#328 - AMA #66: Optimizing nutrition for health and longevity: myth of a “best” diet, complexities of nutrition science, and practical steps for building a sustainable diet

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.

Americans might be the heaviest, sickest people in the world. The China Study suggests that we can lose weight and lower disease rates by removing animal foods from our diets.

What sets the whole foods, plant-based diet apart from the fads is the extensive research behind it, detailed and distilled in this book. The evidence is compelling and the message clear: Animal foods lead to disease; plant foods prevent and treat it.

Learn how a plant-based diet can give you more energy, reverse your heart disease, decrease your cancer risk, outsmart your genes, and make your life longer and healthier.

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.

How do you want to spend the last decade of your life? Do you want to be weak, bedridden, and mentally foggy? Or busy doing whatever brings you joy, flexing the body and mind of someone decades younger? According to physician Peter Attia, you can extend the active and fulfilling part of your life by building the right healthy habits—and the earlier you start building these habits, the better chance you have of circumventing mental and physical decline.

In this guide, you’ll learn Attia’s recommendations for how best to eat, exercise, and otherwise take care of your body and mind. You’ll also understand how one chronic condition, metabolic dysfunction, can cause four of the most deadly diseases known to man. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Attia’s explanations of human biology and modern medicine with information from recent research. We’ll also use additional health and fitness tips to paint a broader picture of the current consensus in the complex field of wellness.

Food plays a profound role in our lives: It nourishes our bodies, satisfies our cravings, provides comfort, and serves as a focal point for celebrations. However, the relentless pressure to be thin, combined with conflicting advice on what and how much to eat, can turn eating into a struggle for many people. For them, the pleasures associated with food are overshadowed by guilt, shame, and a fear of making dietary mistakes.

In Intuitive Eating, dietician Evelyn Tribole and nutritionist Elyse Resch suggest a way to overcome this internal struggle and cultivate a healthy relationship with food: Fulfill your body’s needs by tuning out what others say you should eat and tuning in to what your body wants to eat.

This guide explores how succumbing to the pressure of dieting damages your relationship with food, and it presents advice for tuning in to your body and fostering a more positive connection to it. Additionally, we’ll expand on the authors’ ideas with research and advice from other health experts.

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.

How do you want to spend the last decade of your life? Do you want to be weak, bedridden, and mentally foggy? Or busy doing whatever brings you joy, flexing the body and mind of someone decades younger? According to physician Peter Attia, you can extend the active and fulfilling part of your life by building the right healthy habits—and the earlier you start building these habits, the better chance you have of circumventing mental and physical decline.

In this guide, you’ll learn Attia’s recommendations for how best to eat, exercise, and otherwise take care of your body and mind. You’ll also understand how one chronic condition, metabolic dysfunction, can cause four of the most deadly diseases known to man. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Attia’s explanations of human biology and modern medicine with information from recent research. We’ll also use additional health and fitness tips to paint a broader picture of the current consensus in the complex field of wellness.

For decades, people have focused on body mass index (BMI) as a measure of whether their weight is healthy or unhealthy. But increasingly, experts say that BMI is flawed—and that overreliance on it can even be harmful. This article looks at BMI’s flaws—and alternative measures.

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.

Author Tim Ferriss has spent years studying how to improve the human body—he interviewed and trained with experts, studied scientific literature, and tried out what he learned on himself. In The 4-Hour Body, he distills the most effective 2.5% of what he discovered into programs you can use to improve six aspects of your body: losing fat and gaining muscle, enhancing sex, improving sleep, managing injuries, improving sports performance, and living longer.

The Hacker’s Diet was written by John Walker, founder of software company Autodesk. This is an engineer’s approach to weight loss, described in terms of control systems, feedback loops, measurement noise reduction, and practical problem-solving.

With so many contradictory theories of weight loss out there, this book cuts out the bull — it’s about calories in and calories out, period. If you’re fat, you’re fat because your eating control system is broken. Learn the sane way to track your weight daily, why the first few days of dieting are the hardest that dieting will ever be, and what you have to do to maintain your ideal weight for the rest of your life.

Food plays a profound role in our lives: It nourishes our bodies, satisfies our cravings, provides comfort, and serves as a focal point for celebrations. However, the relentless pressure to be thin, combined with conflicting advice on what and how much to eat, can turn eating into a struggle for many people. For them, the pleasures associated with food are overshadowed by guilt, shame, and a fear of making dietary mistakes.

In Intuitive Eating, dietician Evelyn Tribole and nutritionist Elyse Resch suggest a way to overcome this internal struggle and cultivate a healthy relationship with food: Fulfill your body’s needs by tuning out what others say you should eat and tuning in to what your body wants to eat.

This guide explores how succumbing to the pressure of dieting damages your relationship with food, and it presents advice for tuning in to your body and fostering a more positive connection to it. Additionally, we’ll expand on the authors’ ideas with research and advice from other health experts.

American society is inundated with food. There are thousands of options of what to eat and a myriad of ways to eat it. So why does food need defending? In In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan distinguishes between real food and processed food and how the reliance on the latter leads to a society plagued by Western diseases.

From our reliance on industry and science to dictate what we should and shouldn’t eat to the loss of traditional food cultures, the Western diet has wreaked havoc on Americans and created one of the unhealthiest societies in the world. But we can reverse the damage if we repair our relationship with food and support the health of the food chain.