I found this book really easy to read despite the scientific nature of it. I was looking to improve my diet to optimise my health and found it very helpful. I am already instigating some changes e.g. trying not to eat the same lunch every day and to prepare and eat a greater variety of food. I have been encouraged to eat more vegetarian meals but not to exclude anything altogether.

Here you will find out that pretty much all the things that you "know" on how certain foods affect your health are based on either: (i) well-meaning but ultimately incorrect research carried out a long time ago; (ii) the blandishments and confusion sown by the big-food manufacturers; (iii) sloppy analysis and wishful thinking put "out there" by public-health bodies whose motives are hard to discern. Almost all of us will learn something from this.

...have a beautiful corpse. In the olden days we didn't have all these fancy foods. First it was bananas, then we got pineapples - now everyone's going around eating god know what! In the streets and on the buses too. It's disgusting. No wonder we've never been unfitter or unhappier as a nation. I just walk to the local chippy and they know my order before I open my mouth. Agnes next door drives one village over, but as I always tell her THEY TASTE THE SAME! Some of these so called fast food so called restaurants are doing salads and re-cycling, but it's a bit late now. And you can't beat a bit of finny haddock!

Whilst there is no doubting the author's credentials and integrity, this book doesn't really do him justice. It is a broad, conversational overview of the subject that is undoubtedly well referenced and pegged in science. But this reader was left thinking that it did not reward my time with any new stuff. Think of it as a curtain-raiser for his latest works.

In this book Tim Spector busts myths around our diet, lifestyle and environment. He continues to build on the information presented in his previous work (The Diet Myth) and shows us how we can aim to make healthier choices in a world designed to generate money for a few large, multinational companies.