Good Stuff

FAT?

By John Brown

So what if everything you know about fat, cholesterol, and diet is pretty much wrong?

What if you found out that the science behind the good old food pyramid is, well, not really there?

We’ve been told that a healthy diet consists of lots of grains, bagels, bread, pasta, cereals, rice, etc. and very little fat. What if it’s actually the reverse?

If it is, then it might explain why the rates of diabetes and obesity began to skyrocket as the nation started to implement this experiment.

I remember having gained about fifteen pounds when I was first married. I decided I would go on a diet. I read up on the low-fat high carb diet and followed it strictly. Two weeks later, I had gained ten more pounds. Did I at the time look at the diet and think that maybe there was something wrong with it?

No. That would have been too intelligent.

Instead, I figured something must be wrong with me and continued to try to “eat healthy.” What’s that definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Call me insane. Or slow. Or too trusting of authority.

It appears that the science of nutrition got hijacked. Government policy then ran away with it. It’s a fascinating and cautionary tale. Let me recommend three books that explain what really causes us to deposit fat and how we got off track.

The first is Why We Get Fat by science writer Gary Taubes. In it, he reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, why the good science was ignored, what really causes us to store fat, and what to do about it.

The next is The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Fung is a kidney specialist. Obesity and diabetes are the roots of many kidney problems. And so he decided to help his patients by strop treating symptoms and get at the root cause. Fung’s gift is clarity. He explains how obesity and diabetes became an epidemic, the errors in how we think about calories and diet, and then he explains in great clarity the new model of what really causes obesity and how to reverse it.

The last is The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by investigative journalist Nina Teicholz. She spent nine years investigating this, and the book reveals how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community, government, and the public and how recent findings overturn these beliefs. It’s a startling history, a cautionary tale showing how ego, bias, and premature institutional consensus allowed dangerous misrepresentations to become dietary dogma.

If you’re dealing with obesity, heart disease, or diabetes, I think you’ll find these books very interesting.