While this behavior was profoundly pro-survival for most of the 250,000 years Homo sapiens has been on the earth, it has become very dangerous for the last 100 or so, when sugary, salty and fatty foods have been available in abundance. What’s fortunate is that, while virtually everyone likes candy or doughnuts, we all can, through conscious choice and habit, learn to also enjoy fresh, vibrant, complex flavors of natural foods. If one persists long enough in choosing healthy foods, taste preferences will actually change: sweet foods taste too sweet, for example.

What if any ideas about food have changed for you personally since the publication of The Healthy Kitchen ten years ago, as attitudes about eating have evolved all around you?

My thinking about saturated fats has definitely evolved. In 2010, a large scientific analysis of 21 studies including 348,000 participants showed no difference in the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, or coronary vascular disease between the people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat. This goes completely against the conventional medical “wisdom” of the last 40 years, but it now appears that many of the studies used to persuade Americans to eat less saturated fat had serious flaws.

The big problem with low-fat eating is that it leaves people hungry, and they respond by eating more carbohydrates. That’s a huge problem, because carbs affect insulin and blood sugar in ways that raise risks for both heart disease and diabetes.