You:the Owner's Manual by Mehmet Oz M.D., Michael Roizen, Oz Mehmet (2005, Abridged, Compact Disc)

In an age where fad diets come and go faster than Hollywood celebrities change significant others, it is refreshing to find a book about taking care of YOU - as in helping your body live younger, healthier and maybe longer as a result.

The authors of this book are doctors who were part of the team that treated President Clinton's recent heart condition. One of the authors also popularized the concept of calculating your "real" age (which, depending on lifestyle may be more or less than your calendar age). They're also Oprah favorites (they were guests on the show in May 2005, which is where I first discovered them). They wrote You as an "owner's manual" to help regular people better understand how what we eat and how we live impacts every single part of our lives. The book is written in very plain English (OK, it's a little corny at times) and has lots of practical tips on how to gauge our health (e.g., you'll learn what your poop should look like and why that's important). You'll also learn how to protect the health of your heart, reduce the number of wrinkles you'll amass in a lifetime, and how increasing your tomato intake can decrease your risk of cancer and decrease arterial aging (hint, just 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce is equal in nutritional value to 165 raw tomatoes!!).

From diagrams to illustrate their points to silly jokes that drive their point home, the authors make it extremely interesting to read and easily digestible (hehe, an example of the humor you might find in this book). In a nutshell, this book provides useful information on what foods/beverages to put into your body, how much sleep to get and how to monitor yourself in order to live younger and healthier. It is a book about living healthy - not about becoming model thin - so approach it with the desire to improve the overall you.