Skip to main content
Displaying 1 of 1
Metabolical : the lure and the lies of processed food, nutrition, and modern medicine
2021
Availability
Large Cover Image
Trade Reviews
Publishers Weekly Review
Pediatric endocrinologist Lustig (Fat Chance) serves up an eye-opening survey to explain why processed food is killing people. Forty years of medical practice convinced Lustig that the problem was not what's in food, but what's been done to food: processed foods (largely thanks to added sugars), he writes, are "a toxic and addictive consumable poison" that have increased rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, depression, cancer, and Alzheimer's. A return to "real food," he writes, can improve lives, ease health-care costs, and save the planet. Lustig decries modern medicine's method of treating symptoms instead of addressing diet and, on the personal level, proposes a solution for healthy eating that involves protecting the liver and tending to the gut. Lustig crisply condemns Big Pharma and the food industry, and is indisputably thorough on the science, drilling down to the eight cellular pathologies behind metabolic syndrome. Lustig's case that readers treat sugar like an addictive substance is strong, and candid asides on such topics as how to interpret one's lab test results keep things moving along. This indictment of the food industry lands as a must-read guide to a healthier world. Agent: Janis A. Donnaud, Janis A. Donnaud & Assoc. (May)
Summary

The New York Times bestselling author of Fat Chance explains the eight pathologies that underlie all chronic disease, documents how processed food has impacted them to ruin our health, economy, and environment over the past 50 years, and proposes an urgent manifesto and strategy to cure both us and the planet.



Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist who has long been on the cutting edge of medicine and science, challenges our current healthcare paradigm which has gone off the rails under the influence of Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government.

You can't solve a problem if you don't know what the problem is. One of Lustig's singular gifts as a communicator is his ability to "connect the dots" for the general reader, in order to unpack the scientific data and concepts behind his arguments, as he tells the "real story of food" and "the story of real food."

Metabolical weaves the interconnected strands of nutrition, health/disease, medicine, environment, and society into a completely new fabric by proving on a scientific basis a series of iconoclastic revelations, among them:

Medicine for chronic disease treats symptoms, not the disease itself You can diagnose your own biochemical profile Chronic diseases are not "druggable," but they are "foodable" Processed food isn't just toxic, it's addictive The war between vegan and keto is a false war--the combatants are on the same side Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government are on the other side

Making the case that food is the only lever we have to effect biochemical change to improve our health, Lustig explains what to eat based on two novel criteria: protect the liver, and feed the gut. He insists that if we do not fix our food and change the way we eat, we will continue to court chronic disease, bankrupt healthcare, and threaten the planet. But there is hope: this book explains what's needed to fix all three.



Table of Contents
Introductionp. 1
Part IDebunking "Modern Medicine"p. 13
Chapter 1"Treatment" Is Not "Cure"-It's Not Even Treatmentp. 15
Chapter 2"Modern Medicine" Treats Symptoms, Not Diseasep. 27
Chapter 3Doctors Need to "Unlearn" Nutritionp. 47
Chapter 4Dietitians Lost Their Mindp. 65
Chapter 5Dentists Lost Their Wayp. 77
Chapter 6Because Big Pharma Was Their Teacherp. 89
Part IIDebunking "Chronic Disease"p. 103
Chapter 7The "Diseases" That Aren't Diseasesp. 105
Chapter 8Checkpoints Alpha, Bravo, Charlie: Nutrient-Sensing and Chronic Diseasep. 123
Chapter 9Assembling the Clues to Diagnose Yourselfp. 135
Chapter 10Foodable, Not Druggablep. 149
Part IIINotes from the Nutritional Battlefieldp. 161
Chapter 11What Does "Healthy" Really Mean?p. 163
Chapter 12Nutrition "Unwrapped"p. 175
Chapter 13Food in the Time of Coronap. 193
Chapter 14What and How Adults Eatp. 199
Chapter 15What and How Children and Adolescents Eatp. 219
Chapter 16What and How Fetuses, Infants, and Toddlers Eatp. 229
Part IV(Processed) Food Fightp. 239
Chapter 17Food Classificationsp. 241
Chapter 18Food Adulterationsp. 249
Chapter 19Food Subtractionsp. 257
Chapter 20Food Additionsp. 265
Chapter 21Food Addictionsp. 277
Chapter 22Food Fraudp. 287
Part VWhere Are the Food Police When You Need Them?p. 297
Chapter 23The Party Linep. 299
Chapter 24The USDA and the FDA Don't Kill People; Rather They Let Them Diep. 313
Chapter 25Real Food Is Good for the Planetp. 333
Chapter 26Real Food Is Good for the Walletp. 345
Chapter 27Un-processing Our Food Supplyp. 351
Chapter 28The Case for Real Foodp. 365
Epiloguep. 377
Acknowledgmentsp. 381
Glossaryp. 385
Indexp. 395
Librarian's View
Displaying 1 of 1