Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease

by Robert H. Lustig

Paperback, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

362.1963

Genres

Collection

Digital Books

Publication

Avery (2013), Edition: Illustrated, 336 pages

Description

"Robert Lustig's 90-minute YouTube video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth", has been viewed more than two million times. Now, in this much anticipated book, he documents the science and the politics that has led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years. In the late 1970s when the government mandated we get the fat out of our food, the food industry responded by pouring more sugar in. The result has been a perfect storm, disastrously altering our biochemistry and driving our eating habits out of our control. To help us lose weight and recover our health, Lustig presents personal strategies to readjust the key hormones that regulate hunger, reward, and stress; and societal strategies to improve the health of the next generation. Compelling, controversial, and completely based in science, Fat Chance debunks the widely held notion to prove "a calorie is NOT a calorie", and takes that science to its logical conclusion to improve health worldwide"-- "Robert Lustig's ninety-minute YouTube video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" has been viewed nearly three million times. Now, in this highly anticipated book, he documents the science and the politics that have led to personal misery and public crisis--the pandemic of obesity and chronic disease--over the last thirty years"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Laura400

I'd give the author and subject matter a full five stars, but the book is a bit lacking in writing style and accessibility.

In trying to show the dangers of our modern processed-food diet, which now amounts to a glut of added sugar, Lustig has taken the hard road. He has decided to explain

biochemistry to a general audience. It's interesting and enlightening material, but it's presented with so much technical jargon, often reduced to acronyms, that the book can bog down in the middle for the general reader.

The section on "the personal solution" is what most readers probably want, but in context it seems too short. I wish it were beefed up. Also given short shrift, in my view, are his public health recommendations, given that one senses that's Lustig's main concern.

Nevertheless, Lustig is doing wonderful work educating the public about the dangers of so much added sugar in processed foods. So this is an important work, which may save your life, or at least vastly improve your health.

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LibraryThing member CassieLM

Lustig's writing style was easy to understand and read, which is something you don't always get when smart people write books. He also has a very good point... when he finally gets to the point.
I was really interested in what he was saying for the first third of the book. As I kept reading, I kept

thinking "ok, I get it, now what?"

Still, it's definitely worth picking up. Read the first few chapters and then skim the rest until you get to the part when he tells you what to do about it. And then stop eating sugar (and processed food, almost all of which contains sugar). Because, damn, sugar is a bad dude.

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LibraryThing member mochap

Illuminating read by an expert in pediatric endocrinology and obesity. Love his message that obesity is not your fault, but getting healthy is your responsibility. Boy, we've created a food disaster area--makes one wonder how we'll fix it...

LibraryThing member zoomball

I have the background to be able to follow the science but biochemistry really makes my eyes glaze over, so after a few chapters of this I admit to skimming. And as politics has the same effect on me, a lot of his thoughts on solutions I needed to skim as well. That being said, however, there is

really a lot of good information here and it appears to be based on a solid review of current research. When there are no studies to look for potential solutions, he states that. And I applaud how throughout the book he repeats a basic tenet of exploratory research that correlation does not equal causation. This is a perspective that journalists never bring to the table. (Oops, there was no pun intended when I wrote that,) I was familiar with the criticisms of processed food but this book really gave me the understanding to hopefully attempt to manifest a better personal shift away from it. Also the understanding necessary to bite the bullet and shell out for the meat I do still eat - to get free range or grass fed products. I am lucky I can afford to do this. Unfortunately the solid arguments based on analyses of international trends, and the incredibly biased food environment for persons of low income seem like overwhelming obstacles to turning around this obesity pandemic. i wish I could remember the Margaret Mead quote here about one person being able to instigate change - one has to draw hope from somewhere. Obesity IS a pandemic.
Two messages that I am able to take away from this book: 1) A calorie IS NOT a calorie. 2) The concepts of gluttony and sloth are not behaviors that obese people practice that got them to where they are. This book explained the science behind these two assumptions and as such I hope that they will help me personally to make better food choices and to be less judgemental. This is not to say that people do not make choices. This book provides valuable information about guiding those choices.

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LibraryThing member deldevries

Well written medical research based review of why sugar and fiber are the primary problems of our diet. Processed food = sugar fiber removed, hence the problem. The solution is to eat real food. The back end gets down to the corporate and political problems of the issue.

LibraryThing member baystateRA

Good balance of nutrition science, humor, and serious message here! Referred to often in stunt memoir, Year of No Sugar by Eve O. Schaub.

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