A first-class lever is a very simple machine comprised of a beam placed upon a fulcrum. A load is placed onto one end of a beam, while an effort is directed onto the other end to counter the load. In human anatomy, the skull as it sits atop the first vertebra and the ankle and foot are examples of first-class levers.

“The Framingham Heart Study laid the groundwork for the obsession we’ve had with cholesterol and saturated fat and may well be the study that has been most damaging to the health of the U.S. population. This damage comes not necessarily from the study’s data but from the misreporting, deception, dissembling and outright prevarication about the data that have made it the wellspring for both the diabetes and obesity epidemics that afflict us.” —Dr. Michael Eades