1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
“If in reading a book on diet and nutrition you're hoping to lose a few pounds, turn away. If, however, you are yearning to learn more about the physiology behind and the research done to date on subjects like cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and the effect of diet on them... this is your book.
Taubes provides a exhaustive look at the research behind many of the nutritional guidelines in place today. I came away stunned, quite frankly, to learn how little evidence there is to support the guidelines approved and endorsed by doctors and even the government.
Taubes does an impressive job explaining complex subjects, like cholesterol, in digestible fashion. Your head will still swim trying to keep the many types of VLDL, LDL and HDL in order but you will understand it.
My one knock against Taubes is that, while he approaches traditionally accepted ideas with a healthy dose of skepticism, he give "metabolic syndrome" and the effect of refined carbohydrates on health a free ride. Indeed, by the end of the book he points to this as the culprit for all of our problems... yet there is little (though certainly growing) evidence to back it up. After reading hundreds of pages of highly footnoted text I was a little disappointed not to see the same rigor applied here.
A warning to would-be readers. This book is dense! Nearly half of the 640 pages are notes and reference. It was all I could do to struggle to the end, even though I really enjoyed the topic.”
