The Gluten Lie

And Other Myths About What You Eat

De: Alan Levinovitz PhD

Narrado por: Barry Press

Gluten. Salt. Sugar. Fat. These are the villains of the American diet - or so a host of doctors and nutritionists would have you believe. But the science is far from settled, and we are racing to eliminate wheat and corn syrup from our diets because we've been lied to. The truth is that almost all of us can put the buns back on our burgers and be just fine.

Remember when butter was the enemy? Now it's good for you. You may have lived through times when the Atkins Diet was good, then bad, and then good again; you may have wondered why all your friends cut down on salt or went Paleo; and you might even be thinking about cutting out wheat products from your own diet.

In this groundbreaking work, Alan Levinovitz, PhD, exposes the myths behind how we come to believe which foods are good and which are bad and points the way to a truly healthful life, free from anxiety about what we eat.

©2015 Alan Levinovitz (P)2015 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A factually accurate and highly entertaining work." (Peter Gibson, MD, Director of Gastroenterology at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University)

Spoiler Alert! The last chapter is....

As I was listening to the final chapter I kept waiting for the punch line saying it was just a joke. Instead, it ends with the typical Audible sign off... Apparently the print version makes this clear, In the audio version if feels like a pretty good April fools prank. I guess they could not figure out how to incorporate that into the narration.

Some new perspectives

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, and have done. It cuts through a lot of the nonsense often in the media about foods, and promotes a return to a simpler way of thinking about what we eat.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I just liked the line "Everyday foods are not going to kill you"!

A much needed dose of reality

I think this is a book everyone should read/listen to, even though (especially!) most people will be uncomfortable with the message it contains. As someone who is a natural skeptic, yet has still fallen prey to many of the diets outlined in this book, seeing popular nutritional information presented as myths we repeat to ourselves was very eye opening. As you start to see the patterns in the way the diet gurus talk and how we've begun to replace our desire for being spiritually "pure" with being nutritionally "pure", why we fall so easily for each new diet begins to make much more sense.
I do feel certain parts of the book could have been fleshed out a little more and I do think the repeated recommendation of "moderation", while true, can leave a lot of people unsure of what "moderation" really entails. Unfortunately we are all rather uncomfortable with the fact that as individuals, we all must experiment and find out what "moderation" really means for ourselves rather than using a blanket prescription from some random "expert".
I'll definitely be recommending this book to friends and family.

Tricky Tricky

If you could sum up The Gluten Lie in three words, what would they be?

Clever, Logical, Sarcastic

Any additional comments?

The Gluten Lie ends with a myth that it doesn't spend the time to unpack.

So, is sarcasm or not? It all depends on wether you understood the book or not. If you learned the thesis of the book you probably won't be fooled. If you don't listen carefully to the last two tracks, you may actually fall for it.

The author does not clear this up and is very clever to frame another "mythical" debate in the same structure that he just debunked. It is easier to see if you read the last two chapters in google books.

Clearing up food myths

(As posted in GoodReads)
Well, for me this book is the epitome of confirmation bias! It's good to get support for what I hold to be the case! I did like the references to the (unjustified and unjustifiable) MSG scare and the confirmation that people, in general, don't care how complex a situation is; they just want a simple rule that they can follow to solve all of their problems!
I didn't care for the end! The idea that he has this unpackaged diet that actually does everything you want :-(. It's sort of the antithesis of the overall book! I was ready for him to say "here's how to avoid all disease! Just kill yourself – when your dad you can't possibly suffer from heart disease – or obesity – or fill in the blank!" I really like the book overall, but the end really destroys it :-(