If you live by the food pyramid, you will die by the food pyramid. I have been stating this for some time.

I have just finished Denise Minger’s new book ‘Death by Food Pyramid’. It was predictably informative and insightful.

She dissects a lot of the history of how we have gotten into our modern diet and filled in some gaps for me.

I liked her section on meat. She quelled some myths around the good and bad aspects.She reminded me of the benefits of eating more than just the lean muscle part of animals as well as cooking on low heats rather than burning the meat to a charred mass.

Minger looks at the common ground of what ‘diets’ work and revisits Weston A. Price’s work from the 1800’s on what healthy societies ate. The common theme was what they avoided rather than what they ate. No surprises for me here.

The common themes for healthy living were minimal sugar, no refined carbohydrates and no modern polyunsaturated vegetable oils!

Fresh air, physical activity and community involvement all play a role in longevity and health.

It was an easy read with plenty of references. I will be cross checking a few for more information.