Dr Andrew Weil focuses on how food can influence health and well-being. He makes clear that an optimal diet should not only supply the basic needs of the body for calories and nutrients but should also reduce risks of disease and fortify the body's defences and intrinsic mechanisms of healing. Dr Weil establishes that how we eat is an important determinant of how we feel and how we age, and that food can function as medicine to influence a variety of common aliments.