Good and competent primer on healthy eating. The book reviews latest findings in the area of dietary research, and advises on the broad outline of the food plan (eg no processed carbs, a lot of veggies, red meat in moderation, etc.) The contentious area for Paleo followers would be a recommendation to consume whole grains though.

I believe this is the best book to read regarding nutrition. It tackles how studies are conducted, how conclusions are achieved (sometimes wrongly) and how many of the trending diets fair in terms of long term health. This is not a book about diets or losing weight, this is a book about health and being healthy. Sometimes being healthy can be surprisingly similar in comparison to many trending diets which follow strict meal plans. This a book on how to live longer and better.
I admit it can be a hard read sometimes, it is quite a dense and exhausting book, but I believe the effort was truly worth it, in order to get some real and profound knowledge about nutrition.
This is the book that I want to always have on my shelf and, from time to time, to consult it. Just as if it was a trustworthy encyclopedia

This would be five stars if it wasn't entirely US centric.
Actually it would be five stars if only the recipes were also given in metric instead of cups and bushels.

I picked up this book because I wanted to know a little more about nutrition. Scroll to any nutrition and health section for books and you'll see tonnes of diet books. This is NOT one of them. This is a book that teaches you about the science of nutrition, how studies are performed, what are the mechanics for different types of nutriets, and what research has shown, and what we should think about a healthy diet.

I find the recommendations here to be fairly prudent, after reading a number of other books in this area. In particular, it includes the following:
1. Keeping the weight off - by whichever dietary means - is more critical than
2. Fat has a part to play in our diet,
3. Consumption of refined sugars is deleterious on our health and we should move to whole foods with a lower impact on insulin levels,
4. Moderate exercise reduces cardiovascular risks
5. White meat is fine (fish and poultry), even red meat if consumed sparingly

It caps it all off by conceding that the state of nutrition science today is that what we do not know far overwhelms what we do know. To that end, it's recommendations are fairly defensive in nature and reasonable to adopt. Having read other books with far more radical propositions such as the China Study,  Good Calories Bad Calories , and  The Big Fat Surprise , the recommendations in this book seemed like a good balanced point in the middle.

A couple of key thoughts:
1. I like that the book starts out by explaining the various types of studies that nutrition scientists performs and the conclusions that you can draw from them. This section is important for people that are new to social or health studies and are often confused by the literature surrounding nutrition science.
2. The book lays out a good variety of studies. Most of the quoted studies obviously reference those done by the author, and a good deal of them referenced so are actually cohort studies.
3. The book recognizes that individuals respond different to diet, but does not discuss how different environments can influence the individual diet. I live in Southeast Asia, where high consumption of rice & coconut based products are high (foods vilified by the author) and yet we don't see the obesity epidemic that the US sees. Of course there are other factors at work but there is room to consider a more global audience. Some treatment here would be useful
4. This book has a little too much dogma for my liking. The author's predisposition for a particular style of diet was pretty clear, and makes quite a few speculations of industrial conspiracies around the setting of the USDA 2015-20 guidelines. More context on these accusations would be helpful to give its argument more weight.
5. The diet recommendations feature fairly Westernized food offerings. While I appreciate that the target audience was American, it's not reflecting the fact that the population (and therefore cuisines) are getting increasingly diverse in the US. A chapter on other cuisines like African, Middle Eastern, or Nordic would be insightful. All I hear is that a Mediteranean cuisine is king (although the author does explicitly mention that it does not have a monopoly on being the cuisine of health)

يبدأ دكتور والتر ويليت هذا الكتاب الضخم باستعراض تاريخي لتدخل الدولة، بأشكال مختلفة فيما يأكله الناس. إما بتقديم ارشادات غذائية للمواطنين أو بوضع قوانين ولوائح لآليات انتاج الأطعمة وغير ذلك. ثم ما تطور إليه الأمر بالارشادات الغذائية التي تصدر بصورة دورية: Nutritional Guidelines والتي تقوم باصدارها الجهات المختصة في أغلب دول العالم حالياً. حيث تساهم في توجيه اختيارات الناس، وانشاء الخطط الغذائية في المؤسسات مثل المدارس والمستشفيات وغيرها.

بعدها يستعرض الطرق العلمية التي يستخدمها العلماء في دراساتهم الغذائية، ويقدم نصائح عامة في كيفية تقييم الدراسات العلمية والاعتماد عليها عملياً. ومنها يسرد عدد من الحميات الغذائية، مثل النظام الغذائي قليل الدهون والنظام قليل الكاربوهيدرات، ويقدم نقداً علمياً لكل واحد منها. وفي النهاية يعرض نظرته لميزات الغذاء الصحي ومكوناته بناءاً على خبرته العلمية الطويلة اطلاعاً وتأليف.

بعد ذلك تبدأ رحلة الكتاب الطويلة في استعراض ويليت لكل العناصر الغذائية، فيذكر تركيبها الكيميائي ووجودها في الأطعمة المختلفة واحتياج الجسم لها وما طرأ عليها من تغيرات صناعية ثم فوائدها وأضراراها الصحية. ويختم كل فصل بخلاصات عملية لاضافة أو تقليل هذه الأطعمة.
يبدأ بالدهون فالكربوهيدرات فالبروتينات، ثم الخضروات والفواكه، ثم المشروبات المختلفة، ويختم عرضه بالحديث عن الكالسيوم والفيتامينات.

وقبل ختام الكتاب يخصص ويليت فصلاً كاملاً عن الغذاء والب��ئة، فبحسب قوله لن نأكل غذاءاً صحياً ما لم تكن البيئة صحية كذلك... أي أن صحة الغذاء من صحة الكوكب، وعلينا التفكير في الأثر البيئي لعملية انتاج الطعام ودمجها في قرارتنا الغذائية اليومية.

ويختم الكتاب بعدد كبير من الوصفات الغذائية، والتي تنقل الكتاب إلى الحياة العملية، إلى المطبخ.

...

دكتور والتر ويليت، هو أهم اسم في مجال علم الأوبئة الغذائية في العالم (Nutritional Epidemiology).
حيث اكتسب هذه المكانة من خلال عقود طويلة في البحث العلمي ونشره لألاف الأوراق العلمية المحكمة.
ومن أشهر الدراسات التي أسسها ويشرف عليها حالياً هي ثلاث دراسات حشدية مستقب��ية انتجت مئات المقالات العلمية، ومازالت، وكونها مستمر من عدة عقود، وهي:
Nurses' Health Study I
Nurses' Health Study II
Health Professionals Follow-up Study
وبعد اطلاعي على عدد من المواد في التغذية وعلاقة الغذاء بالصحة؛ أستطيع القول أن هذا الكتاب هو المادة التأسيسية العامة الشاملة التي يمكن الاعتماد عليها في الرحلة نحو غذاء أكثر صحة. وبعد ذلك يقوم كل شخص، حسب وضعه الصحي وحاجته الغذائية، بالتدقيق والتفصيل في برنامجه الغذائي بمزيد اطلاع واستشارة المختصين.

...

صادف انتهائي من الكتاب، صدور هذا البودكاست المميز للقاء مع دكتور والتر ويليت، وهو من اللقاءت النادرة له، أنصح بمشاهدته مع قراءة الكتاب:
https://youtu.be/Dx2JUtngxkw

Helpful primer on nutrition. In short, the author rejects the nutrition advice embodied in the USDA “food pyramid” and proposes a new “healthy eating” food pyramid.

Great book for beginners who want to learn more and be more conscious on healthy eating.

The instructions were clear, and the advice was easy to follow for most people in real life. The references were solid, like those in a good popular science book. I wouldn't have read this book if it weren't for the review on redpenreviews. The one thing that made me skeptical was the advice on taking supplements, as the medical community has differing opinions on this.

Yes, I did put this book in both the non-fiction and the fantasy categories. Whatever. People do not eat like this, at least not anybody I've ever met. I have enough food issues without adding all of Harvard Medical Schools' suggestions to the list. Bah.

I read this book based on the recommendation from my brother. It is the first 'health' book, I've read.

The key to health according to the book, based on research done by the author or his cohorts, is 1) exercise daily; 2) eat proper amounts; 3) whole grains at every meal; 3) abundance of vegetables and fruit; 4) nuts, oils with unsaturated fats - olive, canola etc - avoid saturated and trans fats; 5) fish and some poultry. 6) dairy unnecesary, meat infrequently; 7) multivitamin for insurance.

The diet the book teaches, seems to resemble the Mediterrean diet most closely.

I like the book. It quotes many research studies, and gives recipe examples. A good book for those looking to improve their health.

I read this for continuing education. I did learn a lot about how corporations basically force the government to lie to us about what is healthy. But I also got a huge helping of shame and fear about my weight.

Here’s what I made:

In case you don't read this book, these were my biggest take-aways:

1) There is a different Food Guide Pyramid from the one we grew up with. If you haven't seen it, look it up!

2) Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. Anything less than that isn't enough.

3) "The clearest and most consistent finding from both animal and human studies is that too many calories, regardless of food source, are far more important to the development of breast cancer than dietary fat."

4) "...too many calories in relation to exercise levels is the strongest dietary link with colon cancer..."

5) Avoid trans fats entirely, which are everywhere - mostly "... hidden in commercially baked goods like crackers, muffins, and cookies, in other prepared foods, and in fried foods prepared in restaurants." When looking in ingredient lists, look for "partially hydrogentated vegetable oils" and "vegetable shortening."

6) Certain foods seem to work against specific types of cancer, like carrots for breast cancer; raw and green vegetables for colon cancer; and tomatoes for prostate cancer. See pg. 119.

7) Eating more fruits and vegetables can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, possibly why this habit is linked to less instances of heart disease and stroke.

8) Eat more INsoluable fiber. This is the stuff that makes a difference, not just fiber.

9) With fruits and vegetables, eat as many servings a day as you can (5+) and "eat for variety and color." The book says to try to eat something from each of the following every day:
- dark green, leafy vegetables
- yellow or orange fruits and vegetables
- red fruits and vegetables
- legumes (beans)
- citrus fruits

10) Interestingly, alcohol tends to have an increased link to cancer in people who have low intake of folic acid, a B vitamin.

11) The one alcoholic drink a day guideline is not as clear-cut as we've heard recently... the real story is that "it depends." See pg. 136 before you drink for health, and make sure you keep exercising if you booze it up.

12) Even though the "Got Milk?" ads would like you to think otherwise, calcium isn't necessarily the best thing for you. Most people get enough calcium in a day via non-dairy sources, and dairy usually comes in sources that also contain saturated fat - bad! Dairy products have also been linked to prostate and ovarian cancer!! Calcium itself may be to blame in prostate cancer, and galactose (a simple sugar released by the lactose digestion process) may be damaging to ovaries.

13) Take a multivitamin for insurance.

And one extra tip from me, make sure you eat birthday cake and gorge at Christmastime. If you don't, you might as well die early anyway. :)