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The Nuance
Science Might Have Identified the Optimal Human Diet
A combination of several popular approaches could yield the best long-term health benefits
Americans are notoriously unhealthy eaters. The so-called Western diet—one that adores meat, abhors fat, and can’t get enough of processed food — has dominated menus and mealtimes for nearly half a century and has become synonymous with obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Short of swallowing actual poison, it’s hard to imagine a more ruinous approach to eating than the one practiced by many U.S. adults.
If this story has a silver lining, it’s that the dreadful state of the average American’s diet has helped clarify the central role of nutrition in human health. A poor diet like the one popular in the West is strongly associated with an elevated risk for conditions of the gut, organs, joints, brain, and mind — everything from Type 2 diabetes and cancer to rheumatoid arthritis and depression.
“We’ve realized that diet is arguably the most important predictor of long-term health and well-being,” says James O’Keefe, MD, a cardiologist and medical director of the Duboc Cardio Health and Wellness Center at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “Most of the major health problems we deal with in America are connected…
