Saving Our Health and the Planet One Bite at a Time

Chronic disease, economic disparity, social injustice, and climate change. These are significant problems — but wouldn’t it be great if there was ONE solution to them all? According to Dr. Mark Hyman, there is.

The solution is food.

What we eat has tremendous implications not just for our waistlines, but also for the planet, society, and the global economy. What we do to our bodies, we do to the planet; and what we do to the planet, we do to our bodies.

In Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet—One Bite at a Time, #1 bestselling author Mark Hyman, M.D. explains how our food and agriculture policies are corrupted by money and lobbies that drive our biggest global crises: the spread of obesity and food-related chronic disease, climate change, poverty, violence, educational achievement gaps, and more.

Pairing the latest developments in nutritional and environmental science with an unflinching look at the dark realities of the global food system and the policies that make it possible, Food Fix is a hard-hitting manifesto that will change the way you think about — and eat — food forever, and will provide solutions for citizens, businesses, and policy makers to create a healthier world, society, and planet.

Sixty percent of Americans are living with chronic disease — a skyrocketing trend Mark noticed during his 30 years as a practicing family physician. We’re talking 11 million preventable deaths per year.

When Dr. Hyman dug into why this was happening, he realized this influx of chronic disease stemmed from the food we eat. Here’s where it gets interesting. Mark says people aren’t choosing unhealthy foods because they’re lazy or incompetent. The food we eat is a direct result of a broken food system and corrupt political food policies.

These policies have caused a chain reaction — affecting the economy, and the health of our planet. Mark says we have an important decision to make. We can reverse all of these problems, but we have to change the way we think about, eat, and grow our food.

Mark has set forth a guideline to follow regarding what you should and shouldn’t eat. Examples include:

• Eat mostly whole plants—More than half your plate should be covered with veggies. The deeper the color, the better.
• Go easy on fruits—If you are fit and healthy, more fruit is fine. But if you are overweight (like 70% of Americans), then go easy on the fruit.
• Eat more foods with healthy fats—Good fats include nuts, seeds, avocados, pasture-raised eggs and fish and animal saturated fats.
• Eat only unprocessed or minimally processed whole grains—All grains can increase your blood sugar so stick with small portions of low-glycemic grains like black rice, quinoa, teff, and buckwheat.
• Eat beans—Beans can be a great source of fiber, protein and minerals.
• Stay away from sugar—Flour, refined starches, and carbohydrates can all cause spikes in insulin production and blood sugar.
• Eat for you and the planet—Remarkably, food that is good for you is also good for the environment, our depleted soil, our scarce water resources and the biodiversity of plants, animals and pollinators, and it helps reverse climate change.

We didn’t get to this place of brokenness overnight, nor is it one person’s fault. Collectively, and over time, we can fix this. But it starts by taking action now.