The Fatburn Fix: Boost Energy, End Hunger, and Lose Weight by Using Body Fat for Fuel

by Catherine Shanahan

A proven plan to optimize your health by reclaiming your natural ability to burn body fat for fuelThe ability to use body fat for energy is essential to health—but over decades of practice, renowned family physician Catherine Shanahan, M.D., observed that many of her patients could not burn their body fat between meals, trapping them in a downward spiral of hunger, fatigue, and weight gain. In The Fatburn Fix, Dr. Shanahan shows us how industrially produced vegetable oils accumulate in our body fat and disrupt our body’s energy-producing systems, driving food addictions that hijack our moods and habits while making it nearly impossible to control our weight. To reclaim our health, we need to detoxify our body fat and help repair our “fatburn” capabilities. Dr. Shanahan shares five important rules to fix your 1) Eat natural fats, not vegetable oils. 2) Eat slow-digesting carbs, not starchy carbs or sweets. 3) Seek salt. 4) Drink plenty of water. 5) Supplement with vitamins and minerals.She then provides a revolutionary, step-by-step plan to help reboot your fatburn potential in as little as two weeks. This customizable two-phase plan is widely accessible, easy to follow, and will appeal to the full spectrum of diet ideologies, from plant-based to carnivore to keto and beyond. By making a few changes to what you eat and when, you will lose unwanted weight and restore your body’s ability to store and release energy. With The Fatburn Fix, Dr. Shanahan shows how regaining your fatburn is the key to effortless weight loss and a new, elevated life, paving the way to abundant energy and long-term health and happiness.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Nutrition, Science, Self Help, Food, Audiobook

342 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 24, 2020

About the author

Catherine Shanahan is a board-certified family physician specializing in the promotion of health and reversal of disease using traditional food as a first line of treatment. She has studied biochemistry and genetics at Cornell University and ethnobotany at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 2/3 are really informative and interesting. My only critique is in the recipes/ingredients/suggestions part of the book. The complaint is that, for a foodie, there are no comprehensive lists of how she would categorize different ingredients. It leaves the impression that the author has a somewhat limited ingredient comfort zone (or, assumes the reader has no access to interesting and varied ingredients). I would have preferred comprehensive ingredient lists to making a stab and some boring menus with the same few items.

For example, the discussion of carbohydrates talks about flour, rice, and potatoes as ordinary carbohydrates, but puts corn masa tortilas and wild rice in the "slow burning" carbohydrate category (but only when you notice them pop up in other narratives). For as many carbs that live in a well-stocked foodie pantry, I found myself wanting more information than the summary of "intact grains, like wheat berries, sprouted wheat, and oat groats." Where do my lentils fall (including red, yellow, green lentils, split peas, and urud dal)? Are brown rice, quinoa, barley, millet, amaranth, quinoa, teff and farro considered slow-burning (in their ordinary intact form) or refined? Popcorn (home made)? So many questions. If no food lists were to be included, it would be helpful to have a standard to apply or an external resource referenced to determine how to gauge what "won't spike your insulin."

For those of us that do regularly cook and know what to do with ingredients, I think comprehensive categorizations of whole foods and where they fall in her recommendations would have been more helpful than suggestions of how many berries can live on your chia porridge in the morning. There are lots of wonderful Keto and other Low-Carb cookbooks and resources out there. Perhaps just focusing on where, how and when her recommendation would lead to a recipe alteration would have been more valuable than the not-so-great recipe section.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a nutshell: consuming the wrong kinds of fats is no bueno.

The kind of fat you eat changes what kinds of fuels your body's cells can use, which determines everything about your health.

Back in 2018, listening to this maverick physician, Dr. Cate, first clued me in to dangers of polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) found in vegetable oils: canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, and sunflower. These bad fats which have been refined, bleached, and deodorized, are flavorless, odorless, and the least expensive oils. They are found in most processed foods.

Shanahan claims avoiding these vegetable oils is the most important action you can take to improve your health.

What? Heart-healthy canola oil? Yep. Canola oil didn't even exist 100 years ago!

Consuming these PUFA oils, she says, lands us on the spectrum which ends in diabetes. Before pre-diabetes, before insulin resistance, is hypoglycemia (exhibited in these symptoms when you go without food for a few hours: anxiety, brain fog, dizziness, fatigue, heart palpitations, headache, irritability, nausea, shakiness, sweats, and weakness). Why, you ask? Because our cells find it very difficult to extract energy from PUFAs, causing our body to rely on sugar to get energy.

Prepare yourself for science: mitochondrial health, hormone health, appetite control and adipose toxicity.

Living on vegetable oils has turned us into a nation of rarely sated, chronically hungry junk food seekers.

First step to health is to stop ingesting vegetable oils. Most fast foods are fried in PUFAs. Chips, crackers, salad dressings all have them. As an experiment I went shopping and read ingredient labels. And tried to find food without PUFAs. Whew! Talk about daunting. And eye-opening.

If you want to explore this, go to YouTube and search for Dr. Cate Shanahan vegetable oils.

Just for fun here is a list of "Hard No"s:
fake whipped cream
flavored creamers (hello Coffee Mate)
fake butter spreads
margarine
vegetable shortening aka Crisco
store bought pastries
chicken nuggets
restaurant fried foods
most chips and crackers
most protein bars
most salad dressings
most mayonnaise
most granola/cereal
most spreads

[Jackie Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather scientific book written in such a way that it is not dull. I wouldn't have minded a little more science and perhaps less of, "instead of this try this" << Because that is a HUGE part of the book. The first 2/3 of the book, however, is interesting and I think it has a lot to merit.

I have studied low carb and Keto quite a bit. I have seen actual nutritionists and doctors who study this stuff, so not just reading on my own, and this books aligns well with most of what I have heard. The biggest "new thing" that this book brings is to give up all vegetable oils. I believe what she has to say about them, I agree giving them up would be great, whether or not I will do it, probably not. As she mentions in the book, vegetable oils are EVERYWHERE. They are used EVERYWHERE and in just about EVERYTHING. I think it is important to read this and pay attention to the changing opinions of science throughout the years. These opinions shape our food consumption over time, and if the science is wrong (and it seems to be a lot) we all pay the price with our bodies and pocket books.

What I will do after this book is, NOT buy any vegetable oils, I will try to avoid them as much as I can, and I will pay attention to ingredients (something I already do because of high fructose corn syrup, hidden sugars, and carbs). Our food is really quite horrible for us in many ways, but it is our food, and when you work long weeks, have long commutes, live on little sleep, and just want to eat, planting your own garden and raising your own cows and chickens, are probably not going to cut it. And, in reality, that would be about the only way to truly eat right. And EVEN THEN, you have to hope you are growing your food in clean soil that has not been depleted. You hope your air is not polluted. You hope you don't have to use a lot of meds on your live stock. You hope your well isn't poisoned. Your crops have to be pest free but also chemical free. You have to keep animals off of your crops because they could spread disease and ecoli...Basically, the world is out to kill us.

It is good to have this information and I am going to keep it in mind and do the best that I can with it. Many of the issues presented in the book, like sugar addiction, I dealt with several years ago. She does say to drink water and only water. I gave up all soda about 4 years ago and I do not drink anything sweetened with sugar. But just water? Sorry, I can't give up sugar (which is in just about EVERYTHING) and give up Splenda. I think it is about finding a balance, doing the best you can (by actually trying), and know that the world is full of toxins without obsessing on it.

[Braydon Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge fan of Deep Nutrition, I was excited to read the Fatburn Fix, but felt a little disappointed at first. I guess I tricked myself into reading this book even though the target market is clearly for those seeking to lose weight. I just really wanted another Deep Nutrition!!

I did however, enjoy a refreshing new take on the model of insulin resistance starting with symptoms of hypoglycemia, which cause us to over consume foods that lead to worsening hypoglycemia, eventually on the insulin resistance train, all the way to full blown diabetes. It starts with high glycemic foods that trigger a high release of insulin which gets rid of much of the sugar in our blood and our brain senses an energy crisis. Over time we develop habits of dealing with this energy crisis by snacking on sugary foods to spike our sugar back up. Or if we don't experience hypoglycemic symptoms like irritability, headaches, fatigue, or even nausea. Dr. Shanahan makes the case crystal clear: our body had evolved be able to burn body fat for energy in the form of ketones, but our habits of using sugar to mask hypoglycemic symptoms + rancid industrially processed seed oils (which make up a scary proportion of our diets today) make our body increasingly incapable of doing so by messing with the mitochondria in every one of our cells. Our crutch makes the disease worse unfortunately. Many good strategies in this book to overcome worsening insulin resistance, or lose weight.

[Joshua J. Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book deserves 10 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a fitness trainer, health coach, biohacker and podcast host, I believe we ALL need more quality information around health and nutrition in order to truly understand how messed up our bodies and minds have become.
The information laid out in this book makes it pretty easy to understand and make subtle changes that give HUGE benefits. Talk about a Big Bang for your Buck!
I have improved my own health and seen dramatic aesthetic results from adhering to the protocols laid out in great detail.
I will do everything I can to share my story and get this book into the hands of as many people as possible.

Thank you for this wonderful resource!!

[Michael Sandoval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Common sense based on human ancestry!

Eat Whole Foods, not manufactured foods endorsed and heavily marketed by the for profit food conglomerates. Question existing beliefs on cholesterol, fat and vegetable oils. These beliefs are pushed by big pharmaceuticals to capitalize on their broad array of drugs which are not needed to fix a diabetic and other human debilitating diseases. We need to expose wrong and ill founded medical beliefs based on manipulated data.

[Sheena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found "The Fat Burn Fix" to be packed with information, but unfortunately, a significant portion of it lacks scientific backing. While the author's enthusiasm is evident, I struggled to fully trust the content due to the absence of solid research to support their claims. It would have been much more valuable if the book had provided more reliable sources for its assertions.

[Ginger Hudock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with a scientific explanation of why our society has gotten much more obese. It is the vegetable oils. As a nutritionist I highly recommend this book. It takes a paleo or keto diet to the next level of excellent nutrition.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great explanation of why so many people are HANGRY all the time. Dr. Shanahan has one of the best abilities to explain metabolism in an interesting way.

[Ginny Yurich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m obsessed with anything by Dr. Cate Shanahan. She explained health, hunger, weight, energy, and so much more like no other. Glad I read this one!

[Lisa Spitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read! If you are into learning more about how diet affects all aspects of your body, this is the one.

[Mika Auramo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lääkäri Catherine Shanahanin kirjoittama ”The Fatburn Fix: Boost Energy, End Hunger, and LoseWeight by Using Body Fat for Fuel” on oivallinen tietokirja jokaiselle, joka haluaa edistää omaa terveyttään ja karsia ruokavaliostaan terveydelle haitalliset siemenöljyt (seed oils). Kirjan ideana on korvata ravinnonsaannista sokeribuustaukset ja siirtyä terveellisempiin ja luonnonmukaisiin rasvoihin ja siten vähentää riskiä aineenvaihduntahäiriöihin, diabetekseen ja ylipainon mukanaan tuomiin niin sanottuihin elintasosairauksiin.

Viiteentoista lukuun jaoteltu sisältö on selkeä ja johdonmukainen. Ensimmäisessä osassa kiinnitetään huomioita terveyspontentiaaliin, ja niin sanottuun huonoon ja hyvään näläntunteeseen. Ensin mainittua voi hyödyntää esimerkiksi pätkäpaastossa, jolloin ollaan ravinnotta noin 14–16 tuntia, ja aamiaisella ei tankata lainkaan hiilihydraatteja vaan vasta myöhemmin päivällä. Myös bodarit kuvittelevat, että pitää nauttia ennen ja jälkeen ja vielä treenien aikana proteiini- ja palautejuomia, vaikka yleensä sitä vararavintoa saa hyvin kehon rasvasoluistakin. Varsinainen lihasten kasvuprosessi ja mikrovaurioiden korjaaminen tapahtuu jopa 24–48 tuntia voimaharjoittelun jälkeen, joten proteiinipirtelöt voi nauttia hyvin muutaman tunnin salitreenin jälkeenkin. Niin sanotuksi huonoksi näläksi Shanahan kutsuu voimatonta oloa, kun vatsa hieman alkaa kurnia. Se on viesti aivoille, jotka ovat tottuneet siihen, että verensokeri pidetään tapissa keinolla millä hyvänsä, tällöin ensisijainen energia otetaan hiilihydraateista.

Tohtori kertailee myös omien oivallusten polkuja ja omaa heräämistään ja varsinkin poisoppimista, sillä tuleehan usein (meillä Suomessakin) vähän väliä uutisia ja tutkimuksia eläinrasvojen ”vaarallisuudesta”. Moni tosiaan kuvittelee, että kananmunien kolesteroli sellaisenaan siirtyisi verenkiertoon ja tukkimaan verisuonia. Ymmärtämättä usein kuitenkin jää, että siemenöljyjen transrasvat ja monityydyttämättömien rasvahappojen (varsinkin omega 6) epäsuotuisa suhde omega 3:een aiheuttaa ongelmia. Monityydyttämättömillä kasvisrasvoilla on tekijän mukaan vielä sellainen ongelma, että näistä rasvoista ihmisen kehon vararavintoja on käytettävissä ehkä vajaa viidennes niiden energiamäärästä. Vaatii siis vuosien työn, kun ketodieettiin ryhtyvä pääsee eroon toksisesta rasvavarannostaan.

Kirjaa lukiessa sain monia oivalluksia, ja monet entuudestaan hyviksi havaitut keinot edistää omaa hyvinvointia ja terveellisiä elämäntapoja vahvistuivat. Mukana on lisäksi monia potilaskertomuksia ja ohjeita, miten vähitellen voi helpottaa omaa oloaan ja riskiä sairastua prosessoidun ruoan ja varsinkin epäterveellisten kasvirasvojen karsinnasta omasta ruokavaliosta. Myös ketodieetin perusteiseen uppoudutaan varsin hyvin ja perusideaan, että pystytään tuottamaan ketoneita ja miten hiilihydraattien vähentäminen onnistuu ja miten avaimet omaan terveellisempään elämään ovat ihan omissa käsissä.

Sitaatteja:

– Vegetable oils prevent mitochondria from generating energy with normal efficiency.
– You don’t need to snack when you can burn your body fat.
– Your body fat is supposed to be your primary cellular fuel.
– A sugar-dependent brain is very much like a heroin addict’s brain.
– Hunger is not supposed to be something that makes us tired.
– Most of us don’t have control over our hunger – our hunger has control over us.
– Nine out of ten adults in my practice no longer experience hunger the way nature intended.
– Insulin resistance also causes disruptions in the brain’s appetite control system.
– Dairy and coconut contain special fats, called short-and medium-chain fatty acids, that the brain can use directly.
– The wildly popular keto diet gets its name from the fact that its goal is to support your body’s ketone production.
– Most low-carb doctors will tell you that you don’t need any carb at all because your body can make its own sugar out of protein.
– The keto diet gets its name from the fact that its goal is to support your body’s ability to generate ketones.
– The crucially important discovery is that polyunsaturated fatty acids trigger a massive decline in energy production, making them useless as a cellular fuel.

[Dani Wilkerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas, presentation of science, good suggestions for changes. I listened to a borrowed audio so didn't have access to the accompanying PDF with tables of food choices and swaps, but there were still some helpful suggestions in the audio chapters. Might purchase a used copy for reference in implementing the changes. The author's phrasing comes across as very cocky at times, including the claim that she's discovered that all type 2 diabetes (and some other diseases, like Parkinson's and nerve damage) is caused by and can be reversed by elimination of seed oils and following her plan to a T. This would be a 4 star review if her phrasing weren't so arrogant in places. I'll chew up the meat and spit out the bones.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Save your life. Read this book! There are a few shortcomings... the lack of an appendix to look things up and the lack of a comprehensive diet plan all in one place. She does a good job at methodically laying out the facts without getting too sciency. I will be forever grateful for her wisdom and the eye-opening myths she dispels.

[Tonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

very easy read and imformative!

[Tovli Toda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a retired engineer, trained to learn and apply science to accomplish my goals. The present goal is to help my wife, and I, avoid progression to type 2 diabetes and maximize our health that we can be present for each other for as long as possible. (I am 67 and active; she is 58, active but no cardio.)

Although following “How to write a best selling diet book”, it does list (supportive) study sources, and explain in detail relevant biologic and chemical processes that drive the author's recommendations. While the author does not sell supplements on her website http://drcate.com , she is definitely into selling diet / nutrition books and appearances.

The book promises improvement for nearly everything that ails us, if we slowly, but totally change the single biggest pleasure in our lives - eating. The themes are:

1) eliminate "toxic seed oils",
2) use "slow-digesting carbs", (eliminate rice, pasta, potatoes, legumes, or as a concession to reality limit to <1c/day of these)
3) seek salt,
4) drink water,
5) "smart supplementation" (grass-fed milk, vitamins from food, supplement with a "not more than 100%" multi, magnesium, D w/o seed oil, zinc picolinate)

I was able to borrow the book from my local library, and did end up purchasing the e-book for $15 when the library loan ran out. (The book has very high demand from a recent author appearance on the “Real Time with Bill Maher” Show.)

I remain unconvinced that seed oils have actually changed our body fat and energy management mechanisms, and also question the book's "fixes" to seek salt and vitamin supplementation.

[Michelle Jarc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really peaked my interest when I read the description. My father was a diabetic (he passed away many years ago and also had high blood pressure and high cholesterol). My mom is in a "pre-diabetic" stage. So, insulin sensitivity is in my future if I don't mind what I eat and exercise. I agree with most of what this author preaches. However, as an athlete I could never intermittent fast. I need the calories for a long run in the morning or a hard strength work out. I also do not agree with the authors love of dairy. Dairy is highly inflammatory - especially to people like myself with autoimmune disorders. It always amazes me when people are perplexed as to why they are gaining weight or why they can't loose weight. First - do your research. It is all a science. And it is mostly centered around what you eat. So many adults are overweight and either diabetic or pre-diabetic, both of which can be prevented with proper diet. I have been doing my third round of the Whole 30 (almost done with this round) and my goal this round was to really focus on not snacking in between meals and really sticking to three nutrient dense meals. It is all starting to click for me and become so much easier. The book has really helped validate that and why snacking is so wrong. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling to maintain a healthy weight or wants to loose weight.

[Sharon Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because I wanted to hear the case against so called vegetable oils. What I got was a diet book with a lot of information that I already knew. The book was heavy on advice and light on scientific research. I did at least learn the rationale behind the presumed danger of vegetable oils. Because they are unsaturated, they are less stable, and thus when they enter our cells, they are more prone to oxidation and they are more likely to cause inflammation. If this is true, which it may well be, I would like to have seen more data in support of the hypothesis rather than endless metaphors comparing fatty acids to dinner tables with all the seats full if they are saturated and some of the seats empty if they are unsaturated.
As she extolled natural fats, such as butter, coconut oil and olive oil, I was very disappointed that healthy lard was not mentioned a single time. Her claim that eliminating vegetable oils is more important than eliminating sugars and lowering carbs was not entirely convincing.
Still, it was an easily readable book and I did pick up a few pointers about better alternatives to wheat and corn flours.

[Benoit Marinoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book. Like a lot of book I read, what brought me to this one is from listening to a podcast the author was a guest on and being interested in finding out more about what she had to say.

The book is very informative and gives valuable information supported by science and facts. Now if you expect a miracle recipe for Quick and painless weight loss I would pass on to the next. The book give information that will help for weight loss but really goes about how our systems have been damaged by the food we eat and specifically the vegetable oils that you will find, as she mentioned in the book, in everything.

So am I planning on giving up absolutely everything because it has vegetable oil? I think I would go insane trying to. But the book comes with directives to help you reset your fat burn system and I think that it can definitely benefit someone to work toward adapting your nutrition closer to a vegetable oil free diet and it is a book I intend on keeping near by and referencing back regularly to continue, little by little, to make some changes to what I eat.

A very good read in my opinion.

Enjoy!

[Buck Wilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it, Cate! Another resounding victory. Your flagrant though appropriate vendetta against seed oils comes off as much less psychotic than it did in Deep Nutrition.

I'm not going to do keto. I've tried to make low carb work so many times, it never does. I lose 20 lbs and then my bones fall out. My lifts plummet, my sleep suffers, I'm miserable all the time. The keto adherents say "yeah you just gotta do that for two months and then you feel good!" I've done it for a year, I did it a couple of times for six months. It's not going to happen.

But! I'm happy to cherrypick your low triglycerides/high LDL situation and apply it to my own recent bloodwork which indicates that, although my cholesterol is "borderline high", I am actually the paragon of human functionality. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.

I'm still going to eat a couple hundred carbs. Probably three hundred. But I'll take your advice and drink butter.

[Katherine Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Become a fat burner with The Fatburn Fix!

I have read just about every diet / lifestyle book ever written. The Fatburn Fix takes top billing despite my extensive research and personal experience with fasting to Keto to Adkins before that and even my beloved regard for Protein Power. The Fatburn Fix makes a strong, well researched case that vegetable oils (put into virtually every proceeded food known to man) is the underlying culprit to obesity / weight gain and probably affects you, too.

Read this book!

The answers are all there! And, a new lease on life and a desirable weight is now within reach, if you embrace and follow Dr. Cate's well-researched guidance for becoming a fat-burning machine. Go you!

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book felt like a bit of a grind. I agree that we shouldn’t eat vegetable oil, however, I don’t think we should be eating as much animal fat and protein as she says. What about the horrific environmental impact of a diet like this? We can’t just live in a silo.I also don’t think that we should count calories, that whole concept of energy is not true.

[Kathy Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous fabulous book. Wish I could give it more stars. I love the author’s book Deep Nutrition, but it was more “sciency” (is that a word?). Fat burn Fix brings the information to the public and makes it comprehensible to those less inclined towards the science. Really good.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fatburn Fix: Feel Great, Lose Weight, and Get Fit by Using Body Fat for Fuel has a compelling title, but the connection of the title to the text within is looser than I anticipated. The book needs a good editor to clean up and arrange statements and facts, to spellcheck names of referenced experts, but it was published by Colorado Preventative Medicine.

Someone looking to burn fat and not sugar, to understand what metabolic disorder is, how it comes about will be satisfied with one part of this book. I value the detailed explanation of the roles of vital organs brain, liver, and pancreas in signaling and producing insulin. I recollected my weight loss years earlier and know the doctor writes truth about the metabolic processes, and how triglycerides, VLDL, and LDL values change during and after profound weight loss.

However, the author says she will not present recipes that we won't likely use, then presents recipes. The casual mention of an Instant Pot in one chef's recipe isn't accompanied by an alternate cookware and cooking instructions for those who don't have Instant Pot.

In the Food Sources for Bone Health, the author lists 8 cups of broccoli per serving, at three servings a day, will supply calcium. So will 3.5 ounces of bone-in salmon. Are there vegans and vegetarians who eat 8 cups of chopped broccoli for lunch or breakfast? Are 8 cups of chopped broccoli cheaper than 3.4 ounces of salmon?

I read the author's first book and liked it a lot, and I summarized the most compelling facts of The Fatburn Fix to share with those who'll find it timely and useful, so I'm sympathetic. But I found some parts too glitzy/glossy (not meaning the L.A. Lakers anecdotes, I swiped through that). Furthermore, the Resources for finding 'fat-burning friends' were limited to three Facebook groups. Sorry, folks who don't use commoditized social network platforms, you are on your own. Also in Resources, YouTube videos about cancer as a metabolic disease, which are fine, and credible, but not all cancers originate from vegetable oils in diets; some examples of pancreatic cancer have etiology in ulcers, h. pylori, or even have idiopathic origin. Because the argument that vegetable oils are toxic to human metabolisms is the primary (and repeated one), the author shows a graph showing a slight uptick in the last 20 years of carbohydrate intake, but not an accompanying graph of how many grams of those carbohydrates a First World citizen ingests are of sugars and industrially produced sweeteners.

[Erion Prometheus · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was published in 2020, but the author is recommending stevia? It has maltodextrin in it. And in the resources recommends Dr Berg and he has a video pointing out the things wrong with stevia. Maybe his video came out after her book was released?
The contradiction and misinformation or, incomplete information is frustrating.
pg 311 "The other healthy fats, particularly butter, cream, and unrefined nuts and seed oils, are more nutritious." And what seed oils would that be? None mentioned. Seed oils are a type of vegetable oil and vegetable oil is not healthy or nutritious. As the author then says on pg 334 She does dedicate more info on veg oil ch 8
Q&A at the end of the book is incomplete pg322 Doesn't exercise speed my metabolism? And she responds no and mentions exercise not burning more calories if you have more muscles but not for 'anyone with normal muscle mass.' If someone is strength training they will gain more muscle and then the fat burn at rest will apply, but she doesn't say this. And what does she mean by "exercise?" cardio? She is right that the metabolism doesn't have speeds but it has efficiency rates that we normies label as speed; slow and sluggish and fired up. Make your metabolism more efficient by lower insulin.
There are little nuggets of good information though pg 152 there's no such thing as a healthy snack. Whenever you snack, you are teaching your metabolism unhealthy habits. Whether we're talking about snacking on garbage or healthy foods. You need to break the snacking habit if you want to lose weight. (paraphrased) Your insulin spikes with every bite, especially high carbs. Just have you snack after your meal.
I also liked that she recommends drinking plain water and DO NOT drink soda, juice, heavily sweetened beverages or beverages containing sucralose or saccharin. (I'll add or HFCS)

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was ok so made some notes on what I thought was useful information.

Pg 194. Bad oils are canola, corn, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, and safflower.

Pg 195. Good fats are olive oil, butter, peanut oil, and avocado oil.

Both of these oils are found in our foods so be aware

Pg 200. Add salt to diet. Certain blood pressure medications and antidepressants increase risk of developing low sodium.

Pg 203. Salt reverses insulin resistance and diabetes. According to Dr. James DiNicolantonio, author of The Salt Fix, chronic salt depletion may be a cause of a kind of internal starvation. When you restrict your salt intake on a regular basis, the body eventually panics and its key defense mechanism is to increase insulin levels. Insulin helps the kidneys hang on to what little salt remains. Insulin also shuts the door to the fat closet, preventing fat release between meals when you need it for energy. This makes your body burn up more of its sugar supplies and contributes to the problems of hypoglycemia and overactive hunger.

Pg 204. Salt improves learning and concentration. Low sodium levels make people tired. Salt improves energy so you can take a quarter teaspoon of salt with some water. This can perk you up within 20 minutes.

Pg 205. We are told to eat 2.3 grams per day, which is over 1/2 a teaspoon. Optimal intake is 5-10 grams per day, or 1 1/3 teaspoons to 2 2/3 teaspoons. There is no chance you'll get too much salt in your diet. Healthy kidneys usually eliminate the extra.

Pg 206. Drink water and do not drink beverages with sucralose or saccharin. They have been linked to cancer.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Shanahan calls out the most commonly used "vegetable oils" present in American foods (read the ingredients lists, they're almost impossible to avoid). These oils replaced the genuinely healthier animal fats (beef tallow, lard, etc.) that were formerly used as frying oils by restaurants and fast-food outlets. I think she's right about that and I think she's right about how this interferes with our metabolism, the ability to burn our own fat (which is part of the inherent design of the human body) but she also still holds onto the calories in/calories out view of how our metabolism works, and that's at odds with the viewpoint expressed by Dr Jason Fung (The Obesity Code) and Gary Taubes (multiple books). Fwiw, it's not how *my* metabolism works - my standard calorie intake is considerably lower than the "maintenance" calorie count and THAT isn't what causes me to lose weight; in fact, I can gain weight on those calories. For me, it's much more about consumption of carbs, so experientially Fung and Taubes line up better with my experienced reality.

Nonetheless, I think there's value in this book and for some people her approach (stages of dietary changes, to set up the body for burning its own fat) may be exactly the right one. I'm not convinced that every body responds the same way.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not one to read books on diet too much. But, hitting my middle age in stride I have found constant frustration with how my body and diet affect each other. I don't know how I came across Shanahan's Dark Calories, but I liked her logic, inspire of sometimes a lack of persuasion on her part. So I checked this earlier book out and also like it. I think it does better in some ways explaining her approach. I am just happy to see that there are very real reasons why energy comes and goes and carries over into the next day. As I've been testing her approach I have noticed I sleep better, I wake up better, and I generally have a better handle on my appetite. I am not fully convinced this is so much the vegetable/seed oils as it is the low carb/sugar diet.

But, regardless I appreciate the seemingly on-point information. I have much more motivation to change my diet and improve my health. I need to just remember and try to integrate this much, much more. I wish I could have more weight loss help, but I think that is more on my side than this approach's fault. I look forward to trying to integrate her counsel more and hopefully see further results come.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your typical ‘diet’ book. The first half of book was difficult to wade through, lots of scientific explanations. Once I got to the quiz scoring whether I’m a sugar burner or fat burner, the flow of book was easier.

I saw author appearance on a TV show, and her mention of problems with vegetable oils peaked my interest in reading more.

In the long run, it pushes toward a keto type diet, but the author repeats over and over and over, avoid canola, corn, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, grape seed and rice bran oil, and some other oils and foods that often contain these. These are most prominently used in junk food and baked goods. Avoiding these foods alone would probably cause you to lose weight. There’s also still a need to not over substitute sugary items or excess fruit.

For some reason, just focusing on ‘vegetable’ oils has given me a new perspective to what I’m eating and my approach to dieting going forward.

[Mi2pid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is revolutionary. Visit dr.cate.com for an overview and then read this book for a more detailed understanding and interesting tidbits. For example I'm now using the book's suggested vitamins and supplements. I feel like dietary science finally makes sense. Learn not to be scared of cholesterol. Instead learn the true science of cholesterol and how to correctly gauge your health. Wish I had read this years ago but I'm thrilled to have it now.
This is not a diet book but having a healthy fat-burning metabolism instead of sugar-burning will make overall changes to your health, weight and mental clarity. I've only been following it for two painless weeks and I already feel better!