Eat, Drink and Be Healthy Book Review

Product Description
As seen on the Today show! 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. Really good for those who want to be healthy.

This updated edition of the national bestseller debunks dietary myths and presents Dr. Willett’s New Healthy Eating Pyramid, a healthier guide to nutrition than the recently revised USDA pyramid.

Inside you’ll discover:

• eye-opening new research on the healthiest carbohydrates, fats, and proteins
• why weight control is still the single most important factor
• menu plans and brand-new recipes that make it even easier to reinvent your diet

This book by Dr. Walter C. Willett is the second of two very good books on nutrition I am reviewing. The first was `Nourishing Traditions’. Both works have fairly impressive documentation for their claims from scientific literature. I just wish they would agree on all major points. The irony of the disagreement is that both appear to be railing against the same establishment that is based on endorsing a diet heavy in empty carbohydrates and demonizing fats.

Dr. Willett differs from Ms. Fallon and co-authors in his recommending as small as possible an intake of animal fats from butter, eggs, and meat. The basis of their difference lies in the effect of dietary intake of cholesterol (in contrast to cholesterol manufactured by the body) and in the nutritional value gained from both animal proteins and fats. Dr. Willet’s position, backed up by the authority of the Harvard School of Public Health seems more in accord with today’s conventional wisdom. Oddly enough, Ms. Fallon’s principle demon is another Harvard professor pictured as being in the pay of major American food processors.

The two authors agree on most other things, especially in endorsing whole grains, mono-unsaturated oils, and fish for their omega-3 fatty acids. They also agree on the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Dr. Willett goes further to clarify this issue by pointing out that it is not enough to concentrate on any regionally based diet. The Mediterranean diet happens to be healthy due to the conjunction of olive culture, seafood, and grape culture. Those Italians and Greeks just lucked out, I guess. I can confirm this observation by mentioning that two ethnic American diets, the Gullah diet of the Carolina islands and the Pennsylvania Dutch diet appear to be particularly unhealthy due to the high concentration of animal fat, butter, processed flour, and processed sugar in these diets.

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating