Everyone seems to believe that diet influence health: trans-fat plugs your arteries, we are threatened by an epidemic of obesity and diabetes caused by too much junk food, salt is a silent killer, raw, coarse grains cleanse the bowels and prevent cancer. But where did such ideas come from? The average person likely believes that these ideas – which are widely held and often repeated by medical experts, media pundits and popular culture – have been proven by medical science. Not so fast. Dr. John Sloan, MD, in his newly published eBook, Forbidden Food, walks the reader through the best available evidence from more than 50 years of scientific study on food. He critically compares commonly held food health beliefs against what science has established – and the findings will surprise many. Forbidden Food lays bare the astonishing deficiencies of the science behind diet. According to Dr. Sloan, “The surprising truth is that scientific reasons for most ‘healthy eating’ beliefs don’t come anywhere close to the standard of reliability that conservative health experts would normally call reasonable.” “So, why do we allow the science to fall short where food is concerned?” asks Dr. Sloan. Forbidden Food demonstrates that even in those few cases where eating one food over another is supported by (weak) scientific evidence to prolong life, the impact is minimal. The difference between some co-called ‘healthy’ foods and eating at fast food restaurants turns out to be a few minutes life span, on average. Forbidden Food tackles our modern day obsession with ‘eating right’ or what Dr. Sloan calls ‘orthorexia.’ Dr. Sloan explores our belief systems around food to demonstrate that food myths and rituals aren’t just practices of select orthodox religions or of superstitious peoples of the past, but alive and well in our current health foods craze. According to Dr. Sloan, “Five decades of science has attempted to prove the health benefits of certain foods over others, and that they will give us a longer life – but it has failed.” So what should we do? Well, until the science can prove otherwise, according to Dr. Sloan, we should forget about so-called ‘eating healthy.’ “Life’s too short to try to prolong it by wrecking one of life’s greatest pleasures – the pleasure in food.” It is no surprise then to find the subtitle of Dr. Sloan’s new book is How Science Says You Can Eat What you Like and Like What You Eat – in moderation, of course. “People want to deny themselves the pleasure of eating what they enjoy but the science doesn’t back it up. So I’m hoping with my new book to liberate people from their superstitious eating habits,” says Dr. Sloan. Forbidden Food: How Science Says You Can Eat What You Like and Like What You Eat by Dr. John Sloan, MD is now available on Amazon.com, Kindle, KOBO and more: http://www.amazon.ca/Forbidden-Food-Science-Says-what-ebook/dp/B00QJE5TY8 Dr. John Sloan, MD, is a practicing family physician in Victoria, Canada and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of two other published books, Protocols in Primary Care Geriatrics (first edition 1991 second edition 1997) and A Bitter Pill: How the Medical System is Failing the Elderly (2009).