“People are getting messages [about nutrition] from the left and right, often about just the latest findings from a new study, and that’s not usually sufficiently reliable ..., and that can make what is even at best a complicated story really very confusing.”

—Walter Willett, MSNBC News, April 21, 2003.

Americans are among the most unhealthy people in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost two-thirds of Americans—approximately 97.1 million adults and 6.7 million children and teens—are overweight. The number of overweight Americans has more than tripled in the last twenty years. In addition to high rates of obesity, Americans suffer higher rates of heart disease and cancer than people living in any other country in the world. Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in America, and at least 58 million Americans experience some form of heart...