Metabolical: The truth about processed food and how it poisons people and the planet

FAB RESEARCH COMMENT:

Extensive scientific evidence now shows that diets rich in ultra-processed foods and drinks are damaging to both physical and mental health.

This book by the pioneering Dr Robert Lustig summarises that evidence - but it starts by explaining clearly just why it is that the real negative health impacts of these kinds of foods and drinks are still not recognised by most people.

To do this, he gives a full chapter to each of doctors, dietitians and dentists - explaining how their professional training, professional societies and practice guidelines, and research and consultancy funding are all influenced by commercial funding from the food and pharmaceutical industries. 

Dr Lustig then goes on to explain the underlying metabolic problems that are the real causes of almost all chronic, degenerative disease - all of which are diet-related,* and usually begin years if not decades before any 'diagnosis' may be made. 

And as an expert in childhood obesity and neuroendocrinology, he was among the first to really explain why calorie-counting alone simply doesn't work to reduce obesity (because high-sugar foods and diets will keep insulin high, and promote resistance to this and other hormones that regulate appetite and energy metabolism).

The book also explains how to assess risks for these metabolic problems - as well as setting out a strategy that anyone can follow in order to reduce their own risk.

In essence, the single most important thing is to 'Eat Real Food' (i.e. to avoid the ultra-processed 'fake foods' that have become so dominant in modern, western-type diets).

But in this book, Dr Lustig has also added two other key messages that further explain why this matters so much:  'Protect your Liver' and 'Feed your Gut'.

See also:

• Ultraprocessed Food: Addictive, Toxic, and Ready for Regulation

• Childhood obesity: behavioral aberration or biochemical drive? Reinterpreting the First Law of Thermodynamics

In the hard-hitting, ground-breaking tradition of his NY Times bestseller FAT CHANCE, which revealed the dangers of sugar, Dr Robert Lustig persuasively presents a stark exposé of how our addiction to processed foods (aided and abetted by the food industry, big ag, big pharma, institutional medicine and the government) is behind the lethal increase in major non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, cancer and dementia.

We have come to accept that these chronic diseases are simply part of the 'natural ageing process', but Dr Lustig makes the case that this is simply not true.

The solution on both a personal and societal level is a return to unprocessed food and Dr Lustig offers a doable plan for us to heal and restore our own health and wellbeing with real food, and in the process boosting our immunity to viruses like Covid-19.

'Metabolical lays bare the depth of the relationship between the recent and profound perversion of the human diet and its overwhelming health consequences.' Dr David Perlmutter, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Grain Brain and Brain Wash