The Big Fat Surprise

Challenges popular misconceptions about fats and nutrition science, revealing the distorted claims of nutrition studies while arguing that more dietary fat can lead to better health, wellness, and fitness.

A New York Times bestseller Named one of The Economist’s Books of the Year 2014 Named one of The Wall Street Journal’s Top Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2014 Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of 2014 Forbes’s Most Memorable Healthcare Book of 2014 In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: that everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. She documents how the low-fat nutrition advice of the past sixty years has amounted to a vast uncontrolled experiment on the entire population, with disastrous consequences for our health. For decades, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat, and that if we are not getting healthier or thinner it must be because we are not trying hard enough. But what if the low-fat diet is itself the problem? What if the very foods we’ve been denying ourselves—the creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaks—are themselves the key to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease? In this captivating, vibrant, and convincing narrative, based on a nine-year-long investigation, Teicholz shows how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community and the public imagination, and how recent findings have overturned these beliefs. She explains why the Mediterranean Diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans fats with something even worse. This startling history demonstrates how nutrition science has gotten it so wrong: how overzealous researchers, through a combination of ego, bias, and premature institutional consensus, have allowed dangerous misrepresentations to become dietary dogma. With eye-opening scientific rigor, The Big Fat Surprise upends the conventional wisdom about all fats with the groundbreaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat—including saturated fat—is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.

In The Big Fat Surprise, investigative journalist Nina Teicholz reveals the unthinkable: everything we thought we knew about dietary fat is wrong. For the past 60 years, we have been told that the best possible diet involves cutting back on fat, especially saturated fat. But what if the low-fat diet is itself the problem? What if the very foods we’ve been denying ourselves — the creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaks — are the key to reversing the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease? In this captivating, vibrant, and convincing narrative, based on a nine-year-long investigation, Teicholz shows how the misinformation about saturated fats took hold in the scientific community and the public imagination, and how recent findings have overturned these beliefs. She explains why the Mediterranean diet is not the healthiest, and how we might be replacing trans fats with something even worse. With eye-opening scientific rigour, The Big Fat Surprise makes the ground-breaking claim that more, not less, dietary fat — including saturated fat — is what leads to better health and wellness. Science shows that we have been needlessly avoiding meat, cheese, whole milk, and eggs for decades, and that we can now, guilt-free, welcome these delicious foods back into our lives.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary of the book and NOT the original book. The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz - A 30-minute Instaread Summary Inside this Instaread Summary:Overview of the entire bookIntroduction to the Important people in the bookSummary and analysis of all the chapters in the bookKey Takeaways of the bookA Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Introduction The author had the luxury of approaching the nutritional science field as an open-minded individual with no affiliation or funding from any institutions or persons with deeply entrenched views. The result is some alarming information about the ways that nutrition has been misinterpreted for decades. The supposed health hazards of saturated fats found in butter, eggs, and meat have not been substantiated by reliable science. Science supports the fact that the body is healthiest on a diet rich in fat. Chapter 1 Vilhjalmur Stefansson was an anthropologist who lived with the Canadian Arctic Inuit in 1906, eating almost nothing but meat for an entire year. He later wrote the controversial book, Not by Bread Alone, in which he explained that the Eskimos seemed to be the healthiest people he had ever encountered despite their sedentary lifestyles and diets almost void of vegetables and carbohydrates. In 1928, he and a co-worker began a drastic experiment together. They vowed to consume only meat and water for a year. At the end of the year, both men were said to be in perfect health. In the early 1960’s, doctor and professor of biochemistry, George Mann, took a team from Vanderbilt University to Kenya to study the Masai people who ate and drank nothing but meat, blood, and milk. Fat from animal sources was the source of 60 percent of their calories. The blood pressure and weight of these warriors was 50 percent lower than men of the same age in the United States. If American beliefs about animal fat were true, Mann should have seen an epidemic of heart disease among the Masai. However, he found little evidence of heart disease among them. For decades, the American Heart Association (AHA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other expert groups have recommended obtaining daily calories from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. The public has been advised to minimize animal fats and eliminate red meat from their diets despite Mann’s findings and similar evidence from other studies. In the early 1900’s, Sir Robert McCarrison was the director of nutrition research for the British government in the Indian Medical Service. He wrote in detail about the fact that the Sikhs and the Hunzas of northern India did not suffer from cancer, appendicitis, or ulcers like the Western nations did. He also noted that their great health stood in stark contrast to other groups in the southern part of India who lived on mainly white rice and little dairy or meat. Anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka studied the Native Americans of the Southwest between 1898 and 1905. He observed that they ate mainly buffalo, were extremely healthy, and lived very long lives without suffering from malignant diseases. A detail of these early studies often buried, or overlooked, is that humans today eat the muscle of the animal, but this was not always the case. Early humans preferred the fat of the animal over its muscle meat. These viscera are higher in saturated fat. It is hard to even imagine eating this way when contemporary standards advise the public to do the opposite.

“Trust me; I’m a doctor” no longer has the credibility it once did. Nutritional therapy is often overlooked in medical school, and the information provided to physicians is often outdated. Advice to avoid healthy fats and stay out of the sun has been proven to be detrimental to longevity and wreak havoc on your system, and yet many doctors still regularly espouse this “wisdom.” What kind of advice is your doctor giving you? Is it possible you’re being misled? Dr. Ken Berry is here to dispel the myths and misinformation that have been perpetuated by the medical and food industries for decades. This updated and expanded edition of Dr. Berry’s bestseller Lies My Doctor Told Me exposes the truth behind all kinds of “lies” told by well-meaning but misinformed medical practitioners. In this book, Dr. Berry will enlighten you about nutrition and life choices, their role in your health, and how to begin an educated conversation with your doctor about finding the right path for you. This book is a survival kit on your journey through the confusing, and often misleading, world of conventional medicine and includes such topics as • How doctors are taught to think about nutrition and other preventative health measures—and how they should be thinking • How the Food Pyramid and MyPlate came into existence and why they should change • The facts about fat intake and heart health • The truth about the effects of whole wheat on the human body • The role of dairy in your diet • The truth about salt—friend or foe? • The dangers and benefits of hormone therapy • New information about inflammation and how it should be viewed by doctors Come out of the darkness and let Ken Berry be your guide to optimal health and harmony!

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Taubes stands the received wisdom about diet and exercise on its head.” —The New York Times What’s making us fat? And how can we change? Building upon his critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, bestselling author Gary Taubes revisits these urgent questions. Featuring a new afterword with answers to frequently asked questions. Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century—none more damaging or misguided than the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat—and the good science that has been ignored. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid? Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat is an essential guide to nutrition and weight management. Complete with an easy-to-follow diet. Featuring a new afterword with answers to frequently asked questions.

In My Big Fat Greek Diet, Dr. Nick Yphantides teaches readers the powerful 7 Pillars of Weight Loss, which features medically safe, practical how-tos anyone can apply, whether they need to lose 10 or 300 pounds. Analyzing components of a variety of diets, Dr. Nick assists readers in customizing a weight-loss program to their specific needs and lifestyles. Topping out at 467 pounds, Dr. Nick was known in San Diego as a big man with a big heart. When a battle with cancer inspired him to focus on his own health, he embarked on a lifestyle change that would drop him to a svelte 200 pounds. His book, now in trade paper, will inspire and equip readers to design a program that allows them to experience their own weight-loss miracle!

Warning: Shock and outrage will grip you as you dive into this one-of-a-kind exposé. Shoddy science, sketchy politics, and shady special interests have shaped American Dietary recommendations--and destroyed our nation's health--over recent decades. The phrase "death by food pyramid" isn't shock-value sensationalism, but the tragic consequence of following federal advice and corporate manipulation in pursuit of health. In Death by Food Pyramid, Denise Minger exposes the forces that overrode common sense and solid science to launch a pyramid phenomenon that bled far beyond US borders to taint the eating habits of the entire developed world. Minger explores how generations of flawed pyramids and plates endure as part of the national consciousness, and how the "one size fits all" diet mentality these icons convey pushes us deeper into the throes of obesity and disease. Regardless of whether you're an omnivore or vegan, research junkie or science-phobe, health novice or seasoned dieter, Death by Food Pyramid will reframe your understanding of nutrition science--and inspire you to take your health, and your future, into your own hands.