Stephen Perrine’s top health and nutrition picks

Novak Djokovic, 2013

Djokovic says that adopting a gluten-free diet is what took him from being a successful tennis player to becoming an international champion. He approached my team and me with the idea of creating a book that would explain how he came to adopt this method of eating and how it changed his life. It’s a fascinating look at the science of gluten-free diets as well as a powerful memoir of Djokovic’s early days learning tennis during the Serbian war—he and his fellow players would train in whatever area had been bombed the day before since that meant the facility was less likely to be bombed on the day they were training.

Martin J. Blaser, MD, 2014

Dr. Blaser is a microbiologist who studies the human gut, and his work provided a great deal of background for my most recent book project. His studies show how dramatically our gut microbiomes have been damaged by modern life, and he explains how that raises our risk of everything from Alzheimer’s to diabetes.

Stephen Perrine, 2024

I have spent my entire career researching and writing about nutrition, but since turning 50 I’ve discovered how much our bodies change at midlife, and how much our nutritional needs change as well. The reasons we gain weight at midlife are twofold: anabolic resistance, meaning we have difficulty turning protein into muscle; and rising inflammation, which is caused by the erosion of our microbiomes. The fact is that weight gain and muscle loss are not inevitable; this book shows how to overcome both issues, and I’m extremely proud of it.