The ideal human diet looks like this: Consume plant-based foods in forms as close to their natural state as possible (“whole” foods). Eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, and whole grains. Avoid heavily processed foods and animal products. Stay away from added salt, oil, and sugar. Aim to get 80 percent of your calories from carbohydrates, 10 percent from fat, and 10 percent from protein.

In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

Nutrition is not a mathematical equation in which two plus two is four. The food we put in our mouths doesn't control our nutrition-not entirely. What our bodies do with that food does.

First, nutrition is the master key to human health. Second, what most of us think of as proper nutrition--isn't.

The answer to the American health crisis is the food that each of us chooses to put in our mouths each day. It's as simple as that.

In the next ten years, one of the things you're bound to hear is that animal protein is one of the most toxic nutrients of all that can be considered. Quite simply, the more you substitute plant foods for animal foods, the healthier you are likely to be.

Excessive animal protein is at the core of many chronic diseases.