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Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
 
 

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It [Kindle Edition]

Gary Taubes
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

An eye-opening, myth-shattering examination of what makes us fat, from acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes.

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

Building upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what’s making us fat—and how we can change—in this exciting new book. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes’s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience.

Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin’s regulation of our fat tissue. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid?

Packed with essential information and concluding with an easy-to-follow diet, Why We Get Fat is an invaluable key in our understanding of an international epidemic and a guide to what each of us can do about it.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
99 of 99 people found the following review helpful
Chris 30 Dec 2010
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recommend this book if, like me, you have spent time, effort and money trying to figure out how to remove your excess weight and have better all-round health.

This book is the second from Gary Taubes that I have read. The first `Good Calories, Bad Calories' (or The Diet Delusion here in the UK) is long, at nearly 600 pages, expects a knowledge and understanding of science, is occasionally repetitive and sometimes poorly edited, but makes the point about the wrong road we have been following in pursuit of weight loss and better health extremely well to my mind.

This is a shorter book and took a lot less time to read. It is clear to me that Taubes has tested and honed his arguments and has learned how to get them across better. To my mind the book flows easily. There were one or two technical sections but he led me up to these with background so by the time I got there I was able to understand the point he was making. In GCBC this was not the case and there were some sections that I didn't `get' and had to read a number of times to understand.

The book acknowledges but does not deal with the consequences to the environmental and moral questions that it raises. This is left for others to debate. Here the science behind fat metabolism is the focus of attention.

There is new information in here too. There is a description of Insulin Resistance that I found very useful in furthering my understanding. The unanswered question in the whole book for me is: Can Insulin Resistance be `cured' and if so how long does it take?

`Why We Get Fat...' is not really a diet book. Since starting the diet as prescribed here, though, I have lost 28lbs without hunger or any discomfort.

Thank you Gary for this book and for your perseverance in dealing with the establishment and with the established Diet writers who seem to me to be more interested in defending their own fiefdoms than in solving the issues of weight, diabetes, heart disease and cancer that is the natural outcome of this work. I hope that politicians and the medical establishment will read the book with an open-mind and change the message to benefit us all. Now where's the Lard...'
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Essential reading 28 Jan 2011
By Satisfied at Last TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very easy read - clear, concise, you'll get the point first time every time.

I'm rereading it, from cover to cover as it's so good, and I want to make certain I've not missed anything.

In a nutshell, if you eat sugar, flour and other hi carb foods, you generate a lot of insulin.

Insulin is a very powerful hormone, that has the following effect...
1. Its stops you burning fat instantly, so if you eat carbs, you literally cannot lose weight.
2. Insulin is known as the hunger hormone, so you're starving and overeating.

Current Dieting advice is to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg. If you eat 4 meals plus 5 fruit, you'll be realising Insulin 9 times a day... so you'll be permanently starving and worse, unable to burn any fat... so won't lose weight at all.
Insulin triggers our overeating.

It's a constant cycle.
This advice breaks that cycle and gives you masses of research to back up it's arguments. It's a stunning piece of work, that blasts government advice for the folly that it is.

All current diets miss the key factor - the influence of hormones.
This book introduces the concept that Obesity is "malnutrition", it's caused by poor quality foods in sugar and flour not by overeating or lack of exercise.
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46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By Fran
Format:Hardcover
This book felt a little like a synopsis of Good Calories Bad Calories and was just what I needed. GCBC was heavy going and sometimes it was quite hard to extrapolate the point that he was trying to get across. WWGF flowed well, the science was easy to follow and the "diet" given at the end was to the point and so simple that it brought home to me just how much junk is foisted onto us for two main reasons. One, to make money and two, so that no one has to admit they were wrong.
I read this on the kindle and, unlike some non fiction books on the kindle, the diagrams and photo's were legible.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
What a surprise...Not
Hoped for something different but it is just yet another persons opinion on how to lose weight. There are too many books like this one on the market already.
Published 21 days ago by Old Bill
Why we get fat
the title should be Why We Get SICK and should be red by all who care about their health - no matter how fat they are! Read more
Published 26 days ago by str38
PaleoFit gives the thumbs up!
As a professional in the health and fitness industry I enjoy reading these books like fiction, but I like looking for those books which anyone can enjoy and understand! Read more
Published 1 month ago by PaleoFit
A sensible eating plan
Excellent and very interesting book with overall good research but not too deep very readable and easy to follow diet.
Published 1 month ago by long tall sally
Very disappointed. It's another Atkins approach rewritten.
Although the title was quite promising I found the book very disappointing. The introduction to the insulin mechanism was presented adequately but to be perfectly honest - I felt... Read more
Published 1 month ago by AMJ
Very informative reading!
This is a good book with lots of information in it. I found it very useful for me and it makes sense in what it is telling you. Read more
Published 1 month ago by saleagie
The NHS should read this!
This is one of those books that makes you think "The author might be wrong, but I'd love to hear the counter-argument! Read more
Published 2 months ago by A Reader
We live in interesting times!
As a long term runner and gym goer food has always been a big part of my life. I have tackled the low-fat diets and the high protein supplements along with reading about the latest... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ashley
Eye opening
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, but fear it has opened a whole can of worms for me!

Since reading the book I've now started looking into the likes of Atkins,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Murray Nolan
Very educational
This is a very in depth book that provided a lot of information into how and why we get fat and what to do about it. Highly recommended.
Published 2 months ago by Olivia Bryant
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Popular Highlights

 (What's this?)
&quote;
The one thing we absolutely have to do if we want to get leanerif we want to get fat out of our fat tissue and burn itis to lower our insulin levels and to secrete less insulin to begin with. &quote;
Highlighted by 1280 Kindle users
&quote;
The point to keep in mind is that you dont lose fat because you cut calories; you lose fat because you cut out the foods that make you fatthe carbohydrates. &quote;
Highlighted by 1129 Kindle users
&quote;
Not all of us get fat when we eat carbohydrates, but for those of us who do get fat, the carbohydrates are to blame; the fewer carbohydrates we eat, the leaner we will be. &quote;
Highlighted by 1017 Kindle users

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