There’s all kinds of myths and pseudoscience all over the place. I may be quite wrong, maybe they do know all these things, but I don’t think I’m wrong. You see, I have the advantage of having found out how hard it is to get to really know something, how careful you have to be about checking the experiments, how easy it is to make mistakes and fool yourself.

I know what it means to know something, and therefore I see how they get their information and I can’t believe that they know it. They haven’t done the work necessary, haven’t done the checks necessary, haven’t taken the care necessary. I have a great suspicion that they don’t know, ...and that they’re intimidating people.

--Richard Feynman

That was Richard Feynman, the celebrated theorectical physicsts, talking about nutritional advice, of all things!

There is no shortage of advice on how and what to eat, but here I am not going to offer an exhaustive review or critique. For one thing, new scientific discoveries are reported and wacky theories are invented all the time. For another, I am neither a trained nutritionist nor a medical professional.

I studied engineering at Caltech and Tsignhua University and spent much of my career in the world of big tech. When I set out to find the best diet, I approached it the only way I know: with a lot of skepticism and a little of cynicism. I studied the scientific literature, analyzed the evidence, scrutinized whether prevailing theories conformed to established data, and challenged existing explanations with new findings. It's all too tempting to believe what you want to believe about food and nutrition, and too easy to give in to conventional wisdom, so one has to be very careful. The following pages is the journey a reasonably competent engineer took to separate facts from fiction and finally arrived at practial and actionable advice. You will not find all the answers here, but I hope to show you a solid, scientifically grounded framework, and to illustrate its application through examples. So when you inevitably encounter novel claims about nutrition and cooking, you have the tools to critically assess them.

One of my chief greivance with popular science writing is that they often treat their readers as if they are afraid of math. But sometimes a single math equation is worth a thousand words. For instance, I could say that increasing the broiler’s temperature will significantly speed up the toasting process. But how significant is “significant,” and why? The answer lies in the The Stefan-Boltzmann law:

$$E = \epsilon \sigma T^{4}_s$$

where $\epsilon$ is emissivity, $\sigma$ is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant, and $T_s$ is the absolute temperature of the surface. The energy emitted from the heating element rises in proportion to the fourth power of its temperature. Now that's significant.

Some have criticized my penchant for including such mathematical details, dismissing them as unnecessary. I freely admit that this is partly an indulgence aimed at like-minded readers. I also believe that to avoid presenting straightforward equations out of fear they might confuse readers is, in itself, a form of disrespect. Equations, when clearly explained, are often the most concise and effective means of communicating complex ideas. To exclude them is to underestimate the reader’s intelligence and willingness to engage with logic and precision.

The book begins with a discussions of diet plans. It goes into not just the what, but the why. Several myths are debunked along the way, before a more sensible diet plan is proposed, accompanied by tools to aid its execution.

Cooking your own food is the most reliable and economical way to ensure what you eat is both nutritious and enjoyable. The second half of this book is devoted to the science of cooking. You will not find a collection of recipes here (though it does include instructions for the perfect soft-boiled egg). Page after page of lists, I believe, make for dull reading and do little to inspire culinary curiosity. Instead, I examine scientific principles, such as the mechanics of heat transfer and the peculiar behavior of water molecules. By providing a solid foundation to understand the properties of ingredients and how the process of cooking changes them, I hope to demystify the process and inspire you to take charge of your own meals.

More importantly, when you understand the science—or at least possess the confidence to question what you do not yet know—cooking evolves from a mundane task into a creative and intellectually gratifying pursuit. It's not enough to make you become a good cook (it takes years of coaching and mindful practice), but it will make cooking great again:-)