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Summary: This book has changed my life...
Review: Wow, no book has made more of an impact on my life then this fine book. It's changed totally the way I regard food and makes me think about what I eat like never before. This book has inspired me to reaccess my diet and start thinking healthy. Did you know that not all fats are bad for you and that your body needs certain types of fat? Did you know that there are good and bad types of Carbohydrates? - The information about the Glycemic index was a revelation to me... I read this book in 2 days flat. Once you read the part about the new food triangle you will be intrigued to read further. I was so impressed, I ordered 3 copies to give to friends and family. What better present can you give to someone, a present that will help them live a long and healthy life? This book is like a literature review on many recent studies done on nutrition and is a product of the admirable Harvard Medical school. It doesn't just take one study and go with it's findings like many fad diets have done in the past. Instead it gives you a balanced accessment of the results of many studies. It does not preach a dogma but educates the reader to eat, drink and be healthy!
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Summary: Best "Diet" Book on the market
Review: Dr. Willett provides an excellent overview of a healthy eating plan. I put the word "diet" in quotes because this is not a diet but a way of life. He documents with studies and scientific evidence all the changes that he's made in the USDA Food Pyramid. If you follow his suggestions you will live a long healthy life. (Particularly his recommendation to cut partially hydrogenated vegetable oils out of your diet.)
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Summary: Great book - a MUST READ!
Review: If you're fed up and frustrated with fad diet books proclaiming phenomenal results but lacking scientific merit, then look no further than Walter Willett's science-based, best-selling book, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. Dr. Willett, a renowned nutrition researcher and Professor of Medicine at Harvard School of Public Health, thoroughly examines the relationship between diet and disease and dispels common myths about eating and drinking. His "how-to" writing style effectively guides the reader through 12 information-laden chapters filled with charts, graphs, lists, and figures covering a variety of topics. In an engaging manner that reads like a news story, Willett exposes the faults of the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, promotes the best types of fat and carbohydrates to eat, reports the benefits of drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, provides valuable information on vitamins and minerals, and translates scientific nutrition research to support his claims. From the onset he critically dismantles the USDA Food Guide Pyramid saying that it is "wrong," "health-damaging," and built on "shaky scientific ground." Willett believes that the USDA Pyramid is poorly designed and fails to address crucial components of health such as exercising consistently and controlling body weight. In fact, he likens the Pyramid to many of the fad diets that are devoid of scientific evidence, and he suggests that this adds to the confusion and hype of the billion-dollar health industry. As an alternative, he describes a new, revised Healthy Eating Pyramid that includes exercise and body weight management and offers simple, realistic, and practical eating strategies for attaining and maintaining optimal health. Willett convincingly points out that the flawed USDA Pyramid fails to distinguish between good, healthful (mono- and polyunsaturated) and bad, deadly (saturated and trans) types of fat. He argues that the Pyramid includes the "wrong" types of carbohydrates (refined, processed) with the best types of carbohydrates (whole grain, unprocessed) in its recommendation of 6 to 11 carbohydrate servings per day. He notes that the Pyramid considers foods such as red meat as an equal protein source as chicken, turkey, and fish, which are more healthful choices because they have less saturated fat and cholesterol. Furthermore, Willett claims that the USDA Pyramid unnecessarily promotes the consumption of "fat-loaded" whole-milk dairy products to get enough calcium in the diet. Finally he disparages the USDA Pyramid for neglecting to mention the benefits of controlling body weight, exercising consistently, drinking alcohol in moderation, and taking vitamin supplements, all of which are necessary components for living a healthful life. Throughout the book, Willett outlines his own strategies for weight control and makes specific recommendations to avoid overeating and increase daily activity. Willett acknowledges that adopting these changes in your life requires effort and awareness. Nevertheless, he continually builds the reader's confidence with the benefits of eating healthfully and leading an active lifestyle. His innovative strategies include adding "activity bits" throughout the day to burn extra calories. For instance, he suggests getting off the train or bus a couple of stops early and walking the rest of the way, or parking your car some distance away in the lot and walking. In Chapter Four Willett tackles the myth that all fats are bad. He makes the important distinction that some fats are healthy and others are downright deadly. Again, he relies on solid scientific research done on certain populations in France, Italy, and the US to present and fortify his argument. His conclusions are not surprising. The risks of heart disease and stroke are significantly lowered when people consume more liquid (unsaturated) fats such as olive oil and flax oil instead of solid (saturated) fats found in animal meat and butter. In later chapters, Willett accomplishes the difficult task of describing the differences in carbohydrates and how these differences both positively and negatively affect blood sugar. He blasts the USDA Pyramid because it is based on a high-carbohydrate diet and announces that it may be "among the worst eating strategies for someone who is overweight and not physically active." He quickly follows with the Healthy Eating Pyramid, which distinguishes between the good (whole-grain, unprocessed) and bad (refined, processed) carbohydrates and promotes consistent exercise. Willett explains that whole-grain carbohydrates are digested more slowly and control hunger better than refined, processed carbohydrates like white bread and potatoes. Furthermore, whole-grain carbohydrates supply more vitamins and fiber and may protect the body from developing diabetes. In Chapter Nine, Willett boldly challenges the National Dairy Council's (NDC) calcium campaign with a provocative argument against consuming dairy products. He contends that no "calcium emergency" exists although the NDC would have you believe otherwise based on its widespread, celebrity milk mustache advertisements. While Willett agrees that calcium is important for bone health, he believes that dietary calcium should come from sources other than whole-milk products. Thus, Willett recommends "cheaper," "easier," and "healthier" choices for sources of calcium such as one percent and skim milk for those who can tolerate it, calcium-fortified orange juice and cereals, broccoli, spinach, and taking calcium supplements or calcium-based antacids to maintain bone health. Moderation and balance represent Willett's mantra for the final chapters. He provides a survey of research that describes the health benefits of drinking alcohol in moderation (women one drink per day and men up to two drinks per day) and taking a "standard, store-brand, RDA-level multivitamin" supplement for insurance against possible deficiencies in the diet. He emphasizes, however, that the multivitamin should not replace healthful eating. Rather, the multivitamin serves to fill any "nutrient holes" and reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. Willett successfully continues to explore the cutting edge of nutrition research and verifies many of his claims with his continual review of the scientific literature and ongoing clinical research studies at Harvard. Last, Willett provides a weeklong meal plan along with 49 detailed recipes replete with nutrition information (calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, sodium) and he also adds special notes for pregnant women and people with diabetes. So put those fad diet books away and read Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. It may be the healthiest material you digest all year.
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Summary: Excellent information
Review: This book gives you solid information about nutrition. The author has looked at more scientific data than anyone else. That is why is advice is more balanced than various diet gurus who typically recommend very unbalanced diet. The author explains the glycemic index very well. By stating the fact that white rise is a high glycemic index food, he has irritated a lot of people. Other nutritionists have questioned his theory, by commenting that Asian populations whose main foodstock is white rice, have far better health indicators than we do. The author, however, explains this fact perfectly well by mentioning that Asian populations are active, lean, associated with a low BMI. For such a population, the impact of a high glycemic index food is moderated. But, when you take an American population that is not so active, often overweight, with a much higher BMI, such foods have a greater impact, and may increase risk of being increasingly overweight, and getting diabetes. Whenever the author appears controversial, he typically explains out the issue very well. And, at this stage of our nutritional knowledge, he appears to know this domain better than most.
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Summary: Sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out
Review: I hear everywhere how I should eat less junk food, more veggies, cut back on carbs and red meat, etc., etc., etc. but somehow it still never dawned on me; just in one ear and out the other as I continued with my unhealthy eating habits. This book was eye-opening for me not just by clearly and concisely pointing out what types of foods I should eat, but also by explaining the "food politics" surrounding the USDA food pyramid. Knowing now how the Beef industry and the Dairy Council have lobbied long and hard for their not-so-healthy products gives me a new perspective when looking at my meal choices. This book also shed a lot of light on the low-fat food industry, while also pointing out that not all fat is bad...some of it is in fact very good for you. This book clearly explains how the body works and uses food so their revised food pyramid makes sense to you, and isn't just another health story to ignore. I gained a better understanding of food portions, and am now better able to read the labels on packaged foods. I now look at food industry marketing and the seemingly endless stream of health reports with a bit more skepicism and armed with a lot more knowledge. This is a terrific book with good, solid advice on the best ways to eat healthy for the rest of your life without feeling deprived. I've successfully used Dr. Willett's advice, and have loaned this book out to many people, most of whom return it only to tell me they went out and bought their own copy! A a former unhealthy eater, I have to say this book changed the way I look at food, nutrition and health forever!
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Summary: Learn to Eat Food You Need
Review: A great introduction to nutrition for those who want to eat healthily. I keep it close by and refer to it often. It is based on research you can trust.
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Summary: What we really know about Nutrition
Review: ~
I was very grateful to come across "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy." I was beginning to despair of finding reliable, sensible, unbiased advice about diet. It's a field full of cranks and sacred cows, and it's subtly but pervasively distorted by various commercial interests and passionately-held ideologies. It's hard to find someone to trust. Willett is someone to trust. He knows how to evaluate evidence and translate it into clear recommendations. He is of course a leading expert on nutrition, and he knows the field as well as anyone. But what really sets him apart -- and what makes this the most useful short book on nutrition I've read -- is that he knows how much weight to give to various kinds of evidence. An exciting new study of six african parrots fed nothing but beef suet for two years may be very interesting -- it may lead eventually to reliable new knowledge -- but it isn't a sound basis for making dietary recommendations, and it doesn't outweigh convergent, often-repeated evidence from different large long-term studies of human beings. This book is a concise survey of what we really know, at this point, about a healthy diet. Willett runs down his (quite short) list of recommendations, giving a chapter to each, and explains his reasons for each one quite clearly. His recommendations vary sharply, sometimes, from the famous (or notorious) USDA pyramid. None of them will be uncontroversial -- but uncontroversial recommendations don't exist in the field of nutrition. Carefully thought-out and well-supported ones are the best we're going to get. What's wrong with this book? The same thing that's right about it -- it's short. If you "keep up with" nutrition, there won't be any brand-new information in it for you. What's brand-new and uniquely valuable about the book is simply -- Willett's judgement and sense of proportion.
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Summary: The most important nutrition book in a long time
Review: If you want to read the myths, read other books. If you want the facts, read this. Is there any topic on which more garbage has been written over the past few decades than diet and nutrition? From TV informercials to bookshelves to magazines, people are bombarded with a bewildering array of misinformation: low-fat, low-carb, high-protien, etc., etc., etc. It's no wonder that as a nation we continue to gain weight. Dr. Willett, who heads up the nutrition department at Harvard, cuts through all the misinformation to lay out what scientific research can actually prove -- in a very readable, accessible style. He would be the first to note that this is not the "last word" on nutrition -- too much research is still going on, and no doubt will for decades. But he does put to rest many myths and lays out a common-sense approach to eating that is both nutritious and delicious. For example, he points out that not all fats are bad. Plant-based fats -- such as olive oil and canola oil (which are liquid at room temperature) -- and the fats in fish tend to be not just neutral but actually good for you. It's animal fats -- such as butter and lard (which are solid at room temperature) -- that are problematic. So a balanced diet can and should include these good fats. He also points out the research that shows that alcohol *in moderation* can also be good for you (hence, the "drink" of the title). These are just two examples of the many ways in which he dismantles the USDA "food pyramid" -- which lumps all fats together, and doesn't mention alcohol for political reasons -- and proposes a substitute pyramid that is based on actual scientific research in its place. This is a must-read for anyone interested in their personal diet and nutrition.
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Summary: Common sense approach to eating healthy
Review: This isn't a new revolutionary diet book. It's a simple read on the latest research in healthy eating and what we can all do to improve our habits and prolong our lives. The book will enlighten everyone who reads it. Guaranteed. Read the other reviews for more details. Simply put, the best book I've read in a looooong time!
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Summary: 7 Common Sense Eating suggestions, 300 Overblown Pages
Review: "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" dissects the USDA food pyramid and reconstitutes it into the following adjustments or alternate eating strategies:
*maintain your weight
*use unsaturated fats
*use whole grain carbs
*eat healthier proteins
*plenty of fruits and veggies
*use alcohol in moderation
*take a multivitamin everyday for insurance Nothing here is groundbreaking and its summarized nicely on one page. The rest of the nearly 300 pages are partly worthwhile (lots of menu suggestions) but its not necessary to read them all to find the real "meat" of knowledge presented here. Its hard to argue with the 7 recommendations, but the book just feels overblown for what is offered.
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