csua.org/u/67z -> www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684863375?v=glance
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 pyramids recommendations-6 to 11 servings of carbohydrates, all fats used sparingly-for much of the current wave of obesity. Its no wonder that dairy products and American-grown grains such as wheat and corn figure so prominently in the USDAs recommendations. Willetts own simple pyramid has several benefits over the traditional format. His information is up-to-date, and you wont 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. Youll find some surprises as well, such as doubts about the overall benefits of soy unless youre 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.
Millions of Americans try to eat six to eleven servings of grains daily, three servings of milk or cheese, and so on. Most important, the book provides a new one in its place, a new food pyramid derived from decades of research by Harvard Medical School and Harvards School of Public Health. Walter Willett, one of the worlds most distinguished experts on nutrition, tells you why eggs are not the poison the public has been taught, and why some margarines are a lot worse than you thought. He tells you why the oil in a potato chip can be better for you than the potato, tells you what is good about nuts and bad about too much milk. Willett builds a general set of dietary guidelines that makes sense out of the welter of conflicting nutritional advice bombarding us daily - not merely from the USDA, but from books and physicians preaching everything from banishing carbohydrates to ultra lowfat diets. He shows how none of this nutritional advice has prevented an epidemic of obesity in America today. Youll learn why weight control is the single most important nutritional factor and what the three other critical factors of healthy eating are. Youll find out how to choose wisely between different types of fats, which combinations of fruits and vegetables provide the best health insurance, and how to integrate these into your daily diet. Youll even find specific advice for diabetics, people with hypertension, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. And all of it is translated into simple menu plans and more than fifty tasty recipes that make utilizing the new food pyramid a pleasure. Unique and authoritative, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy will teach everyone a new and fun way to eat.
Willett is the second of two very good books on nutrition I am reviewing. Both works have fairly impressive documentation for their claims from scientific literature. 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. 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. Willets position, backed up by the authority of the Harvard School of Public Health seems more in accord with todays conventional wisdom. Fallons 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. 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. 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. Fallons book and I would probably adopt its recommendations wholeheartedly if I lived alone, the recommendations in Dr. Willetts book appear to be more conservative and easier to follow. Given the great complexity of any reasonable model for human nutrition, in a world of less than perfect knowledge, the simpler course certainly seems to be the more preferable. Happily, both authors agree that one secret to good nutrition is variety. While Willett doesnt say this in so many words, he comes close to characterizing the great American meal of red meat and potatoes as a step removed from poison. Willets great adversary is the US Department of Agricultures food pyramid that he says, quite correctly, I believe, is simply wrong. The three greatest sins are: Placing carbohydrates at the broad base of the pyramid with no distinction between valuable whole grains and nutritionally empty processed wheat and sugar. Placing oils at the top of the pyramid with no distinction between harmful fats and healthy olive oil, fish oils, and other healthy lipids. Placing potatoes, another source of empty carbohydrates in the large stage near the bottom with other, much more healthy vegetables. The scariest thing about processed carbohydrates is not only do they provide no value, they actually steal things from your body and create dangerous situations. The author balances this warning with a wealth of information on alternate grains, starting with whole wheat and covering the entire repetoire of ancient grains such as spelt, millet, quinoa, flaxseed, and buckwheat. In place of the USDA pyramid, Willett and allies create a new pyramid correcting these errors. It also adds a strong recommendation for exercise, an endorsement of a multivitamin, and a confirmation of the beneficial properties of small amounts of alcohol, primarily red wines. As someone who has always been fond of both bread and pasta, my biggest puzzle over these recommendations is that how can, for example, the southern Italian diet be seen as being so healthy when it is literally loaded with these two sources of carbohydrates. I suspect the answer lies very much with portion size and the wisdom of several courses spread out over a longer time at the table than most Americans seem to afford. Please read this book and consider its recommendations very carefully. I suspect some of these recommendations will change as science moves on and I hope the prospects for animal fats improve. But meanwhile, this is as good as it gets for recommendations on nutrition.
I had always thought that what you should and shouldnt eat was simply common sense until I read this book. The best chapters are the ones about good carbs/bad carbs, and good fats/bad fats. Willett explains that highly processed carbs such as white bread, white rice, pasta, instant oatmeal, and potatoes cause sharp spikes and then sharp drops in blood sugar. The sharp drops trick the brain into thinking you need to eat, so it sends out hunger signals despite the fact that there is plenty of food in the system. Foods with a low glycemic load raise and drop your blood sugar slowly, so you feel full for longer and have more energy. I have switched to eating whole grain breads, old fashioned oatmeal, Uncle Bens converted rice, and bran cereals, all of which have low glycemic loads. Willett talks about a study in which participants who had diets high in unsaturated fats had significantly fewer he...
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