Biological foundations of our nutrition -- Recognizing food, learning to eat: a look at evolution -- Consequences of early industrialization on molecular composition -- Molecules define our food -- Physical chemistry of nutrition and dietary forms -- Pleasure and nutrition -- Conclusion - or: What remains?

Do you no longer understand the countless, contradictory dietary recommendations? Do you find it difficult to distinguish between good and bad when it comes to cholesterol? Are you torn between the various dietary rules and nutritional forms that come your way every day and despair of the term "healthy diet"? Or are you confronted professionally, e.g. as a consultant or fitness coach, with questions on the subject of nutrition and would like to learn the scientific basics? The author Thomas Vilgis advises you to remain calm and to think objectively about all assumptions, presumptions, promises and suggestions for orientation. This book leads you off the beaten track and with a scientific, sober view to fundamental questions of nutrition. Starting with the nutritional history of Homo sapiens, the author guides you into the fundamental interplay between proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, what they do in the body, how they are digested, and what role they really play. With the claim of a scientific and molecular view of nutrition, it is possible to put into perspective and classify many a questionable recommendation on nutrition in an understandable and entertaining way. The author Thomas A. Vilgis is a full-time professor of physics, investigates the interaction and function of food molecules at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, and is a passionate epicurean on the side. He teaches soft matter food physics and molecular aspects of nutrition at the universities of Mainz and Gießen where he was appointed as honorary professor. His motto: Ask not only your doctor or pharmacist, but also physics, chemistry and biology. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.