's Best of 2001
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


From the New England Journal of Medicine, February 21, 2002
There is an interesting dilemma for those who would influence nutrition. In many places in the world, there are governmental agencies concerned with food security, food safety, agriculture, health, and trade that may, from time to time, implement policies that are at least intended to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Most often, when the goals of agriculture and human health clash, it is the will of the agriculture sector that prevails (remember the European Union's ``butter mountain'' and ``wine lake''?). In the United States, perhaps more than anywhere else, this has left an opening for self-help nutrition books. In a land where individuality and self-reliance are valued above many other virtues and where disease is sometimes seen to be a mark of personal failure, gaining access to the best data on health-related food consumption may be central to maintaining control over one's health. The quality of such books varies enormously, from the bizarre to the mundane. The feature they share is the promise of better health and control over one's destiny. Only occasionally do bona fide researchers step into the maelstrom. Enter Walter Willett of Harvard University and Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. Willett's book is based on evidence derived almost exclusively from large cohort studies of diet and disease. He has been the architect of several such studies and is a major contributor to what we know about methods of collecting and analyzing data; he formerly served the Journal well in this capacity. His position in this regard is preeminent but not unchallenged. He encapsulates his position on the evidence in a new ``Healthy Eating Pyramid,'' a gauntlet thrown at the feet of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He notes that the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, like Rudyard Kipling's elephant's child, got pulled into shape by competing interests, few of which cared about human health. He goes on, ``You deserve more accurate, less biased, and more helpful information than that found in the USDA Pyramid.'' Thus, the book brings us the promise of science in the service of nutrition, and as with any good scientific claims, Willett makes sure we know, up front, that all findings are provisional and all recommendations subject to change. The central chapters of the book are derived from and explicate the layers of the new pyramid. Central to Willett's recommendations is the control of body weight, in which exercise, rather than caloric restriction, has the primary role. However, there is also helpful and practical advice on defensive eating strategies; for example, Willett states, ``Recognize that we are victims of our culture, one that glorifies excess.'' Indeed, much of what is presented in the book is sensible and practical and demystified. For example, the data and associated recommendations on fluid intake include the following: we should drink water; tap water is OK; soft drinks are full of empty calories; and fruit juice contains more beneficial substances and less sugar than soft drinks but cannot simply be substituted for water, because, of course, it does contain calories. There is also useful information on more arcane subjects: for instance, we should be careful of grapefruit juice because it modifies the absorption and metabolism of a variety of drugs in ways that may be detrimental. And there is a proper assessment of coffee drinking that I like to summarize as follows: If drinking moderate amounts of coffee is your worst nutritional vice, you are in excellent shape. Even in the area of alcohol, Willett, who has been and remains a champion of the beneficial effects of moderate consumption (which he has the courage to define), notes that if you do not drink alcohol you should not ``feel compelled'' to start. Possibly, this is a nice antidote to the widely held notion that if some is good, more is better, but his choice of words is just a little disturbing. Finally, although many self-help books with much poorer pedigrees than this one offer recipes, it is not often that they include useful rules of thumb about shopping and places to shop and even practical tips on how to make substitutions in recipes. Are there areas where Willett's Healthy Eating Pyramid and the associated information may not be warmly embraced by others in the nutrition-and-disease research community? Certainly the switch from vilifying total fat (a position Willett abandoned early) to asserting that carbohydrate is the bad guy (a position that Willett has made his own) and that there are ``good fats'' and ``bad fats'' does not meet everybody's sniff test. The field of nutrition and chronic disease is populated by those who will agree with Willett on none, one, two, or all three of these positions. It is probably fair to say that reality is not as clear as this book suggests. It is quite clear that diets high in potatoes, olive oil, or even sugar are not harmful to all (or beneficial to all). It seems probable that in the future there will be increasingly clearer advice that is based on metabolic variations -- variations in body shape and fat distribution and subtle genetic differences in the capacity to handle major nutrients -- and that echoes what we already know about micronutrients. It may well be that the ability to handle specific foods and nutrients differs substantially from person to person and that the only universal may prove to be Willett's central tenet: match the energy ingested to the energy expended by controlling both eating and exercise. It is an interesting paradox that doctors, scientists, and engineers are highly regarded in Western societies but that only a minority of people in those societies like reading about science or are even interested in the topic. Couple that with data from Robin Dunbar of the University of Liverpool in Britain, who found that perhaps two thirds of all human speech is gossip, and it will not be surprising if Willett's book (perhaps like those by Stephen Hawking) sells well but has no impact at all on human behavior or even understanding. John D. Potter, M.D., Ph.D. Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.


Review
Ralph S. Paffenbarger, Jr., M.D., Dr.P.H., Professor of Epidemiology, Emeritus (Active), Stanford University School of Medicine True to the implications of its title, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy provides comprehensive evidence of the links of proper nutrition to better health and extended longevity. Professor Walter C. Willett and his learned colleagues describe new scientific work on the cardiovascular benefits from n-3 fatty acids found in nuts and some oils; on the cancer-fighting substance lycopene, found in tomatoes; on the potential hazards of consuming too much calcium; and on the advisability of taking a standard multivitamin daily. Well written and well reasoned, this book identifies a total diet that affects satiety, meets the body's needs for energy and nutrients, and prevents or delays some specific chronic diseases.


Book Description
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Pyramid is one of the most recognizable icons in America today, seen everywhere from the backs of cereal boxes to elementary school displays to graduate school textbooks. Millions of Americans try to eat six to eleven servings of grains daily, three servings of milk or cheese, and so on. You may be one of them. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy tells you why the pyramid is wrong. Not merely wrong, but wildly wrong. And not just wildly wrong, but even dangerous. 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 Harvard's School of Public Health. In Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, Dr. Walter Willett, one of the world's 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. Dr. 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. Based on research gleaned from the world-famous Nurses' Health Study, the Physicians' Health Study, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study -- studies that tracked hundreds of thousands of people for more than twenty years -- and supported by dozens of other surveys and investigations, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy offers eye-opening new research on the healthiest forms of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and the relative importance of various food groups and supplements. You'll learn why weight control is the single most important nutritional factor and what the three other critical factors of healthy eating are. You'll 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. You'll 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.


Book Info
Harvard Univ., Boston, MA. Consumer guide to improved health and dietary habits, based on more than 20 years of research done at Harvard Medical School. Features a new food pyramid that includes lifestyle guidelines for weight control and alcohol consumption. Explains how vitamins and nutrients are absorbed in the body. Co-developed with the Harvard School of Public Health.


About the Author
Walter C. Willett, M.D., is chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. A world-renowned researcher, he is one of the leaders of the famous Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Dr. Willett has won many honors, including the Mott Prize, the prestigious award of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
A nutrition expert from the esteemed Harvard Medical School presents a detailed regimen for healthy eating that readers can adopt for a lifetime, not just until the next big thing comes along. Dispelling many of the popular theories about nutrition that lead to foolish extremes, the book promotes a more balanced approach to eating, addresses the shortcomings of the misleading and yet ubiquitous USDA food pyramid, and questions the authenticity of "nutritional white noise" that inundates our consumer culture.

With dietary and health information more readily accessible than ever before -- via the Internet, television talk shows, and a host of other sources -- it has also become easier than ever for self-proclaimed experts to perpetuate false facts about nutrition. Among the diet myths Dr. Willett takes to task is the notion that an overabundance (or a complete absence) of certain kinds of food -- such as carbohydrates or fats -- can be good for one's diet or health. In fact, the book encourages readers not only to adopt more balanced eating habits that include all of the essentials, but also to be more discriminating about their sources of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and the like. Not all carbohydrates are the same. Not all fats are the same. This indispensable guide will help readers make the distinction.

Other assets include a new and improved food pyramid, a no-nonsense guide to which vitamins are worth taking and which are a waste of time, and a slew of delectable recipes. Straightforward and comprehensive, this definitive work on nutrition is sure to become a classic. (Karen Burns)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Dr Willett describes a way to eat that is both delicious and healthy. Many nutritional scientists will strongly dispute Dr. Willett's contention that our national symbol of healthy eating, the USDA Food Pyramid, is unhealthy. However, very few will deny that the prescription in this book is a good one.
PhD. Professor of Nutrition at Tufts University, and author of Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health) — Susan Roberts

True to the implications of its title, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy provides comprehensive evidence of the links of proper nutrition to better health and extended longevity. Professor Walter C. Willett and his learned colleagues describe new scientific work on the cardiovascular benefits from n-3 fatty acides found in nuts and some oils; on the cancer-fighting substance, lycopene, found in tomatoes; on potential hazards of consuming too much calcium; and on the advisability of taking a standard multivitamin daily. Well written and well reasoned, this book identifies a total diet that affects satiety, meets the body's needs for energy and nutrients, and prevents or delays some specific chronic diseases. While scientific data continues to emerge, this book identifies errors in the USDA Pyramid, and substitutes a Healthy Eating Pyramid that has good health and pleasant living as a central goal. All the evidence in not in; but for now, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy provides us with the best advice available.
M.D., Dr.P.H. Professor of Epidemiology, Emeritus (Active) Stanford University School of Medicine — Ralph S. Paffenbarger

Finally we can step away from the hype and confusion of fad diets, and turn, instead, to a solidly researched guide we know we can trust. I am grateful to Dr. Willett and his associates for making this information so clear and accessible. Throw away your other volumes; this is all you will need.
, Author of Moosewood Cookbook — bn.com Review