This post reviews the best paleo diet books. Books that describe the paleo diet, provide paleo recipes, as well as books that help review nutritional information and the benefits of eating a real food diet based on the foods that our ancestors ate and that humans evolved on.
Disclaimer: some of the links in this post are affiliate links where I make a small commission if you purchase the item through that link. This doesn't cost you anything extra and helps me keep this website running.
Over the years I have read many books related to health, nutrition and wellness and as someone who followed a paleo diet for almost 15 years and saw many positive changes in my health as a result I have read many books on the topic and decided it was finally time to write a review of the books that I think are the most helpful.
In this roundup I include books about the paleo diet, and have not included paleo cookbooks per se, although some of the books do include paleo recipes. Over the years I have read over 20 books on the paleo diet and have narrowed it down to the 8 best for you.
And if you are following a paleo diet you will be thrilled to learn that I have hundreds of free paleo recipes on this site for you to enjoy.
Table of Contents
The 8 best paleo diet books
1. Practical Paleo
Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo was one of the first paleo books on the market. Since publishing this book, Dianne Sanfilippo has become an authority in the paleo world, for good reason. This book is great. It is not only a great resource but also a cookbook as well. And the recipes are not only delicious, but they are also really easy to make. There are over 150 recipes in the book and there is also a 30 day paleo meal plan inside.
This is usually the first book I recommend to my friends when they ask me for a great paleo resource or guide and is my overall top pick. The introduction into why eating paleo is a good idea is extremely thorough, and she explains how to actually go about starting this diet. The ingredients you need, the tools you should invest in etc. There is a reason this is one of the top selling cookbooks on the market (and not just in the paleo world).
2. The Paleo Diet
The Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain is another one of the original books published on the paleo diet. This book has more information in it than Practical Paleo does, and it goes into great detail as to why the modern North American style diet is not ideal when it comes to health, and why eating like our ancestors did (ie. an ancestral diet or paleolithic diet) is ideal for health. This book also includes paleo recipes and a 6 week meal plan. I found it harder to get through than Practical Paleo but if you are looking for more evidence and research to defend the paleo diet this is the book I would suggest.
3. Breaking the Vicious Cycle
Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall is the book that started my healing journey through food. After having only minimal results by going gluten and dairy free, the functional medicine doctor I was seeing suggested I try the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) which is what the book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle is all about.
The SCD diet was originally created for patients with inflammatory bowel disease but has since been adopted for many other health conditions. And while this isn't necessarily a "paleo" book, the diet is very similar. The one major exception is that the SCD diet allows some forms of dairy. I owe the start of my healing journey to this book, and highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to start a real food diet or who is struggling with digestive issues. This is where I first learned about the healing powers of bone broth, the importance of the gut microbiome in terms of gut health and overall health, and is how I started to think of food as a form of medicine.
4. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A Price was the second book I came across on my healing journey. I had heard about the Weston A Price Foundation through various channels and wanted to learn more about the man who started this movement. Weston A Price was a dentist who travelled the world looking at traditional cultures, their dietary practices, and how the implementation of a "modern, white man's diet" changed their dentition and overall health. And what he found was dramatic. In the span of just one generation, the detrimental health impacts of refined sugars, white flour, and processed ingredients completely changed not only the dental health of these people, but their overall health as well.
While this book isn't about the paleo diet per se, it really outlines the dramatic health changes you can see from switching from a real foods, ancestral diet, to one high in refined and processed foods. Now I will warn you that this book is long and rather boring to read so it may not be for everyone but it is very eye opening and very informative.
5. Eat the Yolks
Eat the Yolks by Liz Wolfe is a great read if you like a little humour mixed in with your facts. Liz has a no-nonsense way of discussing food and how it relates to health. Her sense of humour and non-stop jokes make this book extremely easy to read. The book is broken up into various chapters, categorized by food group - fats, protein, carbohydrates - which make it easy to digest (no pun intended) and understand. One of the best chapters is the one on fat, where she outlines why dietary cholesterol is not the enemy, and why low fat diets are not ideal.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a whole foods diet or a real food diet.
6. The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is by far one of my favourite nutrition related books. Now this is not a book oriented to a specific diet or eating style, so it isn't a specific paleo diet book, but what it is is a thorough documentation of how our current food choices have evolved over the last few decades. It is both horrifying and fascinating at the same time. Michael Pollan did an extensive amount of hands on research to write this book, and the things he saw and experienced were rather incredible. He does an amazing job of documenting how the food we are eating today has NOT been guided by evidence related to better health, but instead by corporations and individuals with political influence who have their own best interests at heart.
He describes the horrific conditions in which modern animals are raised to produce mass amounts of food at low prices, and how the evolution of a few genetically modified products (namely corn) have allowed this all to happen. Ever since reading this book I have made a conscious effort to try and avoid any meat or animal products that haven't been ethically raised. His words are that powerful. I actually shed a tear or two reading this book. If you are an animal lover like me you may also find it disturbing and difficult to read at times.
I could rave about this book forever, but the bottom line is that if you are at all interested in where your food is coming from and how it is affecting your health, you need to read this book.
7. The Wahl's Protocol
The Wahl's Protocol by Dr. Terry Wahls is a book that includes paleo diet principles, but it goes into much more than that. I have so much respect for Dr. Wahl's. She is a physician who was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), ended up wheelchair bound, and through her own extensive research developed a protocol of nutrition and supplements that has allowed her to walk again and reverse many of the symptoms of her disease.
She spent countless hours researching the advice that is given in her book, which covers everything from diet, to exercise, to supplements. And while the book was written with MS in mind, the lessons in here can be applied to many other autoimmune conditions as well.
This book also goes further into functional medicine than any of the other books that I have recommended. If you are not familiar with functional medicine, it is almost like "personalized medicine" where treatments are based on your bodies' biochemical test results. This is a very simplified explanation, but it would take an entire post to explain it properly. The bottom line is that many people who cannot find solutions through conventional medicine can sometimes find success using functional medicine principles.
If you are interested in the science behind why diet and supplements work, this is another great one for you to add to your book collection.
Just be aware that this book is quite long and it's quite dense so it did take me a while to get through. It is not a quick read that's for sure!
8. The Gut and Psychology Syndrome
The Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is not specifically a paleo diet book, but instead discusses The Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet (also known as the GAPS diet) which is similar to the paleo diet, but does have a few more restrictions. This diet is very similar to the SCD diet which I discussed earlier, however, this protocol was originally developed for neurological and mental health conditions including autism, depression, ADD, schizophrenia and more.
However, I know many people, including those with autoimmune diseases who have done extremely well with this diet. One of the main differences between this diet and the SCD diet is the greater emphasis on quality meats and ingredients (think grass fed beef, pasture raised pork etc). The full GAPS diet also allows chocolate (hooray!) but does not permit dairy. And you may wonder if you really need to read both this book and the SCD book? Well that depends. The evidence presented in each book is quite different, and if you are one who likes to see the scientific evidence behind things (like myself) then I would recommend reading both. Plus the subtle differences in the two protocols can really be a game changer for some people.
There you have it. Those are my favourite paleo books and books related to real food nutrition. Are there any other books you would have added to my list? Please feel free to share your suggestions in the comments. I am always on the hunt for more great books!
Other health information you will want to read:
Our expertise:
Dr. Erin Carter, MD, FRCPC, is a physician with board certifications in internal medicine and rheumatology. She is passionate about nutrition, environmental health and low toxicity living and has been doing research and publishing information in this area for years. She is also a self-trained chef and has been creating and publishing recipes since 2015. Her recipes have been featured on many different websites and online publications.
Michele Spring
Great list Erin! The only one I haven't read yet is the Wahl's Protocol and I'm planning on reading that someday when I have time. I agree that these are all amazing though. And yes, definitely read The Paleo Approach as it is so amazing (and comprehensive), and you'll probably even understand it better than me with your medical background.