Food and Nutrition Book Summary - Food and Nutrition Book explained in key points

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Food and Nutrition summary

Name: Food and Nutrition
Rating: 4 (265 reviews)
Author: P.K. Newby

P.K. Newby

What Everyone Needs to Know

4 (265 ratings)

24 mins

Brief summary

'Food and Nutrition' by P.K. Newby provides a comprehensive guide to healthy eating, including the science behind nutrition and practical advice for making sustainable lifestyle changes.

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Sustainability Diets Healthy Living Climate Change

Table of Contents

Food and Nutrition
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Bust common myths around nutrition, and learn the real keys to sustainable, healthy eating.

Food has always been a heated subject. But, in recent years, the debates around it have reached fever pitch. Of course, there’s ongoing disagreement about what type of diet is healthiest or most effective at weight-loss. But now something else has been thrown into the mix: people are taking a closer look at where their food comes from and how it’s produced.

There’s no doubt that the food industry has been contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. This makes many of us eager to choose more sustainable foods.

Most people already understand how better eating habits can translate to a healthier life. But now we also want to boost the planet’s health. These blinks will help point you in the right direction.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how conventional meat and dairy farms claim to be helping the planet;
why you should probably eat less red meat; and
how to choose the most humane eggs.

Making the right food choices affects both you and the planet.

Is what you eat really that important? The answer is, of course, yes. That’s the easy bit. Explaining why, on the other hand, is much harder. Conversations about healthy eating can quickly get confusing – and personal.

But it is possible to cut through the noise.

The key message here is: Making the right food choices affects both you and the planet.

First of all, what you choose to eat directly impacts your health. Biochemists and nutrition scientists agree that up to 80 percent of chronic diseases can be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. Obviously, your diet plays a large role in this.

But there’s more. What you buy at the supermarket also directly impacts the planet. Currently, the way we produce food is very harmful to our land, sea, and air. The food industry creates a lot of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which directly contribute to climate change.

We’re now producing more food than ever before, and it’s helping in the global battle against hunger. Over the last 23 years, the rate of hunger in developing countries has fallen by more than 10 percent.

But we’re also wasting food on an epic scale. Every year, around 1.3 billion tons of perfectly edible food are thrown away. And it’s not just about vegetables and meat. It’s also a huge waste of money, resources, and energy.

So what does this all mean? Well, for one, we should be more aware of what we’re eating. And two, we need to be more mindful of how much food we need, where it comes from, and how it’s produced. Every time we buy food we’re making choices – and whether or not we’re consciously thinking about them, these choices reflect our personal values about the world we want to live in.

We theoretically know how to produce enough food to feed everyone on the planet. We also have the technology to build sustainable, eco-friendly food systems. So what are we waiting for? Now is the perfect time to reconsider the kind of food systems we’re supporting with our current food choices.

Modern farming practices are efficient, but they aren’t good for the planet.

There’s no doubt about it – food production has become a lot more efficient.

In the 1970s, the use of concentrated animal feeding operations – or CAFOs – became widespread in the meat industry. It now takes much less food, water, and land to produce beef, milk, and eggs. In fact, the carbon footprint of beef production has decreased by 16 percent since the rise in CAFOs.

Meat has nutritional value, but there are dangers in eating too much red and processed meats.

The majority of people around the world receive their vital nutrients from meat. More specifically, pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world. It makes up 36 percent of global meat consumption. Poultry comes in second, at a close 35 percent, and beef stands at 22 percent.

Amazingly, in 2018, the world produced a record high of well over 200 pounds of red meat and poultry per person. The volume of chicken produced globally has grown five-fold since 1970. Clearly, we’re eating a lot of meat. But that may not be a good thing for our health – or for the planet.

There is a spectrum of processed foods, and it includes both healthy and unhealthy items.

Technology has changed the world beyond recognition. And one of the many areas it has transformed is the food industry. Refrigeration makes it possible to ship food further than ever before. And advances in canning and packaging mean that food can now be preserved in mass quantities.

New chemical additives keep food from spoiling and give it a much longer shelf life. But what do we actually mean when we say “processed food”? Technically, this term could describe anything from cheese to Cheetos. So let’s clear things up a bit.

Food labels are sometimes confusing, or meaningless, but they can still help you make better choices.

Food labels can be very confusing. Words like “conventional,” “organic,” and “natural” are bandied about a lot, but what do they actually mean? And what’s the difference between cage-free and free-range eggs?

Let’s dig into some common misconceptions and find out!

There are still misconceptions around dietary cholesterol and GMOs.

You may or may not remember, but there was a time when eggs were getting a bad rap in the press. The reason? Cholesterol. In 1968, the American Heart Association recommended that people consume no more than 300 mg of dietary cholesterol per day. It also suggested limiting egg intake to no more than three per week.

This all stemmed from the belief that the cholesterol we eat is directly linked to “bad cholesterol.” Scientists refer to this substance as low-density lipoprotein – or LDL – cholesterol, which is linked to heart disease. But as the science of biochemistry and nutrition progressed, it became clear that the cholesterol in eggs has little to do with LDL.

Not all fat is bad for you, and good bacteria can create a healthy microbiome in your gut.

American nutrition habits have a history of being anti-fat. But that’s too simplistic. Just as there is “good” and “bad” cholesterol, there is also good and bad fat. Bacteria can be good and bad, too. This might sound confusing, so let’s try and work some of these things out.

The key message here is: Not all fat is bad for you, and good bacteria can create a healthy microbiome in your gut.

When choosing a weight-loss diet, scientifically consider the calories involved.

Diets are always going in and out of fashion. Perhaps you, too, have jumped on some bandwagons over the years. But the truth is, one size never fits all.

For the most part, diets are all about changing how many carbs, fats, and proteins you eat. Some diets are low in fat, while others prioritize foods that are high in protein or low in carbs.

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What is Food and Nutrition about?

Food and Nutrition (2018) looks at the science behind what we eat. Based on only the best and most thorough studies, it cuts through the noise and fads to reveal what we really know about healthy eating.

Best quote from Food and Nutrition

It is difficult to conceive that 30–50% of edible food is wasted worldwide...

—P.K. Newby

Who should read Food and Nutrition?

Anyone interested in what actually constitutes a healthy diet
Foodies who want to make better choices
People curious about sustainable farming

About the Author

P.K. Newby is a self-described “recovering academic.” She has a doctorate from Harvard, a couple of master’s degrees from Columbia, and has served on the faculty of both Harvard and Boston University. Since 2012 she’s been a writer and entrepreneur focused on debunking junk science and helping people make better decisions about what they eat. Her other books include Superfoods (2016) and Foods for Health (2014).

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