Evidence-Based Nutrition and Diet Advice on How to Eat

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, 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, and 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, and 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, from agroecology to alternative proteins to artificial intelligence, urging that the time for revolution is now.

This chapter introduces the book’s goal to drive urgent conversations on critical food and nutrition issues pertinent to everyday eaters (and students of food-related disciplines), from farm to fork and far beyond. It discusses contemporary farming and food production, highlighting the roles of Big Food, Big Ag, and factory farming in today’s agrifood systems—and the roles women, children, forced labor, and immigrants play. It contrasts traditional plant-based diets with meat-centric Western diets filled with ultra-processed foods (UPFs).

It clarifies that nutrition is a science based in biochemistry, utilizing the scientific method to understand how diet impacts health, disease, sustainability, and well-being. It introduces the nutritional ecology framework (health, environment, economy, and society) and the importance of dietary patterns rather than individual nutrients in creating healthy, sustainable diets. And food is so much more than medicine; our diets are source of pleasure, celebration, and culture, central to the human experience.