So you've decided to eat healthier. Where do you start? Almost any reputable source will tell you to eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, less saturated fat and red meat, more lean poultry, fish, and low-fat dairy. To my mind, that type of recommendation is a good start, but it's just not specific enough. Which particular fruits and vegetables are best? How much dietary fat, protein and carbs should you eat and in what proportions? Which are the best food choices and most effective health supplements, based on the latest medical research? This book is the result my personal search for the answers to those questions. I hope you will find it useful in your life as well. Physicians and scientists have been doing studies on the link between diet and health for as long as medicine has existed. But in the last 20 years or so, new insights have emerged, revealing particular foods and their remarkable health benefits. The research is on-going and most of the conclusions are not absolute or definitive. Further research may modify our understanding of the relationship between food and health. But this book presents a window into current research on the healthiest food choices. To be clear, this is not a weight-loss program or a dieting book. The book does not offer a weekly meal plan or a simple set of dieting rules to follow. There are no recipes or photos of delicious foods. It's not an exciting new fad diet. Instead, this book offers a description of the components of a healthy diet, including specific foods and supplements shown by recent scientific studies to offer the greatest benefits to health. The concept behind this book is for you, the reader, to understand which foods are healthy or unhealthy, and why -- and then make your own informed decisions. Build a dietary pattern that suits your preferences, taking into account the information presented in this book, advice from your physician, and your own circumstances. This book is decidedly more technical in its terminology and explanations than most books on healthy eating. The resultant learning curve is unavoidable, given the depth and breadth of the information. The 29 chapters of this book occupy about 400 pages. The first 14 chapters cover various dietary components and their relationship to health. The next 14 chapters list studies showing a decrease or increase in risk of disease or mortality for these dietary components. The final chapter suggests ways to transition to a healthier diet. The bibliography follows with another 55 pages, listing the 600 or so medical studies used as sources of information in the book. The endnotes number over 1700 and occupy another 115 pages. The information and opinions in this book are made available with the understanding that the author and publisher are not providing medical advice, nutritional counseling services, or other professional advice. The discussions of diet and health in this book are not a substitute for professional medical consultation. The information in this book does not diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.
