Books and information sources about eating healthy and how the digestive system works?

[StandardUser]

Most of the books ive found are annoying "stay thin" guidebooks. I want to know what foods give you energy and motivation, and what foods take that from you. I want to know how to determine how long a hotdog, a cabbage, or a cookie would take to digest, and why, and how. I want to know how food is being broken down, and what causes metabolical differences between humans, and most importantly - how i can manipulate my bodies digestion routine and diet to my advantages(recognizing energy draining foods on my own by reading labels, rather than having to post a question about them in a forum.)

Most of what i find on the internet is bullcrap agenda sites that at best give you a very short and mediocre explanation.

I would like to know what books are to nutrition and diet, like what "The prince" is to politics and manipulation.

[Hakomar]

I'm afraid I don't know any specifics apart from learning about digestion in Biology. In terms of learning about how what breaks down into what, find a decent metabolism chart. I'm only saying this from conjecture, but your example of a hotdog you might be able to estimate how long it takes to digest by finding out what it's made of - mainly proteins I would imagine. You could find where the enyzme is located, how long it takes the digested food to get to that location and how long it takes an enzyme to break it up. Then find the storage and dispersion 'system' as it were, and find out how it works, i.e. for glucose how it is changed into glycogen and stored in the liver. Obviously, planting a hotdog whole into some HCl with some enzymes is different to having some finely chopped up meat, which will 'digest' quicker. That's one of the reasons bodybuilders use Protein Powder, because it is quick to digest.

You could learn about food labels and what each one means - a very basic summary would be Protein makes muscle, Carbohydrates energy, certain vitamins and minerals have certain roles, i.e. Vitamin D and Calcium help the absorption of calcium into and strengthening of the skeleton.

I apologise for not being concise, and I don't know any top-dog nutrition books, but I am sure there is one out there; maybe a brief spell on Amazon would help, but I would suggest going for the basics first - basic nutrition such as the role of Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat, minerals and vitamins etc., then hormones (i.e. insulin) and metabolism and work your way up to specifics.