朋友見我最近著重飲食，推介我睇哩本書，果然好有用！以下直接就每章做書摘。

第一章：哈彿金字塔
作者話，舊有食物金字塔係美國政府嘅陰謀，因為佢哋掌管農業所以叫大家食多啲穀物；唔係基於有力嘅科學證據，只係當年嘅猜測。根據幾個大型追蹤研究，以及更多小型研究，科學實證版本如圖，跟住嚟食可以減低患慢性疾病風險 — — 心臟病、高血壓、糖尿病、癌症……（以下書摘一律統稱「唔健康」），大方向如下：
(1) 控制體重
(2) 食多啲好脂肪、少啲壞脂肪
(3) 食多啲全穀物、少啲精製碳水
(4) 食多啲白肉、少啲紅肉
(5) 食好多蔬果
(6) 適量飲酒
(7) 服用綜合維他命，當買保險
遺傳都有影響，但飲食及生活習慣可以扭轉。

第二章：有關飲食法
我哋覺得啲健康新知變幻莫測，係因為研究營養科學需時數十年計，但一有少少初步發現、合理推測就已經俾記者大做文章，當後來被實證推翻時，大眾就感到無所適從。作者每提出一個建議，都會列明證據來自邊個研究、有幾有力（但以下書摘從簡）。作者點評咗好多款飲食法，其中作者指低脂飲食係舊時嘅錯誤，低碳飲食反而可能行得通；地中海飲食法最接近科學指向。

第三章：體重
比起食唔食啲乜，更重要係控制體重，即係運動同埋控制食量。除咗食煙，最有力嘅健康指標就係體重。BMI係有用嘅數字但分類有誤導，因為BMI 18.5–25都分類為健康，但其實18.5健康過25。如果排除咗因食煙或長期病患而瘦嘅人，總之越瘦越健康。另一有用數字係，同廿歲出頭嘅自己比，之後重得越多越唔健康。（shit!）

第四章：脂肪
唔好食反式脂肪（市面上大部份煎炒炸焗物），食少少飽和脂肪（紅肉、牛油），食多啲不飽和脂肪（植物油、三文魚、牛油果、果仁）。避飽和脂肪嘅方法，係應該以不飽和脂肪取代，而唔係以碳水取代。但再次提醒，整體卡路里攝取先係最重要。

第五章：碳水化合物
儘量唔好食精製碳水（白麵包、白飯），提升血糖同砂糖一樣快，升完又急跌，好快肚餓又想食嘢，而且會增加糖尿病風險。碳水係好嘢哩個myth原來係來自湊米氣嘅中國，因為中國人食飯多，同時中國人較少長期病，所以咁樣猜測。可惜，高碳餐對唔運動嘅肥人害處大過瘦人，於是美國人越學越衰，而越益富裕嘅中國人喺長期病患方面亦已經急起直追。我鍾意本書好貼地咁提到全穀類難買，記得睇營養標籤係搵例如whole wheat唔係wheat，仲要睇埋排序。

第六章：蛋白質
最低嘅蛋白質所需唔高，大部份飲食習慣都滿足到。動物蛋白質同植物蛋白質冇乜話邊樣好啲，但後者比較多不完全蛋白質所以要唔同配搭。雖然唔同來源嘅蛋白質分別唔大，但留意翻隨之以嚟嘅唔同脂肪，例如紅肉多飽和脂肪，白肉多不飽和脂肪。再次提醒果仁係好嘢，又有蛋白質，又豐富不飽和脂肪，但應該用果仁取代本身食開嘅零食或肉，而唔係喺已有餐單額外加果仁。有多個小型研究指出黃豆預防或加劇乳癌，都係因為荷爾蒙，但由於啲研究未算好有力，安全做法係一星期食三份或以下。有多個研究都指出，過多蛋白質會令骨質疏鬆，因為消化蛋白質會令血液變酸，然後身體會由骨提取鈣中和，亦有大型追蹤研究顯示食得多蛋白質嘅人多啲骨折。（shit!）

第七章：蔬果
總之就係要食得多、食得雜。每日最少五份，食到九份仲好，以下起碼每日各一：
- 深綠葉菜
- 黃或橙色蔬果
- 紅色蔬果
- 豆
- 柑橘類

第八章：飲料
除咗天氣同運動影響，身體大約每1 kcal就需要1 ml液體，可以係飲或從食物攝取，飲水以外嘅飲料都得，但大前提都係唔超過所需熱量。口渴先飲已經遲咗；大概每餐一杯，餐與餐間又一杯，就差唔多。多個研究指，咖啡有好影響，唔多壞影響。飲酒有助減低心臟病風險，但會增加女性患乳癌風險；前者冇得「儲」，所以主要建議唔多郁動嘅老人飲。

第九章：鈣
冇證據顯示食多啲鈣有助預防骨折；國際比較甚至顯示，越飲得少奶嘅地方越少骨折，其中表表者係香港！強化骨骼嘅做法係，做運動（全身每條骨都要），攝取維他命D（曬太陽或補充劑）、維他命K（深綠葉菜），唔好食過多一類叫retinol嘅維他命A。唔算十分有力但多個研究顯示，飲得多牛奶會增加前列腺癌、乳癌、卵巢癌，推測前者因為鈣，後兩者因為荷爾蒙。

第十章：服用綜合維他命，當買保險
補充劑唔可以取代健康餐單，但當買保險係抵嘅。美國人通常缺Folic acid、維他命B6、維他命B12、維他命D、維他命E；如果飲食相近嘅可以搵有哩啲成份嘅補充劑。小心維他命A唔好多retinol，女性可補鐵同鈣，適量維他命C係好嘢但冇證據顯示大劑量（例如C.C. Lemon咁多）有用。

第十一章：總結
都係重提幾個大方向。同埋說服大家食得健康其實唔係好貴，雖然比起充滿糖同反式脂肪嘅快餐、令血糖大起大跌嘅精製碳水的確係貴啲啲，但慳翻零食錢，仲慳埋老時醫藥費。

第十二章：食譜同餐單
哩章我飛咗，冇書摘～

Bends toward reading like a textbook at times, but there’s a wealth of info if you’re interested better nutrition.

Solid science.

Best evidence based book on Nutritional Medicine I've come across. Each an every point is explained with scientific reasoning and multiple research works shaping the nutritional guidelines have been very well explained. A lot of points mentioned by the well renowned nutritionists have been explained precisely. This books is for every single individual who wants to understand how nutritional medicine is integral to preventive medicine. It also comes with a fun last chapter on recipes!

Great writing and amazing tips!

With a mega-market of nutritional research present online today, a lot of which is upturned on a continual basis, the Harvard Guide is a solid well-researched place to start planning your diet, or at least of knowing the what's what.

Excerpts-

Eating rapidly digested starches, like those in white bread, a baked potato, or white rice, causes a swift, high spike in blood sugar followed by an equally fast fall. This blood sugar roller coaster—and the insulin one that shadows it—triggers the early return of hunger pangs.

To eat more from food groups near the bottom of the pyramid and less from those at the top.

Seven healthiest changes you can make in your diet.

- Watch your weight
- Eat fewer bad fats and more good fats, avoid trans fats, since they have no place in a healthful diet.
- Eat fewer refined-grain carbohydrates and more whole-grain carbohydrates
- Choose healthier sources of proteins, The best sources of protein are beans and nuts, along with fish, poultry, and eggs.
- Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, but hold the potatoes
- Use alcohol in moderation,
- Take a multivitamin for insurance. Several of the ingredients in a standard multivitamin—especially vitamins B6 and B12, folic acid, and vitamin D—are essential players in preventing heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other chronic diseases.

The problem with nutritional researches-

They can’t because these conflicts and contradictions are the way science works. It happens this way in every field, from
archaeology to zoology, nuclear physics to nutrition. Men and women carry out studies and report their results. Evidence
accumulates. Like dropping stones onto an old-fashioned scale, the weight of evidence gradually tips the balance in favor of
one idea over another. It is only when this happens that you should make changes in your life.

Randomized trials - often impossible to do when it comes to nutrition.

Cohorts- Such long-term studies (see “Cohorts” on page 32) have yielded some of the best insights so far into the link between diet and health. By gathering information at the beginning, before specific diseases have occurred, cohort studies avoid the skewed recall sometimes seen among people who develop a particular disease—and who would like to find an explanation for it.

Case Studies- researcher gathers information from a group of people who have developed a particular disease (the cases) and a similar group of people who are free of that disease (the controls) and compares the two groups for differences in diet, exercise, or whatever variable he or she is interested in.Case-control studies are also more prone to error and bias than cohort studies. Because case-control studies can be done quickly and inexpensively, they supplied the evidence for many of the early recommendations about diet and health. As information emerges from cohort studies, though, we are finding that the conclusions from case-control studies were often off the mark

Metabolic Studies- The controlled conditions make it possible to see how different foods or nutrients affect changes in blood cholesterol or other biochemical markers, but they are too small and don’t go on long enough to measure the effect on health.

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” --- Mark Twain

Watching the weight-

But next to whether you smoke, the number that stares up at you from the bathroom scale is the most important measure of your future health.

If your weight corresponds with a BMI below 25, do everything you can to keep it there. More specifically, try to keep from gaining
weight, even if you could add some pounds and still stay within the healthy BMI range. If your weight corresponds to a BMI above 25, you will do yourself a huge health favor by keeping it from getting larger and, if possible, by trying to bring it down.

In reality, adult weight gain is neither inevitable nor innocuous.
Someone who was lean at age twenty—say, with a BMI of 19—can gain more than twenty-five pounds and still stay in the healthy range, even though this weight gain has serious health consequences.

Weight control is the single most important factor in your good health (after not smoking), overeating can pose serious health risks.

A CALORIE IS A CALORIE IS A CALORIE. So five hundred calories from ice cream, five hundred from red meat, and five hundred from pasta will have similar effects on your weight.

Even when you are sleeping, your muscles are constantly using energy. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest.

Prevention is better than cure-

It is far easier to prevent weight gain than it is to lose excess weight. In fact, gaining weight makes your body more receptive to future weight gain and makes getting rid of extra pounds doubly difficult. To make matters worse, some of the effects of excess
weight, such as diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, may not fully disappear even with successful weight loss.

Activity-
Brisk Walking- What, exactly, is “brisk?” It means moving quickly enough so your heartbeat and breathing speed up, but not so fast that you can’t carry on a normal conversation. It’s moving as if you were late for an important meeting. If you are a counter or measurer, brisk walking is taking around one hundred steps a minute or walking at a clip of three to four miles per hour.

According to the Surgeon General’s report, you need to intentionally burn at least two thousand calories a week to begin reaping the benefits of physical activity.For an activity to help your cardiovascular system, it must speed up your heartbeat and your breathing.

Make your day more active- Possibilities include walking up the stairs at work instead of taking the elevator; parking in a far corner of the lot and walking; getting off your train or bus a stop or two early and walking the rest of the way; using a rake for leaves or a shovel for snow rather than a leaf- or snow-blower.

Avoiding saturated and trans fats and getting more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can improve your cholesterol levels, help prevent blood clots, allow your arteries to work more effectively, and boost your muscles’ response to insulin. Going
easy on red and processed meats and eating in their place fish, nuts, beans, and poultry will reduce the risks.

PRACTICE DEFENSIVE EATING

- Practice stopping before you are stuffed
- Be selective
- Choose small portions
- Beware of desserts
- Slow down and pay attention to your food when you eat.
- Keep track of the calories in the foods you eat
- Sugary sodas and fruit drinks, for example, can be a big source of invisible calories that you can easily cut from your diet.
- Spoil your appetite
- Have a snack or appetizer before eating a meal.
- Be vigilant
- Try keeping it simple

Diet-

Hunger from eating less, not to mention cutting back on common or once-favorite foods or giving them up altogether, creates cravings that can lead to “cheating.” This can trigger feelings of failure and hopelessness. These, in turn, undermine the effort and
enthusiasm needed to stick with a diet.What’s really needed is a plan you can sustain for years. It should be as good for your heart, bones, brain, colon, and psyche as it is for your waistline. Its hallmarks should be plenty of choices, relatively few
restrictions, and few “special” foods.

LOW-FAT DIETS
By switching from fatty foods to carbohydrate-rich ones, especially fruits and vegetables, you can double your food intake without taking in more calories. They can also leave you feeling hungry, one reason why low-fat diets usually call for high-fiber foods that increase the sensation of fullness as well as between-meal snacks. Many people find it difficult to stick with a low-fat diet for a long time because it is so restrictive and because fats make food taste good.

LOW-CARB DIETS
chicken, beef, fish, beans, and other high-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine. Slower stomach emptying means you feel full longer and get hungrier later. Second, protein’s gentle, steady effect on blood sugar avoids
the quick, steep rise and the just as quick hunger-bell-ringing fall in blood sugar that occur after eating a rapidly digested carbohydrate like white bread or baked potato.
How well they work over the long term is anyone’s guess. One big unknown is the long-term effects of eating a lot of protein.

The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan fiddles with satiety, the body’s signals that it has gotten enough food. It does this by recommending foods that fill the belly without adding too many calories. These tend to be water-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk, cooked grains, beans, lean meats, poultry, and fish. Soups, stews, casseroles, pasta with vegetables, and fruit-based desserts get the thumbs up, while high-fat foods like potato chips and dry, calorie-dense ones like pretzels, crackers, and fat-free cookies get the thumbs down.

Unsaturated Fats vs Saturated Fats and Trans Fats-

In fact, eating more good fats—and staying away from bad ones—is second only to weight control on the list of healthy nutritional strategies.

Unsaturated fats are so important to good health that they support the foundation of the Healthy Eating Pyramid. This acknowledges that fats and oils make up a substantial chunk of daily calories and can also have long-term health benefits

The human body can build most of the different fats it needs from any other fat in the diet, or from carbohydrates, for that
matter. A few, though, can’t be made from scratch. These so called essential fats, which are all polyunsaturated fats, must
come directly from food.Our bodies don’t make polyunsaturated fats, so we need to get these essential fats from plant oils like corn and soybean oil, seeds, whole grains, and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna.

Not long ago, an FDA advisory panel said that trans fats are even more harmful than saturated fats. The Institute of Medicine went a step further, concluding that the safest amount of trans fats for humans is zero.

The focus on cholesterol has ignored the fact that eggs aren’t just packets of cholesterol. They are very low in saturated fat and contain many other nutrients that are good for you—protein, some polyunsaturated fats, folic acid and other B vitamins, and vitamin D.

The latest research indicates that trans fats also fire inflammation, an overactivity of the immune system that plays key roles in the development of heart disease, diabetes, and probably other leading causes of death and disability.

By the fast-food industry’s decision to switch the fat they use for deep-frying from beef fat to heavily hydrogenated vegetable oils high in trans fats.

Omega-3-derived hormones include ones that regulate blood clotting, contraction and relaxation of artery walls, and inflammation.

The best source of omega-3s is fish, especially fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and sardines.

If fat does influence the development of cancer, though, evidence from large cohort studies with many years of follow-up show that the effect is small.

People eating chips or other snacks made with olestra might be inclined to eat more than usual—because they are fat-free!

Carbohydrates-

Simple carbohydrates are sugars. Simple carbohydrates provide us with energy and little else.
And a staggering half of these “carbohydrate calories” come from just eight sources:

• soft drinks, sodas, and fruit-flavored drinks;
• cake, sweet rolls, doughnuts, and pastries;
• pizza;
• potato chips, corn chips, and popcorn;
• rice;
• bread, rolls, buns, English muffins, and bagels;
• beer and;
• French fries and frozen potatoes.

Four things contribute to insulin resistance
Obesity is at the top of the list. Next on the list is inactivity. The less active you are, the lower the ratio of muscle to fat you have, even if your weight is perfectly fine. Muscle cells, especially if they are exercised regularly, handle insulin and glucose very efficiently. Dietary fats play a modest role in insulin resistance, with low intake of polyunsaturated fat and high intake of trans fats leading to greater resistance. Finally, genes play a part.

HIGH-CARBOHYDRATE DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY BAD FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE OVERWEIGHT

Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load-

The higher a food’s glycemic index, the faster and stronger it affects blood sugar and insulin levels. As a reference point, pure glucose—the rapidly digested essence of blood sugar—is assigned a score of 100. On this scale, anything below 55 or so is considered a low glycemic index food. A low glycemic load is considered to be anything below 10.

For this reason, my colleagues and I developed the concept of “glycemic load.” This is the amount of carbohydrate in a food multiplied by the glycemic index of that carbohydrate. The biggest value of the glycemic load may be for deciding among various options. When picking a snack or meal, choosing foods with a low glycemic load is excellent for your heart and your insulin-making cells.

REFINED GRAINS VS. INTACT GRAINS-

Whole-grain, high-fiber foods have no effect on cancer,

Many consumers erroneously equate low carb with low calorie. In fact, many low-carb products deliver just as many calories as their normal-carb counterparts, and sometimes more.

Discover whole-grain breads. Forget the French fries. Eat whole grains for breakfast.

Proteins-

The bottom line is that animal and vegetable protein all by themselves have roughly equivalent effects on health. What matters is the protein package.

Eating more protein from fish, chicken, and vegetable sources like beans and nuts and getting less from red meat and dairy products is fourth on the list of healthy eating strategies.

Getting 7–8 grams of protein per twenty pounds of body weight is a good guide for most people. You can hit this goal almost without thinking, given the abundance of protein-containing foods.

It offers strong reassurance that even eating a lot of protein doesn’t harm the heart.

nuts have quite a bit of fat, but these are mostly unsaturated fats that reduce LDL cholesterol and keep HDL cholesterol high.

Here’s the wrong way—gobbling nuts on top of your usual snacks and meals. At 160 calories an ounce, eating a handful of almonds a day without cutting back on anything could translate into a ten-to-twenty-pound weight gain over the course of a year. This weight would cancel out any benefit from nuts and tip the scales toward, not away from, heart disease.Here’s the right way—eat nuts instead of chips or chocolate as a snack.

High-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine.

The more protein you eat, the more calcium you excrete.

No particular defining evidence on benefits of soy. Also, soy contains estrogen.

Fruits and Vegetables-

Eat many and include variety.
Many components of the DASH diet contribute to its ability to lower blood pressure. A follow-up study showed that the single most important factor is the extra potassium provided by the fruits and vegetables. There’s some evidence that certain types of fruits or vegetables work against specific cancers.

Drinking-

Drink enough so your urine is consistently clear or pale yellow rather than bright or dark yellow. Minor dehydration can make you feel grumpy and tired and make it hard to concentrate.

The simple sugars in soda trigger rapid and intense increases in blood sugar and insulin levels. Vegetable juices tend to have fewer calories than fruit juices, but check the label to be sure, and look up the sodium content as well. The biggest problem with drinking fruit juice instead of water is that many people don’t eat less to adjust for the extra calories in juice. That’s a surefire recipe for gradual weight gain. You should think of milk as an optional food, not one you need two or three times a day

Regular caffeine consumers tend to get nasty headaches if they miss their morning cup(s).caffeine’s activity as a diuretic—a substance that stimulates the body to excrete more water—helps flush out the plumbing and may make urine that is too dilute to form kidney stones.Coffee (and other caffeinated beverages) may act like mild antidepressants.

For now, don’t count on tea to bring any special benefits besides a reduced risk of kidney stones and a pleasant way to begin, enjoy, or end the day.

For men, study after study has shown that men who have one or two alcoholic drinks a day are 30 to 40 percent less likely to
have heart attacks than men who don’t drink alcohol at all. Taking a multivitamin that contains folic acid is especially important for those who drink alcohol.a number of recent studies have shown that any alcohol-containing beverage offers the same benefits. Red or white wine, beer, cordials, or spirits such as gin or Scotch whiskey all seem to have the same effect on cardiovascular disease. Claims that the small amounts of resveratrol and other antioxidants found in red wine and grape juice prevent heart disease have yet to be proved; if they do indeed offer any extra benefit, it is likely to be small.A drink a day three or more times a week is far, far better for you than three or more drinks one day a week.

Calcium-

Studies have shown link between Calcium and Cancer. So don't go overboard.
Milk is highly efficient in delivering calcium but it also delivers other stuff with it. So it's better to look for other sources of calcium. Possible harmful effects of milk and calcium from milk far outweigh the potential benefits.

Sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone stimulate bone-building activity.

Lactose intolerance- All babies are born with the ability to digest milk.In fact, only about a quarter of the world’s adults can fully digest milk.If you enjoy milk, low-fat and skim are certainly better choices than whole milk.
Saturated fat, Extra calories.

Too much calcium slows or even stops the conversion of inactive vitamin D to its biologically active form and so may rob the body of a natural anticancer mechanism.

Vitamins-

Don’t take two of these to get extra vitamin D, since a double dose of preformed vitamin A (retinol) might counteract vitamin D’s
effects.

Vitamin K also plays one or more roles in the regulation of calcium and the formation and stabilization of bone.

Each antioxidant has a unique set of chemical behaviors and biological properties. No single antioxidant can do the work of the whole crowd. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to get antioxidants (including many that haven’t been discovered yet) as well as fiber, minerals, and other good things important for keeping your heart and blood vessels healthy.

In high amounts, vitamin A can block the effects of vitamin D, which is good for bones and muscles and has a calming effect on cancer cells. The darker your skin color, the less effectively your body converts sunlight to vitamin D.

The five vitamins that many people don’t get enough of from their diets are
• Folic acid
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E

Tidbits-

Losing weight isn’t about deprivation. It’s about moderation. So don’t put favorite foods on a taboo list, just learn to eat them in smaller portions and less frequently.
General guidelines encourage 1,200–1,300 milligrams of sodium per day, with an upper limit of 2,300 milligram (about the amount found in 1 teaspoon of salt).
Wheat flour is not necessarily whole-grain flour. The less sugar the better.

High BP-
Most cases of high blood pressure (hypertension) can be prevented by staying lean and physically active, consuming generous amounts of fruits and vegetables daily, and keeping salt intake low.weight control is the most important. potassium, which helps keep blood pressure under control.

It is a good introduction to healthy eating and a little about exercise.

He says to eat a lot of whole grains and avoid red meats. He says to eat a lot of oils, avoid butter, and eat fish, chicken, and turkey. He says to exercise 30 minutes a day.

I recommend this book for a fast introduction.

I read this because I wanted a better scientific understanding of nutrition. But then, every time the author started explaining science, my eyes glazed over and my brain shut down because science is so booooooring. I also found myself skimming his lengthy explanations about why certain research studies were flawed. So I did not leave this book any further educated about how nutrition actually works.

But the author did have helpful, bite-sized, digestible pieces of advice on healthy eating. Puns intended. Plus, his sections excoriating the political corruption of government health guidelines were fascinating. Any sort of food pyramid or "my plate" coming out of the USDA is fundamentally a result of lobbying and conflicts of interest.

Tons of scientifically-backed information about nutrition and health that is packaged and delivered in an easily digestible format. Despite tons of information from pretty dense human studies, it never felt like a slog to get through. I leaned quite a bit and I’d recommend this for anyone trying to structure a healthy diet.

I'm not sure I learned anything new, but at least this book confirmed my eating choices as being good ones. My husband read a tiny bit and learned (FINALLY) that soda is bad for him. If only he'd read on...

My favorite nutrition book! It’s the perfect blend of nutrition science, study results, and practical food recommendations. I like to know the science behind the nutritional recommendations, and this book draws on decades of research conducted by Harvard and others. The book gives "a science-based, multicultural approach to healthy eating."

I've read the 2005 edition twice, and have referenced my notes many times. I'm glad for this update, and was encouraged to see that the advice hasn’t changed significantly. Willett says the recommendations are "fundamentally the same" as the original 2001 edition, showing that its nutritional advice can withstand the test of time.

The author, Walter Willett, is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The Harvard School of Public Health’s Nutrition Source has a lot of this book’s content online, plus other useful info.

Notes
Healthy Eating Matters
Advice for healthy eating
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits.
• Eat more good fats (from plants) and fewer bad fats (from meat and dairy).
• Eat more whole-grain carbs and fewer refined grain carbs.
• Choose healthy sources of protein. Limit red meat, and don't eat processed meat.
• Drink more water. Coffee and tea are OK, but sugary drinks aren't.
• Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.
• Take a daily multivitamin for insurance, with at least 1,000 IU of Vitamin D.

n  Harvard Healthy Eating Platen
• Healthy oils (e.g., olive, canola, soy, corn, sunflower, peanut) in moderation. Limit butter. Avoid trans fat. Avoid partially hydrogenated oils.
• Vegetables: Many, wide variety. 1/2 of plate (along with fruit).
• Fruits: Plenty of all colors. 1/2 of plate (along with veggies).
• Water, tea, or coffee with little or no sugar. Limit milk/dairy to 1-2 servings/day. Limit alcohol to 2 drinks/day for men, 1/day for women.
• Whole and intact grains: Eat variety. Limit refined grains. 1/4 of plate.
• Healthy protein: Fish, poultry, beans, nuts. Limit red meat, cheese. Avoid processed meats. 1/4 of plate.
• Exercise.

Of Pyramids, Plates, and Dietary Guidelines
USDA dietary guidelines are influenced by agribusiness, lobbyists, and special interest groups.

Those who follow USDA advice are barely healthier than average.

Mediterranean diet reduces heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, and increases cognitive function.

There's no scientific basis for target percentages of fat, carbs, protein.

What Can You Believe About Diet?
Not all meta-analyses give reliable data; their quality depends on data sources and nutritional understanding of analysts.

What to look for in nutrition info
• Studies done on humans, not animals
• Studies done in the real world, not hospitals and research centers
• Studies that look at diseases, not markers for them
• Large studies
• Weight of evidence (multiple studies by multiple researchers on multiple groups)

Healthy Weight
Risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure begin to climb around BMI 22.

You shouldn’t gain weight after your early 20s; weight gain isn’t inevitable or healthy.

Daily brisk walk does much to prevent disease, though more vigorous activities may have added benefits. Walk fast enough to speed up heart and breathing (3-4 mph).

Exercise at least 30 minutes daily (all at once or broken up), though more is beneficial.

The longer you sit each day, the greater your risk of death and disease, even if you exercise regularly. Move regularly.

Straight Talk About Fat
Avoid trans fats and partially hydrogenated fats, reduce saturated fats, and increase mono- and polyunsaturated fats.

Monounsaturated fat sources: olive, peanut, canola oils; olives; peanuts; tree nuts; avocados.

Polyunsaturated fat sources: vegetable oils (corn, soybean, safflower, cottonseed); fish; legumes; seeds.

Saturated fat sources: whole milk, butter, cheese, ice cream; red meat; chocolate; coconuts, coconut milk and oil. Solid at room temp. Raise LDL and HDL.

Coconut oil isn't healthy; its boosting HDL is cancelled out by its raising LDL.

Eating eggs doesn't increase risk of heart disease or stroke for those without diabetes. Still, it's probably better to have 1 egg/day than 3.

Limit butter; its high saturated fat raises LDL. Some margarine is OK, if low in saturated fat and free of trans fat.

Try to eat at least 1 source of unsaturated fat daily:
• Omega-3 fats: fatty fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, tuna); canola and soybean oil (not partially hydrogenated); flaxseed and flaxseed oil; walnuts; dark green leafy veggies (kale, spinach, mustard greens, collards); omega-3 enhanced eggs
• Omega-6 fats: vegetable oils (soybean, safflower, sunflower, corn); sunflower seeds, walnuts, pine nuts

Canned salmon is "best buy" for omega-3.

Limit red meat, processed meat, full-fat dairy to reduce saturated fat. Use skim milk or non-dairy milk.

Carbohydrates for Better and Worse
Grains aren't necessary. Low-carb diets, including keto, can be OK.

Intact grains are best.

High-fructose corn syrup doesn't seem to be worse than other added sugars, including natural sugar.

WHO recommends <50 g/day of added sugars.

Glycemic load (amount of carbs in food × glycemic index) better reflects a food's effect on body than amount of carbs or glycemic index alone.

Gluten isn't bad for health, for those who don't have celiac disease.

Steel-cut and old-fashioned oats have lower glycemic index than quick or instant.

Choose Healthier Sources of Protein
Eat 7-8 g of protein per 20 lbs of body weight per day.

Almost all healthy Americans, even vegetarians, get plenty of protein.

Processed meat is carcinogenic, and red meat probably is.

High dairy intake increases risk of prostate cancer.

Limit soy to a few servings per week.

Eat variety of low-mercury fish 2-3 times/week (cod, haddock, salmon, sardines, shrimp, tilapia, pollock, catfish, light tuna (not white/albacore).

If you don’t eat enough fish and have heart issues or exercise hard, take a fish oil supplement with 600-800 mg of EPA and DHA.

Protein supplements (including whey) are expensive and give no benefit over a high-protein diet, and can rev up cancer cells.

Eat Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables
Eat Brussels sprouts no more than once weekly.

It's not necessary to eat over 5 servings of vegetables and fruits a day.

Eat for variety and color. On most days, try to eat at least one serving of:
• Dark green, leafy vegetables
• Yellow or orange fruits and vegetables
• Red fruits and vegetables
• Legumes (beans) and peas
• Citrus fruits

Cook tomatoes to get more lycopene.

Eat several servings of fresh, uncooked fruits and vegetables each week, because cooking damages some phytochemicals.

Frozen fruit and vegetables can be as good as fresh. Canned are OK if they’re low in salt and sugar.

You Are What You Drink
You don't need to drink 64 oz of water daily.

Thirst isn't a good guide of need to hydrate.

Drink at least one glass with each meal, and one between meals.

Artificial sweeteners probably aren't hazardous, but there haven't been long-term studies.

Adolescents and most adults can be harmed by drinking a lot of milk. Milk is good for young children, may help older children grow, and may help elderly get protein and other nutrients.

High-milk intake gives saturated fat, extra calories, hormones, increased risk of heart disease and cancer.

If you don't drink alcohol, don't feel compelled to start. You can get similar benefits from exercise and healthy eating.

Calcium: No Emergency
Americans are near top of list for average daily calcium intake.

There's little evidence that high-milk or high-calcium intake protects you from breaking bones (osteoporosis) over long term.

Aim for 600-1000 mg of calcium/day. More has little or no benefit, and may be harmful. It's not necessary to track calcium intake.

Get calcium from variety of foods (especially greens, whole grains). Without dairy, you can reach ~300 mg/day. If you need more, and don't eat dairy, take a daily supplement of 500 mg. Dairy is optional. 1 glass of milk (or equivalent dairy) has ~300 mg, so 1 serving/day of dairy in addition to food will almost certainly provide all the calcium you need.

Taking a Multivitamin for Insurance
High doses of Vitamin C don't help with common cold.

Only way to get enough Vitamin D is with supplement, unless you live in southern US and spend time in sun most days, or eat a lot of fish.

Get at least 800-1000 IU of Vitamin D daily; most multivitamins have only 400-600, so you may need a Vitamin D supplement in addition to a multivitamin.

Few foods naturally contain Vitamin D. Sources: coldwater fish (mackerel, salmon, sardines, bluefish) (especially fish livers), cod liver oil, fortified dairy, cereals, eggs.

Sources of calcium: sardines, tofu, canned salmon, turnip greens, kale, fortified soy milk or orange juice.

Chewable calcium-based antacids such as Tums are cheap, efficient way to get calcium. Calcium supplement that contains Vitamin D is even better.

Zinc lozenges may shorten common cold, at best.

8 vitamins and minerals many don't get enough of from diet: beta carotene, folic acid, Vitamins B6, B12, D, E, iron, zinc.

Standard, store-brand, RDA-level multivitamin is fine. Look for one that meets US Pharmacopeia (USP) standards. Basic One is good. Multivitamins are cheap and unlikely to cause harm.

Even healthiest diets can have nutritional holes, which multivitamin can fill.

The Planet's Health Matters Too
Grass-fed beef isn't significantly healthier than feed-lot beef.

Putting it All Together
Mediterranean diet is "an excellent place to start" but don't feel limited to it; you may include healthy foods from other cultures. Traditional Japanese and Latin American diets can be healthy.

Olive oil isn't healthier than canola or soybean oils.

Healthy Eating in Special Situations
Quinoa is a complete, high-quality protein comparable to meat and eggs.

I only got through the first four chapters before deciding not to finish. Yes, there is some good information and some good science, but there was just too much diet culture (this food is unhealthy, you should never eat it, lose weight to be healthy, etc.) for me to stick it out to the end.