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Fat : Fighting the Obesity Epidemic
When the leptin gene was discovered in 1994, news articles predicted that there might soon be an easy, pharmaceutical solution to the growing public health crisis of obesity. Yet this scientific breakthrough merely proved once again how difficult the fight against fat really is. Despite the many appetite-suppressants, diet pills, and weight-loss programs available today, approximately 30 percent of Americans are obese. And that number is expanding rapidly.
Fat is the engaging story of the scientific quest to understand and control body weight. Covering the entire twentieth century, Robert Pool chronicles the evolving blame-game for fat--from being a result of undisciplined behavior to subconscious conflicts, physiological disease, and environmental excess. Readers in today's weight-conscious society will be surprised to learn that being overweight was actually encouraged by doctors and popular health magazines up until the 1930s, when the health risks associated with being overweight were publicly recognized. Thus began decades of research and experiments that subsequently explained appetite, metabolism, and the development of fat cells. Pool effectively reanimates the colorful characters, curious experiments, brilliant insights and wrong turns that led to contemporary scientific understanding of America's epidemic. While he acknowledges the advances in the pharmacological fight against flab, he underscores that the real problem
of obesity is not losing the weight but keeping it off. Drugs offer a quick fix, but they aren't the ultimate answer. American society must remedy the unhealthy daily environments of its cities and towns, and those who have struggled with their weight and have experienced the "yo-yo" cycle of dieting must understand the underlying science of body weight that makes their struggle more than a question of willpower.
Fat is the engaging story of the scientific quest to understand and control body weight. Covering the entire twentieth century, Robert Pool chronicles the evolving blame-game for fat--from being a result of undisciplined behavior to subconscious conflicts, physiological disease, and environmental excess. Readers in today's weight-conscious society will be surprised to learn that being overweight was actually encouraged by doctors and popular health magazines up until the 1930s, when the health risks associated with being overweight were publicly recognized. Thus began decades of research and experiments that subsequently explained appetite, metabolism, and the development of fat cells. Pool effectively reanimates the colorful characters, curious experiments, brilliant insights and wrong turns that led to contemporary scientific understanding of America's epidemic. While he acknowledges the advances in the pharmacological fight against flab, he underscores that the real problem
of obesity is not losing the weight but keeping it off. Drugs offer a quick fix, but they aren't the ultimate answer. American society must remedy the unhealthy daily environments of its cities and towns, and those who have struggled with their weight and have experienced the "yo-yo" cycle of dieting must understand the underlying science of body weight that makes their struggle more than a question of willpower.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 30, 2000
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December 23, 2019
Overall, I have enjoyed this book. The historical parts of the obesity research are solid and well told. The references are often fascinating, and I have found a few scientific papers I found very interesting.
A relatively minor quibble is that the author seems never to have encountered LCHF, and seems to think that fat is one of the chief problems with the modern diet. Just looking at what people ate 100-200 years ago should dispel that impression. If not, then looking at just about any review of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss will.
There is a problem with the fat, but it's not the macronutrient per se, but rather what we have replaced the natural animal fats with - industrial seed oils.
A relatively minor quibble is that the author seems never to have encountered LCHF, and seems to think that fat is one of the chief problems with the modern diet. Just looking at what people ate 100-200 years ago should dispel that impression. If not, then looking at just about any review of low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss will.
There is a problem with the fat, but it's not the macronutrient per se, but rather what we have replaced the natural animal fats with - industrial seed oils.
Displaying 1 of 1 review