My fundamental philosophy on nutrition, and hence health, is to consume what our bodies were designed to consume. The body will expend precious energy to 'dispose' of foreign items in the system, and failing that encapsulating the offending item into body fat etc. Any manipulation of our food should be viewed as suspect, particularly when non-food items are included - which today includes just about all foods on the supermarket shelf.

So what were our bodies designed to consume? Most researchers inclined this way look back to the diet of our ancestors. One such researcher was Weston A. Price, who meticulously studied natural/traditional cultures between 1900-1925 (Sally Fallon has since continued to develop his work and is currently president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and well known author of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook). Interestingly, he was a dentist, and through his research discovered that the health of teeth reflected the health of the rest of the body. He also linked the introduction of sugar and white flour to a subsequence decline in teeth and body health in all cultures. This has been supported over and over again since.

Michael Pollan (author of the Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food, an Eater’s Manifesto) gives a wonderful down-to-earth summary of the dos and don'ts of food.