by Mehmet Oz, M.D

I’m a heart surgeon. Every day I open a chest and see the rusted tubes of another patient whose poor health habits have left him or her with clogged arteries. My colleagues and I are treating younger and younger patients, as the ravages of aging attack a generation that grew up with much opportunity for indulgence and little practical guidance on pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Almost all these folks were fine as teenagers, but most eventually made fateful decisions that would harm their lives forever.

It starts with an extra cookie here and there, and then maybe the Sunday doughnut turns into the Sunday/Monday/twice-on-Saturday doughnut. A few more snacks, an extra scoop of soft serve, three slices of pizza instead of two. In college, studying hard (and perhaps socializing even harder) means you skip the gym and scrimp on eating right. And by the time American Idol comes on, you’d rather flop on the couch than flip off the TV. Eventually, the only part of your body that’s getting any exercise is your right thumb. (Carrying heavy bottles of soda doesn’t count.)

Soon, your clothes are too small and your belly is too big. And then one day—maybe it’s a look in the mirror, or a picture of you wearing a bathing suit on spring break, or spotting all the buttons that have plummeted to their closet-floor graves—you realize it. You’re built like a melting ice cream sundae: all mush.

Without question, this is the single biggest health threat in our country: we’re fat. We’re a country of big portions, super-sizing, and deep-frying, and our clothes now have more X’s on the label than an adult video. In fact, the adolescent obesity rate has more than doubled since I was a kid, thirty years ago. Many of these folks suffer from loss of self-esteem, low energy, slowing of their intellectual prowess, and an increased risk of wrinkles. Some of them will eventually end up on my operating room table, when it can be too late to undo a lifetime of poor choices. The time to intervene is when you’re young—just as you’re developing your own brand-new habits of eating, exercising, and purchasing. This is why advertisers focus intensely on fifteen- to thirty-year-olds. Whatever direction you start off in, you’ll most likely stay that course for the next fifty years. Not many people change detergents in the middle of their lives. Same goes for eating and living habits.

Plus, by educating young folks, we have an advantage. Kids translate knowledge to action incredibly fast. Adults don’t. So if we get you young, we’ve got you for life. (Sometimes I sound like a cigarette manufacturer.) Finally, kids are the viral marketers of a society. If you learn healthy habits, you’ll share them with your siblings, parents, classmates, and eventually even your own kids.

So who is the right messenger? Not me, not your parents, not even your teachers. Your best messengers are one another. You like the same music and movies. You have similar concerns about our planet. And you share the same challenges to keeping your most precious inheritance, your body, working in high gear—challenges such as busy schedules, fat-infused dorm food, irregular sleep patterns, and a priority list on which eating right rarely makes an appearance.

My daughter Daphne is a college student, like you. She has a probing, insightful mind. She has also had the advantage of a lifelong education on how to keep her body and brain honed and buffed. From me she has amassed the hard scientific information behind healthy living. From her mother she has learned how to thrive on a healthy vegetarian diet. From her grandmother, a nutritional adviser, she has garnered a wealth of information about the proper use of supplements. But even with this extra boost of lifestyle education, Daphne traveled a rough road on the journey to eating and exercising right. And now she has put all this information together for the benefit of readers her age. Her background in magazines (she was a writer for ELLEgirl magazine in high school) has sharpened her prose, so she can make the point while you enjoy the ride. She has also weathered a few years out of the home and learned the pitfalls college can pose to your health. In this guidebook, she shares her solutions.

I know personally that the store of knowledge she shares in this book was hard-won over many years. Daphne has gathered an impressive amount of advice and information, and she brings the message alive with news that you can use. This book provides an invaluable blueprint for you to make the crucial decisions that will become your lifestyle routines. It will teach you how to navigate the serpentine path to living well and how to make the right choices and turn them into the habits that will make you feel and look healthy, confident, and cool. And it won’t hurt a bit. Trust me—she knows what she’s talking about.