Eat, Drink And Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating: Amazon.co.uk: Walter C Willett, P J Skerrett, M D Willett: Books

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Walter Willett

Edward L. Giovannucci

P. J. Skerrett

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Review

""Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy" is the best book on nutrition for the general public I have read to date. Dr. Willett is not afraid...to criticize some sacred cows -- including the USDA's food pyramid. I urge you to buy this book and read it for yourself; it will be well worth your time."

-- Timothy Johnson, M.D., M.P.H., medical editor, ABC News

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Offers a new approach to a lifetime of healthy eating, discussing problems with the USDA's Food Pyramid, the difficulties with conventional nutritional wisdom, and key foods that help prevent cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.

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WE EAT TO LIVE. Read the first page

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5.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Latest Research, Good Explanations, and Easy to Use, 19 July 2004

By

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 110,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)

This review is from: Eat, Drink And Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (Hardcover)

Review Summary: You would have a hard time finding someone in a better position to write this book. Dr. Willett is chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and he heads some of the most important long-term studies of how nutrition affects health. In this up-to-date book, you will learn what the latest research shows about how eating, alcohol use, exercise and not smoking can help you avoid some diseases and birth defects. The book also explains how to read the latest health headlines and interpret the studies they are based on in the future. The lessons are summarized into a Healthy Eating Pyramid that you will find easy to understand, apply, and remember. The book contains a lot of helpful information about how to shop for more nutritious and healthful foods, and easy-to-follow recipes. I was particularly impressed with the summaries of the data on how weight and eating relate to various diseases. The book's only obvious flaw is that it does not attempt to refine the overall research into subsegment groups like those with different blood types, different genetic tendencies, age levels, and so forth.

Review: Like Sugar Busters! this book takes a serious look at overcoming the tendency for having too many fast-absorbed carbohydrates (whether as baked potatoes or as a soft drink) overload your blood with sugars and depress your metabolism. Unlike the "avoid fat at any cost" diets, this one says to avoid bad fats (especially trans fat and saturated fats) and to use helpful fats (like unsaturated fats that are liquid at room temperature). You are also encouraged to seek out nuts as a source of vegetable protein. There is also a good discussion of the healthiest ways to acquire your protein. The beef v. chicken v. fish discussion is especially helpful. He is skeptical about the need for much in the way of dairy products (I was shocked to realize how much glycemic loading, creating sugar in your blood, is caused by skim milk), but favors vitamin supplements as inexpensive insurance. He shows that calcium supplements may not do as much as you think to avoid fractures. Exercise and not smoking are encouraged. Raw foods and ones that are slow to digest (whole wheat, for example) are encouraged among the fruit and vegatables, in particular.

The pyramid is contrasted to the one that the USDA adopted in 1992, which seems to be almost totally wrong. Apparently, it was developed based on a very limited research base. Since then, much has been learned.

I enjoyed reading about all of the long-term studies being done now to understand the connections among eating, lifestyle, and health. The next 10 years should radically revise the lessons summarized here, as Dr. Willett is quick to point out. The conclusions in this book, for example, are based on individual studies of eating, drinking, exercise and health rather than the long-term studies that he supervises and follows. So even those studies may show new things.

In one part of the book, he discusses the pros and cons of some of the popular diets. Some simply have not been tested for health effects, and he is candid in sharing what is not known as well as what is.

This book will be especially valuable to those who like to get their information from highly credible sources, especially from within the medical community. I think I'll give a copy to my physician, who has been advising me to reduce fats in the wrong way!

Although I don't consider myself very helpful in shopping for or preparing food, I learned a lot from the book about how our family can acquire better building blocks for a healthier diet. After you finish reading this book, think about where else in your life you may be following outdated information. How can you check? A good example is probably related to what you think it costs parents for children to go to graduate school and get a Ph.D. In many schools, all the costs are subsidized, and the students even get a living wage. How does that change your plans for encouraging your children's education?

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Offers dietary wisdom and sound advice, 4 Aug 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Eat, Drink and be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (Harvard Medical School Book) (Paperback)

This book is well researched and easy to understand, with sensible and practical guidelines to help readers make correct dietary decisions. Dr. Willett stresses that food that is good for you need not be boring or tasteless, nor does eating right have to be synonymous with self-deprivation. Although he cites the Mediterranean diet as a prime example of healthy eating, he points out that other traditional diets contain beneficial elements that are worth incorporating into one's eating habits. He has included some recipes, but I have found that the concepts embodied in his book can be very effectively utilized in conjunction with any cookbook that contains healthful and appealing recipes, a notion compatible with his "flexible eating strategy".

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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUST BUY - Don't put your health at risk, 12 April 2003

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Mr. D. E. Mayfield (uk) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Eat, Drink and be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (Harvard Medical School Book) (Paperback)

This book tells you the facts about the food you eat, giving you easy to read solid evidence... It was exactly the book I had been looking for... It puts light on many myths... If you want to be healthy or loose weight this is the only book you will need!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars a solid diet book, can be abit boring but good recipes
I bought living G.I, South Beach and "eat, drink, and be healthy" at the same time.

I will say this G. Read more