Eat, Drink, And Be Healthy

Talks about the Havard Medical School guide to healthy eating.

The National Bestseller Based on Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health Research…A Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Eating That Topples the USDA Food Pyramid

In Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, Dr. Walter Willett explains why the USDA guidelines — the famous food pyramid — are not only wrong but also dangerous. Debunking current dietary myths such as the evils of eggs and how high milk consumption does a body good, Dr. Willett sets an all-new nutritional standard. You’ll discover:

eye-opening new research on the healthiest carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

why weight control is the single most important factor

menu plans and recipes that make it easy to reinvent your daily diet Aimed at nothing less than totally restructuring the diets of Americans, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy may well accomplish its goal. Dr. Walter C. Willett gets off to a roaring start by totally dismantling one of the largest icons in health today: the USDA Food Pyramid that we all learn in elementary school. He blames many of the pyramid’s recommendations–6 to 11 servings of carbohydrates, all fats used sparingly–for much of the current wave of obesity. At first this may read differently than any diet book, but Willett also makes a crucial, rarely mentioned point about this icon: “The thing to keep in mind about the USDA Pyramid is that it comes from the Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for promoting American agriculture, not from the agencies established to monitor and protect our health.” It’s no wonder that dairy products and American-grown grains such as wheat and corn figure so prominently in the USDA’s recommendations.

Willett’s own simple pyramid has several benefits over the traditional format. His information is up-to-date, and you won’t find recommendations that come from special-interest groups. His ideas are nothing radical–if we eat more vegetables and complex carbohydrates (no, potatoes are not complex), emphasize healthy fats, and enjoy small amounts of a tremendous variety of food, we will be healthier. You’ll find some surprises as well, such as doubts about the overall benefits of soy (unless you’re willing to eat a pound and a half of tofu a day), and that nuts, with their “good” fat content, are a terrific snack. Relying on research rather than anecdotes, this is a solidly written nutritional guide that will show you the real story behind how food is digested, from the glycemic index for carbs to the wisdom of adding a multivitamin to your diet. Willett combines research with matter-of-fact language and a no-nonsense tone that turns academic studies into easily understandable suggestions for living. –Jill Lightner