Thrive and Thrive Fitness – Brendan Brazier’s books on nutrition
Thrive and Thrive Fitness – Brendan Brazier’s books on nutrition
I just finished reading Thrive Fitness, after having read Thrive a couple of months ago. There is a lot of interesting material here about a whole foods, plant-based diet is the best nutrition plan for anyone, whether you are a beginner athlete or a professional endurance athlete.
I’ve been thinking about whether to recommend just one or the other of these books, but both have different material to offer, so I think folks will benefit from having both books. Both Thrive and Thrive Fitness provide the basics behind why changing to a whole foods, plant-based nutrition plan has a positive effect on people. Thrive is more comprehensive in its discussion of the science, which is really great information, although it can be overwhelming if the material is all new to the reader. The list of recipes in Thrive is also fairly expansive.
Thrive Fitness, on the other hand, spends more time on the exercise part of the equation. This book includes a well-rounded list of exercises, with how-to photos and good descriptions for how to do the workouts. This is helpful information for beginning and intermediate athletes. However, I think that the recipes in Thrive Fitness will be more beneficial to advanced athletes, because a lot of the recipes are for performance sports drinks, gels, and pre- and post-workout food. Some of these recipes are not appropriate unless you are planning to workout for >90 minutes, so they won’t be too useful for the beginner. That said, I am really excited about trying some of the homemade gels for my long workouts, because for a long time I have been interested in trying to concoct something in my own kitchen but didn’t really know where to begin.
I’ve tried a few of the other recipes (sports bars, smoothies, cereal) and although I had one massive failure with the yam pancakes which would not cook at all (Brendan, what the heck?) everything else has been tasty so far. Some of the ingredients have been hard to find, but Whole Foods and Central Market here in Austin have mostly come through for me.
I recommend that y’all check these books out, as they are a worthwhile addition to your library. Remember that you do not have to become a vegan 100% of the time to reap benefits. Anyone will benefit from making incremental changes toward better nutrition.
