Mark Bittman, the former New York times celebrated columnist renowned for his books on “How to cook everything,” “How to cook everything vegetarian,” and his much publicized weight loss and promotion of eating vegan till dinner for health, has authored a new book with David L. Katz. Katz is an expert on nutrition and the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.
I give “How to eat: All your food and diet questions answered” an 9.5 /10. It’s short (222 pages of content), well researched with proper citations and a bibliography, and written in an informal engaging style. It’s accessible to newbies without a background in science, incorporating discussion of the research within a question and answer format.
The authors have scientific credibility so the content is trustworthy. It covers popular diets and eating styles as well as giving no-nonsense advice on how to eat, as promised by the title. It also provides an overview of macros, the basic building blocks of nutrition. Best of all, IMHO, it gives advice on how to evaluate nutrition research. There’s a lot of hype and commercial proselytizing in nutrition.
Dieting is big business. “How to Eat” advocates for a balanced approach to food consumption with “dietary patterns” vs. strict eating rules. I give it kudos because it fulfills its purpose as a basic myth-busting overview of diet. It’s reassuring to know that we all already know what to do by applying common sense to our food intake. Keep it real, keep it whole and unprocessed, focus on plants regardless of whether or not you include meat or animal products in your diet.
My one – very minor – quibble is that I would have liked some pointers — beyond the bibliography — of where to go for more in-depth yet written for the lay person information or a link to a web site which provides up to the minute information on some of the topics covered. This wasn’t the point of the book, so it’s not really fair of me to expect that. There are plenty of good resources available for that type of nutrition news coverage. Why reinvent the wheel?
This is a very good start for anybody wanting a good overview of nutrition, a review of diet(s) you’re likely to choose, and solid advice on how to eat that applies across the board whatever type of diet you decide to implement.