A Conversation about Healthy Eating

by Nicholas Lesica

What constitutes a healthy diet? Mainstream media and advertisers would like you to think that the answer to this question is complicated and controversial. But science, fortunately, tells us otherwise. This book ois available as a free PDF download via ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press

A Conversation about Healthy Eating brings together all the relevant science about healthy eating in one place, and it’s exactly that – a conversation; an informal discussion between a scientist and a friend about their eating habits,keeping the science firmly rooted in everyday life. The conversation moves from topics such as metabolism and digestion to gut bacteria, hormones, neuroscience and the immune system. All of these concepts are explained in accessible terms to help you understand the roles they play in maintaining a healthy diet.

The conversation leads to the conclusion that staying lean and healthy simply requires avoiding the overconsumption of processed foods. While this is, of course, easier said than done, science also provides clear recommendations for how you can adapt your environment and lifestyle to make it possible.

Rather than simply presenting you with the principles of healthy eating, this book will help you to develop a comprehensive understanding of the science behind the principles, including the evolutionary facts that affect the way we eat today. This understanding will allow you to ignore the noise in the media and to move forward with a healthy lifestyle that work for you.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Nicholas Lesica is a neuroscientist with an active research program dedicated to understanding how the brain processes sensory information. He leads a team of researchers who perform experimental studies to understand the brain circuits that underlie perception and behavior.

He received his undergraduate degree from MIT and his PhD from Harvard. After finishing his studies, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Japan and Germany before becoming a Wellcome Trust fellow at University College London. During his research career, he has led dozens of scientific studies and published numerous journal articles.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard not to notice that as the field of nutrition, diet and how to eat healthy or stay slim books have proliferated over the decades, the populations in many countries have gotten fatter and more out of shape. I wish I more easily understood the biological and anatomical terms (i.e leptin, gut bacteria, insulin, good/bad cholesterol etc,) that all diet and nutrition books inevitably explain in one way or another. Maybe in another lifetime :-). Some of that likely comes from how little is settled in this field and how often one author or one study contradicts another. So sometimes being confused with this terminology bogs a book down for me. That said, this book is still very helpful, kind of fun to read and honest in that the author acknowledges how much we still don't know about healthy eating while also clarifying many pertinent things and citing what we feel confident we know or at least shows promise. Spoiler Alert : Calories in and calories out does matter, eat mostly unprocessed food, many people eat too much red meat, minimize sugar as much as possible and don't eat too much at night.

A very worthwhile read and particularly for those who do understand the terminology an enjoyable read.

[tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting format, but chock full of easily digestable (pun intended!) information, that can be read in small bits. The book is grounded in the science, and there is a healthy (pun intended!) bibliography included.

There's a lot of info here, and it warrants rereading the parts that are most relevant to you--or even the entire book.

[Mrs Reddy Mallender-Katzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a nutshell: Dont eat sugar or processed foods ! stick to a variety of unprocessed, eat during Daylights and Excercise !" .... if you want to know the details WHY and how food works inside the body then read this book

[Gloria Fries · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. It's presented in a clear and easy to understand format, and is fun to read.