Book Abstract

Dr. P.K. Newby's Food and Nutrition: What Everyone Needs to Know  offers science-based answers to 158 stand-alone questions addressing what we eat and why it matters, farm to fork and far beyond, sharing facts about health, disease, and sustainability while dispelling misinformation about ultra-processed foods, plant-based meat, food miles, GMOs, and more.  The book explores the past, present, and future of food, tracing how sapiens forged relationships with the natural and built environment and each other, shaping how we cook, eat, and produce food.  Part I introduces challenges like hunger, food waste, obesity, and chronic diseases as well as climate change, resource depletion, and environmental degradation, much due to megafactory farming in agriculture.  Part II tracks dietary evolution through agricultural and scientific and industrial revolutions, from paleolithic plant-based diets in the Stone Age to meat-centric Western diets in today’s Information Age.  Part III covers essential nutrition—water (hydration), micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins), and alcohol—while combating disinformation on fluoridation, vitamin supplements, bottled water, gluten-free diets, high-fructose corn syrup, sugar, coconut oil, and protein.  Parts IV and V examine plant-based foods (coffee, vegetables, whole grains, legumes) and animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, fish), including nutrition, health impacts, and environmental costs, notably climate change, antibiotic resistance, and animal welfare.  Part VI provides evidence-based guidance on disease prevention, weight loss, longevity, and food waste, while highlighting ecotechno solutions for creating healthy, sustainable food systems, agroecology to alternative proteins to artificial intelligence, urging that the time for revolution is now.