The Guide

Modern foods provide more quantity, less quality Throughout history, obtaining food has been a struggle. Today, however, getting food is merely a matter of satisfying our personal whims and fancies. Our choices are no longer limited by local seasons or climate. In fact, individual foods are usually in season somewhere and may be shipped halfway around the world just for our convenience. Our food supply has never been more abundant, and feeding ourselves has never been easier. Technological advancements in farming, transportation, storage, and processing of foods have made this bounty possible. Whereas in the past people bought fresh produce, dairy products, and meats directly from the farm, today people rarely have time to plan well-balanced meals and track down local foods to use in their preparation. For convenience, we tend to buy our food in grocery stores or restaurants. And, unlike our ancestors, we eat convenience foods of all types - even entire meals - which are readily availa...

Do you eat to live or live to eat? “You are what you eat” is more that just a catchy phrase your mother used to get you to eat right. It's a profound truth. From the Stone Age to the Industrial Age, people have recognized the healthful properties of certain foods. And now, in the Information Age, the importance of nutrition is so well recognized and supported by scientific evidence that virtually every major public health organization in the world makes dietary recommendations. The link between good nutrition and disease prevention is similarly strong. In the United States, for example, the American Cancer Society estimates that 35% of cancers that are not genetically predetermined can be prevented simply by eating right! “We must shift our national focus from avoiding nutritional deficiencies to understanding the preventive miracles proper nutrition offers,” wrote Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, in her book A New Prescription for Wom...