Fat Chance

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

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.

Most important book for decades

Obesity and related metabolic diseases are going to wreck the US and the world economy quite soon. But do you know what actually causes people to eat too much of the wrong things? Why almost everyone who diets fails? The answers will astonish you, but they are laid out carefully with scientific fact. Great companion book is Bright Line Eating.

3/4 science, 1/4 opinion.

The science in the first 3/4 of the book is great. It backed up by personal experience and case study. If you hate science or get bored easy OR will never give up drinking yourself fat, skip this book. The book was great until I started to hear the opinion of this author.

He says 2 things in this book that really make me scratch my head.

1. expects the same government that created part of this problem to do an about face and fix it all and...

2. He gives the medical profession itself a free pass.

If doctors would learn something about nutrition and stop telling patience, "eat less and get more exercise" it would go a long way to fixing the problem. Hey DOC... I'm fat... If it was as easy as eat less and get more exercise, I would have.

I also fail to see how the federal government could help fix the issue. He talks about sugar being so addictive that the free markets don't apply to it. I say BULL... If the public knew how bad some of this stuff was for you they would demand a change.

If you are reading this book to lose weight, I would highly recommend that you also read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. It will change the way you look at food, but it leaves the opinion out.

Relevant, simple and applicable

I'd give it 5 stars but the author INSISTED on vomiting his left-wing opinion all over the last two chapters. I also disagree whole-heartedly with his stance on personal responsibility though I do see where he's coming from so I'm not holding it against him.

The LIFE in your FOOD.

Knowledge is potentially powerful. until it is applied. Now is the time to start. for our families and ourselves. This book is the Chance to do something and be the difference .

Common Sense Guide to Healthy Eating

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

I liked the style in which data about obesity was presented. Reading about this topic I already knew about the importance of Low Carb diets. I for some reason did not fully realize the role of Fiber. I think the author makes reasonable recommendations. Eat food rich in Fiber and Low in Sugar. If you are already obese, make it a low carbohydrate diet. Coupled with regular exercise this regimen is something that is possible to adopt as a life style.

What other book might you compare Fat Chance to and why?

The other book I would compare it against is "Why We Get Fat". I think that book opened my eyes to the tremendous damage being done by Low Fat High Carbohydrate Diets which are lacking in Fiber.

What does Jonathan Todd Ross bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Good Narration.

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

Yes, when the author talks about the health of today's children when they are 50 years old. It is very discouraging and prompts you take ameliorative actions