By: Beverley Ann

I believe firmly that without balance in life, you are constantly searching for your footing. Mind, Body and Spirit must be in unison, and if one is neglected, the other two cannot prop it up. Intellectuals with large sums of knowledge have no relevancy if they do not use that knowledge through the funnel of their spirit and similarly, one’s spirit cannot evolve if it is subjected to poor eating habits or lack of exhilaration, which will allow the mind to think more clearly. The ever present triangle of mind, body, and spirit gives us the pattern for perpetual growth and enlightenment.

For many years now I have been a pesco-vegetarian, and although I believe it is important to evolve at your own rate with food, science has shown that overloading your body with toxic fried foods, and items with high-sugar content can warp your most logical perceptions about the outside world, and most importantly, yourself. So here is a list of valuable resources about food that keep in mind the philosophy of balance and health…

Becoming Vegetarian: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Vegetarian Diet (Vestano Melina) ISBN: 978-0470832530 – This is a delightful book that informs the reader how to gradually implement healthy life changes, and even if you aren’t willing to become a vegetarian, you have the capability to eat more fruits, vegetables, and beans.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year Of Food Life (Barbara Kingsolver) ISBN: 978-1554681884 - Here is a great review about this book on A ‘n’ E Vibe

Jamie At Home: Cook Your Way To Good Life (Jamie Oliver) ISBN: 978-1401322427 – Who doesn’t love Jamie Oliver? Well, Gordon Ramsey, but that is beside the point! Oliver did an evocative documentary television series exposing the fast food industry’s focus on children during school hours. Now he has brought his readers a cookbook showcasing the healthier opportunities in cooking our meals.

The World’s Healthiest Foods: Essential Guide For The Healthiest Way Of Eating (George Mateljan) ISBN: 978-0976918547

Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking (ISBN: 978-0-8118-5901-0) – I use loads of recipes from this book and her other one (directly below) as spices not only make food taste fabulous, they have anti-cancer causing qualities to them.

Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian (ISBN: 978-0609809235)

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Deborah Madison) ISBN: 978-0767927475

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (Michael Pollen) ISBN: 978-1594201455 – A compelling book about how we eat food in Western civilization and how our health is a direct product of that. We fret we don’t eat well enough, but we are surrounded by drive-thru fast foods. We throw away logic sometimes and follow what we are told. This book will help to open your eyes about how we actually feel about food and how that affects our health.

Fit For Life (Harvey Diamond) ISBN: 978-1575667188 – My daughter lives by this book, and it is well worth hunting down. A very pragmatic woman, my daughter likes theories to be logical and Harvey Diamond easily explains how our bodies digest and processes food, what the best way of making that process easier is, and how to eat healthy, and live healthy for life as opposed to feeling like you are on a finite “diet.”

The Spirited Walker (Carolyn Scott Kortge) ISBN: 978-0060647360 – I am a strong advocate of returning to nature. Even if you live in the suburbs, or in a downtown city, you can still go for a walk and find remarkable ways to reconnect with the earth. I walk five miles a day, some days I only walk two, but mostly five and when I first started I couldn’t imagine finding time in my day to do this! Now, I can’t imagine a day going by without me walking either a great length, or just to the corner store. On my walks I see the vastness of our beautiful world, and connect with my community, I also have a residual health benefit that revitalizes me daily.