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 weve been denying ourselvesthe creamy cheeses, the sizzling steaksare 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 fatincluding saturated fatis 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.
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Review
"A wonderful book [that] takes on everything we think we know about nutrition and examines it.." (Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief, Gourmetmagazine)
"Ms Teicholzs book is a gripping read for anyone who has ever tried to eat healthily.... This is not an obvious page-turner. But it is.... The vilification of fat, argues Ms Teicholz, does not stand up to closer examination. She pokes holes in famous pieces of researchthe Framingham heart study, the Seven Countries study, the Los Angeles Veterans Trial, to name a fewdescribing methodological problems or overlooked results, until the foundations of this nutritional advice look increasingly shaky." (The Economist)
Solid, well-reported science Like a bloodhound, Teicholz tracks the process by which a hypothesis morphs into truth without the benefit of supporting data. (Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review))
This fascinating book raises important issues as Americans battle obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.Thought provoking and well worth purchasing. (Library Journal)
"Nina Teicholz reveals the disturbing underpinnings of the profoundly misguided dietary recommendations that have permeated modern society, culminating in our overall health decline. But The Big Fat Surprise is refreshingly empowering. This wonderfully researched text provides the reader with total validation for welcoming healthful fats back to the table, paving the way for weight loss, health and longevity." (David Perlmutter, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain)
"A page-turner story of science gone wrong: what Gary Taubes did in Good Calories, Bad Calories for debunking the connection between fat consumption and obesity, Nina Teicholz now does in Big Fat Surprise for the purported connection between fat and heart disease. Misstep by misstep, blunder by blunder, Ms. Teicholz recounts the statistical cherry-picking, political finagling, and pseudoscientific bullying that brought us to yet another of the biggest mistakes in health and nutrition, the low-fat and low-saturated fat myth for heart health." (William Davis, MD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wheat Belly)
"At last the whole truth about the luscious foods our bodies really need!" (Christiane Northrup, M.D., ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestseller Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom)
"This meticulously researched book thoroughly dismantles the current dietary dogma that fat--particularly saturated fat--is bad for us. Teicholz brings to life the key personalities in the field and uncovers how nutritional science has gotten it so wrong. There aren't enough superlatives to describe this journalistic tour de force. I read it twice: once for the information and again just for the writing." (Michael R. Eades, M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller Protein Power)
"The Big Fat Surprise delivers on its title, exposing the shocking news that much of what everybody knows about a healthy diet is in fact all wrong. This book documents how misunderstanding, misconduct and bad science caused generations to be misled about nutrition. Anyone interested in either food or health will want to read to this book." (Nathan Myhrvold, author of Modernist Cuisine)
"As an epidemiologist, I am awestruck. Nina Teicholz has critically reviewed virtually the entire literature, a prodigiously difficult task, and she has interviewed most of the leading protagonists. The result is outstanding: readable and informative, with forthright text written in plain English that can easily be understood by the general reader." (Samuel Shapiro, retired, formerly at the Boston University School of Medicine)
About the Author
Nina Teicholzhas written for Gourmet magazine, The New Yorker, The Economist, The New York Times,and The Washington Post. She also covered Latin America for National Public Radio. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons.****