The diet, to be healthy, has to be mostly fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.

The American diet causes disease. It is composed of 25 percent animal products and 62 percent processed foods and only 5 percent of calories from fruits and vegetables.

Most of the calories in a healthy diet should come from fruits, vegetables and grain products. That recommendation makes it even more critical for government and industry to work together to ensure that fresh produce is wholesome and safe.

Certainly adding fats in the form of oils is fattening and unhealthy, but naturally fat-rich foods like nuts and seeds have profound cardiovascular benefits.

There's no guilt in eating fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains.

We need radical dietary improvement, and the earlier in life that change is made, the better. Just following a vegan diet or eating a few more vegetables is not enough.