This edited volume is a compilation of 30 articles discussing what constitutes food for health and longevity. The aim is to provide up-to-date information, insights, and future tendencies in the ongoing scientific research about nutritional components, food habits and dietary patterns in different cultures. The health-sustaining and health-promoting effects of food are certainly founded in its overall composition of macronutrients and micronutrients. However, the consumption of these nutrients is normally in the form of raw or prepared food from the animal and plant sources.

The overreaching aim of this book is to inform, inspire and encourage students, researchers, educators and medical health professionals thinking about food and food habits in a holistic context of our habits, cultures and patterns. Food cannot be reduced to a pill of nutritional components. Eating food is a complex human behavior culturally evolved over thousands of years. Perhaps the old adage “we are what we eat” needs to be modified to “we eat what we are”.

This volume in the book series Healthy Ageing and Longevity focuses on the interaction and co-dependence of the brain and mental health during ageing. A wide-range of topics discussed here include conceptual and historical understanding, descriptive analyses, and evidence-based interventions for the maintenance, enhancement and recovery of the brain and mental health, especially in old age. The emphasis is on the effective biological and psycho-social lifestyle factors, and complementary medicine and traditional cultural practices that could be health beneficial. Potential readership includes the early stage- and experienced researchers in biogerontology and cognitive sciences, and college/university teachers, medical practitioners, health care personnel, and public educationists. 

This edited volume is a compilation of 30 articles discussing what constitutes food for health and longevity. The aim is to provide up-to-date information, insights, and future tendencies in the ongoing scientific research about nutritional components, food habits and dietary patterns in different cultures. The health-sustaining and health-promoting effects of food are certainly founded in its overall composition of macronutrients and micronutrients. However, the consumption of these nutrients is normally in the form of raw or prepared food from the animal and plant sources.

The overreaching aim of this book is to inform, inspire and encourage students, researchers, educators and medical health professionals thinking about food and food habits in a holistic context of our habits, cultures and patterns. Food cannot be reduced to a pill of nutritional components. Eating food is a complex human behavior culturally evolved over thousands of years. Perhaps the old adage “we are what we eat” needs to be modified to “we eat what we are”.

This volume in the book series Healthy Ageing and Longevity focuses on the interaction and co-dependence of the brain and mental health during ageing. A wide-range of topics discussed here include conceptual and historical understanding, descriptive analyses, and evidence-based interventions for the maintenance, enhancement and recovery of the brain and mental health, especially in old age. The emphasis is on the effective biological and psycho-social lifestyle factors, and complementary medicine and traditional cultural practices that could be health beneficial. Potential readership includes the early stage- and experienced researchers in biogerontology and cognitive sciences, and college/university teachers, medical practitioners, health care personnel, and public educationists.