Mark Hyman

The National Institute of Health spends $800 million a year trying to discover the cause of obesity. Hmm. Could it be that the average American every year consumes 29 pounds of French fries, 23 pounds of pizza, 24 pounds of ice cream, 57 gallons of soda, [and] 24 pounds of artificial sweeteners...? We consume about 152 pounds of sugar, 146 pounds of white flour, and 600 pounds of dairy per person each year in this country. Doesn’t seem like any great mystery to me why we’re in an obesity crisis!

The quality of our diet matters most. Real, whole, fresh, unadulterated, unmodified foods: Those must be the starting point.

I focus specifically on the cross-section of vegan and Paleo because the middle ground between these two approaches is the most doable, sensible, sustainable, delicious, healthful, and science-based way of eating.

Keep trans fats our of your body by avoiding processed and packaged foods, avoiding fast food, asking for your food to be cooked in healthy butter or healthy oils like coconut or olive oil at restaurants, and checking ingredient labels for the words ‘partially hydrogenated oil.’

Whole, real, low-glycemic (low in sugar and refined carbs), high-fat (good fat), phytonutrient-rich food heals, while high-carb, low-fat, processed foods harm.

We know from the research that sugars and refined carbs are the true causes of obesity and heart disease—not fats, as we’ve been told.

If we were to identify one big lever to pull to improve global health, create economic abundance, reduce social injustice and mental illness, restore environmental health, and reverse climate change, it would be transforming our entire food system. That is the most important work of our time—work that must begin now.

Children born today are expected to live shorter, sicker lives than their parents. The average child born today will live five fewer years than their parents, and if they are poor or socially disadvantaged, they will live 10 to 20 fewer years than their parents.

For every 10 percent of your diet that comes from processed food, your risk of death goes up 14 percent.

Ultraprocessed foods and the food system that produces them are at the root of the chronic diseases that account for 80 percent of the deaths from noncommunicable disease worldwide (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.).

With almost ten times as much of this ‘junk’ research on junk food as of true independent science, the public, the media, and the policy makers stay confused.

As Vani Hari says in her book Feeding You Lies, ‘You wouldn’t believe a study on cigarettes that was funded by Phillip Morris, and you probably shouldn’t believe a study on cereal paid for by a company whose bottom line depends on Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Frosted Flakes.’

Approximately 60 percent of our calories in the United States come from ultraprocessed foods, with the poor, minorities, the young, and the less educated consuming the most.

Eat real food, or if you have packaged food, make sure every ingredient is something you recognize or would have in your kitchen and use in cooking. No one has azodicarbonamide, mono- or diglycerides, BHT, or carrageenan in their cupboards. An egg or an almond or avocado doesn’t have an ingredient list or nutrition facts label.