Sinclair’s own lab at Harvard—that demonstrate how we can slow down, or even reverse, aging. The key is activating newly discovered vitality genes, the descendants of an ancient genetic survival circuit that is both the cause of aging and the key to reversing it.

Our Favorite Quotes from the Book: 

“Thanks to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and the abundance of sugars and carbohydrates on every supermarket shelf around the globe, high blood sugar is causing the premature deaths of 3.8 million people a year.”

“I believe that aging is a disease. I believe it is treatable. I believe we can treat it within our lifetimes. And in doing so, I believe, everything we know about human health will be fundamentally changed.”

Books on Medical Conditions That May be Improved Through Fasting:

Intermittent fasting books for those looking for information on a specific medical condition.

There are many chronic conditions that were thought incurable or un-treatable that through fasting (if done correctly) can improve. Fasting is a powerful remedy for a number of conditions that are at their root diseases of insulin-resistance, inflammation, or circadian rhythm disruption. Furthermore, fasting is proving to be a powerful ally to medical treatments for some types of cancer and a whole wide range of other conditions.

The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally (2018)

By: Jason Fung

Dr. Jason Fung forever changed the way we think about obesity with his best-selling book, The Obesity Code. Now he has set out to do the same for type 2 diabetes. Today, most doctors, dietitians, and even diabetes specialists consider type 2 diabetes to be a chronic and progressive disease—a life sentence with no possibility of parole. But the truth, as Dr. Fung reveals in this paradigm-shifting book, is that type 2 diabetes is reversible. Writing with clear, persuasive language, he explains why conventional treatments that rely on insulin or other blood-glucose-lowering drugs can actually exacerbate the problem, leading to significant weight gain and even heart disease. The only way to treat type 2 diabetes effectively, he argues, is proper dieting and intermittent fasting—not medication

Our Favorite Quotes from the Book:

“fasting is the simplest and surest method to force your body to burn sugar.”  

“The key to the proper treatment of type 2 diabetes is to get rid of the excess sugar, not just move it around the body. The problem is both too much glucose and too much insulin.”

The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (2015)

By: Jason Fung

Everything you believe about how to lose weight is wrong. Weight gain and obesity are driven by hormones—in everyone—and only by understanding the effects of insulin and insulin resistance can we achieve lasting weight loss. In this highly readable and provocative book, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original, robust theory of obesity that provides startling insights into proper nutrition. In addition to his five basic steps, a set of lifelong habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels, Dr. Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight—for good.

Our Favorite Quotes from the Book:

“Once we understand that obesity is a hormonal imbalance, we can begin to treat it. If we believe that excess calories cause obesity, then the treatment is to reduce calories. But this method has been a complete failure. However, if too much insulin causes obesity, then it becomes clear we need to lower insulin levels.”  

“The healthy snack is one of the greatest weight-loss deceptions. The myth that ‘grazing is healthy’ has attained legendary status. If we were meant to ‘graze,’ we would be cows. Grazing is the direct opposite of virtually all food traditions. Even as recently as the 1960s, most people still ate just three meals per day. Constant stimulation of insulin eventually leads to insulin resistance. ”

The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease-and the Statin-Free Plan That Will

By: Jonny Bowden and Stephen T. Sinatra

Heart disease is the #1 killer. However, traditional heart disease protocols–with their emphasis on lowering cholesterol–have it all wrong. Emerging science is showing that cholesterol levels are a poor predictor of heart disease and that standard prescriptions for lowering it, such as ineffective low-fat/high-carb diets and serious, side-effect-causing statin drugs, obscure the real causes of heart disease. Even doctors at leading institutions have been misled for years based on creative reporting of research results from pharmaceutical companies intent on supporting the $31-billion-a-year cholesterol-lowering drug industry. The Great Cholesterol Myth reveals the real culprits of heart disease, including: Inflammation, Fibrinogen, Triglycerides, Homocysteine, belly fat, Triglyceride to HCL ratios, high glycemic levels

Our Favorite Quotes from the Book: 

“And more and more studies and reports were coming out demonstrating that the real initiators of damage in the arteries were oxidation and inflammation, with cholesterol more or less in the role of innocent bystander. Oxidation and inflammation, along with sugar and stress (more on that in chapters 4 and 8), were clearly what aged the human body the most.”

“Low-fat had become the new mantra of the times, something we like to call the “Snackwell Phenomenon.” Food companies rushed to create low-fat versions of every food imaginable, all marketed as “heart-healthy,” with no cholesterol. (No one seemed to notice that manufacturers replaced the missing fat with tons of sugar and processed carbs, both of which are far more dangerous to our hearts than fat ever was.)”

The PCOS Plan: Prevent and Reverse Polycystic Ovary Syndrome through Diet and Fasting (2020)

By: Nadia Pateguana and Dr. Jason Fung

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Jason Fung joins forces with naturopathic doctor Nadia Pateguana to offer methods to prevent and reverse PCOS through diet and intermittent fasting.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is the most common reproductive disorder in the world, affecting an estimated eight to 20 percent of women of reproductive age, almost half of whom are unable to conceive. PCOS is also associated with increased risks of heart disease, ovarian and endometrial cancers, and type 2 diabetes.

Fasting-Related Books That May Be of Interest:

Books not exactly on intermittent fasting, but that will likely be of interest to you too:

These books span a wide range of topics from sugar, to keto, to dopamine, to mastering your mind. They are all topics that come up on our support calls when we start talking about intermittent fasting.

The Case Against Sugar (2016) 

By: Gary Taubes

Among Americans, diabetes is more prevalent today than ever; obesity is at epidemic proportions; nearly 10% of children are thought to have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. And sugar is at the root of these, and other, critical society-wide, health-related problems. With his signature command of both science and straight talk, Gary Taubes delves into Americans’ history with sugar: its uses as a preservative, as an additive in cigarettes, the contemporary overuse of high-fructose corn syrup. He explains what research has shown about our addiction to sweets. He clarifies the arguments against sugar, corrects misconceptions about the relationship between sugar and weight loss; and provides the perspective necessary to make informed decisions about sugar as individuals and as a society.

Our Favorite Quotes from the Book:

“No such ambiguity existed about sugar consumption. ‘We now eat in two weeks the amount of sugar our ancestors of 200 years ago ate in a whole year,’ as the University of London nutritionist John Yudkin wrote in 1963 of the situation in England. ‘Sugar provides about 20 percent of our total intake of calories and nearly half of our carbohydrate.’”

“…Sugar has become an ingredient avoidable in prepared and packaged foods only by concerted and determined effort, effectively ubiquitous. Not just in the obvious sweet foods (candy bars, cookies, ice creams, chocolates, sodas, juices, sports and energy drinks, sweetened iced tea, jams, jellies, and breakfast cereals both cold and hot), but also in peanut butter, salad dressings, ketchup, BBQ sauces, canned soups, cold cuts, luncheon meats, bacon, hot dogs, pretzels, chips, roasted peanuts, spaghetti sauces, canned tomatoes, and breads. From the 1980’s onward manufacturers of products advertised as uniquely healthy because they were low in fat…not to mention gluten free, no MSG, and zero grams trans fat per serving, took to replacing those fat calories with sugar to make them equally…palatable and often disguising the sugar under one or more of the fifty plus names, by which the fructose-glucose combination of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup might be found. Fat was removed from candy bars sugar added, or at least kept, so that they became health food bars. Fat was removed from yogurts and sugars added and these became heart healthy snacks, breakfasts, and lunches.” 

Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease (2012)

By:Robert H. Lustig

Robert Lustig’s 90-minute YouTube video Sugar: The Bitter Truth, has been viewed more than two million times. Now, in this much anticipated book, he documents the science and the politics that has led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years.

In the late 1970s when the government mandated we get the fat out of our food, the food industry responded by pouring more sugar in. The result has been a perfect storm, disastrously altering our biochemistry and driving our eating habits out of our control.

To help us lose weight and recover our health, Lustig presents personal strategies to readjust the key hormones that regulate hunger, reward, and stress; and societal strategies to improve the health of the next generation. Compelling, controversial, and completely based in science, Fat Chance debunks the widely held notion to prove “a calorie is NOT a calorie”, and takes that science to its logical conclusion to improve health worldwide.

Our Favorite Quote From the Book:

“The obesity pandemic is due to our altered biochemistry, which is a result of our altered environment.”

“The real problem is not in losing the weight but in keeping it off for any meaningful length of time. Numerous sources show that almost every lifestyle intervention works for the first three to six months. But then the weight comes rolling back.”

Pure, White, and Deadly (1972)

By: John Yudkin 

Using everyday language and a range of scientific evidence, Professor Yudkin explores the ins and out of sugar, from the different types – is brown sugar really better than white? – to how it is hidden inside our everyday foods, and how it is damaging our health. Brought up-to-date by childhood obesity expert Dr Robert Lustig M.D., his classic exposé on the hidden dangers of sugar is essential reading for anyone interested in their health, the health of their children and the health of modern society.

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (2013)

By: Michael Moss

Every year, the average American eats 33 pounds of cheese and 70 pounds of sugar. They ingest 8,500 milligrams of salt a day, double the recommended amount, almost none of which comes from salt shakers. It comes from processed food, an industry that hauls in $1 trillion in annual sales. In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how this happened. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century–including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more– Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research. He goes inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the “bliss point” of sugary beverages or enhance the “mouth feel” of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing techniques taken straight from tobacco company playbooks to redirect concerns about the health risks of products. He talks to concerned executives who explain that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality. Simply put: the industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat

“For years, much of Kraft’s motivation in getting people to eat more of its convenience foods had come from the bosses at Philip Morris.”

“If you mapped categories of food advertising, especially advertising to kids, against the Food Guide Pyramid, it would turn the pyramid on its head,” 

Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions (2021) 

By: Michael Moss

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging. Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

““From the moment the case was filed, Bradley’s audacious bid to hold McDonald’s accountable for her troubled eating set in motion events that would greatly affect how we think about cravings, appetite and the processed food industry’s power to throw our eating habits into such disorder.”

“If food was addictive like cocaine and heroin, or even like cigarettes and gin, that would certainly inhibit our ability to decide what to buy and how much to eat. No matter how much we knew about the food company’s machinations, their products would still have the edge. In the worst circumstances, we wouldn’t be deciding anything at all. The companies would own our choices, and our free will. Which, as the McDonald’s case suggested, might explain why we have careened so sharply toward their products.”

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Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (2021) 

By: Anna Lembke

This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting… The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain…and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

“I urge you to find a way to immerse yourself fully in the life that you’ve been given. To stop running from whatever you’re trying to escape, and instead to stop, and turn, and face whatever it is. Then I dare you to walk toward it.”

“Lessons of the balance:
1. The relentless pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, leads to pain.”

“Because we’ve transformed the world from a place of scarcity to a place of overwhelming abundance: Drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . the increased numbers, variety, and potency of highly rewarding stimuli today is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation.”

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits (2017) 

By: Judson Brewer 

We are all vulnerable to addiction. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social media, binge eating, smoking, excessive drinking, or any other behaviors, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Is there a key to conquering the cravings we know are unhealthy for us? This book provides groundbreaking answers to the most important questions about addiction. Dr. Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has studied the science of addictions for twenty years, reveals how we can tap into the very processes that encourage addictive behaviors in order to step out of them. He describes the mechanisms of habit and addiction formation, then explains how the practice of mindfulness can interrupt these habits. Weaving together patient stories, his own experience with mindfulness practice, and current scientific findings from his own lab and others, Dr. Brewer offers a path for moving beyond our cravings, reducing stress, and ultimately living a fuller life.

“The self itself isn’t a problem, since remembering who we are when we wake up each morning is very helpful. Instead, the problem is the extent to which we get caught up in the drama of our lives and take it personally when something happens to us (good or bad).”

“The more people indulge in sensual pleasures, the more their craving for sensual pleasures increases, and the more they are burned by sensual pleasures. Yet they find a certain measure of satisfaction and dependence on sensual pleasure.”

Anyway You Can: A Beginner’s Guide to Ketones for Life (2018)

By: Annette Bosworth M.D.

“As a doctor the number one question I get from patients when they are faced with a scary choice in medicine today, ‘Doc, what would you do?’ This is the story of what happened when my 71 year old mother was dying of cancer. Tim Ferriss saved her life. This story will save yours,” Annette Bosworth, MD. In ANYWAY YOU CAN, Dr Bosworth shares her ‘accidental’ discovery of ketosis and its wide array of health benefits as she supplemented her mom’s chemotherapy with ketones. Her story of courage, faith, and tenacity helps young and old achieve better physical, mental, and emotional health through ketosis. Dr Bosworth inspires patients to become stewards of their own health through her leadership skills, public speaking and “sticky teachable moments.” When patients ask how to turn around their chronic health problem, she answers “Fight it ANYWAY YOU CAN. Ketones for Life.”

Behavior Change Books:

Books that will help you make intermittent fasting a habit and part of your lifestyle.

Know what to do in theory, but can’t seem to follow through with the execution of your goals? These reads can help.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018)

By: James Clear

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: – Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); – Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; – Design your environment to make success easier; – Get back on track when you fall off course; …and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”

“Your habits shape your identity and your identity shapes your habits.”

The Power of Havit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (2012)

By: Charles Duhigg

A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed. Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new product called Febreze, on track to be one of the biggest flops in company history. Suddenly, one of them detects a nearly imperceptible pattern—and with a slight shift in advertising, Febreze goes on to earn a billion dollars a year. An untested CEO takes over one of the largest companies in America. His first order of business is attacking a single pattern among his employees—how they approach worker safety—and soon the firm, Alcoa, becomes the top performer in the Dow Jones. What do all these people have in common? They achieved success by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives. They succeeded by transforming habits. In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We visit laboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains. We discover how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals and see how implementing so-called keystone habits can earn billions and mean the difference between failure and success, life and death. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

“The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can’t extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.”

“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.”

How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

By: Katy Milkman

Change comes most readily when you understand what’s standing between you and success and tailor your solution to that roadblock. If you want to work out more but find exercise difficult and boring, downloading a goal-setting app probably won’t help. But what if, instead, you transformed your workouts so they became a source of pleasure instead of a chore? Turning an uphill battle into a downhill one is the key to success. Drawing on Milkman’s original research and the work of her world-renowned scientific collaborators, How to Change shares strategic methods for identifying and overcoming common barriers to change, such as impulsivity, procrastination, and forgetfulness. Through case studies and engaging stories, you’ll learn: – Why timing can be everything when it comes to making a change – How to turn temptation and inertia into assets – That giving advice, even if it’s about something you’re struggling with, can help you achieve more Whether you’re a manager, coach, or teacher aiming to help others change for the better or are struggling to kick-start change yourself, How to Change offers an invaluable, science-based blueprint for achieving your goals, once and for all.

“making hard things seem fun is a much better strategy than making hard things seem important”

“When policy makers, organizations, or scientists applied a one-size-fits-all strategy to change behavior, the results were mixed. But when they began by asking what stood in the way of progress—say, why their employees weren’t saving enough money or getting flu shots—and then developed targeted strategies to change behavior, the results were far better.”