It’s out. The book “Fat Chance” by professor Robert Lustig, the man who made millions of people watch a 90 minutes long lecture on nutrition (“Sugar, The Bitter Truth”). Lustig has the ability to make a subject exciting and his message could not be more important.
I’m reading the book right now and I’ll return with a more thorough review. But I want to tell you right now. While it’s only January 5th and while I haven’t yet finished the first read-through I’m already certain: This is the book of the year.
Do you want to know:
- Why a calorie is not a calorie?
- Why obesity is not about gluttony or sloth?
- What the real problem is with sugar and processed food?
- The cause of the epidemics of obesity and related diseases?
Here’s the answer (it starts with the letter “i”) in a fascinating read and with a concluding list of scientific references that should make the most inveterate critic give up.
40
20 Comments
Top Comment
All Comments
I just read through the preview at Amazon and now need to go out and get a copy,
My first impression is that: as ever, he does not pull his punches and is not afraid to tell it like he sees it. I am glad to see another physician with real clinical experience in this field, as well as solid research behind his words. I hope that he wakes up a few more free-thinkers and ultimately affects policymakers.
No doubt it is not perfect and no doubt we'll soon get the usual closed-minded naysayers focusing as much negativity as they can muster. But I am also confident that this book will be, at least, a step in the right direction
Hitler does paleo.
Why not recommend both books (others as well). or at least read this one before you dismiss it?
----------------------------------------------------------
Robert Lustig: And the answer is yes you can. The single best thing you can do for yourself quality of life-wise, exercise. By far and away nothing else comes close. The next thing that’s most important is when you’re eating make sure you have some fiber.
Alec Baldwin: When people want to go eat fiber that you recommend they eat now where do they go?
Robert Lustig: Very simple, brown food, brown and green. Okay if it’s brown and green its got fiber.
Alec Baldwin: Brown meaning?
Robert Lustig: ‘Cause fiber is brown. Wheat comes out of the ground. What color is it? It’s brown. You send it to the mill you make bread out of it. Now what color is it? Where’d the brown go? It got milled off. God made carbohydrate with inherent fiber. So we have brown rice, whole grains, beans, we have lentils. We have other legumes, we have nuts, they’re all just great. But as soon as you remove the fiber, which is called processing, now you got a problem. Because now when you eat it the sugar gets absorbed so fast that your liver gets overloaded, your mitochondria basically get sick and now you’ve got insulin resistance and how you’ve got all the diseases going downstream from there.
---------------------------------------------------------------
However he does then go on to say the following
---------------------------------------------------------------
Alec Baldwin: Do people need to have an elevated level of consciousness and discipline about eating pasta, rice and potatoes as well?
Robert Lustig: At the moment they do.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Seems, as others have mentioned, that Lustig is not tellling folks to go ultra low on all types of carbs. Not if the carbs are the types he recommends.
Of course he is OK with meats, etc. but he is certainly not a "born again" butter and bacon booster.
Most Americans will benefit from following his advice compared to their current diet.
Certainly eliminating sugar and refined carbs is excellent, as is eating more green veggies.
The recent interview...
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/heresthething/2012/jul/02/transcript/
this mostly seems to stem from young(er) lean fit and active paleo types who exercise regularly and add in "safe starches" but without increasing calories and find they maintain weight and don't get fatter.
i don't see this as being particularly convincing evidence personally.
He says a lot that supports a lCHF diet without actually endorsing such a diet, and has several bones to pick it sounds like with proponents of the diet like Atkins and Taubes. One, he said in the Moore podcast that he doesn't believe low carb is the only or even best way to go, and two, he said that his problem with Atkins (and I think Taubes) is that they don't distinguish between good fats and bad fats. All agree transfats are poisons, but I understand him to say eating red meat isn't so good for you (at one point, he said if you eat corn fed fish, you might as well eat steak).
Feel free to correct me, as I have not read the book, and I'm going off what I heard him say (while trying to do some other things).