Ally B. reviewed Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth about Your Weight on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book is amazing. The first section is about the bevy of scientific studies that point to the fact that our genetic makeup plays into our ability to lose weight and our body's natural set point. She also discusses how certain foods, like those containing high fructose corn syrup, bypass our satiety signals and create huge insulin spikes, causing overeating and illness. After that, she delves into what it means to really listen to our bodies, follow its cues and allow it to take care of itself the way it was designed to. And here's my favorite concept: be happy with your body the way it is. Too many of us get caught up on relegating our happiness to after we lose weight, or meet some other huge goal, rather than finding happiness in the here and now, and appreciating the fact that we are more than the flesh that surrounds us. Awesome, awesome read.
I chose this book after reading Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories, reading Gina Kolata's Rethinking Thin, and watching the DVD Fat Head. I was disappointed.
This book does not live up to its promise. Linda Bacon is a very educated woman. She presented some interesting facts. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be able to gather them all into a cogent whole. It seems that this book is more to promote her program than to present a rational argument. She is inconsistent. For example, she waves off the Food Pyramid as a construct of a government agency whose mission is to promote large scale agriculture over health, but a few pages later promotes eating by the Pyramid. She also said that its harmful to diet, yet she advocates Michael Pollan's diet principles.
I recommend any of the resources in the first paragraph over this book.
This book does not live up to its promise. Linda Bacon is a very educated woman. She presented some interesting facts. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be able to gather them all into a cogent whole. It seems that this book is more to promote her program than to present a rational argument. She is inconsistent. For example, she waves off the Food Pyramid as a construct of a government agency whose mission is to promote large scale agriculture over health, but a few pages later promotes eating by the Pyramid. She also said that its harmful to diet, yet she advocates Michael Pollan's diet principles.
I recommend any of the resources in the first paragraph over this book.
