Fat Chance

Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease

By: Robert H. Lustig

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert Lustig’s 90-minute YouTube video Sugar: The Bitter Truth has been viewed more than two million times. Now, in this much anticipated book, he documents the science and the politics that has led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years.

In the late 1970s when the government mandated we get the fat out of our food, the food industry responded by pouring more sugar in. The result has been a perfect storm, disastrously altering our biochemistry and driving our eating habits out of our control.

To help us lose weight and recover our health, Lustig presents personal strategies to readjust the key hormones that regulate hunger, reward, and stress; and societal strategies to improve the health of the next generation. Compelling, controversial, and completely based in science, Fat Chance debunks the widely held notion to prove "a calorie is NOT a calorie", and takes that science to its logical conclusion to improve health worldwide.

©2012 Robert H. Lustig (P)2012 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"No scientist has done more in the last 50 years to alert Americans to the potential dangers of sugar in the diet than Dr. Robert Lustig.” (Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat)

“Our eating habits are killing us. In this timely and important book, Dr. Robert Lustig presents the scientific evidence for the toxicity of sugar and the disastrous effects of modern industrial food on the hormones that control hunger, satiety, and weight. He gives recommendations for a personal solution to the problem we face and also suggests a public policy solution. Fat Chance is the best book I've read on the relationship between diet and health and the clearest explanation of epidemic obesity in our society.”–Andrew Weil, MD, author of Spontaneous Happiness and You Can’t Afford to Get Sick)

“Fat Chance is THE manifesto for our time. It reveals the real reasons we why we are a fat nation and how to cure the obesity epidemic. It gets right to the root of the problem, which is not gluttony and sloth, as the food industry, government and your neighbor would have you believe. It is because we are drowning in a sea of sugar which poisons our metabolism, shrinks our brains, and threatens our national security and global competitiveness. Every American, politician, teacher, and business leader must read this book. Our nation's future depends on it.” (Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution)

Read to understand why so difficult to lose weight!

Absolute necessary read to understanding why it’s so difficult to lose weight! The way to change is all described in this ‘nothing held back’ ‘truth be told’ book. Absolute necessary read to understanding why it’s so difficult to lose weight! Weaning off of sugar wasn’t easy, but not The weight came off as quickly as it was gained.
And most importantly, I feel great!

Muy informativo y justo

Excelente libro. un precursor de Metabolical. Lustig definitivamente ha cambiado mi forma de ver todo lo relacionado al Metabolismo.

Wow!

This book was truly eye opening! I read labels all the time and see HFCS everywhere. Everything that claims to be low-fat has TONS of SUGAR! I’m not a sugar eater so it effects my stomach. It’s just crazy that there isn’t more regulation on bad foods.

Comprehensive and factual

Truth needs to be told about the dangers of sugar and the lies the public is being told.

Awesome book!

This book is definitely worth getting, because it puts it all together for you in one easy package regarding our health and what's needed for us to make a change. It's technical at times though, but it has all the pieces to make it a well-rounded piece of literature for us to consume, besides sugar, making great food for thought. It's definitely needed and will hopefully inspire us to do something to better our future, since we are the ones in control of it always anyway, if we actually decide step up 100%. I hope everyone reads it so we can move forward with our health, stop living in a fairytale and help save our loved-ones from a horrible fate of chronic disease and suffering in a way we best know how.

Excellent and well explained information

I liked the information but the political stuff in the last 3 chapters I didn't. Excellent information on nutrition and healthy eating. I would recommend it to every person concerned with what fuels their body.

Life-changing eye-opening

I learned so much about nutrition that I didn't know I didn't know. I think this book is a must read for all Americans and probably a good one for everyone else in the world too

A must read for everyone!

I wish this book was required reading for all schools around the world! I am an American living in France. I am so sad to see the obesity epidemic here as well. Junk food is slowly creeping its way in. We now have all of the American fast food chains. We have a junk food cart outside of my son’s middle school. The schools sells candy every day as a way to raise money. I was shocked to hear what goes on behind the scenes with American politics and the food industry. This book is so important for getting the word out there. Do not hesitate to read it. It could save your life and the life of your family.

Fantastic, chock full of information!

I learned a lot from this book, and love the way the author presents the information. I really enjoyed the narrator, his voice and pace. I will recommend this book to all my friends interested in getting back to health and want a want measure their progress. Also to learn what the food industry is doing to manipulate our food choices.

a must read for any one who eats...

Struggle with weight? Demystify the riddle to long-term weight control and health. Most powerful read!