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Fat: It's Not What You Think
Here is a refreshing antidote to the misleading hype surrounding the topic of fat - both the fat we eat and the fat we carry around. By explaining its biology and sharing the latest research, Connie Leas convincingly frees fat from its bad reputation. For example, she discusses how our much-maligned fatty tissue plays a critical role in maintaining health. Among other vital functions, it stores energy, produces hormones, builds cell membranes, bolsters immunity, and insulates our vital organs.The author also explains often-confusing terms such as triglycerides, polyunsaturated, omega-3, and trans-fat that are tossed around in the media, but which few people really understand. Having spent years researching this subject, Leas has transformed technical material from scientific research into a lively work of popular appeal. Chock full of useful - and sometimes startling - information, It's Not What You Think is a valuable health resource presented in an accessible, entertaining format.
- GenresDiets
227 pages, Paperback
First published April 3, 2008
16 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 8, 2020
Good book that was well researched. I especially enjoyed reading about cholesterol and statins.
March 10, 2012
This is a great book that summarises the work of some of the most important health books that have been released recently including those by Gary Taubes, Pollan, Nina Planck, Mary Enig, Sally Fallon, and others.
This book explains that:
- Your fat functions as an endocrine organ and releases hormones just like your thyroid gland or your pituitary gland.
- Fat is the primary building material for cell walls.
- Immunity is decreased when fat levels in the body are very low.
- Fat cells behave differently depending on where they are in the body.
- The BMI system puts many healthy people in the overweight category. A better measurement of obesity is hip to waist ratio and body fat percentage.
- A BMI of 25 (or 26 - 28) may be optimal for lowest mortality risk.
- Total cholesterol of 200 - 240 is in the normal range.
- All fats are a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats.
- Some saturated fats have anti-cancer benefits.
- Saturated fats have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.
- Natural trans fats in butter are not harmful and are not the same as man-made trans fats.
- Low fat milk is linked with infertility in women as compared to women who drank whole milk.
- The only milk to choose is (possibly raw) whole milk as skim milks have whey protein and milk powders added.
- Your genes affect the impact food has on you and what you eat affects your gene expression.
- Free range and organic meats and eggs are the best choices.
- Eating saturated fat doesn't make you fat and doesn't hurt your heart or cause heart disease.
- Trans fat and saturated fat used to be lumped together in the reference information used to look at the links between different types of foods and health. Only recently have they been listed separately, as they should be. Doesn't that fact explain so much!
I had just a few minor quibbles with this book. It fence sits on some of the theories that Taubes pulled apart so clearly in his books such as the 'thrifty gene' and the concept of 'calories in, calories out' for example, which makes it not as clear (or accurate) as it could be on some issues which may confuse some readers. The book also comments that we need to eat 50% of out fat calories as saturated fat in order for calcium to be taken up by our bones, but then recommends that we eat only a third of our fat as saturated fat. The argument she makes about how obesity is genetic and so we can't do much about it was also poorly done; as surely what has changed is our environment and not our genes and the problem is the way our genes are reacting to our environment which is absolutely something we can do something about by changing what we eat and so on.
There were 5 or 6 small issues with some of the content, I thought. But by far the vast majority of the content of this book was just excellent.
This book is great if you are just after a very brief overview of this topic, it is a very easy and brief read.
I don't think I'd have properly understood all these issues quite as well without having read the books listed below first, as they each provide so much extra information and references, but this book is still an excellent introduction to this topic. It also contains some extra information that is not in any of these books.
If you'd like more information on why coconut oil is good for you, why the saturated fat/cholesterol = heart disease hypothesis is utterly dead scientifically speaking, and why a low fat, high carb and low calorie diet is not the best path to maintaining health or a healthy weight, see books such as Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage), Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats and Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck plus The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It.
This book explains that saturated fat sounds scary and gluggy and is often described as 'artery clogging' and 'not heart healthy' but the truth is very different. Saturated fat isn't saturated by some sort of horrific 'glop' but by hydrogen! The same element that is in water.
Saturated fats such as coconut oil are an important part of a healthy diet. We need to eat them to be healthy. As the author says in this book, stop fooling with fats and cook with butter and lard!
Don't believe all the anti-saturated fat and cholesterol hype. As this book explains, those myths continue purely for selfish personal reasons and because of the interference of vested interest groups in science.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
This book explains that:
- Your fat functions as an endocrine organ and releases hormones just like your thyroid gland or your pituitary gland.
- Fat is the primary building material for cell walls.
- Immunity is decreased when fat levels in the body are very low.
- Fat cells behave differently depending on where they are in the body.
- The BMI system puts many healthy people in the overweight category. A better measurement of obesity is hip to waist ratio and body fat percentage.
- A BMI of 25 (or 26 - 28) may be optimal for lowest mortality risk.
- Total cholesterol of 200 - 240 is in the normal range.
- All fats are a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats.
- Some saturated fats have anti-cancer benefits.
- Saturated fats have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.
- Natural trans fats in butter are not harmful and are not the same as man-made trans fats.
- Low fat milk is linked with infertility in women as compared to women who drank whole milk.
- The only milk to choose is (possibly raw) whole milk as skim milks have whey protein and milk powders added.
- Your genes affect the impact food has on you and what you eat affects your gene expression.
- Free range and organic meats and eggs are the best choices.
- Eating saturated fat doesn't make you fat and doesn't hurt your heart or cause heart disease.
- Trans fat and saturated fat used to be lumped together in the reference information used to look at the links between different types of foods and health. Only recently have they been listed separately, as they should be. Doesn't that fact explain so much!
I had just a few minor quibbles with this book. It fence sits on some of the theories that Taubes pulled apart so clearly in his books such as the 'thrifty gene' and the concept of 'calories in, calories out' for example, which makes it not as clear (or accurate) as it could be on some issues which may confuse some readers. The book also comments that we need to eat 50% of out fat calories as saturated fat in order for calcium to be taken up by our bones, but then recommends that we eat only a third of our fat as saturated fat. The argument she makes about how obesity is genetic and so we can't do much about it was also poorly done; as surely what has changed is our environment and not our genes and the problem is the way our genes are reacting to our environment which is absolutely something we can do something about by changing what we eat and so on.
There were 5 or 6 small issues with some of the content, I thought. But by far the vast majority of the content of this book was just excellent.
This book is great if you are just after a very brief overview of this topic, it is a very easy and brief read.
I don't think I'd have properly understood all these issues quite as well without having read the books listed below first, as they each provide so much extra information and references, but this book is still an excellent introduction to this topic. It also contains some extra information that is not in any of these books.
If you'd like more information on why coconut oil is good for you, why the saturated fat/cholesterol = heart disease hypothesis is utterly dead scientifically speaking, and why a low fat, high carb and low calorie diet is not the best path to maintaining health or a healthy weight, see books such as Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage), Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol, Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats and Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck plus The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It.
This book explains that saturated fat sounds scary and gluggy and is often described as 'artery clogging' and 'not heart healthy' but the truth is very different. Saturated fat isn't saturated by some sort of horrific 'glop' but by hydrogen! The same element that is in water.
Saturated fats such as coconut oil are an important part of a healthy diet. We need to eat them to be healthy. As the author says in this book, stop fooling with fats and cook with butter and lard!
Don't believe all the anti-saturated fat and cholesterol hype. As this book explains, those myths continue purely for selfish personal reasons and because of the interference of vested interest groups in science.
Jodi Bassett, The Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
February 21, 2016
Easy reading, fairly concise, and references given chapter by chapter at the appendix.
My take-aways:
Need cholesterol to feel good. "Stearic acid in the form of cocoa butter, their cholesterol was reduced."[p.99] Note to self: Experiment by enjoying chocolate, daily, with mindfulness (moderation).
Short- and medium-length lipids are absorbed before 'digestion' so easier for the body to use. Note to self: Try coconut, et al.
Whole milk / cream for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): Do laws of my jurisdiction require a processing method which removes this benefit from dairy fats?
(likely via subject category applied to Fats of Life by Lawrence)
My take-aways:
Need cholesterol to feel good. "Stearic acid in the form of cocoa butter, their cholesterol was reduced."[p.99] Note to self: Experiment by enjoying chocolate, daily, with mindfulness (moderation).
Short- and medium-length lipids are absorbed before 'digestion' so easier for the body to use. Note to self: Try coconut, et al.
Whole milk / cream for conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): Do laws of my jurisdiction require a processing method which removes this benefit from dairy fats?
(likely via subject category applied to Fats of Life by Lawrence)
November 25, 2010
Highly readable, accessible defense of fat. A few flaws: at the very end of the book she repeats the Pollan prescription that we mostly eat plants, which I'm not sure I agree with; at times it seemed like she was merely summarizing other researchers; and there were a few glaring typos. Otherwise a pretty solid book and probably easier to read than Gary Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories.
December 9, 2010
Highly readable, accessible defense of fat. A few flaws: at the very end of the book she repeats the Pollan prescription that we mostly eat plants, which I'm not sure I agree with; at times it seemed like she was merely summarizing other researchers; and there were a few glaring typos. Otherwise a pretty solid book and probably easier to read than Gary Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews