The bestselling guide to healthy eating, debunking dietary myths, and proposing the radical benefits of low-carbohydrate diet, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy is “filled with advice backed up by documented research” (Tara Parker-Pope, The Wall Street Journal). Dr. Walter Willett’s research is rooted in studies that tracked the health of dieters over twenty years, and in this groundbreaking book, he critiques the carbohydrate-laden diet proposed by the USDA. Exposing the problems of popular diets such as the Zone, South Beach, and Atkins, Dr. Willett offers eye-opening research on the optimum ratio of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and the relative importance of various food groups and supplements. Find out how to choose wisely between different types of fats, which fruits and vegetables provide the best health insurance, and the proportions of each to integrate into their daily diet. "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 "Finally, a commonsense, science-based book on nutrition that you can trust!" -- Susan Love, author of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book and Dr. Susan Love's Hormone Book Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH, has led the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for twenty-five years and is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. A world-renowned researcher, he is a lead investigator of the landmark 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. Coauthor Patrick J. Skerrett, the former Executive Editor of Harvard Health Publications, is the editor of First Opinion at STATnews.com. Chapter One: Introduction We eat to live. It's a simple, obvious truth. We need food for the basics of everyday life -- to pump blood, move muscles, think thoughts. But we can also eat to live well and live longer. By making the right choices, you will help yourself avoid some of the things we think of as the inevitable penalties of getting older. A healthy diet teamed up with regular exercise and no smoking can eliminate 80 percent of heart disease and 70 percent of some cancers. Making poor choices -- eating too much of the wrong kinds of food and too little of the right kinds, or too much food altogether -- increases your chances of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, digestive disorders, and aging-related loss of vision. An unhealthy diet during pregnancy can even cause some birth defects. Separating what's good from what's bad can be a discouraging task. Each day you have to choose from an ever increasing number of foods and products, some good, most not so good. Maybe the time you have to prepare food, or even to eat, seems to shrink by the month. To make matters worse, you may feel overwhelmed by contradictory advice on what to eat. Your daily newspaper or TV newscast routinely serves up results from the latest nutrition studies. Magazines trumpet the hottest diets complete with heartfelt testimonials. One new diet or nutrition book hits the bookshelves every other day. Even supermarkets and fast-food restaurants offer advice, as do cereal boxes and a sea of Internet sites. This jumble of information quickly turns into nutritional white noise that many people tune out. TURNING TO THE USDA PYRAMID IS A MISTAKE For no-nonsense, rock-solid nutrition information, people often look to the Food Guide Pyramid developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is supposed to offer straight talk that rises above the jungle of misinformation and contradictory claims. That's a shame, because the USDA Pyramid is wrong. It was built on shaky scientific ground back in 1992. Since then it has been steadily eroded by new research from all parts of the globe. Scores of large and small research projects have chipped away at the foundation (carbohydrates), the middle (meat and milk), and the apex (fats). The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are supposed to serve as the detailed blueprint for the USDA Pyramid, are a bit better. They are updated every five years and sometimes include ready-for-prime-time research. But the USDA Pyramid hasn't really changed in spite of important advances in what we know about nutrition and health. At best, the USDA Pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic -- what to eat. At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths. In either case it stands as a missed opportunity to improve the health of millions of people. REBUILDING THE FOOD PYRAMID I wrote this book to show you where the U