Whether you wish to lose weight, build muscle, reverse the aging process, eliminate chronic disease, get off medications, or just live longer and healthier, all objectives are leveraged by nutrition. Purists miss the point. Average people-that's you and me-just can't become vegan or vegetarian, live on a liquid diet of green goop, give up bread and go low carb, paleo, or survive on dish-fed portions as if we were in prison. I wanted to lose weight, but more than anything, I needed to feel better, healthier, and happier. Caregiver to my aging parents, I watched them spiral down day-to-day. I didn't want to go that way; just adding candles to the birthday cake is meaningless if you're too debilitated to do the things you love. So I built a nutrition plan, but not one item at a time following the whims of television doctors or the latest Facebook wisdom: last week it was pomegranates, now it's coconut oil, and tomorrow pork tartare. My studies while earning a Masters Degree in biochemistry and physiology taught me that the systems that grow, repair, and maintain cells, organs, and our bodies-the mechanisms that keep us young and slim-are too complex to be addressed piecemeal. That's when I had my AHA and lived my plan: Nutritional Leverage, a natural eating plan, melded with practical lifestyle alternatives for people who enjoy vacation buffets, evening cocktails, and Sunday barbecues. In five months, I took off 50 lbs. (23 kg.) just by providing my body with what it needed to shed fat, repair itself, and regain vitality. The punch line: I started the week after my 62nd birthday. You can do it, too, and this book shows you how.