Are you ready to take your health and wellness to the next level? From exercising daily to seeking therapy to making nutritious dishes that would rival the top chefs, black women are setting phenomenal trends in healthy living.
We have compiled a reading list of health and wellness books to add to your Black Girl Magic reading collection. We are inspired by these black women who have shared their knowledge to world. These brilliant women are making moves in the health and wellness industry by inspiring Black women to live their best lives.
1. Rock the Stage: A Girls Favorite Guide On Pageant Fitness by Brook Marie Eneas
How to Rock the Stage by Brook Marie Eneas is a "must have" guide for anyone who wants to have the best experience in pageant fitness preparation or any woman who is ready to rock the stage at life's important moments. Brook has coached hundreds of high visibility clients to the best mental and physical shape of their lives leading to national status and acclaim including the past two Miss USA's, TV hosts and models. She hosts Ready, Set, Slay, an online fitness program for women who are ready to get off the cosmetic roller coaster and live a lifestyle of health, wellness, and purpose.
2. Slim Down Sister by Roniece Weaver, Fabiola Gaines, and Angela Ebron
The first weight-loss book written especially for African-American women, Slim Down Sister offers a comprehensive, get-down-to-it program of diet and exercise that empowers sisters to take control of their weight and health. This unique book is written by experts in the fields of health and nutrition.
3. Lose Your Final 15: Dr. Ro's Plan to Eat 15 Servings A Day & Lose 15 Pounds at a Time by Rovenia M. Brock, PhD
Tired of diet plans that leave you hungry? Ready to ditch that juice cleanse? Popular doctor of nutritional sciences and weight-loss specialist Dr. Rovenia Brock has the answer.
Dr. Ro is the nutrition coach who helped Sherri Shepherd of The View lose more than 40 pounds and viewers of The Dr. Oz Show shed more than 5 million pounds. In Lose Your Final 15, she reveals her best-ever program to help you lose 15 pounds in 15 days by eating 15 servings a day.
4. Blossoming Hope: The Black Christian Woman's Guide to Mental Health and Wellness by Tonya D. Armstrong, Ph.D, M.T.S.
As daughters of the Diaspora, we encounter negative stereotypes and denigrating images imposed upon us by others. As Christians, we can be tempted to overspiritualize our lives to the detriment of our wholeness. These realities can leave us merely surviving our fragmented lives, when in reality, we want to blossom! Well, Blossoming Hope: The Black Christian Woman's Guide to Mental Health and Wellness was written to help do just that.
As a licensed psychologist, minister, and seminary administrator, Dr. Tonya Armstrong attends in Blossoming Hope to the need to transcend everyday stressors, difficulties of the past, and even mental health challenges to reach the highest purpose for which God created us.
5. Health First: The Black Woman's Wellness Guide by Hilary Beard and Eleanor Hinton Hoytt
The story of Black women in America is one of triumph and grace, even with odds stacked high against them. Health First! The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide provides you with a comprehensive guide to your #1 resource: yourself.
Today, as Black women face an unprecedented health crisis, denial and self-neglect are no longer viable options. This groundbreaking volume is rooted in the pioneering work of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the nation’s only nonprofit organization devoted to advancing the health and wellness of Black women and girls. It offers a core health philosophy—too long denied Black women—based on putting your health first.
Health First! explores Black women’s most critical health challenges, connecting the dots through honest discussions with experts and the uncensored stories of real women rom adolescence through elderhood.
6. Grown Woman Talk
Dr. Sharon Malone's Grown Woman Talk flips the script on women's health conversations. Instead of warnings and lectures, this book centers empowerment—what women of color truly need when navigating an increasingly complex healthcare system.
Blending medical insight with real stories and practical guidance, Dr. Malone writes with warmth and directness about how to live better, age better, and advocate for yourself in medical settings. The core message is simple but powerful: you already have the power; you just need to build your confidence to use it.
Whether you're managing health concerns, feeling dismissed by doctors, or simply wanting clearer answers, Grown Woman Talk breaks the silence around women's health and gives you the tools to take control of your own care.
7. High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy
High-functioning depression is real, but it often goes unrecognized. You might be succeeding at work, managing your home, and showing up socially yet feeling numb, restless, or empty underneath it all.
In High Functioning, Dr. Judith Joseph reveals what this hidden form of depression looks like and offers the Five V's - a practical framework to help you understand your emotional health and reclaim your joy. Through validation, venting, identifying your values, monitoring your vital signs, and envisioning your future, you'll move from merely surviving to truly thriving.
Drawing on research, real client stories, and her own experience, Dr. Joseph shows you how to break free from self-sacrifice and self-sabotage, calm your inner turmoil, and live with purpose and joy.
8. What No One Told Us: The Black Woman's Guide to Menopause
What No One Told Us: The Black Woman's Guide to Menopause by Dr. Michelle Cooke is the definitive resource Black women have been waiting for—a clinically rigorous yet deeply compassionate guide that finally centers your experience during midlife. Dr. Cooke, a board-certified family medicine physician and certified menopause practitioner, cuts through the medical gaslighting and dismissal that has left too many Black women suffering in silence, revealing why you experience menopause earlier, longer, and more severely than other populations, and why standard lab work often misses perimenopause entirely.
This book delivers the hard truths about hormone therapy, the real impact of declining estrogen on your heart, bones, and brain, and practical solutions for vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, fibroids, and recurrent UTIs—issues rarely addressed in mainstream health literature.
More than a survival guide, What No One Told Us empowers you to thrive by teaching you how to advocate fiercely in medical settings, ask the right questions, and demand the care you deserve. If you're ready to reclaim your health, your voice, and your vitality during this pivotal life stage with evidence-based guidance written specifically for you, this essential read will transform how you navigate menopause.
9. The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes
Craving authentic soul food without compromising your health? The New Soul Food Cookbook for People with Diabetes proves you don't have to choose between flavor and wellness. This completely redesigned edition delivers classic favorites—from Shrimp Jambalaya to Sweet Potato Soufflé—reimagined with reduced fat, calories, and sodium for better diabetes management and weight loss. Learn practical pantry tips, healthy cooking techniques, and how to boost authentic African-American flavor with herbs and spices instead of excess salt. Perfect for family meals and special occasions, this cookbook makes it easy to enjoy the foods you love while taking control of your health.
10. ESSENCE The Black Woman's Guide to Healthy Living: The Best Advice For Body, Mind + Spirit In Your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s + Beyond
An interactive resource for African-American women furnishes a complete guide to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being that covers both major health issues and everyday concerns and includes step-by-step exercise plans, tips on a healthy sex life, an explanatory list of medical tests, recommendations on nutritional supplements, weekly menus, and more.
What are your favorite health and fitness books written by Black female authors?
