Willett offers straightforward scientific advice on nutrition and diet. He includes a basic account, minus key statistics concepts, of how the science works (chap. 3).

A great recap on the information I already knew. A bit more academic and overwhelming than other health books I have read recently but I liked the practical application sections at the end of each chapter.

Probably it’s the best nutritional book I’ve read with explanations, research studies and recommendations.

For a long and healthy life, EVERYONE should read this!

Highly informative and easy to read. Could use an editor at times (occasionally there are duplicative sections), but overall this is a really helpful book for de-mystifying the basics of nutrition science.

Best nutrition book out there. It's not flashy, controversial, or even particularly entertaining, but it has the distinction of being basically the only nutrition book that's actually scientifically accurate.

Seems to over-demonize saturate fat, and a lot of the conclusions lean on overly biased studies, but the specific recommendations still ring true.

I really enjoyed reading this book and felt that I learned a lot. I wish it had more recipes.

This is a book about how to eat healthy. It explains about good fats, bad fats, cholesterol, vitamins and minerals, how to read nutrition facts, and what foods and diet have good nutritional value. There are also recipes (that I probably won't end up making) included at the back of the book.

I wish I hated something as much as Dr. Walter Willett hates the official food pyramid. It's impressive how much time he spent researching and analyzing different studies.
The book is quite repetitive - and it always comes back to throwing some shade on the big agro.

I was looking for an introduction into the world of nutrition. All books out there seemed to be too preoccupied with some side topics; capitalism and nutrition, Mediterranean diets vs new age diets, medication vs whole foods, ... etc. This book was exactly what I wanted. It provided a foray into the science of nutrition. The author begins with the promises and limitations of the science of Nutrition. Which I found to be extremely important; the difficulties of measuring the effects of nutrition on humans, and the variety of studies implemented in order to measure the effects and the meaning of their results. How news outlets are inclined to propagate breaking nutrition news that is usually not fortified by conclusive results.

The author then goes into the subjects of fats (saturated, unsaturated and trans fats at length), carbohydrates (the central theme here is glucose and its progressive and harmful inclusion into all foods), sources of protein and choosing healthy options, Milk and its consumption as a child, teenager and adult varies.

The book concludes with a discussion on the benefits of taking a multivitamin pill as insurance, and on the changing nature of our food due to the onset of capitalism. Finally, the author provides an impressive menu of healthy dishes to cook.

As far as I know, the only book on nutrition written for popular audiences based exclusively on hard science. It's readable, and radical. Features both in-depth discussions of various topics (protein, calcium, fats, etc.) as well as quick overviews, so you can skim and then delve in where you wish. The text is followed by recipes, which I haven't tried and probably won't, since I have plenty of veggie cookbooks. But in general, this title is highly recommended if you care about what you eat.